While there’s a lot of noise about electric cars, and debate about the pace at which the world is shifting from fossil-fuel cars to EVs, there’s one aspect of electrification that hasn’t gained as much attention. It’s the sheer variety of mobility options that electric power has given us, dispelling the idea that we all need conventional cars in which to get around.
Electric micro-mobility is becoming a big business. But what do we mean by micro-mobility? Well, pretty much any kind of transport that is smaller than a conventional car. So it covers electrically-assisted bicycles, electric scooters, electric mopeds and motorbikes, and so-called ‘microcars’ or ‘nanocars’.
All of these vehicles ca fill particular niches in urban environments, where total journeys may only be a few miles but may not be well served on a bus or train, or in a taxi. Many UK and European cities already have a vibrant offering of rental e-bikes and e-scooters, which can be very convenient for short trips across the city if you don’t have any luggage to carry, and the market for electric mopeds is also steadily growing – although you’re still exposed to the elements and not able to carry much in the way of baggage. So the next step up is the microcar.
These tiny electric city cars are classified as quadricycles, which means they don’t have to meet many of the legal standards for safety that conventional cars do. However, that does allow them to be much smaller and lighter than normal cars – about half the size and less than half the weight – making them exceptionally cheap to run.
Small is beautiful
In cities like London or Manchester, the number of cars queued throughout the streets with one or two people on board creates enormous congestion. Not only while getting from A to B, but also parked up on the side of the road or in car parks. And every year, cars get longer, wider, taller and heavier – making the clogging of our cities even worse.
We have seen various attempts at making very small cars, most notably from the Mercedes-owned brand, Smart. The original Smart Fortwo was a genuine attempt to address increasing congestion with a small city car. But over three generations, it also got bigger and heavier as it was required to comply with tougher environmental and safety legislation.
With the rapidly advancing technology in electric vehicle, however, we’re starting to see fresh attempts to build tiny electric city cars. Electric power creates opportunities to reduce size, as electric motors and relatively small batteries take up much less space than a petrol engine plus a gearbox plus a fuel tank plus an exhaust system and all the other associated bits that a petrol-powered car needs.
The first attempts at electric city cars came a couple of decades ago, with dreadful vehicles like the G-Wiz. Because they were categorised as quadricyles (like a quad bike) rather than cars, they didn’t have to meet the same safety criteria that all cars do. And as a result, they weren’t fitted with much in the way of even basic safety equipment, resulting in at least one death in London in what was a very low-speed collision.
Thankfully, things have moved on and there are now several manufacturers entering the electric city car market. They are still categorised as quadricycles rather than cars, but the standard of vehicle is now much higher.
Renault offered the Twizy for about a decade, which sat two people in a tandem arrangement. However, that model was discontinued a couple of years ago. A successor is apparently on the cards but UK availability has not been announced.
The biggest name to launch into the world of electric city cars is Stellantis, one of the world’s largest car companies, through its brands Citroën and Fiat. Citroën has made a lot of noise about its smallest model, the Ami, which launched a couple of years ago and is now available in the UK. The Ami also forms the basis for a new model from Fiat, the Topolino, which is likely to arrive next year.
Citroën AmiFiat TopolinoRenault Twizy
The sounds of Silence
Having an automotive colossus like Stellantis in the microcar market gives it far more credibility than it has had in the past, but the Citroën Ami and Fiat Topolino are not necessarily the class leaders in this sector.
A new player is Spanish manufacturer Silence, which is owned by colossal infrastructure and energy company, Acciona. Backed by Nissan, Silence produces a couple of electric mopeds and has now launched a microcar called the S04, which will be sold in the UK through Nissan dealers later this year.
The Silence S04 follows a similar formula to the Citroën Ami and Renault Twizy, being a very short and narrow two-seater vehicle. How short and narrow? The S04 and Twizy are just 2.3m long, with the Ami being slightly longer at 2.4m. To give you an idea of how small that it, that’s shorter than the original 1998 Smart Fortwo (2.5m long). Even the original 1959 Mini was three metres long…
In terms of width, the Silence, Renault and Citroën all clock in at about 1.3m wide, which is again narrower than an old Mini (1.4m) or the original Smart (1.5m).
When you compare these nanocars with a traditional supermini hatchback, the scale is even more impressive. They’re a staggering 40% shorter than a Volkswagen Polo, for example, which is just over four metres long, and nearly 30% narrower. They’re also about 60% lighter, depending on specification.
Having such a small footprint means that nanocar designers have to get creative with packaging. The Twizy arranged its occupants in a tandem seating arrangement, with the passenger directly behind the driver and with a very limited view. The S04 and Ami have a staggered side-by-side layout with the driver slightly ahead of the passenger, which gives a bit more room for twirling the steering wheel without banging elbows.
Is the Silence S04 the ultimate city car?
Silence S04
The Silence S04 recently had its global media launch at Acciona’s headquarters in Madrid, which The Car Expert attended. What was surprising is how much the S04 looks to have moved the microcar goalposts compared to the more basic Citroën Ami.
Despite being slightly shorter in overall length, the S04 offers slightly more cabin space (although it’s obviously still pretty cosy) and a creditable amount of boot space at 247 litres. That’s 37 litres more than you get on a brand-new electric Mini Cooper three-door hatchback, and about 247 litres more than you get in a Citroën Ami, which doesn’t have a boot at all.
The clever packaging of the S04 is made possible thanks to its two electric motors. Unlike the Ami, which uses a conventional single electric motor in the front of the car, the S04 has two small motors mounted inside the rear wheels. These in-wheel motors take up less space while providing better performance. They also allow better control for stability in slippery conditions, as the left and right wheels can be controlled separately depending on how much grip each has available.
But the Silence S04’s biggest party trick is having two removable batteries. These are two cubes with integrated wheels and handles, a bit like a pair of small suitcases, which are mounted under the seats. They can simply be popped out and wheeled away to be charged or swapped (Silence has a rapidly expanding battery swap network of 140 stations throughout Spain’s biggest cities, and is planning to offer something similar in major UK cities once it commences sales later this year).
Those batteries give the S04 an official driving range of up to 90 miles, which is about twice as far as the Ami. For a car that’s never likely to leave the city, that’s likely to be plenty since you can remove the batteries to charge them at home, thereby overcoming one of the regular complaints of EVs in cities. A word of warning, though – each battery pack weighs about 40kg, so you’re not going to be lugging it up flights of stairs. You’ll need either an elevator or a ground-floor plug.
Silence S04 vs Citroën Ami vs Fiat Topolino electric city cars
The biggest difference between the Silence S04 and the Stellantis twins (the Citroën Ami and Fiat Topolino are essentially the same car with a few visual differences) is the price.
As of July 2024, Citroën Ami prices run from £7,700 to £8,700 depending on specification. UK pricing for the Fiat Topolino has not been announced, but is likely to start at around £8,000 as well. The Silence S04, however, will start at £15,000. That could stop a lot of potential customers in their tracks.
Now, the S04 has a lot going for it over the Ami and Topolino, so the price difference can be explained away quite logically. You get more cabin space, and a proper boot with decent luggage space, which makes the S04 as usable around town as a much bugger car. You get twice as much driving range, plus a pair of removable batteries so you don’t have to worry about not having access to an on-street or public charging point. That makes it a viable option for far more people than any other EV.
You get many more comfort features – like proper doors, proper windows that are even electric, electric mirrors, keyless access via your smartphone, and so on.
You also get more performance and better brakes, which means the S04 is better able to keep up with the cut and thrust of city traffic. The lower-spec L6e version has a top speed of just 28mph, same as the Ami and with similarly sluggish acceleration, while the higher-spec L7e (an extra £1,000) claims a top speed of 54mph and far more rapid acceleration. In reality, you wouldn’t want to take any of these cars beyond a 30mph zone. The L7e’s advantage is its better acceleration rather than a higher top speed.
Still, that price point looks high when Dacia is about to launch the all-electric Spring, a proper electric car, for the same starting price as the S04. It will be basic, but it will seat four people with more boot space and offer an official driving range of 140 miles, with a top speed that’s (just barely) compatible with UK motorway speed limits. Yes, it’s a different sort of vehicle and it will cost more to run, but its larger size is likely to appeal more to private customers who are looking for a conventional car.
Where the Silence S04 is likely to do well is with inner-city businesses, like couriers, who will benefit from its tiny size and tiny running costs. There will be a dedicated single-seat cargo version, as we’ve also seen with the Ami and Twizy, where the passenger seat is replaced with more cargo space.
Another key target market will be moped riders who want to move up to the relative comfort of a covered cabin, but without the bulk and running costs of a normal car. Citroën has been promoting the Ami as an alternative to scooters and mopeds rather than as an alternative to regular cars, and Silence is likely to do well in the same market.
A bright future for electric mobility
We’ve only had a short drive of the S04 through Madrid, but it was clear that it’s a step ahead of the Citroën Ami in pretty much every way. Once we’ve had the benefit of a longer drive on UK roads, we’ll update you with a more comprehensive review.
What’s clear is that electric power is able to give us a big step forward in urban mobility. Whether you want an eco-friendly electric moped instead of a traditional petrol-powered Vespa, an electrically-assisted bicycle to help you stay fit while making your cross-town commute a lot easier, an e-scooter that’s quicker and more fun than catching a tube or bus, or a microcar that’s a real buzz for zipping around the city, the EV revolution is creating all sorts of exciting possibilities.
The superlatives come easily when discussing the subject of Toyota. It built its first vehicle in 1935 and has, for many years, been the largest automotive manufacturer in the world.
Toyota is also the ninth largest company of any type in the world. It turns out around ten million vehicles a year, becoming the first automotive maker to achieve this milestone in 2012. In that year, total Toyota production passed 200 million vehicles and it only took another 11 years to hit 300 million, in 2023. Oh, and the often-maligned Corolla is also the world’s biggest-selling car by name (not a single model, obviously, but over a number of generations).
The headlines around Toyota don’t just concern quantity, however. The company was a pioneer of hybrid engines – the first Prius hybrid appeared in 1997 and in following years the phrase ‘Prius’ became a watchword for environmentally-conscious motoring. Mind you, this reputation has been diluted in more recent times by Toyota’s slow adoption of full-electric propulsion in favour of investing in hydrogen fuel-cell research, technology that still faces challenges as a car powertrain.
Yet while Toyota may be late to the EV party, its management will still presumably be content to look at the company’s sales figures…
Many car manufacturers started off making something else and, in Toyota’s case, it was textile looms. In 1933, Kiichiro Toyoda started an automotive division within the loom manufacturing company established by his father nine years earlier. The first Toyota engine appeared in 1934, followed by a truck in 1935 and the first car, called the AA, in 1936.
In 1937 the automotive division became the Toyota Motor Company – taking the name reputedly because writing ‘Toyota’ rather than ‘Toyoda’ in Japanese took eight brush strokes, considered a lucky number.
Toyota made trucks for the Japanese army during the second world war, and following Japan’s surrender was allowed by the occupying US forces to continue truck production to help rebuild the nation, but not to make cars. This lasted until 1949 and almost saw Toyota go bankrupt as a result.
Things changed quickly – the outbreak of the Korean War resulted in an order from the US military for 1,000 Toyota trucks. Meanwhile, the company’s executives went to America to learn all about car production. They returned home with lots of knowledge, resulting in management philosophies ‘The Toyota Way’ and ‘Toyota Production System’, which would quickly take the company to the very top of the automotive industry.
In the 1950s, Toyota tried to sell its Crown model in the US. It flopped because it was designed for the poor roads then prevalent in Japan and was too unrefined for the better quality US highway system.
The company had rather more success in exporting another model, the Land Cruiser 4×4 utility vehicle. One of its first and most important export markets was Australia, where it quickly found favour with companies and farmers who were fed up with their unreliable Land Rover vehicles. Over the last 70-odd years, Toyota has sold more than a million Land Cruisers in Australia alone, and the country has a well-known saying: “If you want to go Outback, take a Land Rover. If you want to come back, take a Toyota.”
By the early 1960s, a booming Japanese economy not only allowed Toyota to build affordable cars for local customers but one designed specifically to finally crack the US market. Launched in 1965, the Corona proved a big hit with American buyers.
An even bigger, and global, success followed in 1966 – the Corolla. By 1974, it was the best-selling vehicle in the world and three years later it overtook the Volkswagen Beetle for total numbers sold. The Corolla is still a core part of Toyota’s line-up today – in Europe and Japan the company tried renaming it Auris in 2006, but by 2018 went back to calling it Corolla.
Toyota Corolla through the years
198520022024
In the 1980s, as nations started worrying about the large influx of imported Japanese cars flooding their markets, Toyota and other Japanese brands responded by setting up factories to build their cars in their largest export markets. Britain was among these, with Toyota opening an engine factory in Deeside, Wales in 1990 and a car factory in Burnaston, Derbyshire in 1992. Today, the company builds the latest Corolla hatch and estate models in Burnaston.
In 1989, Toyota launched an upmarket brand called Lexus, which we explored last week. Through the 1990s, Toyota expanded its model range to include sports cars such as the Celica, MR2 and much-admired Supra, and SUVs, building on the success of its famous Land Cruiser and expanding to the highly popular RAV4, which was the first lifestyle SUV-style vehicle that is the default family car style today.
The dawn of the new millennium saw the first exports of a new petrol-electric hybrid model called the Prius. While rival Honda had been first company to put a hybrid car on sale, it was Toyota that really ran with the technology. The Prius was first choice for those drivers who wanted to feel they were saving the planet and Toyota has promoted hybrid technology ever since.
Toyota also heavily invested in hydrogen fuel cell technology, which has not been anywhere near as successful. The technology – a way of powering electric vehicles instead of conventional batteries – has had almost no support from the rest of the car industry or governments around the world. In the eyes of many, Toyota has allowed rivals steal a march on the global shift to battery-electric vehicles. The first fully-electric Toyota, a joint effort with Subaru, only went on UK sale in 2022.
By 2008, Toyota was the biggest global vehicle manufacturer in terms of sales, though its reputation was dented that year by a massive recall of nine million vehicles to fix a fault that threatened to make them to accelerate without warning. The issue was blamed for at least 37 fatal injuries in crashes and cost Toyota more than $2 billion in compensation in America alone.
Further challenges followed, including earthquakes and a tsunami in Japan in 2011, but by 2020 Toyota had reclaimed its position at the top of the world automotive market, unseating great rival Volkswagen Group with 9.5 million global sales despite the Covid pandemic.
Toyota remains at the top today, not only with its own production but also holding stakes in other Japanese car makers. The company owns 20% of Subaru, 5% of Mazda, almost 5% of Suzuki and Isuzu, and close to 4% of Yamaha – truly an automotive giant…
What models does Toyota have and what else is coming?
For much of its history, Toyota has been famed for its small, thoroughly competent if not often over-exciting cars. Today, its model is line-up dominated by SUVs and petrol-electric hybrid powertrains.
The oldest nameplate of all is the Corolla, though the current version of the mid-sized car dates back to just 2019 when it replaced the Auris, which 13 years earlier had replaced – the Corolla. The current version comes in five-door hatch or estate form and is a completely British car – it’s built in Derbyshire and its hybrid engines in north Wales.
Second longest-lasting model name in the mainstream line-up is the Yaris. The first version of the supermini appeared in 1999 and the current one is the fourth generation, launched in 2020. Again it only comes as a hybrid and is popular for its low running costs and reliability.
The Aygo X is the cheapest Toyota in the range and one of the few models in the range that only comes with a petrol engine rather than a hybrid unit.
The larger SUV range starts with the RAV4, a mainstay of the Toyota line-up for quarter of a century and arguably the car that started the industry move towards SUVs that had more car-like road manners. The current fifth-generation version launched in 2019 with hybrid engines while a plug-in hybrid has since been added. Buyers rate its low running costs and durability, some surveys naming it the most reliable SUV on the market.
Much more recent and indicative of the latest trend of family SUVs is the C-HR. The original launched in 2016 and was completely renewed in 2023. Again with its hybrid engines it’s famed for low running costs.
Newest SUV of all is the oddly named bZ4X, the first fully-electric model from Toyota which arrived in showrooms in 2022. It has similar proportions to the RAV4 and is pretty much identical to the Subaru Solterra. It comes with either single or dual electric motors.
SUVs are so popular that Toyota has tried to create them from its cars. The Yaris Cross does have many elements of the supermini in its build, but is a ‘proper’ small SUV. It’s not an off-roader, but unlike most rivals it can be had with all-wheel drive.
In recent years, Toyota has mde more of an effort to build out its performance car offering, starting with the GR Yaris – the GR stands for Gazoo Racing, which is Toyota’s motorsport division – is much more closely related to a stillborn rally car project than its supermini namesake. Its tiny three-cylinder engine pushes out 206hp – it’s fast, loud and has excellent handling.
The two proper sports cars are the GR86, a 2+2 coupe jointly built with Subaru, and the GR Supra, the latest generation of an iconic performance name in Toyota’s history. It comes in 2.0-litre or 3.0-litre form and is based on the BMW Z4.
Toyota has six new electric vehicles on the way over the next couple of years, starting with a small SUV based on a concept unveiled last year. In a completely different direction, an all-new version of the big Land Cruiser off-roader is likely to make it here by the end of the year.
Where can I try a Toyota car?
You won’t have too far to go to find a Toyota dealer. The brand has always had plenty of UK outlets and as some other manufacturers have shrunk their operations, Toyota has become one of the most prolific brands on motor alleys, currently offering more than 180 locations.
What makes Toyota different to the rest?
Toyota has achieved its massive global status not by doing anything outlandish but by ensuring its cars are among the most dependable on the market. Toyotas have always been cheap to run, well-built and very reliable, consistently topping customer satisfaction surveys.
If anything marks Toyota out as different, it is the marque’s investment and faith in the hybrid engine, faith some might argue has been a little blind as the maker is now playing catch-up against rivals who already have wide ranges of all-electric models.
A Toyota fact to impress your friends
A British company was directly responsible for the establishment of the firm that became the world’s biggest automotive manufacturer. Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda’s father Sakichi Toyoda had in 1924 invented an automatic loom for his textile works.
In 1929 Sakichi sold a patent to make the loom to the British textile machinery manufacturer Platt Brothers, and the money generated was used by Kiichiro to establish the automotive division of the Toyota Automatic Loom Works in 1933 – the rest, as they say…
Summary
The vast majority of owners don’t want a car that’s going to excite them every time they get in it – they want a machine that will be comfortable, remain well-built and never let them down. These qualities have always been core to the Toyota philosophy and the reasons why today this Japanese brand sells more cars than any other.
The Cupra Born VZ – a more potent version of the electric Born hatchback – is now on sale in the UK with pricing and trim specifications now confirmed.
Called the ‘VZ’ – which stands for ‘veloz’, Spanish for ‘fast’ – this high performance version of the electric Born hatch comes with a 40% horsepower boost over the former range-topper, the 230hp Born ‘e-boost’ powertrain, as well as some improvements to the driving dynamics and some minor cosmetic alterations.
