Autocar May 01, 2019

IN THE NEW e-Niro, Kia has made the most outstanding electric car yet at what you’d consider the more everyday end of the market. Perhaps more significantly, this week’s road test subject (p34) is also the first at its price that is also simply an outstanding car, battery-powered or not. Be in no doubt: electric cars are coming, and on a vast scale – government legislation to reduce emissions will see to that. That means a whole new market and infrastructure for the ways cars are bought, and the services to run them, will evolve. New companies will enter the car industry, from the likes of Amazon to plenty that don’t even exist yet. Such change can seem overwhelming, yet there’s something reassuring about the e-Niro as a trailblazer for normalising the…

Land Rover will this autumn kick off an extremely significant two-year period of consolidation and expansion, following a turbulent 18 months, that will define the brand for the next decade. A great deal of the activity will relate not just to the launch of four new vehicles but also increased electrification within its line-up. Although the marque’s pure-electric vehicles are still some years away – with sibling brand Jaguar leading the group in this market segment – all new Land Rover models from late 2019 will be offered with the option of mild-hybrid or plug-in hybrid drivetrains, allowing it to leave its diesel difficulties behind. Perhaps the most important addition during that time will be the all-new Mk5 Range Rover, imagined by Autocar above, which is expected to be unveiled in 2021.…

Land Rover’s plan to restore sales and fiscal health over the next few years – and set itself on the right low-carbon road – sounds plausible, given how much it achieved in the Tata-owned decade just ended. It scored bumper sales in many of those years, changed promptly to engines of its own manufacture and is finding ways to counter the demise of diesel. But big challenges loom. The company has just made more than 4500 people redundant and a big proportion of these were technical experts. Who’s creating the all-new electrified solutions that will be needed at a higher level than ever? Did the departing engineers finish all their work before they turned out the lights? Land Rover’s other major challenge looks to be build quality. The company has never truly lifted…

IN THE NEW e-Niro, Kia has made the most outstanding electric car yet at what you’d consider the more everyday end of the market. Perhaps more significantly, this week’s road test subject (p34) is also the first at its price that is also simply an outstanding car, battery-powered or not. Be in no doubt: electric cars are coming, and on a vast scale – government legislation to reduce emissions will see to that. That means a whole new market and infrastructure for the ways cars are bought, and the services to run them, will evolve. New companies will enter the car industry, from the likes of Amazon to plenty that don’t even exist yet. Such change can seem overwhelming, yet there’s something reassuring about the e-Niro as a trailblazer for…

DIESELGATE WAS ABOUT pollution rather than emissions of CO2, a distinction that was often completely lost in the media furore that followed. In truth, the EU’s pollution rules for diesel engines were surprisingly lax until the most recent Euro 6 series of regulations. The EU also allowed all pollution tests to be done in a laboratory, whereas in the US, real-world testing of randomly selected production vehicles was also part of the regime that led to the discovery of Volkswagen’s cheating. Although the new EU tests and regulations have finally managed to get on top of the issue of pollution measurements, the EU’s emphasis on driving up fuel economy (which made diesel such a popular solution for car makers in the first place) has continued to get ever stricter. And that vehicle…

Land Rover will this autumn kick off an extremely significant two-year period of consolidation and expansion, following a turbulent 18 months, that will define the brand for the next decade. A great deal of the activity will relate not just to the launch of four new vehicles but also increased electrification within its line-up. Although the marque’s pure-electric vehicles are still some years away – with sibling brand Jaguar leading the group in this market segment – all new Land Rover models from late 2019 will be offered with the option of mild-hybrid or plug-in hybrid drivetrains, allowing it to leave its diesel difficulties behind. Perhaps the most important addition during that time will be the all-new Mk5 Range Rover, imagined by Autocar above, which is expected to be unveiled…