Autocar August 26, 2020

LAST YEAR, ALMOST eight million used cars were bought (and sold) in this country, more than three times the number of new cars. There’s more choice out there than ever in the classifieds, from Bangernomics bargains to rarefied supercar royalty. Sitting somewhere in the middle is an increasingly popular breed of used car: the modern classic. Typically aged between about 10 and 30 years old, these are cars that were good in their day and seem to get better with age. Most are becoming rare, too, given that so many were bought by Joe Public as daily transport and not looked after as a potential future classic. Yet thankfully, they were built to modern standards, so if you can find a decent example, it should keep going for decades to come. The appeal…

GOT A STORY? Email our news editor lawrence.allan@haymarket.com “The aim is to turn around a firm that lost £6.5 billion in the first half of 2020” Renault is preparing for a wide-reaching overhaul and model blitz – and it’s pinning its revival hopes on two new electric SUVs and a renewed focus on C-segment models. The French brand’s new partnership arrangement with Nissan, announced earlier this year, will lead to a more extensive sharing of platform, technology and production resources to boost efficiencies. It will also result in Renault taking the strategic lead in Europe under new boss Luca de Meo, who has begun overhauling the brand’s product roadmap despite only starting his role in July. His aim will be to turn around a firm that recorded a £6.5 billion loss in the first half…

There are two ways of looking at Luca de Meo’s job as the new boss of Renault. Either this is the opportunity of a lifetime for him or he has been landed with an impossible task made far more difficult by the pandemic and European emissions regulations. A good example of the difficulties facing Renault is the fate of the classic European hatchback. Even in the shutdown-stricken first half of this year, Volkswagen sold around 88,000 Golf Mk7s and Mk8s. Ford shifted 43,100 Focuses, but the Mégane attracted just 17,900 sales, down 56% on the same period last year. Although de Meo says he wants the C-segment at Renault’s core, the Mégane is trickier to replace than the Captur and Clio, both of which have a strong brand image and sales. If Renault…

The future of Alpine is less clear than that of other brands in the wider Renault Group, as the harsh realities of building a bespoke sports car in a global pandemic and economic downturn hit home. Renault’s latest official statement on the matter claims there will be an “open reflection on the reconversion of the Dieppe plant [Alpine’s hub] at the end of production of the Alpine A110”. That won’t be until 2023 or 2024, but the use of the word ‘reconversion’ suggests the plant (and likely Alpine itself) will undergo significant changes. The brand’s future hinges on how wide-reaching Luca de Meo’s transformation and cost-cutting regime will be. The French media is reporting that de Meo has discussed the A110 needing a sequel. However, he was candid about his views on…

Land Rover has updated the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque for 2021 with new engines, revamped infotainment and a special-edition trim. The newly introduced 2.0-litre four-cylinder mild-hybrid diesel engine is said to deliver “smoother stop-start operation and optimised fuel economy” over the outgoing non-hybrid version, thanks to a 48V electrical system and regenerative braking. In its entry-level D165 guise, the new unit produces 161bhp and 280lb ft – subtle boosts over the old D150. It can be had with front-wheel drive or, along with the optional eight-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel drive. This version is claimed to emit as little as 156g/km of CO2 in the Evoque and 163g/km in the larger Discovery Sport. The D200, with 201bhp and 317lb ft, comes exclusively with the automatic and four-wheel drive, raising CO2 to 170g/km.…

LOTUS HAS PUSHED back the launch of the Evija by at least five months, due to delays in the testing programme caused by the pandemic, Autocar can exclusively reveal. The first examples of the electric hypercar were meant to be with their buyers by the end of this year, but they now won’t arrive until the end of the first half of 2021. Customers have been informed of the change this week. Lotus boss Phil Popham told Autocar that the delay was caused by pandemic-induced lockdowns, travel restrictions and quarantining, meaning the British manufacturer hasn’t been able to properly test its four dynamic prototypes. “We have lost five months of testing, mainly in continental Europe,” he said. “We have missed hot-weather testing in Spain. It’s not as simple as moving everything to the…