New Cars

While other models were sleek and streamlined, the Morgan looked and sounded like sports cars were supposed to. But its throaty roar could be a thing of the past, at least on one model, with the 101-year-old company developing an electric low-carbon version of the iconic vehicle. The electric car will be made of aluminium and be powered buy a plug-in battery. Morgan is co-operating with two other British companies, Zytek and Radshape, to produce a concept car which could be seen for the first time at the Geneva motor show next year. In fact two cars are being produced. One will be held back for further engineering research, while the other will be on public view as Morgan decides whether to develop a version which could be put on sale. The project is being backed by a £100,000 grant from the […]

Importing Toyotas to Japan may seem like selling ice to the Eskimos, but that’s precisely what’s in store. In fact, it’s Toyota itself that will be bringing the Avensis back to its home market from its global assembly plant in the UK. Demand for European cars in Japan has got Toyota cashing in on the game, exporting as many as 750 units of the Avensis back to the home country. Since the Avensis holds a similar position to the JDM Toyota Mark X, which is available only as a sedan, Toyota will only be offering the Avensis wagon back in Japan, packing a 2.0-liter four mated to a CVT. Japan, of course, will only be the latest market in which the British-built Avensis will be sold, joining a list of 47 countries worldwide to which some 85% of the units built at the […]

The battle lines are drawn. The race to build Britain’s fastest and most 
powerful production 
car is on. But it’s not McLaren, Bentley or even Aston Martin that aims 
to lead the way. It’s Lotus. During an exclusive gathering at the company’s HQ in Hethel, Norfolk, chief technical officer Wolf Zimmermann told Auto Express of his plans to build a flagship Superleggera version 
of the next-generation Esprit – and we can show you what it will look like in our exclusive images. Bosses held the meeting to face critics of the New Era plan, which in June 2010 revealed five new cars would be launched in five years. As well as confirming the flagship Esprit, Lotus unveiled plans for a city car called Ethos – to rival the Aston Martin Cygnet 
– plus the 2+2 Elite, four-door Eterne and the […]

While Mercedes calls its cars “uber” internally when they want to give them steroids, the British marketing teams at Land Rover are currently considering a “Grande Evoque”, which will fill the gap in the lineup between the compact Range Rover Evoque and the Range Rover Sport. Once again, this is a car that’s being analyzed from a marketing point of view first and then from an automotive perspective, but we’ll let it slide because we like the new design direction the British firm has. According to Autocar, inside sources say that a final conclusion on whether to give the go-ahead or not is close to being reached. Land Rover wants to bridge the gap in price between the range-topping Evoque and the entry-level Sport. The Grande Evoque could be a five-door machine that takes the recently introduced shape and blows […]

The first of McLaren’s 35 dealerships set to open in 2011 opens its doors tomorrow in London’s One Hyde Park. McLaren’s first dealership opens in one of London’s newest and most prestigious developments – fitting for the all-new supercar. Although the MP12-4C is not McLaren’s first foray into street legal super cars it will offer more than four times the sales and service support than it did with the F1 and its eight worldwide dealerships. This time instead of flying a technician to the owner of the car or service center McLaren claims it “is stocking its retail network with a spare of every serviceable part for the MP4-12C.” McLaren calls it “its ‘pit stop’ service concept that ensures fast and efficient repair.” Good thing too because the MP4-12C is the first in a full lineup of carbon-fiber based sports […]

The Mini, inspired by Goodwood, is an exclusive special edition that adds another layer to the MINI brand experience with a generous dose of automotive luxury and exclusivity in its highest form. The MINI, will have only 140 vehicles coming to the United States. The Goodwood MINI has had a close collaboration with the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars design team at the development center of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, England, and has produced a limited-run special edition MINI, whose exterior and interior design is inspired by fine materials and the British luxury car marque’s commitment to absolutely flawless workmanship. “The Mini, inspired by Goodwood is a limited edition model that will combine typical Mini driving fun with discerning craftsmanship,” said Darren Richie, Irvine, Calif., Mini’s General Manager. “We’re excited for its arrival to the U.S and we’re excited to see our Mini […]