The hot hatch can reportedly muster 322hp – slightly more power than the petrol Volkswagen Golf R – and complete a 0-62mph sprint in 5.7 seconds – one second faster than the Born e-Boost. The electric hatch’s top speed has been increased too, from 99mph to 124mph.
Other areas of mechanical improvement include the steering and suspension, which Cupra says are now ‘sportier’, and the braking which is reportedly more robust in the rear to handle the higher performance. The car sits on 20-inch alloy wheels as standard and is available with a unique ‘Dark Forest’ exterior colour scheme.
Inside, the model comes with grey bucket seats and a Sennheiser Premium sound system. Keyless entry is also included, as is a wireless smartphone charging pad.
This added performance and equipment increases up-front purchase costs by a significant amount. Pricing for the new VZ starts at a few hundred under £45k – £10k more than the standard Born and around the same price as the latest batch of high-performance Toyota GR Yaris petrol models that have now sold out in the UK.
The Cupra Born currently holds a New Car Expert Rating of A, with a score of 81% in our Expert Rating Index. It has excellent results in every category, with the only caveat being that we don’t yet have enough data to issue a reliability rating.
The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a large executive car, available in either saloon and estate body styles. This is the latest sixth-generation model which became available in the UK in the second half of 2023.
Likely to be the last combustion-powered Mercedes-Benz range to arrive here in the UK, the E-Class has been warmly received by the British motoring media, with wide praise for its plush and spacious interior, as well as the competitive electric range of plug-in hybrid versions.
“The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is roomier and more advanced than before”, says Top Gear’s Joe Holding, but if agile driving dynamics are a key priority, he recommends a test drive of the latest BMW 5 Series instead.
Carwow adds that, while the E-Class is loaded with “cool technology” as standard, reflections off the large infotainment screen are “distracting”, and notes that plug-in hybrid versions come with a reduced boot capacity.
As of July 2025, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class holds a New Car Expert Rating of A, with a score of 72%. It scores top marks for its outstanding safety rating and low CO2 emissions, while its media review scores are also good. However, the running cost numbers are high, which is fairly unsurprising for a Mercedes.
“The latest E-Class is a technical tour de force, and it continues to be a comfortable and upmarket cruiser that will leave you relaxed even after spending a whole day at the wheel. But it’s not without issues. It feels as if the car’s tech is taking over inside, and it’s not as spacious as you might expect, particularly in the rear.”
Model reviewed: 2.0-litre diesel (mild hybrid) automatic E 220d saloon AMG Premium Plus Score: 8 / 10 “The latest Mercedes E-Class is a technical tour de force, and it continues to be a comfortable and upmarket cruiser that will leave you relaxed even after spending a whole day at the wheel. The mild-hybrid E 220 d is efficient, but it’s also noisy when pushed, spoiling the cabin ambience.” Author: Dean Gibson Read review
Model reviewed: Estate range Score: 7 / 10 “The Mercedes E-Class is a technological tour de force, but from behind the wheel it suffers from a distinct lack of character. The plug-in hybrid powertrain really delivers in terms of efficiency, but that comes at the cost of practicality, which is a shame given this car’s otherwise spacious estate body. We expect emerging rivals from BMW and Audi will add some competitive spice to this sector once again.” Author: Berend Sanders Read review
Model reviewed: 2.0-litre petrol/electric plug-in hybrid E 300 e Score: 9 / 10 “For anyone considering a premium saloon as their next company car, there’s a serious amount of tech and comfort available here, and at a really appealing BiK tax rate. And better still, decent real-world electric range means that you could conceivably use your E 300 e as an electric car several days of the week – making it a proper bridge towards a full EV, and no mistake.” Author: John McIlroy Read review
Auto Trader
Model reviewed: Saloon range Score: 8 / 10 “The sixth-generation Mercedes-Benz E-Class shifts from an established premium saloon to a luxury saloon, and it’s brimming with technology too.” Author: Dan Trent Read review
Car
Model reviewed: Estate range Score: 8 / 10 “The E-Class Estate is up there as one of the best cars Mercedes currently makes. Wonderfully spacious, upmarket and loaded with tech (too much, you could argue), it’s an executive estate car that certainly makes an impression.” Author: Ted Welford Read review
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 6 / 10 “An uninspiring engine combined with what seems to be rather thoughtlessly set-up steel-sprung suspension doesn’t have the makings of a decent short drive, let alone a long-standing relationship.” Author: Jake Groves Read review
Model reviewed: 2.0-litre petrol/electric plug-in hybrid E 300e Score: 8 / 10 “The latest Mercedes-Benz E-Class turns up the tech and efficiency into a mostly positive result. Some of the E’s controls feel like they need a little more modulation so they’re less twitchy, but the E300e’s electric-only range and the cruising refinement offered fresh out of the box mean the latest E-Class is more than worth a look for the well-to-do corporate commuter.” Author: Jake Groves Read review
Carbuyer
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8.8 / 10 “The latest Mercedes E-Class offers exceptional levels of comfort, a beautiful interior and one of the most advanced infotainment systems ever.” Author: Charlie Harvey, John McIlroy Read review
Carwow
Model reviewed: Estate range Score: 8 / 10 “The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a fantastic large estate with a huge boot, great engine selection and outstanding comfort – shame it costs so much and some of the tech seems pointless.” Author: Tom Wiltshire Read review
Evo
Model reviewed: E300e plug-in hybrid Score: 8 / 10 “The new Mercedes E-class proves there’s still life in the traditional, well engineered exec saloon.” Author: Stuart Gallagher Read review
Honest John
Model reviewed: Saloon range Score: 8 / 10 “Appropriately enough for a model of such importance, the Mercedes E-Class is pretty much everything the company can do, condensed into one car. Thing is, it’s also quite a few things we wish they hadn’t done.” Read review
Parkers
Model reviewed: E-Class saloon Score: 7.2 / 10 “The latest Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a sleek-looking machine that majors on dazzling technology. The suite of screens, the fancy ambient lighting and the general appearance of the interior are sure to catch the eye of even the most jaded passengers.” Author: Alan Taylor-Jones Read review
Model reviewed: E-Class estate Score: 8.2 / 10 “Yes. If you’re looking for a large premium estate car, the new Mercedes E-Class is up there with the best. Mercedes has traded a marginal bit of space on this new model but in the process upped with the style with minimal compromise.” Author: Ted Welford Read review
The Sunday Times
Model reviewed: 2.0-litre diesel automatic E 220 d Score: 8 / 10 “The desire and effort to move the Mercedes-Benz E-Class further upwards to a more luxurious standing than before has proven mostly successful. The only aspect where it falters is in its diesel engine, which sometimes lacks refinement if not performance. There’s a reason why true luxury cars don’t use four-cylinder diesels these days. Nevertheless, the latest E-Class delivers a polished and enjoyable driving experience.” Author: Dave Humphreys Read review
The Telegraph
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “Mercedes wanted to boast about the new electronics and driver aids in this new car but, to be honest, they weren’t the most impressive traits of the new E-class. What left us slack jawed was the creamy ride, the effortless mile eating and the sheer economy of these sophisticated cars.” Author: Andrew English Read review
Top Gear
Model reviewed: Estate range Score: 7 / 10 “Had enough of the family SUV? The Mercedes-Benz E-Class proves there’s still plenty of life in the estate.” Read review
Model reviewed: Saloon range Score: 7 / 10 “A fine, relaxing executive saloon. Provided you’re able to ignore the distracting tech. And coarse four cylinder engine.”
Read review
Safety rating
Independent crash test and safety ratings from Euro NCAP
Independent economy and emissions ratings from Green NCAP
No eco rating
As of July 2025, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class has not been assessed by Green NCAP.
Reliability rating
Reliability data provided exclusively for The Car Expert by MotorEasy
No reliability rating
As of July 2025, we don’t have enough reliability data on the Mercedes-Benz E-Class to generate a reliability rating.
The Car Expert’s reliability information is provided exclusively to us using extended warranty data from our partner, MotorEasy. As soon as we have sufficient data on the E-Class, we’ll publish the score here.
Running cost rating
Monthly cost of ownership data provided exclusively for The Car Expert by Clear Vehicle Data
Fuel consumption
Average
Score
Petrol models
42 mpg
C
Diesel models
51 mpg
B
Plug-in hybrid models
535 mpg
A
CO₂ output
Average
Score
Variation
Score
Petrol models
154 g/km
B
Diesel models
147 g/km
B
Plug-in hybrid models
13 g/km
A
Battery range
Average
Score
Variation
Score
Plug-in hybrid models
67 miles
C
Insurance group
Average
Score
Variation
Score
All models
43
D
Service and maintenance
Cost
Score
Year 1
£363
C
Year 2
£848
C
Year 3
£1,382
C
Year 4
£1,675
C
Year 5
£2,192
C
Overall
£6,460
C
Running costs for the Mercedes-Benz E-Class range are a mixed bag, according to data provided exclusively to The Car Expert by our commercial partner, Clear Vehicle Data.
Fuel economy is disappointing for petrol models but good for diesel-engined versions. The plug-in hybrid models look amazing on paper, but this is largely thanks to ridiculous EU/UK government lab tests that are completely inadequate for plug-in hybrids. There is no way you will ever travel for 535 miles on a single gallon (4.5 litres) of fuel and some electricity…
The battery range of the plug-in hybrid model is good compared to most rivals, even if you won’t hit 70 miles in real-world driving. It means that most households could do most of their weekly driving without using any petrol, as long as you can plug the E-Class in regularly.
Warranty rating
New car warranty information for the Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Overall rating
B
68%
Petrol or diesel models
C
41%
Hybrid or plug-in hybrid models
A
82%
New car warranty duration
3 years
New car warranty mileage
Unlimited miles
Battery warranty duration
8 years
Battery warranty mileage
100,000 miles
Mercedes-Benz’s new car warranty is only average, and not as attractive as some other cars in a similar price bracket as the E-Class.
The duration is three years, with no limit on mileage – although, in reality, the mileage numbers are likely to be fairly irrelevant as most cars only cover about 10,000 miles each year.
In addition to the standard new car warranty, the E-Class plug-in hybrid models have an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty for the battery components. The overall rating above is a mix of the different models.
Similar cars
If you’re looking at the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, you might also be interested in these alternatives.
MG’s renaissance over the last decade has seen the famous old British brand transformed into a builder of budget-priced family cars. It’s a far cry from the glory days (assuming you’re wearing rose-tinted glasses) of the MGA, MGB and MGC sports cars.
Not any more. The Cyberster makes a big statement for MG, being a sports car unlike anything the brand has ever built – and unlike anything else in the new car market. It’s an all-electric, two-seat roadster that propels MG into an entirely new demographic.
MG’s London studio had been working on sports car concepts for several years, and the concept that would eventually become the Cyberster was displayed at the Shanghai motor show in 2021. It received such an overwhelmingly positive response that MG immediately approved it for production.
On one hand, this is a £60K MG, which is well beyond anything else in the brand’s line-up. On the other hand, it’s a £60K sports car with straight-line performance that embarrasses gold-label supercars at three times the price.
So, how should be look at this car? Is it a very expensive MG, or a bargain supercar? We went along to the UK launch in Scotland to find out.
What is it?
The MG Cyberster is currently one of a kind in the new car market – a two-seat roadster powered by electricity. Other brands (notably Polestar) have plans to launch their own electric roadsters in the next couple of years, but right now there’s nothing else like the Cyberster.
It’s available in two specifications: Trophy for £55K and GT for £60K, the only visible difference being 19-inch wheels on the Trophy and 20-inch wheels on the GT. Under the bonnet, the GT gets an extra electric motor at the front, making it a 500hp all-wheel-drive vehicle car. The Trophy, meanwhile, has a single motor producing 340hp and is rear-wheel-drive only.
A coupé concept was unveiled at last weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, and would make a logical extension to the Cyberster family. There’s no word on whether it will go into production, but it would appear a fairly safe bet.
Who is this car aimed at?
If you’re looking for a sports car that provides maximum bang for bucks, you’ll struggle to find anything that gives a bigger bang than the MG Cyberster GT. It has a similar price tag to a Porsche Boxster, but absolutely trounces the Porsche in terms of performance and standard equipment.
It’s generally pretty easy to make an electric car go fast in a straight line, and we see lots of EV performance cars with stunning acceleration figures. But it’s still staggering to find out that the Cyberster GT is just as fast from 0-62mph as the legendary McLaren F1…
On top of that, the MG scores highly when it comes to street theatre with its electrically operated scissor doors. For ultimate show-off points, you can open and close the doors with the car key.
Who won’t like it?
Inevitably, there will be potential customers who will refuse to countenance an electric sports car, no matter the price. And there will also be potential customers who won’t even bother to look at a £60K MG electric sports car.
Straight-line performance isn’t everything, even for a performance car. Driving enjoyment, through the way a car steers and handles, is absolutely vital to a sports car. There will be sports car buyers who will prefer the superb driving enjoyment of a Porsche Boxster to the break-neck pace of the Cyberster.
First impressions
The MG Cyberster has a modern style that still manages to look fairly conventional – there are no crazy angles or wilfully controversial elements that you’d see on any new BMW, for instance. The arrow-style tail lights are a bit over the top – you’re not quite sure whether they’re indicators showing your intended direction or Mini-style Union Jack motifs (it seems to be the latter).
The party piece is undoubtedly the electrically operated scissor doors, for Lamborghini-style street theatre at a fraction of the price. Unusual doors seem to fascinate just about everyone that sees them, whether it’s on an MG or a Rolls-Royce, so it makes you wonder why more manufacturers don’t make more of an effort to offer something different.
Inside, the dashboard is very screen-heavy with four separate displays. It looks state-of-the-art but the functionality leaves quite a bit to be desired, as we’ll come to shortly.
What do you get for your money?
Once we’ve got the first impressions out of the way, it’s time to look a bit harder at exactly what you’re getting for your money with the MG Cyberster.
At the car’s launch, there are two trim levels – Trophy for £55K and GT for £60K. Trophy gets a single electric motor producing 340hp and driving the rear wheels. The GT has a twin-motor setup, one for the front wheels and one for the rear – making it all-wheel drive – with a total of 500hp.
The only visible way to tell the difference between a Trophy and a GT model is to look at the wheels. The Trophy has 19-inch alloy wheels, while the GT gets 20-inch wheels in a different pattern.
There are no options other than metallic paint and soft-top colour, with everything else being standard equipment. And the equipment levels are good, covering everything you’d expect to have and plenty of stuff you’d have to pay extra for on a Porsche Boxster – like electric memory seats, LED headlights, auto-folding wing mirrors, heated steering wheel, Bose stereo and so on. In fact, a quick comparison of specification sheets shows that you’d have to add more than £10,000 of options to a Boxster to get close to what the Cyberster offers as standard.
The only problem with loading up on all the standard kit is that it adds even more weight to an already heavy car, and the Cyberster GT weighs more than 2.2 tonnes. That’s not far off the starting weight for a Bentley Continental GT…
We like: No extra cost add-ons – it’s all standard We don’t like: Equipment levels are more suited to a comfortable GT cruiser than a sports car
What’s the MG Cyberster like inside?
Sliding into the MG Cyberster cockpit gives two immediate impressions. Firstly, everything looks and feels to be of a high quality. Secondly, it’s a bit tighter than you’d like if you’re even approaching six feet tall.
The cabin layout is dominated by a total of four separate screens – three in front of the driver and one in the centre of the dashboard. It looks impressive, but then you start to actually use the screens and find that the functionality is disappointing.
In front of the driver is the main 12-inch screen with all the usual dashboard information – speed, battery charge, any warning messages (which are almost constant and annoying), and so on. Either side of the main screen are smaller seven-inch touchscreens. The left screen handles navigation, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, stereo and so on. The right screen, for reasons best known to MG, allows you to look at the upcoming week’s weather, send an email or read performance summaries and information. None of which you would want to do while driving, so it’s essentially useless.
The side screens have a further problem in that, if you place your hands on the steering wheel at the conventional “ten to two” position, your hands block most or all of the displays. I had to take my left hand off the steering wheel every time I wanted to look at the satnav screen, which is ridiculous. It’s amazing that this managed to make it through the whole design process without anyone in the design office noticing that this would be a problem.
The screen in the lower middle of the dash adjusts the climate control and seats. It’s a bit fiddly to use and, in my car at least, didn’t always respond to touch inputs (I’ve had similar issues with other MG cars previously). To make it worse, every time you try to use the centre screen, the Cyberster will bong at you and issue warning messages that tell you to “focus on driving”. In fact, it does this almost every time you look away from straight ahead, whether it’s to check your mirrors or adjust any other settings via a button or one of the many touchscreens.
The seats are firm, although not uncomfortable, so you shouldn’t get any lower back aches on longer trips or feel the desperate need to jump out and stretch your legs. But if you prefer your seats to be soft and supple, these are not those sort of seats. Which is something of a pity, given that the spec sheet and performance of the Cyberster would be great for long distance, grand touring adventures.
The seating position is also compromised for taller drivers, who are likely to have to slump down a bit to look through the windscreen rather than staring directly at the header rail across the top of the screen. This is not unusual for a roadster, where a low windscreen is part of the whole design, but it’s made worse here because the seat itself is mounted higher than ideal because you have the batteries arranged underneath the floor.
MG explained that the batteries are very slim compared to most EVs, and the battery pack under the floor is no taller than a Coke can. That’s certainly an impressive technical achievement, but out on the road I couldn’t help wishing that my seat was mounted about a Coke can lower… In a sports car, a low seating position is crucial for maximising driving feel, and this is a bit of a miss for the Cyberster. Again, in a comfortable GT cruiser, this would be less of an issue than in an open-topped sports car. However, everyone is shaped slightly differently so you may feel absolutely fine.
I’d also have preferred to be able to push my seat back a little further, and pull the steering wheel out a little further. Only a few centimetres, but it would help to feel more relaxed and less bunched-up. There’s a small amount of storage space behind the two seats rather than a solid wall, so it should be possible to make the seat slides a fraction longer.
Obviously there are no rear seats in this two-seat roadster. The storage space behind the seats is welcome and will no doubt be useful for Cyberster owners. The boat is pretty small, especially if you’re carrying the charging cables with you. Officially, it’s about 250 litres, which is better than some other roadsters. Despite the long nose, there’s no under-bonnet storage space. Pack light if you and a passenger are planning to go away for more than a night.
We like: Very quiet and smooth at low-to-medium speeds We don’t like: Not enough room or seating adjustment for taller drivers
What’s the MG Cyberster GT like to drive?
It’s fast. Really fast. Brutally fast. On a motorway or A-road, it will accelerate from 50mph to 70mph faster than your brain can process. And being an electric car, the response is absolutely instant. With any kind of petrol car – even a supercar – acceleration builds as the revs rise, because a petrol engine simply cannot deliver all of its performance at idle. Broadly speaking, more revs equals more performance.
