Yes, I've been caught speeding but don't dare tell me I can't drive just because I'm old: JENNI MURRAY
I can't do public transport any more. I have a disabled badge, which means parking is generally possible and, without my Mini, how would I nip round the corner to get my nails done or down to town for a haircut? How would I get to Barnet for lunch with one son or Bournemouth to see the other?
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Reuters
13 minutes ago
- Reuters
McLaren to auction 2026 F1 car before it has been raced
LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Champions McLaren claimed a first on Thursday by announcing the auction of one of their 2026 Formula One cars before it has even been raced. The F1 car, which will be driven by Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris, is one of a trio of future chassis offered by McLaren in the December 5 sale organised by RM Sotheby's ahead of this year's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The other two are a 2026 Arrow McLaren Indycar, to be raced at the Indianapolis 500 next May by Mexican Pato O'Ward, and McLaren's inaugural 2027 World Endurance Hypercar that will compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. McLaren Chief Executive Zak Brown said the auction would be the first time a future Formula One car had been sold before it had been unveiled to the public. The as-yet unnamed 2026 car, likely to be the MCL40 after this year's MCL39, will be the team's first for a new era in Formula One with a big change in technical and engine regulations. The successful bidder will have to wait until 2028 to take delivery, with a 2025 show car offered on lease until then to the buyer who will also have behind the scenes access to the team and events. The other cars will be delivered after the respective series have ended. McLaren are the only team to have won the 'Triple Crown' of the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans and will try to add to their success when they return to endurance racing in 2027.
Telegraph
38 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The punitive diesel pickup truck tax coming for Britain's farmers
While sales of demonised diesel cars continue to plummet in the face of large tax rises, there is a strange blip in the market which has seen a surge in popularity for some of the largest and most polluting vehicles – pickup trucks. However, this blip is set to slip in the face of new taxes, sending pickup sales crashing. But is it fair, and how can those who genuinely need these versatile vehicles drive one without picking up a whopping bill? The reason for their popularity was a simple tax loophole. Pickups with a payload of more than 1000kg were classified as commercial vehicles. That meant the Inland Revenue would only charge a flat rate for the perk of having the vehicle for personal use, the same as applied to any van. As that flat rate would include any accessories, many drivers would choose a pickup as their company car, ticking the box for the most expensive model, laden with the largest capacity V6 (or larger) engine and every optional extra. These four-door, five-seater 'double cab' variants have all the practicality of a large SUV and can cost £65,000, although their owners will have been paying the same tax as a florist with an ageing Fiesta van. 400 per cent tax increase But now the loophole has been closed. Since April 2025, double cab pickups are classed as cars for company drivers, which means they are taxed based on the official exhaust emissions. This inevitably puts these heavy, bluff-fronted vehicles in the highest taxation category and means the keeper could experience a tax increase of more than 400 per cent. On the big-selling Ford Ranger Wildtrak, for example, a higher rate 40 per cent taxpayer will now be faced with a bill of £8,322 per year rather than the £1,608 they would have paid previously. It's about time, say some campaigners, who have long thought the loophole was being used by drivers who had no need for a pickup and yet were paying less company car benefit tax per year for driving a 3.0-litre diesel truck than they would for a 1.0-litre Fiat 500. The Green Party's Jenny Jones says: 'It's clear that some drivers were using the tax benefits intended for genuine businesses to subsidise their choice of the most polluting and inefficient diesel pickups. It is reasonable for the tax system to recognise that and encourage people to switch to more efficient vehicles. 