9 HRS AGO - Side-impact protection of 10-year-old rear occupants was highlighted as an issue Safety testing organisation criticises car’s rear child protection and collision avoidance systems The Jeep Avenger has been given a “mediocre” three-star rating in the latest round of Euro NCAP safety test  The small crossover was let down by poor scores for side-impact protection of 10-year-old rear occupants and the responsiveness of its autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system. Euro NCAP also criticised its lack of a child presence detection system. Jeep’s baby SUV did however score well for overall adult and child occupant protection, with Euro NCAP awarding ratings of 79% and 70% in each respective area. Nonetheless, the results show “a clear lack of ambition” from Jeep, according to Euro NCAP secretary general Michiel van Ratingen. He said: "There is growing competition in the car industry, and [Jeep parent company] Stellantis has had to take several steps to secure the future of its brands. Collapse

13 HRS AGO - Exciting newcomer aims to establish itself as the 'VW Golf of EVs' The Kia EV3, a £32,995 new electric crossover that’s Volkswagen Golf-sized in its footprint, is exactly the kind of car that buyers could default to in the electric car era as they have done to the Golf in the combustion one. The EV3 gets to near price and spec parity with a 2.0 TDI Golf without skimping on battery capacity: your £32,995 gets you a 58kWh battery with 267 miles of range in base (but Golf-levels of kit still) Air trim. An extra £3000 gets you an 81kWh battery with 372 miles of range, also in Air trim. At £35,995, this already looks like a sweet spot in the EV3 range. The EV3, then, can go almost like-for-like in a comparison against a similarly-equipped Golf, regardless of their differing powertrains; you’d buy the Volkswagen because you like it and it happens to be a diesel, and you’d buy the Kia because you like and it just happens to be electric. Both come from top, established brands in the UK with Collapse

15 HRS AGO - Reducing air-con use can save fuel New technology can reduce the temperature of a car's surfaces by 12deg The best way to extend range or cover the same distance for less cost is to waste less energy doing it. Since EVs really began to take off a decade or so ago, the engineers developing them have scrutinised every fraction of a watt the car consumes across its entire electrical architecture. The same applies to ICE cars, because reducing the amount of energy effects how much fuel gets burned.  Nissan has found another tweak for improving a car’s efficiency in the form of a sophisticated heat-reflective technology it calls ‘cool paint’. In trials, the paint has reduced the temperature of the exterior surface by 12deg C, creating a corresponding reduction in cabin temperature of 5deg C compared with traditional paint. Temperature plays a big part in a car’s efficiency beyond an engine’s or battery’s operating temperature. Heating or cooling the cabin with air-con has become a Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Here's our list of favourites if you're after an executive saloon If you’re looking for the best executive cars, then you’ve come to the right place. Once the undisputed kings of the company car park, these sleek and stylish upmarket saloons have become something of a dying breed over the past few years, overshadowed (almost literally) by customer clamour for more fashionable SUVs. Yet despite dwindling numbers, these large and luxurious four-door machines (and the occasional estate and hatchback) still pack plenty of appeal for business users and private buyers alike. Not only do they look the part and feature classy, capacious cabins, they’re usually quicker, sharper to drive and more efficient than their high-riding rivals.  As you’d expect, there’s a wide variety of powertrains to choose from, up to and including plug-in and fully electric cars. However, there are also more traditional internally combusted models for those users who aren’t ready (or don’t want to) take the leap Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Formula 1 design engineering guru tells Cropley and Prior why he has left the sport's leading team Aston Martin has appointed Adrian Newey, Formula 1's most successful design engineer, to be its managing technical partner. He will start at the Silverstone team on 2 March 2025. Newey’s cars have taken more than 200 grand prix wins, 13 drivers’ championships and 12 constructors’ championships across three F1 teams. Of those, more than 100 wins, seven drivers’ and six’ constructors titles have come since he joined Red Bull Racing in 2005, where many onlookers – including himself – expected him see out his career. But speaking exclusively to Autocar’s My Week In Cars Podcast, Newey, 65, said that there were “multiple reasons to take the difficult decision to stop at Red Bull”, where he has been on semi-gardening leave since negotiating an end to his F1 involvement last May. “If you’d asked me a few years ago, I’d have said ‘no, I’ll be at Red Bull for the rest of my working career’,” Collapse