Electric cars don’t work that way. You get everything all at once as soon as you hit the accelerator. Hit it hard, and your insides will go gooey as the Cyberster GT rockets forward. As the MG team was keen to point out, the 0-62mph time is equal to the legendary McLaren F1. It’s likely that the 0-30 time is even quicker, because even the McLaren’s mighty V12 engine has to get some revs into it to deliver maximum performance.
The other characteristic of an electric car is that the top speed doesn’t match to a similar petrol car. Again, this is due to the nature of electric motors. So the Cyberster GT tops out at 125mph while the McLaren will go on to almost double that. Obviously, given that out national speed limit is 70mph and most European countries are approximately 80-ish mph, this is not that important, but it shows how concentrated an EV’s performance is compared to a petrol car.
The brakes are supplied by famed Italian manufacturer Brembo and they’re strong, although don’t have quite the reassuring feel you’d like given how ferociously the Cyberster accelerates. Although they didn’t have great feel, I found the braking performance to be perfectly good during my drive time. A couple of other journalists, however, suggested that they found the brakes starting to fade after a few heavy stops (they must have been pushing a lot harder than I was!).
The Cyberster may be a heavy car, but most of the weight is kept very low down – as mentioned, the batteries are built into the floor of the car – which means that the car stays very flat during cornering, with almost no roll. That’s good news for both ride and handling, as it means the suspension doesn’t have to be extra stiff to counteract the roll. If you’ve ever driven an SUV into a corner a bit too quickly and experienced it leaning over on its wheels, you’ll know how alarming that feels. No concerns about that here.
The ride is good given the car’s weight. In fact, it feels lighter than the specification sheet shows. It’s still a sports car rather than a limousine, so you’ll certainly feel potholes and speed humps, but it’s better than many similar cars.
So, objectively speaking, the MG Cyberster GT does everything you’d want it to do. There’s only one real problem – it’s not actually that much fun to drive. The car is defined and dominated by its incredibly impressive electric motors. But once you’ve had enough of short bursts of missile-like acceleration (and they’re very short bursts if you want to avoid losing your licence), the rest of the driving experience is a but numb.
I spent most of the driving route through the Scottish highlands thinking I’d be having much more fun in a Mazda MX-5, which has 60% less power but a much more tactile and sporty feel as you wind through corner after corner at legal speeds.
Those who drove both the GT and Trophy models back-to-back on the launch reported that the steering on the Trophy felt better as the car is about 100kg lighter and it’s rear-wheel drive, so the front wheels don’t have to drive the car as well as steer it. I suspect the slightly less frenetic acceleration of the Trophy model may also make it easier to drive along winding B-roads. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to put that one to the test soon and report back.
We like: Missile-like acceleration is incredible – just warn your passenger in advance We don’t like: The rest of the driving experience is not actually that much fun
How safe is the MG Cyberster?
The MG Cyberster has not been yet tested by Euro NCAP, so we can’t give a definitive answer to that question. It’s also possible that it will never be tested, given its likely modest sales numbers. Most sports cars don’t get put through Euro NCAP testing, so this is not unusual.
The Cyberster comes equipped with all the latest accident avoidance technology that we now expect to see on new cars – blind-spot assist, lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, and so on. It also has the usual complement of airbags to protect you if an accident can’t be avoided.
Recent MG models have performed very well in Euro NCAP testing, so the company does have a good track record – which also dispels the myth in some quarters that Chinese cars are less safe than European cars – but that’s all theoretical for now. We’ll update this section if Euro NCAP
MG Cyberster economy, battery range and charging
The MG Cyberster has a 77kWh battery, which gives an official range (according to government lab tests) of 276 miles for the GT version and 316 miles for the Trophy model. Call it 240 miles and 280 miles, respectively, in real-world driving conditions and you’re probably close to the mark. While that’s not as far as you’ll go in a number of family electric SUVs these days, it’s likely to be plenty for this sort of car.
If you’re charging from a public charger, the maximum charging rate is 144kW. That’s not as fast as some new EVs, but is fast enough for most public chargers, which tend to have a maximum charging rate from 50kW to 150kW.
Best-case scenario at a 150kW charger is a 20%-80% charge time (the default measurement for public charging) of 38 minutes. If you’re charging at home from a 7kW wallbox, which is what most home chargers produce, you’re looking at a 10%-100% charge time (the default measurement for home charging) of about 10.5 hours. Both of these times are about what you’d expect from any new EV.
The Cyberster features a relatively new technology called Vehicle to Load, which means you can use the car’s battery to power regular household devices like a fridge or electric pump. That’s great for camping, although you might struggle to find a fridge that will fit in the boot. More realistically, it means you can run something like a vacuum cleaner from the battery when you’re cleaning your car, without having to try and run an extension cord from your house to the driveway.
Verdict
The Cyberster is currently in a class of one. It’s not just a new car for MG, it’s a new kind of car for the whole industry. Elon Musk has been talking about a new electric Tesla Roadster for longer than it has taken MG to design, develop and build its new electric sports car.
Yes, you can buy a low-volume, insane-level performance EV supercar for many hundreds of thousands of pounds from the likes of Lotus or Rimac, but this is the first electric sports car with a vaguely sensible price tag.
In terms of specification and figures, the Cyberster GT is a very good car. Yes, it’s a £60K MG, but you get an impressive level of standard kit and stunning performance. It’s worth the money, although we’d be tempted to forego the extra performance and take the Trophy model for £5K less cash.
The difficulty in judging the Cyberster GT is that it feels like would be better pitched as a GT than as a sports car. With a but more legroom and storage space, it would be a lovely car for long-distance driving. The slightly numb driving experience would be more enjoyable to live with on a more relaxed A-road drive, rather than attacking winding B-roads.
If MG decides to put the coupé concept into production, and it manages to eke out a bit more legroom and storage space – both of which should be achievable without the retractable roof – it might be a real winner as an electric grand tourer. But as a sports car, the MG Cyberster GT feels more like a near-miss.
Model tested: MG Cyberster GT Price (as tested): £60,715 (including £725 for premium paint) Engine: Two electric motors (one front, one rear) Gearbox: Single-speed, all-wheel drive
Power: 375 kW / 496 hp Torque: 725 Nm Top speed: 125 mph 0-60 mph: 3.2 seconds
Electric range: 276 miles CO2 emissions: 0 g/km Euro NCAP safety rating: Not tested (as of July 2024) TCE Expert Rating: Not yet rated (as of July 2024)
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The all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 hatchback has been updated with bigger battery options, more range, new trim levels and cheaper pricing.
This update comes as Hyundai tries to keep the Ioniq 5 up to date with newer battery-powered competitors like the Smart #3 and MG 4, which both have cheaper pricing.
Starting with the exterior looks, the car’s design has undergone very slight modifications, including refreshed front and rear bumpers and an even thicker rear spoiler. Two new bodywork colours have also been added to the range – a metallic red with no extra charge and a pearlescent blue – and the car sits on 19-inch alloy wheels as standard (20-inch alloys also available).
Inside, the centre console can now slide backwards and forwards and comes with physical buttons for the climate control and the heated seat controls. Hyundai also says it has refreshed the seat upholstery and door armrest design, and the brand has added a dark surround for the audio speakers.
The same digital instrument cluster and infotainment screen pairing is fixed to the dashboard, but the brand says that the screen’s reflection is reduced.
The most notable change that has been rolled out as part of this update is on the powertrain side. The range now consists of bigger 170hp 63kWh, 228hp 84kWh and 325hp 84kWh (‘N Line’, ‘Ultimate’ and ‘N Line S’ trims only) battery pack options that improve the cars travel distance on a single charge.
The 64kWh ‘Standard Range’ has a reported range of 273 miles, while the 84kWh ‘Long Range’ can reportedly complete a 354-mile run on a full battery. By comparison, the best the previous Ioniq 5 line-up could offer was a range of 315 miles. The 325hp ‘Long Range’ is of course the fastest edition (below the Ioniq 5 N hot hatch), with a 0-62mph sprint time of 5.3 seconds.
Alongside the existing ‘Advance’, ‘Premium’ and ‘Ulitmate’ trims already available, the Ioniq 5 is also now available in new ‘N Line’ and ‘N Line S’ grades, which are not to be confused with the performance-focused Ioniq 5 N, but Hyundai says have been inspired by the new hot hatch with a number of sportier design features.
Finally, Hyundai has decided to drop the car’s pricing. The Ioniq 5 price list now begins at just under £40k – around £3k less than the previous entry-level cost. ‘N Line’ prices stretch above £47k, while the range-topping ‘N Line S’ costs over £52k.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 currently holds a New Car Expert Rating of A, with a score of 81%. Its media reviews are excellent and it produces zero tailpipe emissions, while its running costs are generally very good as is its safety rating.
Audi has unveiled a new A5 saloon and estate range which isn’t a direct replacement for the A5 Sportback and A5 Coupé currently on sale. Instead, this new range will replace the A4, as Audi looks to slim down its ICE-powered options.
This range revision comes as the German marque looks to give its petrol-powered cars odd line-up numbers, while battery-powered EVs take the even ones. This should mean that we will eventually get an electric A4 range.
Built on new foundations – and not the old A4 platform that Audi has used for nearly two decades – the new A5 will be available with pure-petrol and petrol or diesel mild-hybrid powertrains in a range that includes standard and sportier ‘S5’ saloon and ‘Avant’ estate models.
Compared to the Current A4, the new saloon and estate has been given some notable exterior design changes. The front grille is wider and the new OLED headlights narrower – lights that adopt a similar light signature to that of brand’s electric ‘e-tron’ models, and can display eight different patterns and have a Dynamic mode that continually changes the pattern.
Audi has given the car slightly thicker wheel arches and the A4’s false exhaust tips have been replaced due to customer feedback. The A5’s new ‘Premium Platform Combustion’ foundations make this a bigger car than the A4, adding seven centimetres between the front and back wheels, and around a centimetre in width too, which increases interior space.
Like the new Q6 e-tron SUV, a large curved display sprawls across the dashboard, combining a 12-inch digital instrument cluster and a 15-inch infotainment touchscreen. ‘Edition 1’ models also come with another 11-inch media display on the passenger side.
Finally, lets talk about engines. The range begins with a 150hp 2.0-litre petrol engine, which will also be available with 48 volts of added mild-hybrid power, which boosts output to 204hp. There is also a 204hp 2.0-litre mild-hybrid diesel. All are paired with an automatic gearbox and Audi notes that mild-hybrid models offer a reduced reaction time on start up. Both front-wheel drive and ‘quattro ultra’ all-wheel drive models will be available.
The top-spec ‘S5’ is instead powered by a 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine which has the same mild-hybrid boost. Output stands at 362hp – 20hp more than the previous S4’s diesel V6.
That sums up what we know so far about the new A5. More details are on the way in the coming months as we close in on the family car’s UK arrival, including pricing and more trim specification details, and Audi adds that a plug-in hybrid powertrain with an electric-only range of 62 miles will follow next year.
There’s a certain magic and mystique to Iceland. Lava rocks, black beaches, geo-thermal lakes and a sun that barely sets in the summer: there’s interest and excitement at every turn.
Set in the Arctic Circle, Iceland is not a place to expect tropical temperatures and a seaside holiday. But there is much to see and do if you decide to visit the country for a vacation – and exploring by car is a great way to do that.
An island situated between the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, Iceland has a history of volcanic activity. There are regular volcano eruptions and the ground shows much evidence of lava and dark-coloured sands.
But that doesn’t dampen the spirits of the inhabitants – the people are very friendly and the country ranks highly in terms of quality of life, economy, education and peace. Iceland has no army, relying only on a small coast guard.
In terms of business the island has always relied heavily on fishing but more recently, tourism, fish products and aluminium production have boosted the coffers. Tourism has particularly been developed and there is lots for visitors to experience.
Art features highly with capital city Reykjavik home to several galleries such as the Municipal Galley and the National Gallery of Iceland. Bars and restaurants feature highly in a vibrant nightlife, and food lovers will enjoy a ‘different’ style of cuisine which relies more on meat with little or no spicing.
Porramatur is the traditional dish which includes shark and ram’s meat with cheese. Coffee also features highly on the Icelandic people’s menu.
While Iceland isn’t necessarily the first country on your holiday list – and you can’t drive there without using a ferry – it is certainly worth considering a visit, if only for the open roads and sights from the driver’s seat. The Highlands and the Westfjords are highlights for beautiful, untouched scenery and nature.
So if you are one of many UK motorists who does choose Iceland’s roads when it comes to planning a vacation, you’ll need some careful organisation before going there.
Although it’s possible to bring in a car on a ferry, flying in and hiring a vehicle is the most obvious option and you’ll find a selection of car rental companies, including Hertz, Avis and Budget, operating at Keflavik International, the main airport, and other arrival points such as Reykjavik and Akureyri.
Driving in Iceland is a completely different experience from doing so in the UK. And that isn’t just because the Icelanders drive on a different side of the road from us.
It’s much more than that and planning a driving holiday or taking your car to the Arctic on business, requires careful planning and a good understanding of what you can, and can’t do behind the wheel while there.
It’s well worth spending some time planning your trip and making sure you have everything in place for your Nordic excursion before you leave. Here The Car Expert looks at the most important elements to consider when planning to drive in Iceland, and we’ve included a handy checklist. As each journey is unique, always check that you have everything covered for your particular visit.
Basic rules
You must be 17 years old or over to drive in Iceland and you should hold a full UK driving licence. This will allow you 30 days of motoring in the country. Just the licence card will do, as the paper counterpart is no longer a requirement.
You’ll need to prove that you have minimum third party car insurance cover for your vehicle so take your certificate with you (but you don’t need a European ‘green card’). If you are hiring a vehicle (which is quite likely) you will need to be at least 20 years old and have held a driving licence for at least a year.
Always also carry with you documents that show the identity of your car, such as a V5C ‘logbook’ or the hire car agreement papers. And always have your personal ID or passport with you too.
Your vehicle’s ‘home country’ must be shown on it. A ‘UK’ sticker on the rear is one way to do this but you can also show a small UK badge on both number plates if you wish. The ‘GB’ badge is no longer allowed, even within European ‘golden stars’ and the same goes for country signs such as the English, Scottish or Welsh flags.
Speed limits
Speed limits are shown in kilometres (km/h) rather than miles (mph). In built-up areas the speed limit is 30-50 km/h (18-31 mph) while on more open roads the limit rises to 80 km/h (50 mph) on gravel roads and 90 km/h (56 mph) where the route is tarmacked. There are no motorways in Iceland, and therefore no tolls, but you can use the main ring road which runs around the entire coastline of the island, almost 830 miles long.
Speed humps and speed cameras are used to control traffic in Iceland, and there are lots of roadside cameras dotted throughout the road network. However, you are allowed to use radar detection equipment in your car.
Get stopped for speeding in Iceland, and you will likely get an on-the-spot fine of 23,500 Krona (ISK) (£130) for a small amount over the limit rising, depending on gravity, to 80,000 ISK (£450) for a serious offence.
Roads and conditions change quickly in Iceland so the best way is to watch for speed signs and stick to them. Don’t ever use a mobile phone while driving unless it is ‘hands-free’.
Blood alcohol limits
We don’t recommend any drinking of alcohol if you are going to drive but it’s worth knowing the limits. In Iceland’s case this is zero. There is a 0 g/l limit for all drivers so be careful if you have had a few drinks ‘the night before’ too. By comparison, it’s 0.8 g/l (0.8 milligrams) in England and Wales.
If there is any suspicion of drinking and driving by the police, you’ll probably be asked to take a breath test. Iceland takes a dim view of drinking (or drug use) and driving and the penalty for a first offence can reach 100,000 ISK (£560).
What to carry in the car
You must carry in your car a first aid kit, fire extinguisher, warning triangle and a Hi-Viz reflective jacket in case you have to leave your car at the roadside. Although not compulsory it’s a good idea to have spare bulbs with you for the car’s lights, especially as you have to have dipped headlights switched on at all times.
Specialist suppliers, such as motoring organisations, sell ‘European driving kits’ for around £25, which contain everything you are likely to need for a Continental road trip, and it’s well worth investing in one.
Make sure your lights are adjusted so they don’t dazzle oncoming traffic and if you meet someone on a narrow road you will be expected to slow right down so that loose gravel doesn’t fly up and hit their windscreen. They will be doing the same for you.
Seatbelt rules
Seatbelt rules are the same as in the UK: if your car has them, they must be worn. It’s the driver’s responsibility to make sure everyone is buckled up – there’s a 20,000 ISK (£115) fine for not using one.
Children under 135 cm in height must be an appropriate child seat or carrier. Minors who are over 150 cm tall may use adult seat belts but they cannot sit in front of an active airbag.
Driving
Keep to the right-hand lane as much as possible but if you are overtaking do so on the left. You will usually give way to vehicles on the ‘main’ road at a junction unless signs state otherwise. Buses and emergency vehicles always take priority.
You will find a lot of roundabouts on Icelandic roads, especially so in Reykjavik. Cars on the inside lane of roundabouts have priority over those going around the outside so look out for other traffic carefully – this is the cause of many accidents involving visitors.
Horns should be used sparingly but you are allowed to sound yours when you are overtaking and of course in the case of an emergency.
It will get cold and wintry in Iceland and you will be expected to have the appropriate winter tyres fitted to your vehicle from early November until mid-April. Those dates can be changed by the authorities if weather conditions are especially bad. Rental cars will be fitted with the correct winter tyres if they are required.
There are no specific towing rules in Iceland but make sure you can see all around you with the use of wide rear-view mirrors and ensure other drivers know your intentions with early signalling.
Mountain ‘F-roads’ (the F stands for Fjall or mountain) are open only for limited periods during the year so check with your rental company if you are planning to drive there. Rural roads can become single lane in places and bridges can also be narrow, allowing only one car to cross at a time. Always drive slowly and with extra care in winter conditions.
Four-wheel drive vehicles are ideal for Iceland, but never venture off-road in one. It’s illegal, as Iceland wants to preserve its flowers and vegetation, and can lead to high fines and even imprisonment.
Traffic signs
Traffic lights are red, amber and green and follow a similar pattern to the UK. Don’t turn on a red unless arrows indicate that you can. There are spot fines for ignoring a red light of up to 15,000 ISK (£85).
Road signs usually have pictures which are self-explanatory and look similar to those in the UK. There are a few extra ones such as ‘reindeer’, ‘snowmobiles prohibited’, ‘loose gravel’ and ‘road grading ahead’. The stop sign has the word ‘Stop’ in English although ‘stop for checkpoint’ reads: ‘Stans Eftirlit’.
Mandatory instructions are usually blue circles with white symbols, prohibitory signs are generally yellow circles with a red border while warning signs are yellow triangles with the red border.
Directional signs are generally yellow with the town name written in Icelandic and the distance shown in kilometres. A place name will be in blue with yellow writing.