According to AutoEvolution.com, despite being ideal vehicles for hairdressers and looking like retro hatchbacks, we actually like the cars that MINI makes. However, there’s always that nagging thought in the back of our minds that they are as British as a bratwurst. There’s still hope though, as MINI recently announced a big investment plan in its plant in Oxford, UK to prepare for production of its third-generation Cooper model, a test mule of which was recently spotted while undergoing road trials. The new model, will be based on a new front-wheel drive platform dubbed UKL, which will be used by BMW for its own range of entry-level hatchbacks. A new Cooper isn’t the only kind of ammo that MINI has ready to load, as the company boss Norbert Reithoffer has revealed to What Car? that a 10 model lineup is […]

Aston-Martin and Maybach are discussing building a concept car together, possibly for the Frankfurt show in September — and the move could signal an impending partnership between Aston 
and Mercedes-Benz. Little is known about the concept, except that it is likely to be a luxury car, with a high-quality interior finished to the hand-crafted standards of a British luxury saloon. Aston is understood to have approached Mercedes with an idea for at least one concept, although a source suggests that two projects are the subject of discussions. Neither Aston Martin nor Mercedes would comment. But Mercedes is understood to be close to selecting a partner to co-develop future Maybach models. In an interview in Germany, Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche recently put a date of “the end of June” for a decision, which is pressing because Maybach needs to finalise replacements for […]

Lotus is doing a bit of rearranging in their kitchen now that plans for the Elan sports car have been placed on the backburner. Apparently, the British manufacturer is using the money that had been set aside for the Elan to develop their very own lineup of V6 and V8 engines. During an interview, Project Boss Dany Bahar said: “This is a big [financial] hit because it’s expensive to do 
an engine,” says Bahar. “But 
because the Elan is not happening now we have got capital expenditure headroom 
for engine development.” The first engine cooking is a V8 that will set up the competition for Ferrari’s V8 engine as seen in the 458 Italia. The new Lotus V8 will deliver between 550 – 570 HP and will undergo testing in July 2011. It will be dropped in the new Esprit […]

Longbridge’s first all-new MG for 16 years has drummed up over £3 million of business in just two weeks – with 180 cars sold. The MG6 has got off to a flying start since the official VIP launch in April, with buyers facing a waiting list of up to six weeks as dealers cope with a flood of orders for new MG model. Sales of the new MG6 follow the relaunch of volume car-making at the Birmingham car factory six years on from the collapse of MG Rover in April 2005, when 6,500 jobs were lost. MG Motor UK PR and Events Manager Doug Wallace said the Chinese-backed company was delighted with the response to the MG6, which sells for between £15,495 and £18,995. “The value of MG6 GT fastbacks sold or ordered is just over £3 million – we […]

The electric version of a Rolls Royce Phantom presented by the British luxury car maker at this year’s 2011 Geneva Auto Show will not spawn any production version, at least not yet, according to the company’s CEO, Torsten Mueller-Oetvoe. In March, when the model was presented, Rolls said it was trying to probe the public’s reaction to an electric luxury car, and only after having enough data would decide whether to build it or not. Now, some three months later, the model has been given the temporary axe, not because people showed little interest, but because the model, at least for now, would make no sense. According to the CEO, since most of the people buying Rolls Royce cars live some great miles away from cities, the limited range current batteries can provide will not help them very much. Meaning […]

SAIC Motor Corporation, the owner of MG Motors, plans to develop several new models for the British brand in order to boost sales outside its home market in China. The Chinese owner of MG Motors has already spent £1 billion ($1.64 billion) to re-launch the MG and Roewe brands (former Rover) and intends to invest another £2.2 billion ($3.6 billion) to achieve annual sales of 700,000 by 2015. In 2010, the two brands sold 160,397 cars, most of which were delivered in China, with only 2,000 units exported to other markets. This past April, MG launched its new mid-size MG6 in the UK, the first new car to be assembled at the British firm’s Longbridge plant in 16 years. The company said that when it completes the development of a diesel version, it will offer the car to rest of […]

