Autocar March 15, 2023

PRESS RELEASES that crow about the spiralling cost of modern motoring are typically concerned with road tax, petrol prices or fuel duty – seldom the actual cost of new cars. This week, then, a reality check – and a very welcome and entertaining flick of the reset button for four of us lucky road testers. There are only eight new cars that remain on sale in the UK for less than £15,000 and Messrs Cropley, Prior, Disdale and I had the use of five of them one day in Wiltshire last week (p44). What a blast. Seldom have I driven a bunch of cars as hard on the road, or had as much fun so comfortably within the national speed limit. And seldom have I found such a varied and…

“The EV9 heralds a new design era for Kia as it moves towards launching another 13 bespoke EVs by 2027” The new EV9 is the second of Kia’s fast-expanding family of bespoke electric cars, combining compelling performance specs with upmarket design and equipment to enter into direct competition with new SUVs from the likes of BMW and Mercedes. Joining the segmentbending EV6 crossover in dealerships from late 2023, the EV9 heralds the beginning of a bold new design era for Kia as it progresses with its ambitious ‘Plan S’ strategy to launch another 13 bespoke EVs by 2027. Its role is especially important in this regard, according to Kia chief brand officer Artur Martins, who said the EV9 “will help us keep reshaping the image consumers have of our brand”…

Kia’s transformation into one of the most fashionable and socially conscious marques on the market continues at a blistering pace – and with the EV9, it is applying that ethos to a car the likes of which it has never produced before. Bosses are keen to avoid using the words ‘premium’ and ‘luxury’ when talking about the car, and that ties in to an unwillingness to paint the EV9 as out of reach for the young families for whom it has been so obviously conceived. “We are in the midst of an inter-generational gap,” said Karim Habib, head of design at Kia. “And I think you can see that in Korea: there’s a population that’s ageing, but at the same time we see that in our design department there’s a…

Jochen Paesen, vice-president, interior design “With the rebranding, the expectation to actually ask questions and challenge things is how my time at Kia started. So of course, with that comes challenges, but it really was a great opportunity to sell Kia: who do they want to be? Looking forward, rather than looking backwards: what do we actually want to do? So in that respect, as a designer, as a creative, that’s a challenge. But that was actually really nice.” Karim Habib, head of design “The amount of technology you get for the price: I don’t know if there’s any brand that does it as well as we do. But – and this may be the most important thing – EVs have given us access to proportions that in the past…

The upcoming secondgeneration Tourneo Courier will take on a much more significant role for Ford following the death of the Fiesta later this year (and the subsequent exit of the Focus in 2025), effectively becoming its entry-level passenger car. Due to enter production later this year alongside the Puma crossover in Craiova, Romania, the Tourneo Courier is a boxy small MPV derived from the panel-sided Transit Courier that will be offered with both combustion and electric powertrains. With Ford Otosan (a joint venture between Ford and Turkish firm Koç) taking over ownership of the Romanian plant, the Transit Courier and Tourneo Courier will fill the space left on the production line following the exit of the Ecosport (previously Ford’s cheapest SUV) late last year. The first-generation Courier pair were based…

FORD HAS REVEALED a new mild-hybrid version of its Puma ST hot crossover, which will go on sale with the firm’s most powerful 1.0-litre engine yet. Named the Puma ST Powershift, it swaps out the 1.5-litre turbo petrol triple of the existing Puma ST for a smaller 1.0-litre version paired with a seven-speed automatic gearbox, a beltintegrated starter-generator and a 48V battery. The standard Puma is already offered with a mildhybrid powertrain, but the Puma ST Powershift produces around 10% more power, raising the output from 152bhp to 167bhp. Torque, meanwhile, increases to 182lb ft. As such, 0-62mph is completed in 7.4sec – slower than the 6.7sec offered by the standard Puma ST. With CO2 emissions of 144g/km and an average fuel consumption of around 37mpg, the new engine…