Autocar February 23, 2022

JUST HOW DO you fill a £28 billion black hole in the public purse when fuel use dries up in the age of the electric car? That’s what the government is currently wrestling with. The £28bn raised in fuel duty is about as simple as taxation gets: the more you use, the more you pay, and it’s collected at the time of payment. Unlike road tax (£7bn raised a year), fuel duty receipts go straight to the central pot of government funds rather than simply being used on the roads. As for how to tax electric cars, where do you start? The ability to charge EVs in such disparate locations and in such disparate ways would make collecting revenue a practical nightmare, before you consider the complexity of the technical solutions to…

M2 COMPETITION Perhaps the most keenly anticipated and highestprofile launch on BMW’s agenda for this year is that of the G87-generation M2, which will take the formula of the acclaimed Mk1 model and uprate it across the board to strengthen its position as a leader in the sports coupé segment. The reinvented Porsche 718 Cayman rival is due in dealerships by the end of the year, which means a reveal is only months away. The secondgeneration 2 Series coupé on which it is based is already on sale, still with rear-wheel drive as standard in nonperformance models and with a four-wheel-drive M240i, which packs 369bhp and 369lb ft, topping the line-up. Power for the M240i comes from BMW’s B58 straight six, but the M2 will use a variant of the more highly strung…

THE NEXT-GENERATION Mini Countryman plug-in hybrid, due next year, will be the BMWowned brand’s most powerful series-production model yet. The Countryman will share its FAAR front-driven architecture with the all-new BMW 2 Series Active Tourer (First drives, p29) and be produced alongside that model and the upcoming X1 crossover in Leipzig, Germany. It is set to use the same range of petrol and plug-in hybrid powertrains, the most potent of which will be a four-wheel-drive PHEV set-up with a combined output that shades even that of Mini’s current JCW GP hot hatchback. The powertrain will pair a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine with a 174bhp electric motor for a combined output of 322bhp, making the model substantially quicker than today’s 217bhp Countryman Cooper S E All4. A 14.2kWh (usable) battery will supply it…

Questions remain over just how effectively differentiated M-badged EVs will be from their commonor-garden counterparts, but for the next few years, BMW M GmbH’s propensity for variety will continue to capture the imagination of performance car fans around the world. Has any brand shown such awareness of what enthusiasts want in recent years? We’ve been waiting decades for an M3 estate, for example, and there could surely be no better antidote for EV anathema than the puristic M2 sports coupé and rip-snorting M4 CSL. And even if you’re no huge fan of the XM’s, er, divisive styling, you must surely feel stirred by the potential of its electrically boosted V8, which will become available in more conventionally styled cars down the line. M has yet to set an all-out electrification deadline, but…

Ford’s hardcore Ranger Raptor pick-up has swapped its 2.0-litre turbo diesel engine for a substantially more powerful 3.0-litre petrol V6 and undergone a radical redesign influenced by the US-market F-150 Raptor. It will be the first version of the new fourth-generation Ranger to go on sale in Europe, with deliveries getting under way in late summer. The standard truck, revealed in 2021, will follow by the end of this year. The new 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 puts out 284bhp – a 74bhp hike – and 362lb ft. Although Ford has yet to reveal performance figures, the new Raptor is expected to comfortably outpace the previous version, which needed 10.1sec to hit 62mph from rest. However, the current 2.0-litre diesel engine will also be made available in the Raptor from 2023. A ‘race-bred’ anti-lag…

JEEP WILL DITCH purecombustion engines in Europe later this year, leaving just hybrid versions of its Compass, Renegade and Cherokee on sale – alongside the 375bhp Grand Cherokee PHEV flagship, which is available to pre-order from this week. The move comes as Jeep confirms plans to introduce a pure-electric car in every SUV segment by 2025, by which point 70% of its global sales are forecast to be electrified. CEO Christian Meunier outlined the brand’s electrification strategy to reporters, confirming that the EV roll-out extends to only “true SUVs, not raised hatchbacks”. This suggests that Jeep will continue to focus on off-road ability as it switches to an allelectric line-up. The Wrangler-based Magneto concept hints at what to expect, said Meunier, although he confirmed that there will be “a few BEVs before the…