Fuel availability
Fuel stations are plentiful and electric charge points are growing but there are still some areas where access to both are limited so keep an eye on the fuel gauge. Popular fuel brands include OB, N1 and Atlantsolia. Garages accept credit card payment and pre-paid fuel cards, available from fuel outlets and stations.
Parking
In built up areas such as Reykjavik and Akureyri, parking is controlled using special zones, multi-storey car parks and pay-and-display on-street areas. Ticket machines take coins and cards – you input your car registration number only: there is no ticket to put in the windscreen. There are also Apps such as Parka, to download that you can pay with.
Parking is at its most expensive in Reykjavik’s centre but as the city is quite small, even a five-minute walk in from your car will save you money. Charges start at about £2 per hour. Illegally parked cars will be ticketed and fined 3400 ISK (£20).
If you do park on the street, make sure you are facing the direction of traffic and only in a marked bay. If there are no road markings it’s illegal to stop there. Don’t cross oncoming traffic to get to a parking space. Avoid roadside space outside of towns.
The Vadlaheidi Tunnel in the north of the country is about five miles long and costs 1850 ISK (£10) to pass each time you go – there is no ‘return charge’ option.
Emergency number
In Iceland, as with most of Europe, you can dial 112 and make contact with emergency services such as fire, ambulance or police, 24 hours a day. Operators will speak English, French other European languages.
Selling your car used to be a pain. You could take it to a dealer who would be most interested in you trading it in against one of their cars for sale. They would offer as low a price as possible to ensure they could turn a good profit when they put the car on their forecourt.
You could advertise it in the local paper or a sales weekly such as Exchange & Mart. That meant steeling yourself for time-wasting phone calls from buyers trying to knock you down to a ridiculously low price. Or you could park the car outside your house with a ‘For Sale’ notice in the windscreen and hope for a buyer to magically appear.
Thankfully, the internet has changed all that. Today there are a host of ways to sell your car online, all of which market it to a much wider audience than the traditional methods ever could. The best-known of these is We Buy Any Car, which has been around for many years, but today there are plenty of excellent alternatives that could offer you more money or more convenience – or both.
The various online options also allow you to be as involved with the sale as you wish. If you’re up for the challenge, you can deal directly with buyers and manage everything yourself. If you have better things to do with your time, you can now simply spend a few minutes entering your car’s details on a website, then accept a payment from a specialist car buying firm and have them collect the car from your home.
So among all these sites, which are the best? Well, that depends on what you want to achieve. Let’s look at the choices – it’s a round-up rather than a ranking, so we’ve included nine sites we think are worth looking at.
Specialist car buying services have become very popular in recent years. They make selling your car simple and convenient, which is great for getting rid of it quickly and easily. They’re also great if you don’t like the idea of haggling over the price of your pride and joy, or you’re worried about strangers coming to your house.
Using an online offer site may not get you as much money as selling the car yourself directly to the end buyer, whether online or in person. Just as with trading the car in at a dealer, any business putting in an online offer needs to make a profit by selling the car on to someone else. What you do get from any of them are reassurance and security – the money you get won’t be laundered or counterfeit, and you won’t have strangers showing up to your house to take your car for a drive.
Selling your car via a traditional ad
If you’re comfortable with the business of haggling over a price, you may do better by selling your car directly to a buyer through an ad site like Auto Trader or Gumtree. But beware – when you do this you must follow the golden rules about selling a used car to ensure you don’t end up getting ripped off, or worse.
Chief among these is the payment – many sites merely bring you and the seller together and leave it to the pair of you to sort out the actual sale and payment.
Private sellers may be wary of handing their bank details to buyers, but you should be even more wary about accepting cash. Most car dealers stopped accepting cash payments years ago, so private sellers have now become a prime target for money launderers. Have a look at our feature to ensure you don’t get left with no car and a load of useless fake money…
So, let’s look through some of the best websites for selling your car.
Motorway is one of the most effective and quickest ways to sell your car to a dealer, and has become one of the most popular alternatives to Webuyanycar. You simply enter the car’s registration and mileage and your contact details, and press the button. Motorway then gathers offers from its network of participating dealerships before coming back to you with the best offer for your vehicle.
Assuming you’re happy, the winning dealer will usually collect your car from your home or ask you to take it to a local collection point. Once the car is handed over, the money is transferred into your bank account on the same day.
Motorway works out offers based on your location, and works with many of the major car-buying sites now on the internet. It also includes scrap merchants and recyclers for those wanting to dispose of a non-runner, so it doesn’t matter if your car is worth £100 or £100,000.
Remember that any offer on an online site are subject to seeing the car in the metal, so bear that in mind when looking at the prices being offered. Motorway surveys all owners who sell through the site to find out what they were finally paid for their car, and also collects final selling prices from the dealerships it works with. This data is then used to make the valuations of cars entered into the site more accurate.
Carwow is better known for helping you to buy a new car from a dealership at a discount, but these days it’s just as keen to buy your current car as it is to sell you a new one. The company has built a reputation for helping customers get the best price on a new car from multiple dealers who bid for your business, and now it’s applying the same principle for getting dealers to bid for your car.
The process works in a very similar way to Motorway, where you enter all your car’s details online and it’s then offered up to Carwow’s network of used car dealers to make you an offer. You then pick the best offer and the dealer will arrange to collect your car (and pay you for it, obviously). Once again, the final price you receive depends on how accurately and honestly you’ve described your car.
Once known as the magazine everyone bought when looking for a used car, Auto Trader is now an online-only service. However, it’s one that is still very widely used. Anyone looking for a used car online will generally check Auto Trader first, while scanning the site is a daily task for used car managers at dealerships. So use this site and you are putting your car in front of a potentially big audience.
But Auto Trader has now moved beyond just classified ads, and now offers a car buying service similar to Motorway/Carwow/We Buy Any Car. For private sellers, this is quickly becoming a more popular option than a traditional classified advert. The valuation feature asks lots of questions about your car’s condition, which we found produced the highest value of all the sites we checked on a couple of different vehicles and was similar to its main rivals for a couple of other cars.
If you prefer the traditional stye of classified ads, then Auto Trader is still the biggest and best-known. Like most classifieds sites, it leaves the mechanics of the sale – such as viewing and payment – for you to sort with the buyer. However the site does offer comprehensive advice to help you, with lots of information on preparing your car, creating your advert, taking payment and avoiding scammers.
There are four levels of fees for putting your car on the site, from a basic ad for two weeks at £37 up to an ‘Ultimate’ level at £75 that keeps the car on the site until it’s sold, and allows you to include 20 photos and even a video of your car.
As with the sites above, Exchange My Car can pull together an offer for your car in no time at all. All you need is your registration number and current mileage (and obviously your contact details) to get started.
The best bids from dealers are collated and presented to you – however, like all the other sites listed here, you’ll need to provide more information about the car’s condition, service history and any modifications to firm up the final offer price.
Once you’ve accepted an offer, the company will then arrange for your car to be collected from your driveway, so you don’t even have to leave the house, and you will receive the money via instant bank transfer.
As usual, the final price you receive is subject to the inspector seeing your car in the metal. But if you’ve described it accurately, you should be fine.
We Buy Any Car (styled by the company as Webuyanycar) is the UK’s best-known online car buying site, mainly due to its extensive radio and TV advertising. Like Motorway, you enter your car’s registration and mileage into the site to start the ball rolling. You are also asked for the number of previous owners and whether the car has a full service history, which are factored into the offer price.
As well as being the best-known service, We Buy Any Car has been operating the longest. It has long had a reputation for its assessors chipping buyers down on price, knocking hundreds of pounds off the online valuation for minor cosmetic issues. However, the company has had to up its game in recent years as more and more rivals have arrived in the market.
There is no free car collection service, so you have to take it to the company’s nearest outlet. They say this is usually no more than about 15 minutes away but it can sometimes be a fair bit more than, that so it’s worth checking. The final price offered is subject to a personal inspection once you get to the outlet, so also bear that in mind and be prepared for attempts to beat you down on the original offer.
We Buy Any Car also charges a transaction fee on almost every sale (unless your car’s worth less than £100). This ranges from £50, for cars valued between £100 and £3,999, to £75 for cars valued at £5,000 or more (which will be most cars). You get your money within four working days, unless you are willing to pay yet another fee. This costs £25 for next working day, or £30 for payment within 30 minutes of dropping off the car.
All these little things can add up to a fair chunk of money, especially if you have to make arrangements to get home again once you’ve handed over your car. If your car isn’t worth that much to begin with, or is looking a bit battered, you might not have much money left by the time you get home.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 25 years, you’re probably familiar with eBay. The vehicle section, eBay Motors, works much the same way as the rest of the site for selling your stuff – you post details of your car with a picture and then set an auction over a length of time you choose. You can set a starting bid price and reserve price if you wish, or you can set a ‘buy it now’ price which allows a buyer to secure the car immediately.
eBay takes care of one major headache – payment – so you know you’ll get the money before you release the car. But, like other classified sites, arranging viewing and collection is between you and the buyer. There’s also a fee to pay – a minimum of £15 to list the car (with extras such as Buy it Now increasing the fee) and then a ‘final value fee’ of 1% of the price paid, up to a maximum of £45.
While online selling takes some risk as to who you are really dealing with, eBay does give you some means of checking through its feedback ratings – a high feedback score suggests your buyer is a safe bet. If you sell through eBay, you should ensure you leave feedback on your buyer and encourage them to post feedback on you – it will help the next time you come to sell.
When it comes to general classified sites, it might seem obvious to go straight to eBay. But Gumtree has a major advantage over its better-known big brother (Gumtree is owned by eBay) – its ads are free to private sellers. Fees are only payable if you boost your ad with extra features. For lower-priced cars, which is the majority of cars sold on Gumtree, that can be a significant advantage.
Creating your ad is simple. Entering your registration brings up the vehicle’s key details, while the site offers advice on putting the rest of your ad together. This includes tips on adding photos and such, as well as a video guide on preparing your car for sale. There’s also specialist advice on selling a van, motorcycle or caravan.
Gumtree also has a deal with vehicle data specialist HPI Check – every car on the site is provided with a basic vehicle history check and, if it passes, a note appears next to the ad confirming the car has not been reported stolen, written off, scrapped or exported.
There is one potential disadvantage compared to eBay – Gumtree has no online payment facility. It merely brings buyers and sellers together in similar fashion to the likes of Auto Trader. So if you find a buyer for your car, you then have to conduct all the negotiation and money changing directly with them.
While Facebook is a very familiar part of every day for so many people, chances are that far fewer regard the social media site as a place to sell your car. However the Marketplace section, launched in 2016, is steadily growing in popularity.
It’s particularly popular with those trying to offload cars at the cheaper end of the market and who don’t want to spend money doing so – Marketplace listings are free. It works like any other classified ad site – you simply click on Marketplace in your newsfeed and open the selling section. There, you can choose a vehicle-specific button and enter details of your car, including photos.
Once uploaded, your car can be seen by any Facebook user who looks on Marketplace. Potential buyers can narrow down their search to types of car, mileage and location, helping to guide likely buyers to your ad.
All sale negotiations are between buyer and seller – Facebook simply makes your ad visible. If things go wrong, you have no comeback against the site. However as the buyer will be another Facebook user, you can at least have a look at their profile and get a feel for the kind of person you are dealing with.
These are two sites where you can go if you have a car you simply want rid of. They specialise in buying cars that are either significantly damaged or fit only for the scrap yard. As a result, they’ll make offers when many other car buying sites won’t.
Prices are generally competitive for this end of the market. You won’t get much money for your car, but you’re likely to get a better price here than from your local scrap merchant. Both firms also collect cars right across the UK – so if your car is damaged or an MOT failure, you won’t even have to drive it to the scrapyard…
Until recently, Cazoo was featured prominently on this list. It was also one of The Car Expert’s platinum partners.
In early 2024, Cazoo decided to stop operating as an online car dealer and become an online marketplace, much like Auto Trader and Motors. In July 2024, Cazoo was acquired by Motors and the transition to an online marketplace is well underway.
Cazoo has been a fantastic partner to The Car Expert for several years, and we had thousands of happy customers who found their perfect car with Cazoo after discovering them via our site. We look forward to welcoming Cazoo back again soon in its new guise as an automotive marketplace.
Additional reporting by Stuart Masson and Tom Johnston. Originally published in May 2022, last updated March 2025.
*Auto Trader, Carwow, Exchange My Car, Motorway and We Buy Any Car are commercial partners of The Car Expert. If you click on one of the links above and end up selling your car via their platforms, we may receive a commission. This does not affect the price you receive for the car.
The new car market is changing significantly, with more electric cars gradually growing their market share while petrol and diesel cars are reducing in number. This is being forced by the (previous) government’s zero emission vehicle mandate, which sets minimum targets for electric vehicles from all major car brands.
Fleet business has been better, so the overall market is up 6% on the first half of last year. But it’s been an up-and-down year for several car manufacturers – especially those who are behind on their EV targets.
Let’s take a look at which car brands are flying high and which are struggling as we pass the halfway point of 2024. We’ve ranked them in order of overall registrations, from largest to smallest.
The German giant remains the UK’s favourite car brand in 2024 so far, although growth of 5% is slightly behind the overall market growth of 6%. However, Volkswagen has strengthened its position over the last three months after a slow start to the year. At the end of the first half of 2024, its market share of 8.3% is almost exactly the same as it was a year ago.
Volkswagen has a large range of electric cars on offer (ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.7[above] and ID. Buzz), but sales haven’t been as sparkling as the company would like, and it’s believed to be behind on its 2024 EV sales target. That should mean some good deals on Volkswagen EV models over the second half of the year.
It’s been a strong first half of the year for BMW, with new car sales up by a third over the same period last year. However, it’s worth noting that 2023 was a comparatively poor year for the company. It jumps to second place overall, up from sixth at the same point last year.
BMW is believed to be one of the best-placed companies in terms of EV sales, meaning it won’t have to discount heavily throughout the rest of 2024 to hit its mandated targets. The company has a strong range of EVs on offer (i4, i5[above], i7, iX, iX1, iX2, iX3), which mostly score very highly on our Expert Rating Index.
Audi remains the third-best-selling car company in 2024, just as it was this time last year. But it has sold significantly fewer cars this year – about 3,000 units – compared to a year ago. With sales down by 4% against a market that’s up by 6%, Audi remains a powerhouse of the UK car market but one that’s not as strong as it was.
The company has a small but potent choice of EV models (Q4 e-tron, Q8 e-tron, e-tron GT) on sale at the moment, with the Q6 e-tron[above] joining the line-up shortly and an A6 e-tron also likely to appear before the end of the year. But it is believed to need to sell quite a few more EVs to hit its ZEV mandate target for the year.
As it was a year ago, Kia is the fourth biggest car brand in terms of UK new car sales, outpacing its parent company Hyundai. However, its sales haven’t kept up with overall market growth (up 3% against market growth of 6%), representing a slight fall in market share from 6.2% to 6% over the last 12 months.
Kia has some of the best EVs on sale at the moment (Soul EV, Niro EV, EV6, EV9[above]) and is believed to be close to its 2024 EV sales targets. However, it will be looking forward to the arrival of the smaller EV3 SUV to help boost electric sales before the end of the year.
A facelifted EV6 is also apparently in the pipeline and should arrive in the UK before Christmas, along with updates for its petrol-powered Picanto small hatchback and a significant update to its petrol and hybrid Sorento large SUV models.
For decades, Ford was the UK’s favourite car brand. But now it’s only the fifth biggest in terms of sales, slipping from second last year. Ford’s passenger car range has shrunk over the last few years, with the Fiesta, Mondeo, Galaxy and S-Max all consigned to history and the Focus set to disappear next year as well. Of course, the company remains massively popular with its van range where it holds an impressive market dominance.
Ford’s EV range leaves much to be desired as well. The Mustang Mach-E is a lovely car but doesn’t sell in big enough numbers – or with enough profitability – to help Ford’s overall numbers. The new Explorer is a crossover-styled EV (it’s actually a Volkswagen ID.4 under the skin) that’s arriving in showrooms about now after a year-long delay, and it will soon by joined by the all-new Capri EV. This isn’t a coupé sports car like the original Capri, but a slightly sleeker SUV than the Explorer (and is basically a Volkswagen ID.5 underneath).
Ford’s approach of dusting off classic names from its history and applying them to EV SUV models hasn’t been universally popular, and the company has a big job ahead of it to head its EV sales targets. Ford has said that it won’t be paying any fines for selling too many petrol cars/not enough EVs, which may mean that it simply stops selling certain petrol models in coming months to avoid missing its EV quota.
Nissan has been on a bit of a roll for the last couple of years, as the UK continues to enjoy success with its British-built Qashqai[above] and Juke models. In fact, these two cars make up more than three quarters of all Nissan sales in the UK.
Nissan has outpaced the overall market in 2024, with sales up 22% against the overall market growth of 6%. In fact, its sales are up 75% over the last two years, which is a remarkable achievement for a volume car company.
In terms of electric models, Nissan has the excellent Ariya SUV and the now-out-of-production Leaf saloon. The company is believed to be behind on its EV targets for 2024, so expect some cracking deals on the Ariya in coming months…
Mercedes-Benz had a slow year in 2023, particularly in the first half of the year, so its growth of of 21% in the first half of this year (against overall market growth of 6%) isn’t quite as impressive when you consider that it had fallen by 7% last year (against overall market growth of 18%).
Mercedes is believed to be ahead of target on its EV sales quota so far this year, so you probably won’t see any massive discounting on its EQA, EQB, EQE saloon, EQE SUV[above], EQS saloon, EQS SUV or EQV models in coming months, other than to hold position against its competitors.
For many years, Toyota has argued that hydrogen fuel cell-powered EV were a better bet than battery-powered EVs. Unfortunately for Toyota, almost no-one else has agreed. Governments around the world, and the rest of the global car industry, have moved decisively towards battery EVs. In fact, the number of hydrogen stations in the UK has dwindled to almost zero in the last year.
Toyota is now urgently trying to catch up on its EV model range, but we won’t see an influx of new electric models for a few years. As of right now, the company only has the weirdly named bZ4X mid-sized SUV in its line-up, and that model hasn’t exactly been selling its socks off. This is seriously hampering Toyota’s efforts to hit its 2024 EV sales targets, although it can claim some credit for its wide range of hybrid models.
As we pass the halfway point of 2024, Toyota sales are down 9% and the company has fallen from fifth to eighth place in terms of brand sales. Like Ford, it’s a brand that may have to stop selling some of its petrol and hybrid models before the end of the year to avoid breaching its EV quota.
Hyundai’s registrations were almost exactly the same as they were 12 months ago, at just over 46,000 cars. That, of course, represents a net fall given that the overall market grew by 6%. It also means that Hyundai has slipped from eighth to ninth in the manufacturer sales rankings.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5[above] remains one of the stand-out new EVs on the market, while the Kona Electric small SUV and Ioniq 6 saloon are also excellent. The company is apparently slightly behind its EV sales targets, but not by a huge amount so it should be able to meet its requirements by the end of the year without too much discounting.
