Cars

Ford's best-selling Puma has gone all-electric. With 574-litres of storage, instantly recognisable Puma looks and a lot of standard kit, will the sub-£30k model also also top the EV sales charts? This is Money's Motoring Reporter Freda Lewis-Stempel has been driving the Puma Gen-E in Spain to find out if it has all the required ingredients to be a volume seller.

When you hear the words 'classic car' your mind drifts away typically to think about iconic models from yesteryear like Silver Birch Aston Martin DB5s, jaw-dropping E-Type Jaguars and mid-century Ferraris. Motors that probably don't jump into your head are Peugeot 309s, Renault Espace MPVs or Seat Ibizas. But these cars are among twelve that earn 'historical vehicle' status this year. So, which ones are genuinely collectable?

Lotus proposed restructuring could see 270 jobs gone from its Hethel factory as sports car demand falls and US tariffs make exporting to the US extortionate. Owned by China's Geely Group, Lotus is a low-volume car maker facing challenging times as it transitions to making electric sports cars.

The 'E-Sauna' is powered by the E-Transit's built-in Pro Power Onboard system, meaning it can be deployed virtually anywhere without the need for external power hook-ups. The bodywork of the battery-powered van has also been given a special touch - a daring paint scheme mirroring the cedar-clad interior. The vehicle, which combines the 'versatility of commercial vehicles by tapping into the growing wellness trend' is already touring Britain.

General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis - parent group of Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Chrysler - have been left particularly vulnerable to Trump's 25% import levy on cars, according to market analysis by UK-based automotive intelligence company Jato Dynamics.

The Prime Minister has dramatically watered down the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans, and provided more lenience to manufacturers tasked with meeting binding EV sales targets set out in the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Want to know what these changes mean to you? This is Money has outlined five major updates that will impact British drivers, from an extension to hybrid availability, diesel vans on sale until 2035 and supercars getting a stay of execution.

A digital billboard erected outside a Jaguar Land Rover dealership in London threatens to renew tensions between the two companies that have been at legal loggerheads in the past. The poster shows a muddied Ineos Grenadier bumper-to-bumper with a sparkling-clean Defender, accompanied by the slogan: 'Let's take this outside'. Explaining the advert, Lynn Calder, CEO at Ineos Automotive (pictured), said: 'We've held our tongues while winning the court cases over and over again, and we feel it's now time to set the record straight: we're not them and we're not trying to be them.'

Industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said 357,103 new passenger cars were registered in the UK in March. That's 39,317 more than were delivered in the same month last year and the most since the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 69,313 EV sales in March is also a new record volume for a single month.  However, pure electric cars still only represented 19.4% of deliveries, which is well short of binding sales targets demanded by ministers in 2025.

The Institute for Public Policy Research said the President's new levies on UK-made cars entering the United States will put 'extreme pressure' on Britain's car makers and 'threaten jobs and economic growth'. With one in eight motors produced in Britain last year shipped to America, these are the brands that are set to take the biggest hit.

Some 13,775 drivers have cast their verdict on what is the UK's worst motorway. And the one that's detested most in the huge survey with 40% of votes might not come as a huge surprise, even those using it on an infrequent basis.

From 1 April 2025, buyers of new petrol and diesel cars are being clobbered with doubled first-year VED rates, while EV owners no longer benefit from car tax exemption and be forced to pay towards Treasury coffers for the very first time. In fact, most owners of cars new and old will feel the pain of Labour's tax raid on motorists this year. This is Money details all the changes to car tax - just find the section relating to your motor based on its age to find out how much you will pay for VED compared to last year.

Marking 'the end of an era', the last Vivaro van came off the production line at 12.18 on Friday, lowering the curtain on 120 years of vehicle-making at the Bedfordshire factory. Vauxhall's parent company Stellantis had announced the closure of the factory in November 2024, confirming that 1,100 jobs would be at risk.

More than five years after Brexit, ministers say they are in the process of determining which of 19 safety systems required for models sold in Europe since last summer are 'right for Britain', despite UK motorists describing the features as 'dangerous, distracting and useless'.

Worse it yet to come for British car makers following Donald Trump's announcement on Wednesday that he will slap 25% tariffs on all foreign-made motors arriving in the US in a bid to spur domestic business and protect jobs. Four in five cars built in the UK are exported overseas - and the US is the second most common destination. One in five cars made in Britain last year were shipped to the US, the SMMT confirms.

Nissan will reintroduce the Micra name as a pure EV later this year, shortly followed by a third-generation Leaf. And a new battery-powered Juke is coming in 2026. This mega-release of new electric models has been announced as the legacy car maker is said to be on the verge of collapse with the suggestion it only has just '12 months to survive' following a downturn in sales triggered by a rise in popularity of cheap Chinese alternatives.

