Car review

Skoda attempts to bring Enyaq brilliance to the smaller end of the SUV market Even if you’re wedded to car news, the onslaught of new models from various manufacturers might appear bewildering. To be clear, then, this forthcoming Skoda Elroq is the company’s smallest electric SUV.Think of it as the electric equivalent of the Skoda Karoq, which, for all you ICE fans, remains on sale.

Peugeot opens up the seven-seat electric car market with a 311-mile, sensibly sized new SUV Seven-seat electric cars have been in short supply for some time. Other than a handful of fairly short-range, van-based options, the Mercedes-Benz EQB had the market to itself for a few years, with the bigger Kia EV9 only arriving last year. And now the new Peugeot e-5008 has joined the fray.Based on Peugeot parent company Stellantis's new STLA Medium platform, the third-generation 5008 comes as a 1.2-litre petrol hybrid, a 1.6 petrol plug-in hybrid (with an electric-only range of 48 miles) or a full EV, which we're focusing on here.Called the e-5008, it has a nickel-manganese-cobalt battery of either 73kWh or 96kWh in capacity.If range is your priority, then the big-battery version will arrive in early 2025 with a WLTP range of up to 410 miles. Deliveries of a dual-motor 73kWh model will start at a similar time, with 311 miles of official range, despite having four-wheel drive and 318bhp.The single-motor 73kWh model will likely be the biggest seller. It's turning up this summer and manages the same 311 miles of range (although all of the WLTP figures are yet to be finalised).Charging speeds max out at 160kW, which is claimed to be good enough for 62 miles of range in 10 minutes or 20-80% in 30 minutes. Not bad, but also nothing that’s going to worry Tesla, Kia or Hyundai.

Nissan's mould-breaking electric hatchback closes in on its dotage by pitching to steal buyers from the Chinese brands The second-generation of the pioneering Nissan Leaf electric hatchback is now fading slowly towards retirement. It inherited quite a legacy from its mould-setting predecessor, which became the first truly globally sold, mass-produced, all-electric vehicle of the modern era when it entered production in 2010. It wasn’t until 2020 that even the mighty Tesla could eclipse the Leaf’s tally of commercial success, when the Tesla Model 3 finally overtook it for cumulative sales of any single model. To date, more than 650,000 ‘Leaves’ have been sold the world over since 2010; one in the eye for the Renault Zoe which, while more popular in Europe, itself never made it through the half-million-unit mark.Nissan replaced the jelly-mould-like first-generation car with this sharper-looking second one in 2017; and, at the time, the improvements it made on its forebear (battery range went up by 50%, motor power by 40%, and torque by 25%) looked sizable. It went further still and launched an ‘e+’ version of the car in 2019, which pushed electric range up as far as 239 miles.Such is the pace at which the mass-market electric car has advanced since then, however, that the Leaf now offers notably less performance, battery range and rapid charging speed than key rivals; and so it has been forced to compete for business at the budget end of the class, the larger-batteried version of thecar having been discontinued in 2023.While local UK production of the car at Nissan’s Sunderland factory wound up in March 2024, enough dealer stock exists to see the car through the rest of this year and into 2025. So is there still some rational appeal to find in this electric old-stager?

Chinese-owned MG celebrates the marque's centenary with a hard-hitting, multifaceted electric roadster MG was established, all the way back in 1924, specifically for the production of sports cars - yet the last time an all-new sports car bearing the famous octagon emerged, your correspondent wasn’t even born. As such, this MG Cyberster is very significant indeed. Further to that, MG under Chinese ownership has been totally transformed as a brand into a maker of budget-conscious family cars, with until recently not even a pretence of sportiness. Further again, this is the first electric sports car priced within reach of the ordinary enthusiast. MG is launching the Cyberster in celebration of its 100th anniversary. The idea actually dates back to 2017, when a group of designers at the SAIC studio in London sketched a modern vision of the iconic MG B. They weren’t told to do this by the high-ups; it was a passion project. Indeed, the project was nearly cancelled several times as it progressed, especially during the trying pandemic years.But when SAIC chairman Chen Hong saw the enthusiastic reaction to the dramatic concept at the 2021 Shanghai motor show, he approved it for production instantly. Who said the public’s voice is never heard?

The new Leon wants to become a standalone, bespoke Cupra with a series of targeted updates. Is it? The Cupra Leon is no longer a rebadged Seat with fancy trim. At least that’s what Cupra wants you to think. What once was Seat’s performance arm has broken a little freer of the mothership and developed the Leon as a standalone product with its own driving character, technology and options.How is it trying to achieve this specifically? In a few ways; partly because it is one of the first cars in Cupra's line-up, along with the new Formentor, to receive the brand's new design language with a shark-nose front end and triangular matrix LEDs, but also because of an "environmentally conscious approach to performance" - achieved with more sustainable materials during manufacture - and new interior technology.At the same time, the Leon is trying to grab a larger share of the performance car pie. The arrival of a brand new 329bhp engine and 268bhp plug-in hybrid (up 27bhp from before), with the option of front- or four-wheel drive, pure combustion or electrically assisted power. This increased focus on performance comes as competition in this sector of the market gets tougher than ever, not least because parent brand Volkswagen offers the similarly-conceived Golf GTI, Honda the brilliant Civic Type-R and, as a true alternative, Hyundai's equally tremendous Ioniq 5 N; a car which we’ve awarded five stars.We’ve previously road tested the 306bhp four-wheel-drive estate and found it to be fiercely quick but lacking some involvement, while the hybrid’s 1.4 never felt at home in a performance derivative.The Leon, then, will need more than just a facelift to convince us that it is worthy of purchase over a Volkswagen Golf GTI, but also that it can stay at the top of the class as the old one did.The Cupra Leon range at a glanceOne of Cupra’s intentions with the new Leon was to simplify its engine and trim line-up, but it seems to have made things slightly more complicated by adding more trim levels and various tunes of the same engine.The hatchback is always front-wheel drive and is powered by a four-cylinder engine, either a 2.0-litre with 295bhp in the five-door hatch or 329bhp in the estate, or a 1.5-litre petrol available as standard with 148bhp or 268bhp in plug-in hybrid guise. The estate comes with either the front-wheel-drive hybrid or the more powerful tune of the 2.0-litre with four-wheel drive. A six-speed manual is available only on base 1.5 mild hybrid trim, while a six-speed automatic and seven-speed DSG auto is available on cars higher in the range.There are no less than seven trim levels – V1, V2, V3, VZ1, VZ2, VZ3 and VZ First Edition – but not all engine and trim combinations are possible.