It’s been a disappointing six months for Vauxhall, with sales well off the pace of the overall market. It’s down 8% on last year, which isn’t great news as it underachieved against the overall market in the first half of last year as well. The company did have a much stronger second half of the year in 2023, so it will be hoping to repeat that this year.
Although Vauxhall has a solid choice of electric models (Corsa Electric, Astra Electric, Mokka Electric, Combo Life Electric, Vivaro Life Electric), none of them appear to be selling well enough to get Vauxhall close to its 2024 EV sales quota. The company does have two new SUVs joining the family later this year – the new Frontera small SUV [above] will replace the ageing Crossland, while the new Grandland replaces the current model. Both will be available in electric versions, which may help get Vauxhall over the line.
MG’s revival over the last few years has been a success story for its Chinese owners, and the brand has broken into the top ten for new car sales this year, moving up one place to tenth from last year. MG has outperformed the market for a few years’ running now, and this looks set to continue for the rest of this year.
Key to the brand’s relentless improvement has been a notable improvement in quality and equipment levels – the latest MG models are able to compete on broadly even terms with big-name rivals, rather than relying on budget pricing to excuse its fairly average model range as it did in the past.
The MG 4 (our reigning Car of the Year) remains the company’s top-performing electric model, along with the ZS EV small SUV and the MG 5 estate. New to the line-up is the Cyberster electric roadster[above], while the petrol and hybrid HS mid-size SUV has just been revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the all-new MG 3 hybrid small hatchback has only recently been launched as well. Expect MG to be an even bigger player in years to come.
The Czech arm of the giant Volkswagen Group holds its 12th place position in the new car market, with sales growth that just outperforms the overall market. Its growth has slowed down slightly from last year (where it grew by 51%), but with a couple of crucial new models arriving in the next few months, Skoda may have a strong end to the year.
In terms of electric models, Skoda currently only has the Enyaq mid-sized SUV. It may be joined by a smaller EV SUV model called the Elroq before the end of the year, while all-new versions of the popular Superb and Kodiaq models are also hitting UK showrooms about now. Skoda is apparently a little behind its EV sales targets, although the Volkswagen Group is able to trade credits within its brands to avoid any fines, so we don’t really know how well the company is placed overall.
Peugeot remains in 13th place on the sales charts, despite increasing sales by 14% in the first half of the year compared to 2023 – although the first half of last year was a poor period for Peugeot (down 5% against a market that was up 18%), so most of this year’s improvement was cancelling out last year’s losses.
Peugeot has been updating most of its big-selling models over the last year, with updates to its small 208 hatch and all-new generations of the 3008 and 5008 SUVs, along with a new 408 coupé-SUV [above] and an electric version of the 308 hatch and estate.
The company now has a decent range of electric cars (e-208, e-308, e-2008, e-3008, e-5008 and e-Rifter), but none of them are apparently selling in large enough numbers for Peugeot to hit its EV sales quota. Expect aggressive discounting of Peugeot EV models over the next six months.
Land Rover is another brand that has seen solid growth – up 18% compared to the first six months of last year – but remains in the same place on the manufacturer pecking order. This comes despite the brand having no new models in 2024.
In terms of electric vehicles, there’s nothing to report as yet. An electric version of the flagship Range Rover should be on sale soon, but that’s not going to sell enough units to allow Land Rover to hit its EV sales targets. Presumably the company will be looking to buy credits from elsewhere in order to avoid fines for not meeting its quota.
Good sales news for Volvo, with strong growth in 2024 following on from similar improvements in the first half of 2023. It also moves up one spot to 15th in the brand sales rankings.
Of particular importance is the sales performance of its newest and smallest model, the EX30 small electric SUV[above]. It hasn’t been completely smooth sailing, however, with the EX30 currently being recalled for technical problems.
Volvo also recently announced that it is bringing back its two estate models, the V60 and V90, which had been dropped from the UK range last year. These will only be available as plug-in hybrids, and are only likely to sell in limited numbers, but it does provide welcome relief from the endless parade of SUVs offered by most car brands.
Volvo’s electric line-up is performing well, with the EX30 joining the electric EX40 (formerly XC40 Recharge) and EC40 (formerly C40) models in showrooms. Before the end of the year, Volvo will also have the enormous EX90 electric SUV to replace the venerable XC90 model that has been on sale for almost a decade. An all-new luxury electric MPV model called the EM90 may reach the UK late this year, but is more likely to arrive next year.
It’s been a very strong start to the year for Renault, with new car sales up 65% over the first half of 2023. The company also moves up from 18th to 16th place on the sales leaderboard.
Several models in the Renault range have been replaced or updated over the last year, with new or improved versions of the Clio, Captur and Austral (replacing the unloved Kadjar) on offer in UK showrooms. There are also new EVs hitting the market, with the eagerly anticipated Renault 5 retro-electric small hatch [above] soon to be joined by a new Scenic E-Tech EV mid-size SUV and Espace E-Tech large SUV.
The more sportily styled models in the Renault range have also been re-branded as Alpine trim levels, replacing the previous RS-line models. This ties in the Alpine sports brand more closely to the Renault mothership, much like Fiat does with Abarth and Mercedes does with AMG.
Tesla has endured a tough 2024 to date. Despite the Model Y being the world’s best-selling car of 2023 (of any type, not just ‘best-selling electric car’), the company has endured problems trying to keep up supply this year.
There have been strikes and fires at its German factory where the Model Y is built, while sales of the Model 3[above] were restricted as the company overhauled its popular saloon over winter. Expect the second half of the year to be stronger for Tesla, assuming it can get its labour disputes in Germany sorted soon.
Surprisingly, SEAT has enjoyed a strong start to the year, with sales up 34% on the same period last year – which itself was up 25% on the previous year.
It’s surprising because SEAT hasn’t had any new models in what seems like a long time, and parent company Volkswagen appears to have little interest in promoting its Spanish value brand – all the effort seems to be going to SEAT’s performance spin-off brand, Cupra.
Industry sources have suggested to The Car Expert that SEAT has been aggressively chasing fleet deals, as it has little in the way of new product to woo consumers. The company also has zero EV models at present, so will be relying on trading credits within the overall Volkswagen Group results to ensure it avoids government fines.
Mini’s slow results for the first half of 2024 reflect an almost-complete overhaul of its model range in the last few months, rather than a lack of interest in the brand.
The entire Mini range (hatchback, convertible, Countryman, Clubman) is being replaced, with the new models being designed as EVs from the start rather than being converted from existing petrol models. The Clubman estate model is gone, to be replaced shortly with a new model called Aceman. The hatchback models will now be called Cooper[above].
Expect Mini to have a strong second half of the year, as its new electric range finally arrives in showrooms.
Honda has had a good six months, with registrations up 24% compared to the same period last year. The company’s latest models are inevitably SUVs of various sizes, but the Civic hatch remains a stand-out car.
In terms of electric vehicles, the cute-but-impractical Honda e has gone, leaving the small and awfully named e:Ny1[above] as the only electric model in the family. As well as having a daft name (you must pronounce it “E-N-Y-1”, not “Anyone”, or else Honda will be unhappy with you…), the e:Ny1 isn’t really a very good car. Honda is apparently well behind its 2024 EV sales target, so expect heavy promotions and offers for the don’t-call-it-Anyone over the next few months.
Renault’s budget brand has seen modest growth this year so far, although slightly behind the curve compared to the overall new car market (5% vs. 6%). Despite this, it’s actually moved up a place, from 22nd to 21st, in the manufacturer sales table compared to the same point last year.
Dacia has two new models of interest this year – the all-new Duster small SUV and the electric Spring even-smaller SUV [above], which will also be the UK’s cheapest new car when it arrives in the next few months. However, the Spring is unlikely to sell in enough numbers to help Dacia hit its EV sales quota for 2024, so it will be relying on parent company Renault to have enough credits to cover both brands.
Modest growth of 1% means that Citroën has fallen behind the market in 2024, after a similar underachievement in 2023. It has also slipped a spot, falling behind Dacia and dropping from 21st to 22nd place in the manufacturer sales race at the year’s halfway point.
An all-new C3 and electric ë-C3[above] model range should help capture some fresh sales in the second half of the year, but otherwise it’s hard to see where new business is going to come from for Citroën. Its electric models are also falling behind the market, with the ë-C4 and ë-C4 X not exactly flying out of showrooms, and the van-based ë-Berlingo and ë-SpaceTourer people carriers not adding many sales either.
After a strong 2023, Mazda sales have gone into reverse in 2024. A 13% drop against an overall market growth of 6% is bad news, with the company struggling to convince car buyers of its value in the marketplace.
Mazda’s only electric model, the MX-30[above], is hampered by poor battery range – a result of Mazda misreading customer expectations. A range-extender hybrid version has been added to the line-up this year, but it may well be too late to rescue the MX-30’s sales. Most Mazda models are well regarded by motoring journalists, but are failing to make an impact in customers’ eyes.
If you’re not an avid follower of the world car industry, Cupra is the performance spin-off brand from Spanish brand SEAT. Parent company Volkswagen seems to view Cupra as having stronger prospects than SEAT, as it has prioritised new models and marketing on Cupra while SEAT has languished.
Being a new brand with a growing model range, it’s not surprising that Cupra sales have comfortably exceeded the overall new car market. The sole EV model is the Cupra Born hatchback, which is a tweaked version of the Volkswagen ID.3. It was originally supposed to be a SEAT, but Volkswagen decided that it would do better with a Cupra badge. By the end of the year, the Born should be joined by an electric coupé-SUV called the Tavascan[above].
Suzuki has enjoyed a strong couple of years in terms of sales, although its run may be coming to an end. Despite sales up 11% compared to the first six months of last year, Suzuki doesn’t have any EVs currently on sale and has announced it will drop a few of its current models over the next year.
A new Swift has just been launched [above], but there won’t be a replacement for the Swift Sport version. The ageing Ignis small crossover is approaching the end of its production life and won’t be replaced. The Swace is nothing more than a rebadged Toyota Corolla estate and will be discontinued, and the Jimny small SUV will be killed off a second time (it was launched as a passenger car but failed to meet new emissions test so was relaunched as a commercial vehicle, and will now fail new emissions tests for LCVs).
Suzuki’s first electric car should be unveiled in coming months, although it may not reach the UK until next year. So the company has zero chance of meeting its EV sales targets for 2024…
The sales numbers for Jaguar look good, with impressive growth of 57% compared to the overall market growth of just 6%. This has come almost entirely from the brand’s SUV models (E-Pace, F-Pace and electric I-Pace[above]), as its saloon models (XE and XF) have now ended production, as has the F-Type sports car.
An all-new electric Jaguar saloon to rival the Porsche Taycan is likely to be unveiled later this year, but is not expected to go on sale until next year. That means Jaguar’s EV sales targets are dependent on the ageing I-Pace SUV.
After enjoying strong growth during 2023, sales numbers have come crashing back down for Porsche in 2024. This is partly due to a range overhaul, with upgrades to the Panamera, Cayenne, 911 and Taycan models over the last year. There has also been a slowdown in Taycan sales after a frenzy over its first couple of years on sale. Porsche’s EV model has been highly regarded, but a glut of two-year-old Taycans hitting the used car market has hurt resale values quite dramatically.
An all-new electric Macan SUV model joins the Porsche line-up later this year, although it remains to be seen how much this will boost Porsche’s sales. The updated 911 range will also arrive shortly. On the other hand, Boxster and Cayman models are now reaching the end of their lives ahead of all-new electric replacements due to be launched next year.
Fiat sales have been sliding over the last couple of years, underachieving by a long way against the overall market. This is partly due to an ageing model line-up that is gradually being addressed, with models like the Tipo, Panda and (petrol) 500 all well past their use-by dates.
The electric 500e model (which is completed unrelated to the petrol version) continues to lead the way for Fiat, along with the larger 600e electric crossover model. The company has also announced an electric Grande Panda model [above], which should provide a competitively priced option for new car buyers when it arrives sometime before the end of this year.
Fiat is now part of the enormous Stellantis group, so it will be able to exploit loopholes in the EV sales mandate by trading credits with other family brands – although none of them seem to be selling enough EVs to be ahead of target at the moment.
Lexus is following up a strong 2023 with another impressive sales performance in the first half of 2024. With some fresh models in the line-up, as well as a new small crossover called the LBX that brings the brand to a lower price point, Lexus is on a growth spurt.
Like its parent brand Toyota, Lexus is struggling to shift electric cars. It has two in the range, the mid-sized RZ[above] and the smaller UX, both of which have just received substantial price cuts to help shift stock so that Lexus can hit its EV sales quota. The company is also offering discounted finance, subsidised home charging points and own-brand insurance products to help bring down the total ownership costs of its electric models.
Jeep has turned around a stagnant 2023 with a huge improvement in 2024, more than doubling the number of cars sold in the first six months of the year. This eye-catching figure needs to be taken in context, however, as we’re now getting down to the bottom half of of the sales chart where overall numbers are much smaller – so a big increase or decrease in sales involves fewer cars than at the top of the tables.
Jeep’s growth is being driven by its only electric model, the Avenger small SUV[above], and steady sales of some of its older fossil-fuel models. Like other brands in the enormous Stellantis family, there’s also a strong emphasis on fleet sales rather than private customers.
The growth number for BYD is fairly irrelevant, since it was only just getting started last year – just 100 sales of the Atto 3 crossover for the first half of 2023 compared to 2,900 in 2024. In the last year, it has added the small Dolphin hatch and the highly regarded Seal saloon[above].
In worldwide sales, BYD is now battling Tesla to be the world’s largest electric car company. Its high-profile sponsorship of the current European football championships is also driving brand awareness, so we can expect BYD sales to continue their rapid upwards trajectory for the next few years.
The company has already signed some major fleet deals and is expanding its model range quickly. It might currently only rank 31st on the manufacturer sales charts, but expect another massive improvement by the end of this year.
Swedish brand Polestar is a spin-off EV-only brand from Volvo, and has had a tough start to 2024. This is largely due to it still only having one model currently available for sale, the Polestar 2. The company is also being split more comprehensively from Volvo to stand on its own two feet, which has involved a bit of restructuring trauma.
Things are looking up for Polestar sales, however, with two new models set to join the family in the next few months. The imaginatively named Polestar 3 and Polestar 4[above] models should hit UK roads by about September, and are set to be joined next year by Polestars 5 and 6. They probably paid some marketing agency a fortune to come up with those model names…
In countries like the USA and Australia, Subaru is a big-name brand that sells boatloads of new cars every year. In the UK, however, it’s a minnow fighting to stay relevant against more familiar European names and new Asian start-ups.
But things are at least growing for Subaru, with sales up 30% ion the first half of this year, following a strong year in 2023. Hopefully the company is finally emerging from the doldrums of recent years, when we wondered why it even bothered continuing in the UK since it sold so few cars.
Subaru has a small but focused line-up of crossover models, all of which are highly capable of going off-road to places that your average SUV would never reach. The brand has a loyal following in rural areas, and is smart enough to give its customers what they want. At present, Subaru only has one electric model – the Solterra, which is a rebadged Toyota bZ4X. But it seems to be selling in sufficient numbers to ensure that Subaru will hit its EV sales quota by the end of the year.
The Smart brand has been through a complete metamorphosis over the last year. Tiny city cars are out, and more generic electric crossovers are in. “If you can’t beat them, join them,” I guess. The good news for Smart is that this has resulted in immediate sales success, with registrations jumping from less than 200 to more than 1,000 for the first half of the year.
Mercedes-owned Smart has partnered with Chinese giant Geely to produce an all-new range of electric models, starting with the #1 (No no no, not “Number 1”. You pronounce it “Hashtag 1”. Yes, I am being serious.) Next up is the Hashtag 3 (no, I don’t know what happened to the #2).
KGM Motors is the new name for SsangYong, a result of a change of ownership for the beleaguered Korean brand. It has also coincided with an update for the small Tivoli SUV [above] and an all-new model called the Torres, available with either petrol or electric power.
It remains to be seen how successful the new owners will be at growing the company, but it remains one of the smallest brands in terms of sales numbers and appears vulnerable to a horde of new Chinese brands launching in the UK with budget-priced SUVs.
Like BYD, GWM Ora is another new Chinese car company that only started UK operations last year. As such, its impressive-sounding growth needs to be taken in context.
GWM currently only has one model on sale in the UK, the Ora 03[above]. Despite only being on sale for about a year, it’s already undergone a name change from the dubious-sounding ‘Ora Funky Cat’ – turns out that it didn’t seem as funky to Western audiences as it did back in China…
Despite its growth, the immediate future for GWM seems a bit shaky. Like other Chinese car brands, it is set to have large tariffs slapped on its cars by the EU (although not here in the UK). As a result, GWM has basically closed its European offices and is going to manage operations from back in China. Will this be a short-term setback or a prelude to a full withdrawal from European sales? We’ll keep you posted.
A solid start for Alfa Romeo in 2024, with the caveat that it’s coming off a poor performance in 2023. It’s another brand where impressive-sounding growth in percentage terms is only based on a small number of cars.
Alfa was still in the middle of its last relaunch under Fiat ownership when it was merged into the enormous Stellantis group, so its new masters are implementing yet another reboot for Italy’s most seductive (yet hopelessly underachieving) car company.
The newest model in the Alfa Romeo range is the MilanoJunior small electric SUV [above], which is basically a better-looking Jeep Avenger. Embarrassingly, the company had to change the name just a couple of days after its global launch thanks to a dispute with the Italian government, which took offence to an Italian company naming its car after the city of Milan – Alfa’s ancestral home – when the car will be built in Poland.
Apparently, the government’s ire doesn’t extend to American brand Ford calling its new German-built SUV the Capri, however…
Yet another brand in the burgeoning Stellantis portfolio, DS was spun off from Citroën several years ago to offer a more premium French car experience. Sales, however, have not exactly been premium with the company struggling to convince buyers to give up their premium German cars.
DS will apparently be leading the French EV revolution, with fossil-fuel models being phased out fairly quickly. As of right now, however, the only electric model is an EV version of the DS 3 small crossover[above]. With so many different brands in the Stellantis family competing for attention and investment, you wonder how long DS will remain a viable proposition.
After a strong 2023 (in percentage terms, at least), 2024 has been a sales disappointment for Genesis. Just over 500 new cars were registered in the first six months of this year, a 31% decrease on the same period last year.
The brand’s UK division has been restructured, being brought directly under control of parent company Hyundai rather than being allowed to operate independently. It’s pushing on, however, with the launch of its new ‘Magma’ performance range at this week’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
At least Genesis doesn’t have to worry about hitting its EV sales quota, with a line-up that includes the GV60[above], Electrified GV70 and Electrified G80. Apparently, about 85% of UK sales are for its electric models, which isn’t that surprising as they’re far superior to the brand’s petrol and diesel cars.
