42

‘ You would rather face down a cornered badger than a big red ’roo, wouldn’t you?’

Issue 6565 | Volume 316 | No 6

NEWS

Lotus Carlton reborn Plus Macan and Boxster rivals 4 Skoda Fabia faces axe EU laws may kill it, says boss 8 Cupra’s shock GT Two-seat all-electric sports car 10 All-new Caterham Simple, electric and not a Seven 12 Radical £9k EV Swedish flat-pack Citroën Ami rival 14

TESTED

Mini Cooper Next-gen 215bhp electric hatchback 20 Jeep Wrangler 4xe Must-have, can’t-have PHEV 24 Mercedes EQS SUV Plush, tall EV rated in the UK 25 Tesla Model Y RWD Entry-level is the smart choice 26 Alfa Romeo Giulia Updated, here in 276bhp guise 27 Citroën ë-C4 X Shine ROAD TEST 46

FEATURES Rimac Nevera World’s fastest EV – in Milton Keynes 28 UK charging network Insight from industry experts 36 Ch-ch-ch-changes Evolution of ZF’s auto gearbox 40 Australia’s Atom Why you’ll want to own a Spartan 42

OUR CARS Range Rover New arrival causes a marital wobble 54 Renault Mégane Shows its mettle in central London 55 Audi E-tron GT Versus Conti GT and M8. Sort of 57 Ssangyong Korando Easygoing EV, charging aside 59

EVERY WEEK Jesse Crosse LEDs that create sunlight in your car 11 Jim Holder Who’s selling well and who’s bombing 13 Matt Prior Why would you listen to music in a car? 15 Steve Cropley The cut ’n’ shut Monte Carlo winner 17 Subscribe Save money and get exclusive benefits 18 Damien Smith Good Evans: WRC and Formula E 19 Your Views How to get 75mpg; bikes; aero smithing 60 On this day Nissan GT-R and big F1 drama in 2009 66 Slideshow From this to that: shock transformations 74

DEALS

Cult hero Last air-cooled Porsche 911, from £15k 62 James Ruppert Delta, FJ Cruiser, Marcos GT V8 65 Road test index Track down that road test here 67 New cars A-Z Key car stats, from Abarth to Zenos 68

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THIS WEEK

DRIVEN: FABULOUS, LIGHTWEIGHT SPARTAN 42

CITROEN E-C4 X: FULL ROAD TEST 46

RIMAC NEVERA: 1877BHP EV ON UK ROADS 28

C O V E R STORY

❝WE’RE REASSURING THE PUBLIC AND BUSINESSES THAT WE’RE PLANNING FOR THE LONG TERM ❞

UK CHARGER PROVIDERS DISCUSS THE STATE OF PLAY AND THEIR NEW UNITED FRONT 36

IMAGE

COMMENT

THE LOTUS DREAM THAT HAS FINALLY COME TRUE

FOR MUCH OF its recent history, Lotus’s main focus has simply been keeping the lights on. Although its cars remained brilliant to drive, the company had little else to go with it and no way to fund new models. Then Geely arrived in 2017. The Chinese giant has given Lotus the resources it needs to build a future beyond survival mode and now that investment and backing are yielding extraordinary change in Norfolk and beyond.

For a new Lotus has already emerged. The Eletre, a new electric SUV we drove last week, shows that a new Lotus beyond sports cars is real, and no longer a pipe dream. The Eletre is the first Lotus from a new factory in China that’s already operational and two more models are set to follow in short order (p4), including a reborn Lotus Carlton. Who’d have expected that to be the case at any point in the past 20 years? The change at Lotus will not please all, given the extra weight of the cars and the fact that they’re electric, yet the engineering talent the company has is better placed than almost any other to overcome and embrace it. The unpalatable alternative would likely have been no Lotus at all.

Mark Tisshaw Editor mark.tisshaw@haymarket.com

@mtisshaw

Rachel Burgess is away

HOT LOTUS SALOON, SUV AND ROADSTER EV s 4

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