Autocar April 24, 2019

A FEW YEARS ago, even the most progressive motor show in China would have been undermined by a local ‘copycat’ car ripping off the design of a western model. Yet last month, a definitive line in the sand was drawn when Land Rover won a court case in China against local car maker Landwind for copying the design of its Range Rover Evoque. At the Shanghai motor show last week, there was not a single true copycat in attendance. Instead, we could concentrate on some of the now genuine world-class creativity of the local car makers and hear for the first time what many of the established set in the west had long been fearing: concrete export plans (p10). Chinese brands still have a long way to go in areas such as…

Volkswagen is considering an all-electric off-roader that would rival the new Land Rover Defender as part of its ID family of vehicles, design boss Klaus Bischoff has confirmed. The company will later this year launch the production version of the ID hatch, the first machine built on its new MEB electric architecture – and it will be followed by a string of fully electric models on that platform in the coming years. Speaking on the eve of the Shanghai motor show, where the firm launched the new ID Roomzz large SUV concept, Bischoff responded to a question about Volkswagen producing a more traditional MEB-based 4x4 by saying: “Maybe one of the next ID family members is a more rugged thing than we’ve seen.” At the Geneva motor show in March, Volkswagen launched an…

The phrase ‘economies of scale’ can strike fear into the hearts of car fans. You often hear it when firms axe niche models, such as sports cars and proper off-roaders. They cost too much to make and don’t sell enough. The economies of scale don’t add up. Here, have another SUV instead. Yet with electric cars, economies of scale could become the car enthusiast’s friend. That’s because, essentially, electric cars aren’t particularly complicated and elements such as batteries and electric motors are largely interchangeable between different types of car. The Volkswagen Group is aiming to exploit that to the full with its MEB electric platform, which has been designed to quickly spawn a whole range of different machines. There are a few variants of wheelbase, and single- and dual-motor versions, but effectively…

China’s car sales fell for the 10th consecutive month in March, pitching the country’s growing ranks of fledgling brands face first into an unprecedented headwind whipped up, in part, by trade frictions with the US and a continued slowing of the global economy. But if there were concerns for the long-term health of the Chinese car industry, it certainly wasn’t evident at the Shanghai motor show. With business confidence in the world’s largest car market showing heartening signs of a rebound, owing partly to the government’s reduction in sales tax, the mood within the staggeringly vast halls of the convention centre was cautiously upbeat. Despite the drop, China’s car sales continue to far outstrip those of any other country. With many makers reducing prices in light of the tax break, expectations are that…

A ston Martin has revealed the fastest convertible in its history: the new DBS Superleggera Volante. Capable of hitting 211mph – identical to the hard-top DBS – the British firm’s newest addition is available to order now, priced from £247,500. That headline figure is £22,500 more than the coupé, but Aston claims the “extra level of sensory overload that only an open-top super-GT can deliver” justifies the premium. The roof itself is the most advanced soft-top the firm has produced, with eight layers of insulation and the ability to fully open it in 14sec – from inside the car or via the remote. The mechanism is said to have been put through more than 100,000 cycles in development in everywhere from Nevada’s Death Valley to the Arctic Circle. The roof compresses to a claimed…

AFTER LOTUS LAST week confirmed it is in the advanced stages of developing an all-electric hypercar called Type 130, Autocar has been given an exclusive walk-around of a full-sized clay model at the firm’s Hethel base. Lotus design director Russell Carr said the Type 130 is a similar length to the 4.4m-long Evora but will sit closer to the ground and have a track nearly 2.0m wide. It uses a carbonfibre structure and will be built in Hethel away from the company’s main line. The cabin section adopts a teardrop shape for aerodynamic purposes, but Carr claimed there will be more room inside than in a Ford GT. Two substantial air tunnels in the rear bodywork, with the tail-lights integrated around them, are inspired by the Venturi tunnels of Le Mans prototype…