The Chancellor's car tax sting on EVs from 1 April will have major cost implications for buyers of new battery cars costing over £40k. That's because they will fall foul to the Government's 'expensive car supplement', which will force drivers of these motors to fork out a whopping £425 in additional vehicle excise duty annually over five years. To avoid Rachel Reeves' EV tac raid, here's six of the best options across different categories, all of which sit below the £40k threshold.

Motorists who leave renewing their car insurance to the last minute are paying £164 more, on average, than those who renew 26 days earlier, according to new data. We have compiled the day-to-day changes in price over a month into a graph, revealing the wild fluctuations you can expect to pay for exactly the same insurance cover when using a price comparison website.

City cars are the ideal solution for drivers needing compact runarounds that are cheap to buy and run and who rarely cover long-distance journeys. They too are incredibly popular among young drivers due to their combined ease of use and ultra-low insurance costs. But motorists wanting a vehicle of this description with a petrol engine under the bonnet are already faced with incredibly limited options on the market. We investigate why...

There are over 3.2 million cars and vans on the road that should of been recalled and fixed between 2018 - 2023 but dealers have failed to keep track of customers and warn them. New research from Auto Data Solutions has called it 'the biggest wake-up call yet for dealers to begin taking the maintenance of customer databases more seriously'.

At the end of 2023, I bought a new Land Rover from a Jaguar Land Rover dealership near my home in Essex. It cost £88,000 and I agreed to pay £1,340 a month over 58 payments. In early September this year, it developed a fault where the boot wouldn't open at all. More concerningly, the car's doors then stopped locking. I only bought the car a year ago, and in that time it has been away being repaired for more than three months. I don't think this is acceptable for such an expensive car.

Speaking to This is Money, global chief exec Thierry Koskas (pictured inset) said: 'We want some of our iconic models to further lift the Citroen brand. We have a fantastic heritage - including models like the DS and the 2CV.'

One of the numerous complaints drivers have about electric vehicles is they're boring and all a bit samey. But nobody's told Renault, which plans to sell an EV 'beast' with jaw-dropping performance as it prepares the return on an eighties icon. The French car giant has confirmed the Renault 5 Turbo will return in 2027 as the 5 Turbo 3E 'mini supercar'. Each will be hand built, predominantly carbon fibre, outrageously fast and likely cost a stellar six-figure sum - if you can get your hands on one that is.

Motorists have been warned that they face getting stung by huge penalties if they make this one crucial mistake when using a supermarket car park. The rule varies from store to store so drivers need to make sure they check parking signs thoroughly to avoid a PCN.

Are we in the new age of EVs? Mercedes new CLA coupe is priced the same as the hybrid and will give you 492 miles of range for around £40k.It's also promised to be the 'cleverest car Mercedes has ever made'. It'll go on sale later this year.

US-owned Ford is axing thousands of jobs in Europe, including 2,100 in the UK, where it is led by UK boss Lisa Brankin (pictured). The prospect of more cuts at Ford came as Britain's main motor industry body warned the Government that botching the switch away from petrol and diesel cars risked further factory closures and job losses.

After VW's design boss Andreas Mindt (inset) said the German auto giant is reintroducing physical controls in forthcoming models because 'it's a car not a phone', we look at the other brands who are returning to analogue controls having listened to customer feedback.

In terms of EV models, numbers have grown from 37 at the beginning of 2020 to a whopping 132 different options by the end of 2024. It means a third of new car variants are now battery powered. With experts predicting the EV landscape is set for 'rapid, continued expansion and diversification' over the coming months, we reveal who has accelerated their electric car transition most in the first half of this decade.

The Jaecoo 7 is the latest Chinese car to arrive in the UK. It's a fraction of the cost of other premium SUVs, starting from under £30k and topping out at just over £35k. But is it any good? Freda Lewis-Stempel drives it from Scotland to England to find out.

Auto Express examined which car brands have the most complex infotainment systems. The test, which focused on how drivers interact with the systems while on the move, ranked the screens based on how distracting they can be. It found that Skoda has the easiest to use out of ten mainstream brands while a luxury manufacturer's system was found to be the most difficult to operate, with some task taking four times longer than in the Skoda model.

Volvo is looking to a future without estate cars, turning its back on what has become a 'niche' body shape that dates back 70 years in the Swedish company's heritage. With the manufacturer synonymous with the station-wagon body, traditionalists are bound to be unhappy with the move.

In letters sent to over 26,000 affected owners of the family car, which has been on sale since April 2020, the company said: 'Ford engineers are developing new software to remedy this potential condition,' which it says could trigger battery thermal venting and 'potentially result in a vehicle fire, increasing the risk of injury'.

