21

‘It sounded as if we were being pursued by our own personal tornado’

THIS WEEK

Issue 6497 | Volume 311 | No 3

NEWS

Noble M500 New £150k mid-engined UK supercar 6 BMW tech fest Futuristic advances revealed at CES 10 Sony turns car maker EV saloon f i rst , now an SUV 12 Nio ET5 Tesla Model 3 r ival with a 620-mile range 14 Who’s bought what 2021 sales reveal latest trends 16 UK charging infrastructure Osprey offers insights 18

TESTED

Mercedes-AMG SL All -new 2+2 ‘best SL in decades’ 26 Electrogenic Porsche 356 Flat four out, e-motor in 32 Volkswagen ID 6 X Think of i t as a seven-seat ID 4 33 Porsche Macan S Updated but i s i t any better for i t? 34 Skoda Enyaq iV 80x Four-wheel drive, more power 35 Radical SR10 Track-only star that slays GT3 racers 35 Kia EV6 77.4kWh GT-Line RWD ROAD TEST 36

FEATURES Lotus Emira Flat out in crucial new-era sports car 46 Clock watching In-depth look at the r i se of clocking 52 Best buys from the ’90s Smart choices from £400 56

OUR CARS Kia Sorento Verdict on l iv ing with seven-seat PHEV 64 Polestar 2 Long tenure of Scandi-cool EV begins 66

EVERY WEEK Jesse Crosse Self-repairing, fast-charging batteries 13 Matt Prior Wanna buy a Volvo V8? Noble i s sell ing… 15 Jim Holder Climate change or climate emergency? 19 Steve Cropley Inspired by a hole in the ground 21 Damien Smith Preview of 2022 F1, BTCC and WRC 22 Subscribe Save money and get exclusive benefits 24 Autocar Archive Access 125 years of issues for free 44 Your Views Formula 1 loses a fan and EVs gain one 60 On this day We lament car weights r i sing – in 1951 63 Slideshow Car ad slogans, because you’re worth i t 82

DEALS

James Ruppert Signum, Murano, Sportrak, MR2 68 Cult hero Fiat Panda 100HP hot hatch from just £1k 70 As good as new Shrewd way to bag a Skoda Citigo 72 Take it or leave it Monaro, Micra, Clio RS, Tribeca 73 New cars A-Z Key car stats , from Abarth to Zenos 74 Road test index Track down that road test here 81

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KIA EV6 DEFINITIVE VERDICT: FULL ROAD TEST 36

FIRST DRIVE: SUPERB NEW MERCEDES AMG SL 26

ALL NEW LOTUS EMIRA IS GIVEN ITS HEAD 46

COVER STORY

❝ONE IN 11 USED CARS HAS BEEN CLOCKED .THAT’S A 45% RISE ON FIVE YEARS AGO❞

SO SAYS A MAJOR CAR DATA COMPANY. JOHN EVANS FINDS OUT WHY ΠAND HOW 52

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES: NOBLE’S 550BHP M500 6

COMMENT

CAR SALES IN 2021: ODD ONE OFF OR NEW DAWN?

NEW CAR SALES in 2021 were held back by crippling supply shortages (p16). Yet given the pace of change in the industry, who’s to say some of the implausible things in the sales charts may not have ended up happening anyway? The Ford Fiesta had been Britain’s best-selling car for over a decade, but last year it didn’t even make the top 10. With no electric version in sight and Ford so focused on crossovers, will the Fiesta ever return to the top? Then there’s Tesla, which in December was Britain’s best-selling car maker. Given its unstoppable growth, why should this be written off as a flash in the pan?

Stalwarts of the mid-market Citroën, Fiat and Mazda all recorded growth last year, yet put them all together and they were still outsold by Kia. With cars like the EV6 (road test, p36), why shouldn’t Kia’s momentum of the past decade continue in the EV era? There are plenty more examples: MG is already bigger than Honda, Jaguar and Renault in the UK, Porsche closed the gap to Dacia just above it in the sales charts, and diesel cars were outsold by electric ones by more than five to one last month.

As new car supply increases again, it will be tantalising to see whether or not the established order returns with it. Mark Tisshaw Editor mark.tisshaw@haymarket.com

@mtisshaw

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