'Genuine business users who need a pickup will still have access to tax concessions, while the new increasing number of electric and hybrid commercial vehicles offer more sustainable alternatives for everyone.' Genuine business users But inevitably it has gone down badly with those who feel they need a double-cab pickup for their business – particularly the farming community, who are already feeling victimised by other punitive new taxes. The National Farmers' Union deputy president David Exwood says: 'Farmers and growers rely on double cab pickups every single day to go about their farming duties and there are few vehicles that can be used as an alternative. This means that, if plans to reclassify them as cars are not changed, many will face an unaffordable tax. This will add to the financial burden farmers are already straining under and hinder our ability to produce the nation's food.' To try and placate the business users and soften the blow, the Government has given an unusually generous transition period. Any business which bought, leased or ordered a double cab pickup before 6 April 2025 will be allowed to keep the old tax rate until 5 April 2029, even if the truck is allocated to a new driver. However, if it is sold or the lease expires, the new owner won't get the same tax benefit. Are they really cars? The rules also only apply to double cab pickups, which have seats behind the driver. The official HMRC guidance categorises a vehicle as a car if it 'has side windows behind the driver and passenger doors […] particularly if it is fitted, or is capable of being fitted, with additional seating behind […] the driver'. This means the more utilitarian vehicles used by the largest businesses will not be affected. Filip Czajkowski, spokesman for one of the biggest pickup makers, Isuzu, says: 'We've not seen a major difference in sales following the April benefit-in-kind tax changes. A major part of our customer base is fleets, where the vehicles are only used as work vehicles, with no personal use, so the tax doesn't apply. These will be the major energy providers, rail maintenance et cetera.' Other makers are taking a different route, reflecting what's happening in the car market by introducing hybrid or even pure electric double cab pickups. Ford's new plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Ranger is seen as particularly competitive because it maintains the 3,500kg towing ability of the diesel version. This is essential for many users, who love a pickup's ability to effortlessly haul everything from horseboxes to racing cars. Hybrid and full electric The new Ranger PHEV has official emissions of 68g/km – less than the 1.0-litre Fiat 500 mentioned earlier – based on the fact it can be plugged in and cover some miles on electric power rather than using its 2.3-litre petrol engine. That means it is taxed at 19 per cent compared with the diesel's 37 per cent, slashing the tax bill from £8,322 to £4,191 for a higher rate payer. If that's still too much, there is the full electric route. Isuzu has revealed an EV version of its popular D-Max, with the first customer deliveries due in early 2026. The tax bill for the 2026/27 year will be only £1,123 for those 40 per cent payers, although the trade-off is a range of only 163 miles – and much less if you are using its 3,500kg towing capability. We will be spared the 'ultimate' electric pickup in the UK, however, Tesla's massive Cybertruck is not legal to drive on British roads due to its size, weight and sharp-edged bodywork. There are also no plans to bring Ford's six-metre long, three-tonne F-150 Lightning electric. Which is just as well – it would be ironic if the tax aimed at ridding British roads of big, bling pickups resulted in an influx of even larger and more ostentatious models.
Auto Express
42 minutes ago
- Auto Express
New baby Range Rover EV on the way and it could look like this…
A groundbreaking, mid-size electric Range Rover will go public in early 2026, bringing JLR's four-year new model drought to a spectacular end. This Range Rover EV – not to be confused with the electrified version of the flagship Range Rover, which comes to market at a similar time – will introduce a fresh design language and tech plumbed into a brand-new vehicle architecture known as EMA (Electric Modular Architecture). Advertisement - Article continues below Think of it as a pure-electric 4x4 to sit alongside the current Velar, which will continue in production at JLR's Solihull plant. But the EMA-based car will not be called Velar, underlining its differentiation, and it'll be built on a revamped, hi-tech production line at the Halewood factory on Merseyside. The electric Rangie, which is set to rival the new BMW iX3 and Audi Q6 e-tron, will be similar in size to the existing Velar. However, if you can't wait for it arrive next year, you can buy a new Range Rover Velar via our Buy a Car service. Alternatively, used Range Rover Velar models are available from as little as £16,000. JLR has pumped £250million into Halewood to prep it for EMA, adding a new electric body-assembly building and ensuring the circa 4.8m-long SUV can be trimmed and painted on revised production lines. The company has boosted its paint shop's capacity to deliver more contrasting roof colours, for instance. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below The facility will paint a car that introduces a new-generation Range Rover design. Photos of prototype test vehicles reveal a form that's even sleeker than the Velar's. The relatively low roofline slopes dramatically downwards and the glasshouse is thin relative to the sheet metal, creating a coupé-SUV look. Industry whispers say the design – which ups the ante for Range Rover modernism and minimalism – is quite distinct from the Velar's. Advertisement - Article continues below It's a dramatically different vehicle under the skin as well. 