2024 Volvo EX90: electric SUV a work in progress?
Here is a car that should make sense as an EV. With zero sporting intent, it matters less that it is heavy and more that it is quiet, which it…
The idea here is that those not yet ready to go full EV should still have the chance to buy a flagship BMW that will waft around on electrons most of the time and cost very little to tax. I thought its all-electric brother the i7 was the best large EV I’ve driven, better by a distance than its Mercedes EQS rival, but, as a plug in, I think Benz’s rival S 580 e poses a far tougher challenge.
For a start the Merc really will do almost 70 miles before the petrol motor fires up – in the BMW that figure is nearer 45 miles; also BMW seems to have firmed up the M760e, perhaps to justify that M badge, degrading the i7’s superlative ride just a touch. If it’s any better to handle in the corners I neither noticed nor particularly cared: whatever the badge says, it’s just not that kind of car.
None of which is to dismiss it. Behind those dreadful looks still lies far and away the most convincing generation of 7 Series BMW since the very first, which was still around when I got into this game in the late 1980s. You can spend hours – literally – configuring the interior to your smallest requirements, but when stripped back to what actually matters, it reveals itself to be an eerily quiet, spacious, well-appointed and still fabulously comfortable car. The interaction between its electric and petrol motors is superb too. But if forced to make a decision, I’d still have an i7. AF
Here is a car that should make sense as an EV. With zero sporting intent, it matters less that it is heavy and more that it is quiet, which it…
Actually, the fact it’s the Spider version is not of any great concern. For those who are interested, the roof costs almost exactly £20,000, can raise or lower in just…
This might be the most-late review of an important new car that I’ve ever written. And there is perhaps something to be learned in that. This new ultra-high-performance estate with…
To say the current generation of VW Golf is doing less well than that which preceded it is putting it mildly. Ten years ago VW was selling a million Golfs…
The most fun I’ve ever had driving an electric car was not in the 939bhp Porsche Taycan Turbo S referred to in my column in this issue, but a couple…
Monterey Car Week is now one of the world’s premier automotive events – and a brilliant 2024 showing demonstrated just why
The Quail’s 2024 edition proved again why its concours, exhibits and auctions are becoming so popular – there are few out there to match it
Rudi Klein’s legendary Junkyard set – featuring some of the world’s rarest cars and thought possibly to be the greatest private collection on the planet – is now going up for auction
It always felt a bit like making Usain Bolt run the 100m in Doc Martens. Here was something superior to anything else out there, yet which was being held back…
Rumours about how the Porsche 911 was going to address the environmental concerns of the modern era long pre-date even the outgoing first generation of the current 992 series, launched…
This is more of an amuse-bouche report prior to the proper review I’ll write later in the year because I only drove the new, heavily revised Continental GT in prototype…
Having felt something of a lone voice in my disappointment for the hot Alfa saloon since introduction in 2017, I’d been told by colleagues I respect that the apparently minor…