It’s been a difficult couple of years for Bentley in terms of UK sales. The first half of this year has been nearly 40% down on the same period in 2023, which in turn was down 13% on 2022.
The company has been overhauling its product offering, with the Bentaga SUV being comprehensively updated last year and the Continental GT[above] getting a similar refresh right now. Like other luxury car brands, Bentley is also increasingly looking at low-volume, limited-edition models to generate its income, rather than relatively higher-volume models with skinnier profit margins.
Bentley’s first electric model was due to be launched in 2025, but has apparently now been pushed back by at least a year.
Abarth is a performance brand for fast Fiat enthusiasts, with only two models – a faster petrol Fiat 500 and a faster electric Fiat 500. There’s only so many of those that a company can sell, although sales are up this year off the back of the new electric Abarth 500e [above].
There will finally be another Abarth model arriving later this year – a faster version of the Fiat 600 electric crossover. It will boost sales, but not by any great amount.
Maserati is another Stellantis brand in the middle of a reboot. The line-up is looking rather fresher than it has for a while, with the Grecale mid-sized SUV and MC20 supercar now joined by the new GranTurismo and GranCabrio [above] GTs. All are available with a choice of petrol or electric power.
Meanwhile, the older models – Quattroporte and Ghibli saloons, and Levante large SUV, have been quietly discontinued. Stellantis is also gradually weaning Maserati away from its long-term partnership with Ferrari, which no longer supplies Maserati with V8 engines, but still builds and paints a number of Maserati bodyshells in its Maranello factory before trucking them up the road to Maserati’s factory in nearby Modena.
The evergreen Alpine A110 sports car lives on in an endless procession of special-edition models. But finally, later this year, the Alpine range will double with an all-new model that should dramatically increase sales.
The new Alpine A290 [above] is a hotted-up version of the new retro-tastic Renault 5 small electric hatchback. Launched the Le Mans 24-hour race last month, it should reach UK showrooms before the end of the year.
After launching with a splash last year, Ineos Automotive’s answer to the discontinued old-school Land Rover Defender, the Grenadier, is enduring a difficult second year of sales.
The company has also announced that it is delaying the launch of its electric SUV, to be called the Fusilier. Ostensibly, this is because of concerns about the flatlining EV market. But it’s entirely likely that flatlining sales of the Grenadier may be a bigger reason…
Several low-volume or luxury brands (like Aston Martin, Bugatti, Caterham, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, Morgan and Rolls-Royce, among others) don’t report monthly sales numbers so we can’t track their performances over time. In any case, with so few models sold each year, you’d inevitably see wild fluctuation in percentage terms almost every month.
It’s probably safe to say that Ferrari is making loads of money while Aston Martin is running up large losses, since that’s the way things have been for both brands since approximately forever. Bugatti and Rolls-Royce are halo brands for parent companies Volkswagen and BMW, respectively, so their financial performances tend to be absorbed into the overall group numbers rather than disclosed separately.
In the late 1980s, the three largest Japanese car makers – Toyota, Honda and Nissan – all decided to launch upmarket sister brands. Honda produced Acura, Nissan came up with Infiniti and from Toyota we got Lexus.
All three have proven especially successful in the US, and today Acura and Infiniti are primarily US brands. Lexus, however, is also in 90 countries across the world and the biggest seller of premium cars in its home market of Japan.
While Honda has never tried to launch Acura in Europe, both Nissan and Toyota decided there were rich pickings to be had for their premium brands. Infiniti crashed and burned, lasting just 12 years in the UK, but Lexus has proven rather more resilient – first going on sale in 1990, Lexus dealers are today established and successful operators on the British market.
Lexus succeeded first on its quality – “the relentless pursuit of perfection” became a slogan for the brand – and later for its hybrid drivetrains. At a time long before the rise of electric vehicles, when Toyota was pioneering hybrid cars as a green move for mainstream buyers, Lexus was doing the same for those with more money to spend.
The seed for Lexus was sown in 1983 when Toyota initiated a project called ‘Flagship 1’ to “build the world’s best car”. This became the Lexus LS 400 and the Toyota team were set numerous challenging goals for their new car including an ‘anti-ageing’ programme – a car with 50,000 miles on the clock that should look, feel and drive just like a brand-new one.
Meanwhile the Japanese government introduced restrictions on car exports, which made it significantly more profitable for manufacturers to sell their more expensive models abroad. As a result, and after much research – particularly in north America – Toyota launched Lexus in 1989. By the end of the year more than 16,000 LS 400s had been sold, most of them to American buyers.
Lexus launched in the UK in 1990 with just the LS, the smaller GS saloon not joining the line-up until 1993. By this time Lexus was adding more models in the US, where the brand was outselling BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and topping customer satisfaction surveys.
There were innovations too – in 1998 the second-generation LS 400 was the first European car to offer satellite navigation as standard, and the LS 430 of 2000 debuted air suspension, keeping the car level no matter what the load or road surface. Other Lexus introductions included a host of safety features such as collapsible steering columns and twin-chamber airbags.
1998 Lexus LS 4002002 Lexus 2054 concept
The brand had such a top reputation by this time that when movie director Steven Spielberg made sci-fi thriller Minority Report, set in 2054, he had Lexus create the car that star Tom Cruise drove.
Remarkably despite its global success, Lexus did not launch in its home market of Japan until 2005, where it proved an instant success. A year later the GS 450h marked the debut of the hybrid drivetrain – presented as a greener way to drive, Lexus and sister brand Toyota earned much positive publicity in following years as perceived pioneers of the technology.
Lexus reached a new milestone in 2011 with the LFA, a carbon-fibre supercar – just 500 were made and they sold out instantly. By 2019, Lexus dealers could be found in 90 countries and the brand sold its 10 millionth vehicle that year, of which 1.6 million were hybrid-powered. A year later Lexus made the next step with its full electric vehicle, the UX 300e.
What models does Lexus have and what else is coming?
Lexus was once all about upmarket saloons challenging the likes of the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes S-Class, but these days the marque’s nine-strong current line-up is dominated by SUV models, denoted by ‘X’ in the brand’s two-letter model naming system.
The UX, NX and RX are SUVs going up in size and all available as regular hybrids. The UX, launched in 2019, was the first compact SUV from Lexus, and in 2020 it was joined by an electric version, the brand’s first BEV.
The mid-sized NX, targeting the likes of the BMW X3 and Audi Q5, is also the first Lexus model offered as a plug-in hybrid and one of the most warmly received, one media review dubbing it “The best car Lexus has launched for years”.
The larger RX, pitched as an alternative to a BMW X5 or Land Rover Discovery Sport, is one of the longest-lasting Lexus models – the current version which arrived in showrooms at the end of 2022 is the fifth generation, and again has earned very positive reviews.
The RZ, on sale early in 2023, is the second EV from Lexus and effectively an electric alternative to the NX – it’s closely related to the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra, but quite a lot more expensive.
Most recent addition to the SUV line-up is the LBX, which arrived in the Spring of 2024. This is the upmarket version of the Toyota Yaris Cross – the smallest Lexus available and currently only on sale in regular hybrid form.
Lexus has not entirely abandoned traditional cars. The ES is a large executive saloon and was sold in the USA for many years before first being offered to British buyers in 2019. It’s only sold as a hybrid and in terms of refinement many reviewers consider this car very comparable to the best from the German premium brands.
There is an even larger Lexus saloon, the LS – it only comes as a hybrid with a 3.5-litre petrol engine, though you can have all-wheel-drive. This car is probably the least highly regarded of the brand’s line-up, lovely inside but not that great to drive.
Finally sports car fans are not forgotten – the most potent model in the Lexus range is the LC, offered in coupe and convertible form with either a 359hp hybrid powertrain or with a 5-litre V8 petrol engine pushing out 500hp. Reviewers love the V8, less so the hybrid…
In terms of new models Lexus is set to buck a market trend and launch an MPV in 2024. The second-generation of the LM, previously only sold in China, will be offered with a hybrid drivetrain to European buyers.
The hope is to attract the luxury VIP transport market, struggling to find suitable machines to replace axed models such as the Ford Galaxy and Volkswagen Sharan. In standard form the LM has seven seats, but it can be ordered with just four.
The most exciting new Lexus is expected in 2026 – the Electrified Sport will be a spiritual successor to the LFA supercar of 2011, and while the exact potency of its electric powertrain is yet to be revealed, it is said to be able to go from 0 to 62mph in only two seconds.
Where can I try a Lexus car?
Lexus is an upmarket brand so it doesn’t have as many dealerships as more mainstream manufacturers – in total there are around 50 across the UK. Some are attached to outlets of sister brand Toyota but many are standalone – Lexus Chester, for example, is run by a group that also has Mazda and Skoda outlets on the same site.
Hybrid powertrains helped enhance the reputation of Lexus in the premium market, but the standout reason for the brand’s success has always been quality. From the start the team working on creating the first Lexus cars was encouraged to be obsessive about their detail, while also urged to build in the highest levels of reliability.
That this priority has persisted is proven by the brand’s repeated high performance in customer quality and satisfaction surveys – especially in the US where Lexus consistently dominates the very highly regarded J. D. Power survey.
A Lexus fact to impress your friends
Drive a Lexus? You could have been driving an Alexis… There have been several explanations of the Lexus name, from simply meaning ‘luxury and high-end technology’ to ‘luxury exports to the US’…
In fact the name doesn’t mean anything specific – world-renowned advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi was commissioned to produce a name for Toyota’s new luxury brand, and front runner among more than 200 options they came up with was ‘Alexis’.
Toyota’s suits were worried, however, that Alexis sounded too much like a person than a car – they might have been influenced by the fact that actress Joan Collins was playing a character called Alexis Colby in the big-hit US soap opera Dynasty at the time.
The solution was simple – they dropped the first letter, and changed the ‘i’ to a ‘u’ to produce Lexus…
Summary
Lexus is an upmarket Japanese brand that has steadily built up a big presence on the automotive scene – while several years of hybrid publicity helped its cause, the brand has succeeded primarily due to the quality of its cars.
The second-generation MG HS SUV has been unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with new exterior styling, more interior space and an infotainment upgrade.
Replacing the original MG HS model that has been on sale since 2019 and is currently a British top ten best-seller, this new iteration of the large high-riding family car is now available to order, with two trims and two powertrain options to choose from.
This model launch coincides with MG’s centenary year – the brand started making two-seater sports cars under the name ‘Morris Garages’ back in 1924. The new HS broadly follow the design brief of the first-generation, with its big SUV frame and large wheel arches, but with a larger front grille and narrower LED headlights that stretch further up the bonnet.
As before, the new HS is available with both a traditional petrol engine or a plug-in hybrid configuration. The pure petrol is described by the manufacturer as the ‘new generation’ – a 169hp 1.5-litre unit paired with a six-speed manual gearbox (a seven-speed automatic is also available) that is capable of achieving 0-62mph in 9.4 seconds.
The more expensive plug-in hybrid uses the same 1.5-litre petrol engine, but it works in tandem with a 25kWh battery and ‘high-efficiency’ 67kW electric motor to provide an electric-only range of up to 75 miles. This 348hp setup is faster, reaching 62mph from stationary in a reported 6.8 seconds.
The length between the wheels has been made around five centimetres longer, which MG says has improved legroom inside. The car is also three centimetres shorter, to help create a “more athletic silhouette”. Boot capacity has increased by 44 litres to a maximum of 507 litres.
The ‘SE’ and ‘Trophy’ trim names are carried over from the previous range. The range-topping ‘Trophy’ package includes a wireless smartphone charger and surround view parking camera, and all models come with a 12-inch digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel and a 12-inch infotainment display in the centre of the dashboard, both screens connected in a continuous display.
The infotainment is compatible with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and comes with MG’s built in navigation software.
MG has built the interior with more premium trim materials to “create a more welcoming and relaxing ambiance”, as well as installing a new three-spoke steering wheel with improved switchgear and a shuttle-style gear shifter.
While front fog lights, electrically adjustable and folding heated door mirrors, a motorised tailgate and a more advanced eight-speaker audio system are reserved for the ‘Trophy’, all HS models come with the brand’s ‘MG Pilot’ safety assistance package, including lane keep assistance, blind spot detection rear cross traffic alert, and a door open warning.
Prices now begin at just south of £25k, around £1k more than the previous line-up’s entry-level price point. Plug-in hybrid models cost more than £31k, and the upgrade from ‘SE’ to ‘Trophy’ adds another £3k.
Ford has revived one of its old nameplates for a new family-sized electric coupé-SUV that shares its foundations with the similar Volkswagen ID.5.
Set to challenge the sales of high-riding EVs like the Skoda Enyaq coupé, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Tesla Model Y, the new Capri is derived from the new Ford Explorer crossover, with the most notable difference being the Capri’s sloping coupé-style rear roofline.
Both the Explorer and Capri are the fruit of a collaboration with Volkswagen, these models being built on the same platform as the German brand’s ID.4 and ID.5 EVs. This new coupé-SUV has nothing in common with the well-known Capri coupé of the 1970s and 1980s, much like the brand’s best-selling Puma crossover is entirely different to the sporty Puma coupé of the late 1990s.
Instead, Ford is simply launching this new model with a badge that carries some name recognition. The manufacturer refers to the model as a new interpretation of the Capri, Ford Europe design lead Amko Leenarts commenting that the new EV has to fit into the current Ford line-up, and “not just exist as something for a designer to bring back an old car.”
Ford says that the Capri provides “sports car acceleration”. Two powertrains will be offered, with the entry-level 77kWh rear-wheel drive 282hp single motor able to complete a 0-62mph sprint in 6.4 seconds, while the top-spec 79kWh all-wheel drive 335hp dual motor can reportedly reach the same speed in 5.3 seconds.
In its more economical lead-in guise, the 77kWh battery provides a maximum battery range of 390 miles. This is around 15 miles more than the Explorer SUV – a testament to the Capri’s more aerodynamic rear roofline.
While coupé-SUVs usually offer less boot space than their SUV-style counterparts, this is not the case for the Capri. Ford says that the new EV has room enough for “more than 570 litres” of luggage. By comparison, the Explorer has a boot capacity of 450 litres, while the Volkswagen ID.5 offers 549 litres of boot space.
Like the Explorer, the Capri comes with a square-shaped steering wheel and a 15-inch portrait-oriented infotainment screen front and centre on the dashboard, which slides backwards to give access to a small storage cubby underneath.
That sums up what we know about the new Capri so far. More details, including UK pricing and specifications, are sure to follow in the coming months as we near the model’s official launch.
Citroën spin-off marque DS Automobiles has given its ‘4’ hatchback a facelift, which includes more standard tech, the addition of a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain option and a revised trim line-up.
Available to order this Summer, the DS 4 range now includes a ‘Hybrid 136’ automatic engine option, which will now sit alongside the ‘PureTech 130’ petrol, ‘BlueHDi 130’ diesel and plug-in hybrid ‘225 E-Tense’ powertrains already available.
This new petrol-electric hybrid choice pairs a turbocharged 1.2-litre petrol unit with 16kW electric motor and a six-speed automatic transmission , providing an output of 136hp and a reported fuel economy of 57mpg. The hybrid can also complete a 0-62mph sprint in 10.4 seconds, which is over a second faster than the lead-in pure petrol version.
The new engine option can’t come close to matching the electric-only 42-mile travel distance of the plug-in hybrid E-Tense, but DS says that the hybrid can handle short distances on only electric power.
The previous ‘Performance Line’, ‘Rivoli’ and ‘Opera’ trim grades are no more, replaced by the new ‘Pallas’ and ‘Etoile’ which are both available with every engine option.
The entry-level ‘Pallas’ comes with a slightly longer list of standard equipment than the previous ‘Performance Line’, including a wireless smartphone charging pad, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control and a Chat GPT AI-powered voice assistant for the infotainment system which is compatible with both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
The new top-spec ‘Etoile’ has an Alcantara interior trim with electronically adjustable front seats. The more expensive model also includes more advanced Matrix LED headlights and a head-up display that projects driving information onto the windscreen, as well as a scrolling turn indicator animation. This model also comes with a rear traffic alert.
The ‘Etoile’ can also be specced with an optional package which swaps the Alcantara for Nappa leather, and adds a heated steering wheel and heated front seats.
Prices for the refreshed DS 4 range start at £32k for the petrol-powered ‘Pallas’, rising to £46k for the plug-in hybrid E-Tense ‘Etoile’ with the Nappa leather package. The new hybrid costs around £1k more than the standard petrol.
The DS 4 currently holds a New Car Expert Rating of B, with a score of 66%. It scores top marks for its low average CO2 emissions (largely thanks to the plug-in hybrid model) and gets good grades for its safety rating and low running costs. However, media reviews have been poor.
We’ve now reached the halfway point of 2024, so we can have a good look at the new car sales market – and it’s very much a tale of contrasting fortunes.
The UK now has a fairly entrenched two-speed new car market. Fleet sales are ticking along strongly and consistently, which is a combination of large businesses continuing to catch-up delayed vehicle purchases from the pandemic, and strong business confidence encouraging ongoing fleet turnover.
On the other hand, private new car sales are crumbling. The half-year results for private sales are the worst since the current twice-yearly registration plate change came into effect in 1999. Or, if you prefer, the worst sales results in more than a quarter of a century – with the obvious exception of 2020, when the UK was plunged into a sudden lockdown from March to May and almost no cars were sold. It’s bad news every month, and seemingly getting worse.
There has been a concerted push from some aspects of the media to blame poor private new car sales on a lack of EV demand, and the car industry seems happy to go along with that view in public as it suits the industry’s current lobbying for more government subsidies for EVs. But it’s not accurate.
Private new car sales peaked in 2016 and have been sliding ever since. There are multiple reasons for this, although the biggest factors have been related to car finance (which is also why business registrations have declined).
As well as being numerically low, private registrations in 2024 have also taken the lowest percentage of the overall new car market. In 2024 to date private sales have made up only 38% of all new registrations, which is a record low. This compares to an average of 46% over the prior 24 years, and a gradual decline from almost 50% near the start of the century. Even though 2020 half-year results were worse due to the Covid pandemic, as shown below, this affected fleet and business sales as well so the overall market fell in proportion.
