Autocar January 23, 2019

THE VOLKSWAGEN GROUP is the master of platform sharing, its MQB architecture underpinning scores of cars from four brands to save millions in development costs. Now it’s doing the same for electric cars with its new MEB architecture, the basis for VW’s first wave of ID EVs, as well as models from Audi, Seat and Skoda. And potentially now Ford, too. The VW Group and Ford have shared more details of their tie-up (p15). More partnerships like theirs are inevitable, and on a greater scale to those in existence today, due to the costly development of electric and autonomous vehicle technologies. But with so many shared parts, just how different will rival electric cars be from one another? To this point, most electric cars have offered a broadly similar driving experience, with…

“The car will have a more extrovert, aggressive look around the front grille” Volkswagen is putting the finishing touches to its next-generation Golf GTI, which promises incremental performance changes rather than a more radical switch to hybrid power as had originally been planned by Wolfsburg. To that end, the eighth-generation Golf GTI, due in early 2020, is set to stick with much of the hardware that has made the seventh-generation model such a success, both critically and commercially. That means an updated version of the Audi-developed EA888 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine used in the existing Mk7 Golf GTI. Again, like the current car, it will be offered with two power outputs: a standard output of around 252bhp and a more powerful 286bhp model badged TCR, which will replace the current Performance version of…

THE VOLKSWAGEN GROUP is the master of platform sharing, its MQB architecture underpinning scores of cars from four brands to save millions in development costs. Now it’s doing the same for electric cars with its new MEB architecture, the basis for VW’s first wave of ID EVs, as well as models from Audi, Seat and Skoda. And potentially now Ford, too. The VW Group and Ford have shared more details of their tie-up (p15). More partnerships like theirs are inevitable, and on a greater scale to those in existence today, due to the costly development of electric and autonomous vehicle technologies. But with so many shared parts, just how different will rival electric cars be from one another? To this point, most electric cars have offered a broadly similar driving…

“The car will have a more extrovert, aggressive look around the front grille” Volkswagen is putting the finishing touches to its next-generation Golf GTI, which promises incremental performance changes rather than a more radical switch to hybrid power as had originally been planned by Wolfsburg. To that end, the eighth-generation Golf GTI, due in early 2020, is set to stick with much of the hardware that has made the seventh-generation model such a success, both critically and commercially. That means an updated version of the Audi-developed EA888 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine used in the existing Mk7 Golf GTI. Again, like the current car, it will be offered with two power outputs: a standard output of around 252bhp and a more powerful 286bhp model badged TCR, which will replace the current…

Surprised by the details of the new Golf GTI? You shouldn’t be. Like the standard Golf, the GTI has undergone the subtlest of evolutions and enhancements since the Mk5 version righted the wrongs of the two generations before it and became the most usable all-round hot hatch there is, if not the most exciting. It could have been quite different, though. If VW had persisted with the original plans to equip the Mk8 GTI with mild-hybrid technology, it would have given the Golf GTI the most radical character shift for a long while. While mild-hybrid technology would improve drivability across more of the rev range, and economy, too, it would also give the Golf GTI some considerable low-end shove. The Mk7 GTI’s 2.0-litre turbo, particularly without the power upgrade in the Performance pack,…

Land Rover will reveal a heavily updated Discovery Sport this summer, intended to regain ground lost to the latest generation of rivals including the Volvo XC60, which outsells it by two to one. The Discovery Sport is the car maker’s biggest-selling model and crucial to its success, as Jaguar Land Rover tries to reverse the company’s fortunes. Land Rover sales fell 6.9% year on year in 2018 and, earlier this month, 4500 job losses were confirmed at JLR. The Discovery Sport is one of three models that Land Rover hopes will spark a major turnaround this year. The new Evoque, revealed late last year, goes on sale in April, while deliveries of the facelifted Discovery Sport will start in October. The other key vehicle is the new Defender, to be revealed in…