'EMA is our next architecture for medium-size vehicles,' said former JLR CEO Adrian Mardell when the firm announced the chassis in 2023. 'Originally conceived to be hybrid, it's now only going to be fully electrified. At least three different vehicles, maybe four, will come off the EMA platform.' But much of what goes into EMA – the battery, electric drive units, thermal management system and clever software – emanates from the flagship Range Rover Electric. Sources say the size of hardware will shrink on smaller SUVs, but its fundamentals will 'plug and play' across the range. The batteries – initially to be prepared in the Midlands but later assembled at JLR parent company Tata's £4billion Gigafactory in Bridgwater, Somerset – are a case in point. The prismatic cells fit snugly together, enabling them to be packed into rectangular modules and scaled up in batches to create a range of powerpacks. Their 'cell-to-pack' design cuts some of the framework housing the battery, which saves weight and cost, and enables more cells to be crammed into each module. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below But unlike some Teslas and BYDs, the pack is not 'cell-to-body', where it doubles up as the floor structure to shave off more mass and boost rigidity. The upcoming Range Rover Electric has a 118kWh battery: the EMA SUV will need downsized battery packs of around 100kWh and 80kWh if it's to match the long and standard-range offers of premium rivals. These should endow the mid-size EV with ranges comfortably topping 300 and 400 miles, aided by sophisticated thermal management. JLR reckons its new system offers a 40 per cent efficiency boost over its first EV, Jaguar's 2019 I-Pace. It can recover heat at –15 degrees Celsius to warm the cabin, and clever software continuously evaluates and manages battery temperature, bringing it to the optimum level for charging. Advertisement - Article continues below And the 800-volt electrical system should enable ultra-rapid DC peak charging of 350kW, to top up the battery from 10-80 per cent in as close to 20 minutes as possible. JLR says its electric motors were developed in-house, after scouring suppliers for 18 months and failing to find tech suitable for both low-speed off-roading and high on-road efficiency. The Electric Drive Units (EDU) are permanently excited synchronous motors, linked to a highly efficient, heat-resistant silicon carbide inverter that rapidly switches the battery's direct current into AC for the EDUs, then reverses to harvest energy from regenerative braking. One EDU spinning each axle – with a combined output of 542bhp and 850Nm of torque – provides the optimum propulsion for the flagship Range Rover, the engineers say. Such high outputs would be near the top end of the EMA performance spectrum. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below It's not clear yet whether the EMA Range Rover will be strictly all-wheel drive, or whether JLR might introduce a long-range, single-motor version which would dovetail nicely with the car's sleek, road-biased silhouette. Carefully honed aerodynamics will help extract every mile of range, and a single-pedal driving mode will maximise regenerative braking. Nonetheless there won't be any compromise with the brand's off-road performance. The Range Rover Electric has the firm's customary Terrain Response to optimise the all-wheel drivetrain and chassis to tackle sand, grass, gravel and snow, plus crawl over rocks, and wade to the combustion car's 900mm depth. Advertisement - Article continues below Since the advent of the electric development programme more than five years ago, JLR's engineers have been excited by the precise control offered by electric motors, which can instantly deliver high revs, with braking at each individual wheel to control slip. The firm's Integrated Traction Management software can detect and eliminate slip 100 times quicker than a mechanical system, with an EDU's fast response so much better at getting on and off the power than a combustion engine. An all-new electronic architecture, bristling with sensors and computing power, is critical to this off-road performance. And it will bring on-road benefits too, with the Electric Modular Architecture primed for Level 2+ assisted driving. That will likely include hands-off motorway driving and sophisticated autonomous parking support. Connectivity enables Over The Air (OTA) updates and features to be added to the car. EMA is said to be optimised to maximise interior space and comfort despite the sloping roof, with the driving position offering Land Rover's trademark commanding view. Production is scheduled to start in spring 2026. The current Velar – with its petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid engines – costs from £55,000. Expect its EV cousin – with its tech and electric drivetrain – to come in closer to £65,000. Since the pandemic, JLR has been quietly prepping for a new-model offensive. The exciting introduction of EMA means things are going to get very loud, very soon. Now you can buy a car through our network of top dealers around the UK. 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