January to June new car registrations over the last 25 years
Year
Private registrations
% of all registrations
Fleet registrations
Business registrations
All registrations
2024
382,881
38%
600,404
23,470
1,006,763
2023
435,325
46%
490,764
23,631
949,720
2022
428,034
53%
354,442
19,063
802,079
2021
410,698
45%
481,258
18,017
909,973
2020
314,588
48%
325,518
13,396
653,502
2019
568,046
45%
671,400
29,799
1,269,245
2018
587,256
45%
677,614
49,124
1,313,994
2017
617,679
44%
728,582
55,550
1,401,811
2016
649,237
46%
717,483
53,916
1,420,636
2015
637,051
46%
685,184
54,654
1,376,889
2014
623,640
48%
602,113
61,512
1,287,265
2013
557,498
48%
555,561
50,564
1,376,889
2012
476,283
45%
537,176
44,221
1,057,680
2011
438,199
43%
537,815
53,624
1,029,638
2010
535,155
48%
519,933
53,574
1,108,622
2009
427,911
46%
445,194
51,850
924,955
2008
537,359
43%
629,344
80,776
1,247,479
2007
564,988
45%
617,286
85,025
1,267,299
2006
560,252
45%
601,195
80,478
1,241,925
2005
587,205
45%
618,408
90,872
1,296,485
2004
659,721
48%
566,719
150,127
1,376,567
2003
665,075
49%
549,734
132,676
1,347,485
2002
664,349
49%
557,481
125,863
1,347,693
2001
617,861
49%
536,867
114,300
1,269,028
2000
520,085
43%
566,913
129,739
1,216,709
Source: SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders)
So why are private new car sales performing so badly?
There are several reasons why private new car sales have been falling for the last eight years, but the biggest is that buyers have been buying ever-more expensive cars on car finance agreements and then trying to fit those into budgets that have not been increasing at the same rate.
Longer car finance terms
PCP car finance has been around since the 1980s, but it really started to take off in about 2010 in conjunction with a government scrappage scheme – launched in the depths of the great financial crisis in 2009 and helped by record low interest rates. Long story short, customers could buy a more expensive car for lower monthly payments than they had been used to, and they liked it.
But cars, and customer tastes, got even more expensive. So rather than buying cheaper cars to keep their payments down, buyers started taking longer agreements instead. The default PCP term shifted from three years to four years, and that meant 25% fewer new car buyers each year as everyone kept their existing car for a year longer.
Cars have become much more expensive
New cars have also become increasingly expensive over the last decade. To pick one popular car as an example: Back in 2015, the then-new Vauxhall Corsa launched with a starting price of £8,995. Today, a new Corsa starts at £18,505 – more than double the price.
Over the same period, average weekly earnings haven’t come close to matching that level of increase, and real-world average disposable income hasn’t really increased at all for many people.
Higher interest rates make car finance more expensive
On top of the extreme price increases, the cost of financing a new car has increased significantly as interest rates have climbed over the last couple years after more than a decade at record lows. This adds a significant extra chunk onto monthly payments for a PCP (or a lease, but the costs of leasing are much more opaque).
Private cars counted under fleet registrations
As costs have increased, customers have increasingly been looking for alternatives to PCP car finance. Some have turned to leasing (personal contract hire), company car schemes or salary sacrifice – especially if they’re looking for an electric car. However, any new cars obtained via these methods are counted as fleet registrations rather than private registrations, as the leasing company is the owner of the vehicle rather than the end user. So there has been a small but significant shift of new cars from the private registration category to the fleet registration category. This particularly affects EVs, as they have the greatest tax benefits from using company car or salary sacrifice schemes, even for privately used cars.
(Incidentally, the same has applied to business purchases, as fewer small businesses choose to buy their company cars outright these days and prefer to lease them.)
Electric cars are even more expensive
Although the price of electric cars has come down over the last few years (or at least held steady), in contrast to petrol and diesel cars, there’s still a definite gap on like-for-like vehicles. To stick with the Vauxhall Corsa, an electric model is about £10,000 dearer than an equivalent petrol version with an automatic gearbox.
Even with some significant discounting and favourable finance terms currently available on a lot of electric vehicles, the upfront and monthly costs are still generally higher – unless you’re eligible for a salary sacrifice scheme.
Most industry analysts expect EV and petrol car prices to reach parity in the next couple of years, but we’re not there just yet.
There’s no end in sight for the current situation
The fall in private new car sales has been accelerating over the last year and there doesn’t appear to be any improvement on the horizon. Cars are not going to magically get cheaper, and finance rates are not going to return to the historic lows of the last decade.
Fewer households are buying brand-new cars, and those who do are keeping their cars for longer. More people are shifting from buying new cars to buying used instead, with used car sales growing steadily over the last few years as private new car sales have declined.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing from a household finance point of view, or from an environmental point of view. The vast majority of consumers change their cars because their finance agreement is coming to an end, not because their cars are falling apart. Keeping your car for four years instead of three is actually quite prudent in most cases.
But it’s obviously a problem for the car industry if people stop buying new cars – and if you want a steadily supply of used cars, you need someone to be buying those cars new in the first place. It’s even more crucial if the industry wants to have any chance of hitting its targets for selling new electric cars, so we can expect to see offers and incentives improving throughout the rest of this year.
After being removed from sale last Summer due to “changes in customer preferences”, Volvo has decided to re-introduce its V60 and V90 models to its UK range as British buyers have shown a renewed interest in the estate bodystyle.
Re-introducing models that the manufacturer says is a “key element of Volvo Cars’ heritage”, the mid-size V60 is now available once again in Plus and Ultra specifications with either the T6 or T8 petrol-electric plug-in hybrid powertrains, which combine a 145hp electric motor with a 253hp or 310hp petrol engine respectively, or a 197hp B4 mild-hybrid petrol powertrain. The larger V90 is also offered with the same T6 and T8 drivetrain options.
The V60 is now on sale from just over £43k, while prices for the V90 start at over £62k. To clarify, the S60 and S90 saloons retired at the same time last year are not returning.
As part of this Volvo range refresh, the brand has also unveiled new ‘Black Edition’ versions of the all-electric EC40 coupé-SUV and EX40 SUV.
Available with both the ‘Plus’ and ‘Ultra’ trims, this ‘Black Edition’ package adds all-black exterior styling, black high-gloss front grille, Volvo emblem and tailgate badging, plus 20-inch high-gloss black alloy wheels.
The Volkswagen Passat is a large family car that has been sold in many different iterations in the UK. This is the ninth-generation model, which is only available in the estate car body style. Petrol models are on sale now, with plug-in hybrid models set to join the range later in 2024.
The latest Passat has had a warm welcome from the British motoring media – Car’s Keith Adams concluding that the estate is “outstandingly refined” and “has acres of room inside”.
“It’s more conservative than the electric ID.7 Tourer”, comments Carbuyer’s Andy Goodwin, but adds that it is certainly comfortable on the road. Several outlets have described the car’s exterior styling as ‘dull’, while other reviewers miss the fuel-efficient diesel engines of the prior model.
As of September 2025, the Volkswagen Passat holds a New Car Expert Rating of A, with a score of 73%. It schieves top marks for its safety rating and low CO2 emissions, while media review scores have also been good to date. Running costs are average, although that will depend on which model you choose, but servicing and insurance groups are good across the board. However, Volkswagen’s new car warranty coverage lets the side down in terms of the overall score, as it’s far too stingy compared to some other brands.
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “The Volkswagen Passat is a smart, sleek, and well-built estate car that could well have enough appeal to steer buyers away from SUVs.” Author: Jordan Katsianis Read review
Model reviewed: 1.5-litre petrol/electric plug-in hybrid Score: 8 / 10 “A dent in boot space is the only major downside to the new Volkswagen Passat plug-in hybrid as it stands. Pricing, of course, will ultimately determine if it’ll outshine its many decent rivals (the new Skoda Superb being atop that list). The plug-in hybrid’s range is outstanding and the recharge rate would allow most to run it almost exclusively as an electric car. With that in mind, the new Passat PHEV is certainly the most versatile estate Volkswagen has ever made.” Author: Alastair Crooks Read review
Auto Trader
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “The new Volkswagen Passat estate majors on space, comfort and refinement, and it’s not bad to drive, either. The only hitch is a price tag that makes it more expensive than the Tiguan SUV to buy.” Read review
Business Car
Model reviewed: 1.5-litre petrol automatic Elegance “While it might not be that exciting to drive, the new Volkswagen Passat impresses with its overall competence, refinement, and interior space.” Author: Murthyvittala Read review
Car
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “It doesn’t set the world alight, but the new Volkswagen Passat is luxurious and capable and quietly gets on with the job – as long as you don’t need a saloon or hatchback. It is outstandingly refined, has acres of room inside and is an excellent long-distance cruiser.” Author: Alan Taylor-Jones Read review
Carbuyer
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8.2 / 10 “It’s more conservative than the ID.7 Tourer, but the Volkswagen Passat Estate offers masses of space and a comfy driving experience.”
Author: Andy Goodwin, Alastair Crooks Read review
Electrifying.com
Model reviewed: Passat GTE Score: 8 / 10 “But aside from its slightly anonymous styling, there’s plenty to like here. The Mk9 Passat may occupy a more niche market segment than ever, but we’d recommend trying one in place of the increasingly default SUV.” Author: Stephen Dobie Read review
Heycar
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “A very good all-rounder in the family car stakes. If you want something roomy and posh, but you don’t want an SUV, then the Volkswagen Passat should be on your shortlist.” Author: Ivan Aistrop Read review
Honest John
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “The latest Volkswagen Passat is a hugely compelling family estate car. It has space and practicality by the bucketload, an interior that’s solidly built, nicely finished and well equipped, plus it’s comfortable and pleasant to drive.” Read review
Parkers
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8.4 / 10 “The Volkswagen Passat is a great choice if you’re in the market for a large family car. It’s refreshing to see a manufacturer lavish so much attention on a car that isn’t an SUV – and the results speak for themselves. The Passat is more practical, more comfortable and more refined than any mainstream SUV rival on the market today.” Author: Luke Wilkinson Read review
Top Gear
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 7 / 10 “Not as sharply styled as it once was, and its lack of individuality might perturb some. But the car’s core values mostly remain.”
Author: Stephen Dobie Read review
Safety rating
Independent crash test and safety ratings from Euro NCAP
Independent economy and emissions ratings from Green NCAP
No eco rating
As of September 2025, the latest Volkswagen Passat range has not been lab tested by Green NCAP.
Reliability rating
Reliability data provided exclusively for The Car Expert by MotorEasy
No reliability rating
As of September 2025, we don’t have enough reliability data on the latest Volkswagen Passat to generate a reliability rating.
The Car Expert’s reliability information is provided exclusively to us using workshop and extended warranty data from our partner, MotorEasy, sourced from both official dealerships and independent workshops.
As soon as MotorEasy has sufficient data on the Passat, we’ll publish the results here.
Running cost rating
Monthly cost of ownership data provided exclusively for The Car Expert by Clear Vehicle Data
Fuel consumption
Average
Score
Plug-in hybrid models
706 mpg
A
CO₂ output
Average
Score
Variation
Score
Petrol models
126 g/km
B
Plug-in hybrid models
9 g/km
A
Battery range
Average
Score
Variation
Score
Plug-in hybrid models
80 miles
C
Insurance group
Average
Score
Variation
Score
All models
37
D
Service and maintenance
Cost
Score
Year 1
£176
B
Year 2
£503
B
Year 3
£825
B
Year 4
£1,068
B
Year 5
£1,421
B
Overall
£3,993
B
The Volkswagen Passat is a pretty affordable car to own and run, according to whole-life cost numbers provided exclusively to The Car Expert by our data partner, Clear Vehicle Data.
We don’t yet have the car’s fuel consumption figures, but the Passat’s insurance premiums are fairly low when compared to other options in the large car category, and its servicing and maintenance costs over the course of the first five years of ownership are predicted to be better than average, too.
Awards
Significant UK trophies and awards that the Volkswagen Passat has received.
2025
Caravan and Motorhome Club Awards – Towcar of the Year + Best Towcar (1,300kg – 1,500kg caravan)
Similar cars
If you’re looking at the Volkswagen Passat, you might also be interested in these alternatives.
The Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV is a large electric SUV based on the similarly sized EQE saloon. It became available to order in the UK in 2023.
Like the saloon version, the EQE SUV has been praised for its competitive battery range and interior ambience, which are both big factors in its favour.
However, the EQE SUV has also faced criticisms. As Driving Electric‘s Tom Jervis sums up, “The Mercedes EQE SUV boasts a giant touchscreen, fast charging, lots of storage and – to its detriment – a hefty price tag.” Fellow reviewers agree, citing that the Mercedes is very expensive, particularly as an entry-level version of the luxurious BMW iX is over £20k cheaper.
In addition, others remark that this SUV doesn’t stack up well against its executive saloon counterpart either. Calling the EQE SUV a “disappointment”, The Telegraph‘s Andrew English argues that “it just wasn’t that enjoyable to drive” and that “it doesn’t have the fine driving dynamics of its saloon EQE sister.”
Despite the strong competition, Parker‘s Alan Taylor-Jones adds that the EQE SUV “certainly has a few things going for it”, concluding that the car has “plenty of space inside for people, and the boot is large enough for most.” Though you would expect it considering its high price tag, he also points out that “base models get plenty of equipment.”
As of July 2025, the Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV holds a New Car Expert Rating of A, with a score of 71%. While motoring journalists might not like it that much, the EQE SUV scores highly for its outstanding safety rating and zero tailpipe emissions, both of which are likely to be more important to paying customers. Running costs are high, which is not surprising given the car’s luxury, sophistication and £100K price tag.
“The Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV is exceptionally refined and mostly comfortable, making short work of challenging British roads and their broken surfaces. But as with many of Merc’s big EQ products, there are still some issues concerning its packaging, build quality and general handling. It’s an expensive proposition, too. “
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 7 / 10 “SUV version of the all-electric Mercedes EQE saloon is more practical and better equipped, but also considerably more expensive.” Author: Dan Trent Read review
Car
Model reviewed: Score: 6 / 10 “There’s undoubtedly a good car in the EQE SUV. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem like Mercedes’ engineers have quite finished setting it up. It genuinely feels as if a few calibration tweaks could do wonders for the ride and handling, something that’d make it far more recommendable. But it’s still an awfully expensive e-SUV and it doesn’t feel as luxurious as the similarly costly BMW iX.” (Alan Taylor-Jones) Read review
Carbuyer
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “The Mercedes EQE SUV boasts impressive technology, range and interior space, but it’s also expensive and misses the mark in other areas.” Author: Andy Goodwin, Alex Ingram Read review
Driving Electric
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 7 / 10 “Like a top-of-the-range smartphone, the Mercedes EQE SUV boasts a giant touchscreen, fast charging, lots of storage and – to its detriment – a hefty price tag.” Author: Tom Jervis Read review
Parkers
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 6.4 / 10 “The Mercedes EQE SUV certainly has a few things going for it. There’s plenty of space inside for people, and the boot is large enough for most. Even base models get plenty of equipment, while the performance and range offered by the batteries and motors is good if not exceptional when compared to other electric SUVs.” Author: Alan Taylor-Jones Read review
The Telegraph
Model reviewed: EQE SUV 350 4Matic Score: 4 / 10 “This Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV was a disappointment, especially after the surreal ride quality of the S-class-sized EQS to which it owes a lot of its running gear. It just wasn’t that enjoyable to drive, it didn’t have the fine dynamics of its saloon/hatchback EQE sister – and it seems like an awesome amount of money for a not desperately good car.” Author: Andrew English Read review
Top Gear
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 6 / 10 “Two or three years ago the EQE SUV might have brought something to the table, but the game’s long since moved on.”
Author: Sam Burnett Read review
Safety rating
Independent crash test and safety ratings from Euro NCAP
In addition to its five-star rating, Euro NCAP has also independently tested the EQE SUV’s driver assistance tech, concluding that it offers “very good” highway assistance and “excellent” safety.
Eco rating
Independent economy and emissions ratings from Green NCAP
No eco rating
As of July 2025, the Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV has not been assessed by Green NCAP.
The Green NCAP programme measures exhaust pollution (which is zero for an electric car) and energy efficiency. Electric cars are much more energy-efficient than combustion cars, so the EQE SUV is likely to score very highly in Green NCAP testing whenever it ever takes place. Check back again soon.
Reliability rating
Reliability data provided exclusively for The Car Expert by MotorEasy
No reliability rating
As of July 2025, we don’t have enough reliability data on the Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV to generate a reliability rating.
The Car Expert’s reliability information is provided exclusively to us using extended warranty data from our partner, MotorEasy. As soon as we have sufficient data on the EQE SUV, we’ll publish the score here.
Running cost rating
Monthly cost of ownership data provided exclusively for The Car Expert by Clear Vehicle Data
Battery range
Average
Score
Variation
Score
EV models
348 miles
A
311 – 378 miles
A – A
Electrical efficiency
Average
Score
Variation
Score
EV models
3.7 m/KWh
D
3.4 – 4.2 m/KWh
B – E
Insurance group
Average
Score
Variation
Score
All models
50
F
50 – 50
F – F
Service and maintenance
Cost
Score
Year 1
£404
C
Year 2
£886
C
Year 3
£1,382
C
Year 4
£1,626
C
Year 5
£2,097
C
Overall
£6,395
C
The Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV is a rather expensive car to maintain, according to whole-life cost numbers provided exclusively to The Car Expert by our data partner, Clear Vehicle Data.
The SUV certainly has a competitive battery range – mustering a maximum of 324 to 334 miles on a single charge depending on the model you choose – but its electrical efficiency (the EV equivalent of miles per gallon for a petrol or diesel car) is below average. Its service and maintenance costs over five years of ownership might be more expensive than you anticipate, and its insurance costs are in the highest bracket too.
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If you’re looking to lease a new Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV, The Car Expert’s partners can help you find a competitive deal.
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Subscriptions are becoming a very popular way for consumers to try an electric car for a few weeks or months to help decide whether it’s a suitable alternative to a petrol car. If you’re interested in a car subscription, The Car Expert’s partners can help. (PS: What’s a car subscription?)
The MG Cyberster is an electric two-door convertible that became available to order in the UK in Summer 2024, with two different powertrain options available.
Beating its brand competitors to the punch, MG is the first marque to launch an all-electric soft-top sports car in the UK. Therefore, the MG Cyberster currently sits in a class of its own, at least for now.
It’s available in two trim levels, Trophy and GT, with the only real difference being performance. The Trophy has a very respectable 340hp and is rear-wheel drive, while the GT has a ferocious 500hp and is all-wheel drive, so it can go from 0-62mph in only 3.2 seconds – which, incidentally, is exactly the same time as the legendary McLaren F1 supercar…
The MG Cyberster’s best party trick is its electric scissor doors, which are bound to attract attention wherever you go. For bonus street theatre points, you can remotely open and close the doors from the car key.
UK reviewers are rather torn when it comes to the Cyberster – Yousuf Ashraf of Evo concludes that the car is “stunning to look at, but not to drive.” Our own editor at The Car Expert, Stuart Masson, said: “The MG Cyberster GT is missile-like fast in a straight line, but all that performance comes at the expense of driving enjoyment.”
A coupé version was previewed as a concept car at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed. There’s no word on whether it will go into production, but it would be a logical extension to the model range.
As of July 2025, the MG Cyberster holds a New Car Expert Rating of B, with a score of 68%.
