Autocar January 30, 2019

MINI HAS ALWAYS been one of the most innovative car makers. The car that became a brand has spawned an extraordinarily diverse range of body styles and models in its 60-year history – some better received than others, but all of which we celebrate this week (page 52). That versatility means Mini is ideally placed to reap, explore and get creative with the advantages of electric propulsion. Many of those – the fun dynamics, performance and packaging benefits – all fit perfectly within the brand’s ethos. Mini was, in fact, one of the very first brands to adopt electrification with its 2009 E research prototype. Surprisingly, Mini is only now following it up with a production car this year, an electric version of the three-door Cooper S. Perhaps it’s another toe in the…

Jaguar Land Rover bosses are facing a decision on how to replace the Jaguar XE and XF models, which are currently selling in very small numbers and were outsold by the electric I-Pace in November last year. Autocar understands the company is focusing on how it should regroup and steady itself after a tumultuous 2018, with a review of Jaguar’s future product plans at the top of the list. While facelift versions of the cars are just months from the showroom, it is believed that company planners are now working on a strategy for the launch of new replacements for early 2023. Sources say that JLR is starting with a blank sheet of paper for the project. The options include the XE and XF being merged into a single model, and any…

MINI HAS ALWAYS been one of the most innovative car makers. The car that became a brand has spawned an extraordinarily diverse range of body styles and models in its 60-year history – some better received than others, but all of which we celebrate this week (page 52). That versatility means Mini is ideally placed to reap, explore and get creative with the advantages of electric propulsion. Many of those – the fun dynamics, performance and packaging benefits – all fit perfectly within the brand’s ethos. Mini was, in fact, one of the very first brands to adopt electrification with its 2009 E research prototype. Surprisingly, Mini is only now following it up with a production car this year, an electric version of the three-door Cooper S. Perhaps it’s another…

JLR’s strategists expressed caution over the take-up of EVs in a presentation with banking analysts last year. The firm’s own estimate was for 20% of new cars being electric by 2025. BMW and Volkswagen hedged their bets at 15-25%. Bloomberg and Bank of America were at 26% and 24%. Analysts at Bernstein offered a ‘rapid adoption’ estimate of 57% by 2030 and low adoption rate of just 19% by the end of the next decade. In short, nobody knows. It won’t have steadied the nerves of any automotive planners to see that Tesla has decided to cut more than 3000 jobs from its 45,000-strong workforce, admitting its cars were still too expensive for the mainstream and profits too low. Tesla boss Elon Musk said the only answer for the company was a…

Volkswagen is readying a new eighth-generation Golf for an expected official debut later this year, but a barely disguised prototype has revealed the new hatchback’s design early. A prototype for the Ford Focus rival, stripped of the extensive camouflage you would expect of a model so early in its launch schedule, was snapped in a McDonald’s drive-through and posted onto Instagram by a Volkswagen enthusiast. The car in these images tallies with last year’s official preview sketch and Autocar’s previous renderings, with an evolutionary design approach for the firm’s range mainstay. It takes some inspiration from the Polo, particularly with the clamshell-style bonnet and lowered headlight position. The rear features the flowing, angled C-pillar previewed in an earlier official sketch, too, while the roofline appears to be lower than today’s Golf. The Mk8…

Jaguar Land Rover bosses are facing a decision on how to replace the Jaguar XE and XF models, which are currently selling in very small numbers and were outsold by the electric I-Pace in November last year. Autocar understands the company is focusing on how it should regroup and steady itself after a tumultuous 2018, with a review of Jaguar’s future product plans at the top of the list. While facelift versions of the cars are just months from the showroom, it is believed that company planners are now working on a strategy for the launch of new replacements for early 2023. Sources say that JLR is starting with a blank sheet of paper for the project. The options include the XE and XF being merged into a single model,…