1 DAY AGO - The new Elm Evolv weighs 850kg and can lug another 500kg Demand for urban delivery vehicles has sparked a hot contest for everything from cargo bicycles to full-size vans The lure of the profitable van market has burned once high-flying start-ups like Arrival, but the chance to disrupt the old guard by means of electrification is still pulling in new players, who are eyeing up the 'last-mile' market in particular. The latest to jump in is storied engineering company Prodrive, which has formed Elm Mobility with UK design company Astheimer to put the Elm Evolv small electric van into production from 2028. 'Last-mile' is defined as the final stage in the delivery process from a logistics hub to your door. Because this is predominantly urban, it opens up the market to a huge range of vehicles, from cargo bikes to full-size vans, depending on the bulkiness of what needs to be delivered. Linking them all is the need to go electric, as both city and national legislation push operators to Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - A6 Performance puts out 362bhp while S6 gets 543bhp Striking estate and saloon get Q6 e-tron tech, 800V architecture and 543bhp range-topper Order books for the new Audi A6 have opened, with the executive car priced from £69,900 in saloon form and £71,700 as an estate. Unlike its primary rivals, which run adjacent to the combustion-engined E-Class and 5 Series, Audi has opted to transition one of its most important models to solely electric power. In turn, the outgoing petrol and diesel A6 will adopt the A7 moniker – previously reserved for Audi’s luxurious four-door coupé – for a new generation that will arrive next year. Visually, the new A6 E-tron remains faithful to the concept of the same name that was shown three years ago. The addition of equipment required for production – larger air intakes, full-size headlights and ADAS sensors – has made for a lightly restyled front end, but the sleek, muscular proportions remain intact. The saloon follows its high-riding stablemate, Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - I-Pace acclerated the development of Jaguar's new EVs, but doesn't align with them visually MD Rawdon Glover tells all about the brand's impending shift upmarket It’s already on the record that Rawdon Glover, Jaguar’s managing director, has one of the toughest automotive jobs on the planet. His immediate task is to kill off (“sunset”) the current, mostly combustion-engine range of traditional Jaguar models and replace it from 2026 with a radical, three-tier EV line-up that lifts pricing into the realms of Bentley. Speaking to Autocar, Glover – 11 years at Jaguar, with previous Volkswagen Group experience – is undaunted by the size of the challenge. The range will begin with a Porsche Taycan-busting GT – previewed by a concept arriving in December – followed by a Bentley Bentayga-sized SUV and finally a big four-door limo in 2029. “Our approach to future Jaguars is quite different from other vehicles,” he said. “They start with a platform and work outward from there. We’re starting Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - How the post-war boss of Fiat and Italy's PM created a very special sports car "The Otto Vu, as it is called in Italy, is comparatively expensive, and it is the type of car for which there is a fairly limited demand, yet for the enthusiast requiring a fast 2-litre car, it would be difficult to find one which would provide better performance and roadholding and be more of a delight to drive,” we concluded in our road test of 9 July 1954. So who was behind the 8V? Ferrari? Maserati? Lancia? Alfa Romeo? In fact, it was Fiat, a large-scale, mainstream company that was still making the 500 miniature of 1936 and had just launched the 1100, 1400 and 1900 as worthy but stodgy four-cylinder family cars. Why act so out of character? The answer to that ultimately begins with World War II. With Europe in ruins, the US government enacted the Marshall Plan, which provided $13.3 billion (about £136bn today) to rebuild societies and economies. In 1947, Fiat CEO Vittorio Valletta agreed at the Collapse