19
‘A Morgan Super 3 looks more at home in
California than in a Cotswold village’
THIS WEEK
Issue 6576 | Volume 317 | No 4
NEWS
Triumph TR2 reborn BMW i3-based EV speedster 6 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Track-bred hot EV for enthusiasts 8 McLaren crossover CEO on firm’s new-look future 10 Porsche 357 Speedster Debut at Festival of Speed 12 ZF’s radical EV tech Game-changing innovations 14 Mercedes-AMG GT CEO drives us in all-new coupé 16 Charge point charter New UK regs to boost usability 18
TESTED
MG 4 XPower Electric hatch with 429bhp and 4WD 24 Audi RS6 Performance Think of it as a GT-R wagon 26 Abarth 500e Convertible Lively electric drop-top 27 Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 SUV Firm’s quickest SUV 28 Lexus UX 300e Targeted refresh for EV crossover 29 Mercedes-AMG A45 S £63k hot hatch unleashed 29 Renault Austral E-Tech ROAD TEST 46
FEATURES Jeep Avenger Risky Alpine adventure in crucial EV 30 Thomas Schäfer Interview with Volkswagen’s CEO 38 How to race a Ferrari We try a 488 Challenge car 42
OUR CARS Renault Mégane E-Tech Electric Final report tells all 54 Bentley Flying Spur How a dealer treats new owner 56 Kia Niro EV Why its keeper took the long way home 57 Toyota Land Cruiser Better than a new Defender? 59
EVERY WEEK Jesse Crosse Could ammonia replace diesel fuel? 15 Secret Source Whatever you do, don’t call it a fire 17 Matt Prior What the note in the old Defender said 19 Autocar Archive Access every issue since 1895 20 Steve Cropley Unique Abarth Sprite; Dacia Spring 21 Subscribe Save money and get exclusive benefits 22 Damien Smith Why Lando Norris will be pivotal in F1 23 Your Views No to MG 4, Kona EV, CX-60, direct sales 60 On this day 1951: Ferrari’s first F1 win; special Aston 66 Slideshow Everyday ’80s cars petrolheads wanted 74
DEALS
Cult hero Alfa Romeo 4C: buy before prices go mad 62 James Ruppert Tempting convertibles from £700 65 Road test index Track down that road test here 67 New cars A-Z Key car stats, from Abarth to Zenvo 68
Autocar (ISSN 1355-8293 USPS 25-185) is published weekly by Haymarket Media Group, Bridge House, 69 London Road, Twickenham TW1 3SP, United Kingdom. The US annual subscription price is $190.00. Air freight and mailing in the USA by agent named World Container Inc, 150-15, 183rd Street, Jamaica, NY 11413, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Brooklyn, NY 11256. US postmaster: Send address changes
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MG 4 XPOWER: FIRST DRIVE OF POTENT EV 24
RENAULT AUSTRAL E-TECH: FULL ROAD TEST 46
JEEP AVENGER: WE PUSH IT TO ITS LIMITS 30
C O V E R STORY
❝LIKE ALLIGATORS IN A SWAMP, THEY’RE ALL AROUND YOU. YOU JUST HAVEN’T NOTICED THEM YET❞
EV CHARGERS, THAT IS. BUT THEY’RE RARE WHERE RICHARD LANE TAKES JEEP’S EV 30
COMMENT
TRIUMPH IS BACK – AND SO IS AUTOCAR ARCHIVE
GIVEN IT WAS retired back in 1984 , you have to delve deep into the Autocar archives to find the last time Triumph appeared on our front page. But now it’s back. As we’re often finding in this era of electrification, reviving an old brand is a useful way of quick ly giving character and identity to a new project.
So is Triumph set for a comeback? Officially, no. Makkina, the design house behind it, insists the TR25 – a reborn TR2 ‘Jabbeke’ – is strictly a one-off study to highlight its abilities. Even so, it feels significant: the project has the approval of BMW, which has owned the rights to Triumph since 1994. Given the success it has had with Mini, BMW knows how to revive a brand. And you do wonder if giving its blessing to this project is a way of gauging the public appetite for a Triumph revival. We’ll see. Still, we can celebrate one definite comeback this week: the Autocar Archive has returned. We’ve worked with Exact Editions to revive our amazing digital archive spanning our entire history, so it’s never been easier to delve into the automotive history of Triumph – or many other brands. To find out more, visit themagazineshop.com/ aca23ed/aca.
James Attwood Acting mag editor james.attwood@haymarket.com
@atters_ j
Rachel Burgess is away
TRIUMPH RESURRECTED: DETAILS OF NEW TR25 6
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