MG has shown the new MG3 supermini to UK influencers for the first time – in preparation for a possible 2012 launch of the new British-designed Ford Fiesta rival. Key UK customers, designers, suppliers and industry analysts were invited to a secret design forum at Prodrive’s Warwickshire test facility, to help MG generate initial opinions on how the new five-door supermini will be received. While not yet confirmed for UK sale, MG Motors is very hopeful the supermini will soon get the green light (with assembly over here a strong hope, too). Because of this, the firm has started gathering data, from as broad a cross section as possible. Furthermore, although the basic design of the car is fixed, MG is also seeking comments from UK motorists on what they would like changed. The Chinese-spec left-hand drive show car is […]

A tie up between British car maker Aston Martin and Italian design house Zagato sounds pretty tasty, doesn’t it? Having said that, it isn’t the first time that these two work together. If you have a long memory you might recall they first worked together with the DB4GT Zagato. 19 of these supercars were built, and Stirling Moss rode one to third place at Goodwood in 1961. But this is 2011 and the new model is a complete stunner which would have even Sir Stirling purring in admiration 50 years on from the first car produced by the two companies. It is called the Aston Martin V12 Zagato and is based on the V12 Vantage car. The CEO of Aston Martin is called Dr Ulrich Bez and he said that the Zagato design is a “perfect complement” to the Aston Martin expertise. […]

Land Rovers began rolling off the assembly line Friday at the British brand’s first plant in India since it was bought by the Indian car giant Tata Motors. Parts are still being manufactured at Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in Liverpool, England, but Land Rover Freelander 2 SUV’s are now being built in the western Indian city of Pune. India offers Jaguar great opportunities to build cars for less, Carl-Peter Forster, chief executive officer and managing director of Tata Motors, told reporters. “Clearly, India can be a very attractive sourcing base, an opportunity to source increasingly high quality but lower cost components not only for India operations but for overseas operations,” he said. Forster has already indicated that Indian engineering will also play a role in the design of Jaguar Land Rover engines. Tata bought Jaguar from Ford in 2008 for […]

The opportunity to shape the final design of the next MG car which could be rolling off the Longbridge production line.

Aston Martin has unveiled its new Virage coupé set to be launched at the Geneva Motor Show. The British luxury sports car manufacturer said that the new car, which combines performance with luxury, comfort and refinement, sits between the more basic DB9 and the sporty DBS in the line-up. The model, powered by a 6.0 litre V12 engine in 490bhp trim, features rear-wheel drive through a carbon fibre prop shaft and a six-speed Touchtronic II automatic gearbox. It offers Carbon Ceramic Matrix (CCM) brakes as standard, and comes equipped with features including an improved Adaptive Damping System (ADS) to provide efficient road holding in different conditions. The ADS system chooses from five different stiffness settings within normal mode, and from a further five stiffer settings within sport mode. The sport mode allows drivers to select a sharper throttle response and […]

Just published are the clearest spy images yet of the MG 3, a new supermini that will go on sale in China next year and could make it to the UK in 2012. The small five-door hatch has neat, inoffensive styling – although it falls some way short of the racy Zero concept that was shown at the Beijing show. The MG 3 will offer a choice of four-cylinder petrol engines: a 1.3 producing 67bhp, and a 107bhp 1.5. The standard gearbox is a five-speed manual, although the 1.5 will be offered — in China, at least — with an automatic option. There will also be a diesel; MG owner SAIC is in discussions with a number of potential suppliers. The firm also has a turbocharged version of the 1.5 petrol; with 156bhp on tap, it could form the basis […]