Body style: Convertible Engines:electric, battery-powered Price:From £54,995 on-road
Launched: Summer 2024 Last updated: N/A Replacement due: TBA
Image gallery
Media reviews
Highlighted reviews and road tests from across the UK automotive media. Click any of the boxes to view.
Featured reviews
“The Cyberster is currently in a class of one. It’s not just a new car for MG, it’s a new kind of car for the whole industry. It’s missile-like fast in a straight line, but all that performance comes at the expense of driving enjoyment.
“The MG Cyberster is an electric convertible that’s stylish and comfortable with some ferocious performance, but it’s no hardcore sports car when the road starts winding.”
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “The MG Cyberster brings strong performance and eye-catching design, but is more open-topped grand tourer than MGB-style sports car.” Author: Dean Gibson, Paul Adam Read review
Auto Trader
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “MG puts an electric twist on its convertible sports car roots with the stylish and fun to drive Cyberster.” Author: Dan Trent Read review
Car
Model reviewed: GT Score: 8 / 10 “Its connection with old British-built MGs is a stretch, but as a halo model for SAIC-era MG the Cyberster is an excellent grand tourer. It’s way better than it needs to be, a car that can confidently stand on its own. Its connection with old British-built MGs is a stretch, but as a halo model for SAIC-era MG the Cyberster is an excellent grand tourer. It’s way better than it needs to be, a car that can confidently stand on its own.” Author: Ben Whitworth Read review
Carbuyer
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 7.8 / 10 “The Cyberster looks the business, with curvaceous styling and dramatic scissor doors, it’s comfortable to drive, it goes like the clappers, it has a respectable range figure and the cabin is smartly trimmed and full of tech.” Author: Dean Gibson Read review
Driving Electric
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 9 / 10 “The MG Cyberster is a fantastic halo model for the brand, with stunning looks and performance.” Author: Shane Wilkinson Read review
Electrifying.com
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “Not the purist driver’s car that some may be hoping for, but still a fun, theatrical and entertaining electric roadster.” Author: Thomas Geiger Read review
Evo
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 6 / 10 “Its design and performance figures promise a sports car experience that it doesn’t deliver on, and the chassis doesn’t feel dialled in even when you drive within its comfort zone.” Author: Yousuf Ashraf Read review
Green Car Guide
Model reviewed: Trophy Score: 9 / 10 “The MG Cyberster looks amazing with its dramatic scissor doors, and it’s great to drive. Its performance is perfectly adequate for a sports car in rear-wheel drive Trophy trim, but if you want supercar levels of acceleration, there’s also the all-wheel-drive GT model. It even has a practical driving range, and we’d say it’s good value. It’s just a shame that the fun driving experience is spoilt by constant beeps and boings, and it’s not a quick or easy process to switch these off.” Author: Paul Clarke Read review
Heycar
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 7 / 10 “The most appealing thing about the MG Cyberster, though, is that it’s truly unique. Name another two-seat all-electric convertible sports car available on the new car market, we dare you. Spoiler alert: you can’t, because there isn’t one.” Author: Ivan Aistrop Read review
Honest John
Score: 8 / 10 “Very good to drive whether you want to cruise along, tackle a twisty road, or make a statement around town, the MG Cyberster is a classy and surprisingly understated roadster. Comfort and refinement take precedence over outright cornering speed, and the MG Cyberster is all the better for it. Only let down by the slightly fussy dash design.” Read review
Parkers
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8.2 / 10 “It can’t match a Porsche 718 Boxster or BMW Z4 for driving fun, but the rapid acceleration, comfortable ride and refined road manners mean it’s not without its merits.” Author: Luke Wilkinson Read review
The Sunday Times
Model reviewed: Trophy Score: 8 / 10 “Good value and performance in one package.” Author: Dave Humphreys Read review
The Telegraph
Model reviewed: GT Score: 6 / 10 “The MG Cyberster looks good, it drives reasonably well (as long as you don’t push too hard), and at sensible speeds on A- and B-roads the efficiency is fairly respectable. I’d prefer to buy a nimble Mazda MX-5 while I can, but in the world of EV motoring the MG not only is the sole drophead sports car, it’s also a half decent drophead sports car.” Author: Andrew English Read review
Top Gear
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 8 / 10 “The MG Cyberster is an unabashed reinvention of the sports car. It won’t outhandle the establishment, but it does plenty that they can’t at a reasonable price.”
Author: Stephen Dobie Read review
Which EV?
Model reviewed: Range overview Score: 9 / 10 “There’s no EV to compare to the MG Cyberster. The only roadsters in this class are petrol-powered. The fact that the Cyberster competes well even with these shows just how competitively priced it is.” Author: James Morris Read review
Safety rating
Independent crash test and safety ratings from Euro NCAP
No safety rating
As of July 2025, the MG Cyberster has not been crash tested by Euro NCAP.
Eco rating
Independent economy and emissions ratings from Green NCAP
No eco rating
As of July 2025, the MG Cyberster has not been lab tested by Green NCAP.
The Green NCAP programme measures exhaust pollution (which is zero for an electric car) and energy efficiency. Electric cars are much more energy-efficient than combustion cars, so the Cyberster is likely to score very highly in Green NCAP testing whenever it ever takes place. Check back again soon.
Reliability rating
Reliability data provided exclusively for The Car Expert by MotorEasy
No reliability rating
As of July 2025, we don’t have enough reliability data on the MG Cyberster to generate a reliability rating.
The Car Expert’s reliability information is provided exclusively to us using workshop and extended warranty data from our partner, MotorEasy, sourced from both official dealerships and independent workshops.
As soon as MotorEasy has sufficient data on the Cyberster, we’ll publish the results here.
Running cost rating
Monthly cost of ownership data provided exclusively for The Car Expert by Clear Vehicle Data
Battery range
Average
Score
Variation
Score
EV models
296 miles
A
Electrical efficiency
Average
Score
Variation
Score
EV models
3.8 m/KWh
D
Insurance group
Average
Score
Variation
Score
All models
48
D
Service and maintenance
Cost
Score
Year 1
£218
B
Year 2
£542
B
Year 3
£890
B
Year 4
£1,026
A
Year 5
£1,398
A
Overall
£4,074
A
The MG Cyberster is a relatively affordable car to own and run, according to whole-life cost numbers provided exclusively to The Car Expert by our data partner, Clear Vehicle Data.
Electrical efficiency (the EV equivalent of miles per gallon for petrol and diesel cars) is good, which helps the sports car to achieve a very good driving range of 296 miles, according to the official government lab tests.
Insurance costs are likely to be higher than average, while scheduled servicing and maintenance costs are likely to be excellent for the car’s first five years.
Warranty rating
New car warranty information for the MG Cyberster
Overall rating
A
97%
New car warranty duration
7 years
New car warranty mileage
80,000 miles
Battery warranty duration
8 years
Battery warranty mileage
100,000 miles
MG’s new car warranty is one of the best in the new car market, and better than pretty much any rival brands in a similar price bracket to the Cyberster.
The duration is seven years, with a limit of 80,000 miles. This is good news for both new and used car buyers, as it helps the residual value of the Cyberster for new car buyers when they come to sell the car, and it gives near-new car buyers confidence that they are covered for years to come.
In addition to the overall new car warranty, battery components are covered by a separate eight-year/100,000-mile warranty. This is pretty much standard for all new EVs on sale in the UK, but it’s an extra reassurance that petrol sports cars don’t get.
As of July 2025, we are not aware of any DVSA vehicle safety recalls affecting the MG Cyberster. However, this information is updated very regularly so this may have changed.
You can check to see if your car has any outstanding recalls by visiting the DVLA website or contacting your local MG dealer.
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Subscribe to a MG Cyberster
Subscriptions are becoming a very popular way for consumers to try an electric car for a few weeks or months to help decide whether it’s a suitable alternative to a petrol car. If you’re interested in a car subscription, The Car Expert’s partners can help. (PS: What’s a car subscription?)
Renault has expanded its pretty crowded SUV range with the official arrival of the new Symbioz hybrid, which is now available to order in the UK.
Positioned between the brand’s Captur and Austral SUVs, and sitting alongside other high-riding Renault options like the Arkana and Rafale coupé-SUVs and the all-electric Mégane E-Tech and Scenic E-Tech, Renault says that the Symbioz gives the manufacturer “a stronger presence at the entry level of the C-segment”, which includes the popular Nissan Qashqai.
The SUV is powered by a 145hp 1.6-litre petrol engine and electric motor pairing that provides an estimated fuel economy of 60mpg and a 0-62mph sprint time of 10.6 seconds. The boot offers 492 litres of luggage space (1582 litres with the rear seats folded) and top speed is electronically limited at 106mph.
There are three trim levels on offer, starting with the lead-in ‘techno E-Tech’ package which includes LED headlights and taillights, rain-sensing windscreen wipers, automatic air conditioning, keyless entry and start, and a wireless smartphone charger.
The car comes with a ten-inch infotainment screen with built-in Google navigation and Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility, and a ten-inch digital instrument cluster behind the synthetic leather steering wheel. The car sits on 18-inch alloy wheels as standard, and heated electric folding door mirrors feature also.
The SUV has rear privacy glass and a rear-view parking camera as standard, and entry-level safety features include hill start assistance, adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assistance.
The mid-range ‘techno esprit Alpine E-Tech’ grade instead sits on larger 19-inch alloys, and introduces a motorised tailgate and electrically adjustable heated front seats to the range. The top-spec ‘iconic esprit Alpine E-Tech’ builds on the lower trim specs by adding a glass sunroof, a more advanced surround view 3D parking camera, hands-free parking assistance and a premium nine-speaker Harman Kardon sound system.
Pricing for the new Symbioz starts at around £29k. By comparison, the entry-level Nissan Qashqai e-Power hybrid currently costs over £34k, while pricing for the Toyota RAV4 hybrid range begins at just under £40k.
The long-awaited MG Cyberster convertible is now on sale in the UK, which is the most powerful production model in MG’s 100-year history.
The battery-powered sports car currently sits in a class of its own, with the only other electric convertible currently available being the much smaller Fiat 500 Electric cabriolet. Instead, the Cyberster poses more of a sales threat to petrol-powered premium drop-tops like the BMW Z4 and Porsche 718 Boxster.
Equipped with unique design features like its scissor doors and arrow-shaped turning signals, the convertible is powered by 77kWh battery with two different power options.
The single-motor real-wheel drive ‘Trophy’ has an output of 340hp and can reportedly muster 316 miles on a single charge. It can also complete a 0-62mph sprint in five seconds flat.
By comparison, the top-spec all-wheel drive Cyberster ‘GT’ offers Ferrari-rivalling speeds. This dual-motor option instead offers 503hp, and while it can accelerate to 62mph from stationary in a very quick 3.2 seconds, it does offer less battery range – 276 miles to be exact.
The roadster can charge at speeds of up to 150kW (rapid charging), with 10% to 80% battery charge taking 30 minutes at this highest speed.
The car’s electronically-controlled fabric roof can be opened or closed in around 15 seconds at speeds up to 30mph. The car sits on 19-inch alloy wheels as standard (20-inch alloys for the ‘GT’) and is fitted with Brembo brakes with three-mode regenerative braking to maximise energy efficiency.
Standard safety features include lane keeping assistance, adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitoring as part of the brand’s ‘MG Pilot’ package.
Inside, a ten-inch digital instrument cluster is flanked by two seven-inch displays angled towards the driver. Yet another screen is mounted to the centre console, providing touchscreen access to the dual-zone climate controls.
The infotainment is compatible with both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and a eight-speaker Bose sound system, interior ambient lighting and surround view parking camera also come as standard.
Besides centre console storage, the boot offers 249 litres of luggage space. This is 25 litres less than the Porsche 718 Boxster, not to mention the Boxster also comes with ‘Frunk’ storage under the bonnet, which is not a Cyberster feature.
Now available to order, Pricing starts at just south of £55k for the ‘Trophy’, rising to £60k for the ‘GT’. This is similar pricing to that of the petrol BMW Z4 and Porsche 718 line-ups. All models come with a seven-year, 80,000-mile warranty and the first customer orders are scheduled to arrive this August.
Available to purchase for a very small number of customers, the limited-run Aston Martin Valiant coupé will soon make its public debut at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed here in the UK.
This powerful supercar is a personal commission designed for Aston Martin’s renowned F1 driver Fernando Alonso, and is powered by a 745hp 5.2-litre Twin-Turbo V12 petrol engine mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. Developed through Aston Martin’s ‘Q’ division, the manufacturer says that the car’s looks emulate the ‘Muncher’ DBS V8 race car for the 1970s.
The initial idea for the coupé was to make a “lightweight, more extreme, race car inspired version” of the Aston Martin Valour – another limited edition 5.2-litre V12 Aston Martin model that was unveiled last year to mark the brand’s 110th birthday.
Some of the car’s foundations have been 3D-printed, leading to a 3kg weight reduction, while the car’s torque tube which holds the rear end in place during acceleration and braking is made of magnesium, saving an extra 9kg of weight. The 21-inch alloy wheels are also made of magnesium – another 14kg saving.
Six new bodywork inlets draw cooling air onto the carbon ceramic brakes to maintain optimum braking performance, with apertures around the circumference of the wheel allowing the heat generated by the carbon ceramic discs to vent.
The car has also been given a new suspension set-up and greater aerodynamic downforce, and comes with three different driving modes – ‘Sport’, ‘Sport+’ and ‘Track’.
Inside the two-seat cabin, the car is trimmed in plenty of exposed satin-finish carbon fibre and is fitted with a new slimmer-diameter steering wheel which is unique to Valiant and is devoid of physical switches. The gear shifter is also a unique design, with Aston Martin commenting that it has “focused on perfecting the weight and feel of the gear shift.”
Aston Martin is yet to provide any performance stats for the model, and like the Valour, the coupé’s price tag is not exactly marketed by the manufacturer – likely stretching into the seven-figure range. The Valiant is about as exclusive as limited-edition sports cars can get. Only 38 will be sold worldwide, with the first customer deliveries to commence before the end of the year.
New car registrations followed a familiar pattern in June, according to data published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), with strong fleet sales but abysmal private sales.
Overall, the market was up just 1% over the same month last year. But as has been the case for most of the last year, private new car sales were poor (down 15%) while fleet and business registrations were strong (up 14% and 22%, respectively).
Source: SMMT
At the halfway point of the year, we see that private new car sales are down 12% compared to the first half of 2023, while fleet registrations are up 22% – leasing to an overall increase of 6% on last year.
Making life even more miserable for car dealers in June was the general election. Elections are like kryptonite to car showrooms, as customers shy away from spending money on big-ticket items during a period of national uncertainty. Dealers will be hoping to get a bit of a rebound in July once the election is resolved and a (presumably) new government installed in Westminster.
June saw the best month of the year for electric cars in terms of market share, taking 19% of all new car registrations. This is still down on the full-year target of 22% set by the outgoing government, but the industry is confident that the second half of the year will be stronger than the first (and the limited amount of EV sales data from previous years tends to back that up).
Petrol-powered cars are still dominant with just over half (51%) of all new car sales, but their market share is starting to slip thanks to the steady growth of EVs, hybrids and plug-in hybrids. Diesel, as usual, is disappearing into insignificance with only 6% of the market.
In terms of the half-year result, EV sales are only slightly up on the same point last year, with just under 17% of the market. Based on predicted sales for the rest of the year, that will need to jump to about 30% over the next six months to get to a full-year share of 22% – which is highly unlikely. Fortunately for car manufacturers, there are a few loopholes that they will be able to use to wiggle out of any enormous fines for not hitting their targets…
Good month, bad month
Despite similar overall registration numbers to last June, there was quite a bit of movement among the car manufacturers.
That means that the following manufacturers were pretty much where you’d expect them to be: Audi, Fiat, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Peugeot, Skoda and Volkswagen. These brands were all within 10% of the overall market for last June, so only minor movements up or down.
Kia Sportage tops the sales charts in June
Source: SMMT
Kia’s family SUV, the Sportage, was the best-selling new car in June, ahead of the UK-built Nissan Juke and resurgent Tesla Model Y. With the market-leading Ford Puma down in eighth place this month, the Sportage has closed in on the Puma for the overall sales crown.
Tesla had two cars in the top ten for the first time in many months, with the Model Y crossover in third place and the freshly updated Model 3 saloon in tenth.
Citroën has unveiled a new ‘Peps’ trim for its pint-sized electric Ami quadricycle, which the brand says is a “sporty version with urban ruggedness.”
Now available to order, its manufacturer says that the ‘Peps’ “bringing together the best bits” from the other range-topping ‘Pop’ and ‘Tonic’ models, but with a new exterior colour – ‘Night Sepia’ grey (which is also available on the standard Ami).
Besides the new colour, the ‘Peps’ differs from the ‘Pop’ and ‘Tonic’ thanks to yellow decals on the front fascia, black bumper cladding, a rear spoiler, and a circular graphic behind the side windows.
The ‘Peps’ comes with with the same yellow and red door decals, as well as interior accessories like a smartphone clip, door nets, a central separation luggage net, a hook, and three storage bins.
Citroën has also scrapped the Ami ‘Cargo’ variant, which was designed to appeal to small businesses that run inner-city errands. Instead, the brand has rolled out a new ‘Ami Cargo Kit’, which can be fitted to any Ami to provide the Cargo’s business-focused configuration (the passenger seat is converted into a storage space) after five minutes of setup.
Pricing for the Citroën Ami ‘Peps’ now starts at under £9k, with the additional ‘Ami Cargo Kit’ priced at just over £250.
Previously only available in dual-motor all-wheel drive configurations, the all-electric Polestar 3 SUV is now available in the UK with a cheaper single-motor rear-wheel drive setup that can reportedly travel further on a single charge.
Simply called the ‘Long Range Single Motor’, this new powertrain choice uses the same large 111kWh battery pack as the ‘Dual Motor’ all-wheel drive version, and can charge at speeds of up to 250kW, with 10% to 80% battery charge taking a reported 30 minutes at this wattage.
The most notable difference is the longer battery range. This rear-wheel drive version can reportedly muster up to 403 miles from full charge – 11 miles more than the ‘Dual Motor’ variants.
This comes with the trade-off of less power. The ‘Single Motor’ has an output of 299hp – down from the Dual Motor’s 483hp – and this slows the car’s 0-62mph sprint time to 7.8 seconds (from the Dual Motor’s 4.8 seconds).
This new powertrain lowers the SUV’s entry-level price by £10k, to just south of £70k, as is part of the brand’s updated ‘2025’ Polestar 3 model range. The ‘Single Motor’ package still includes all of the Dual Motor’s equipment amenities, including a heated steering wheel and rear seats, soft-close doors, Brembo brakes, a surround view parking camera, a head-up display and a Dolby Atmos sound system.
While the ‘Launch Edition’ range sat on 21-inch alloy wheels as standard, the ‘2025’ line-up comes with smaller 20-inch alloys for both the ‘Single Motor’ and ‘Dual Motor’.