With prices typically cheaper than well-known mainstream car firms from Europe, Japan and Korea, should you be seriously thinking about buying a Chinese car now? We've exclusively teamed up with Auto Express to answer the pressing questions you likely have. This ranges from how ethical it is to own a car built in China, address concerns regarding spyware technology, cover recent insurance issues and explain what makes them so affordable.

The popular brand has been wielding the axe on some of its most recognisable combustion-engine model names in recent years as part of its ongoing efforts to switch to EVs. After the Mondeo was scrapped in 2022, the S-Max and Galaxy MPVs discontinued in 2023, and the Fiesta also resigned to history, this is the next car Ford will turn its back on...

Bosses have promised nine new EVs to transform its line-up, with the ID.1 seen as the 'last piece of the puzzle'. And it will be the least expensive piece too, with the car maker stating it will come with a starting price low enough to be Britain's third cheapest EV if it went on sale today. VW has likened its impact on the market to the iconic Beetle, saying it will 'enable affordable mobility for millions of people with compact and likeable cars'.

While deliveries of new petrol cars slipped by 17.3% last month, there was a 41.7% surge in sales of EVs. As such, electric cars represented one in four new motors entering the road in February. The SMMT said the growth in demand was 'unsurprising' as private buyers brought forward EV purchases to avoid Labour's tax changes coming in two months' time. Find out how Rachel Reeves' new vehicle excise duty rules from 1 April will effect electric car owners and future buyers.

A one-of-a-kind Aston Martin is being offered for sale for the first time ever - but the car is more Oddjob than 007. With an asking price of around £500k, you might expect it to be one of the iconic marque's limited edition high-performance supercars or a motor featured in a blockbuster Bond film. Instead, it is a repurposed Toyota city car with more power than you could imagine - or ever need! Dubbed 'the world's smallest supercar', it has a 430bhp 4.7-litre V8 engine from a V8 Vantage S forced into its dinky engine bay. The 'Super Cygnet' is a unique creation by the British luxury vehicle maker's Q Division that has never been recreated since, making this a genuine one-off motor.

Experts backing the study say the report 'shatters long-held myths' that the premium price of battery cars cannot be offset by cheaper maintenance and servicing costs over a typical ownership period. Here's how much it says you could save on average if you bought an EV in 2025...

Factories built 71,104 cars and 6,908 commercial vehicles in January, down some 16,800 units on the same month in 2023, the SMMT confirmed Thursday. The trade body said there was a slower than expected rollout of new models as manufacturers responded to 'softening demand in the UK and other key markets'. It comes just days after Aston Martin confirmed 170 job cuts and BMW announced it has delayed bringing electric Mini production back to the UK next year.

Rachel Reeves has been warned of a £8billion black hole in the Treasury's tax revenues in five years' time as Brits make the switch to electric cars. The Government's climate advisers piled fresh pressure on the Chancellor to consider alternative levies to address lost receipts from fuel duty. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) found, if fuel duty stayed at the same rate as today, revenues would be about a third lower in 2030 compared to 2023. Fuel duty has been frozen for 15 years in a row with Ms Reeves joining previous Tory governments in keeping the rate the same at her first Budget in October last year. But, with Labour pushing for a ban on the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, the Chancellor faces a scramble to replace the revenue that fuel duty raises. Ms Reeves is being urged to consider a 'pay-per-mile' scheme, which would see drivers charged for every mile they drive regardless of how they power their cars.

A review of 323 comprehensive car insurance products revealed that only 68% cover this very easy mishap that happens to thousands of drivers each year. The research highlights why drivers need to check the quality of car insurance policies, as well as the price.

The £366,500, two-seater, Ferrari accelerates from rest to 62mph in just 2.95 seconds and to 124mph in 8.2 seconds, before topping out somewhere beyond 211mph.

This is Money's Freda Lewis-Stempel takes a tour of the new 2025 Tesla Model Y - so what are the updates, how much will it cost and which versions can you buy? Watch to find out and to see if the new Model Y is the electric SUV for you.

A recent report concluded that the 'days of EV costing significantly more than fossil fuel models are over' after analysing the second-hand value of cars. We reveal examples of used electric models with values well below a performance-equivalent petrol from the same maker.

In 2023, it was announced the Mini brand would be made all-electric by 2030 with production due to start in Oxford in 2026. In the meantime, its latest electric models - including the new Cooper and Countryman - are being produced in China as part of a deal struck with Far East giant, Great Wall Motor. But due to 'multiple uncertainties facing the automotive industry', the BMW Group said it is now rethinking the plan to bring EV production back to Britain next year.

With petrol and diesel prices showing no sign of dramatically falling anytime soon, filling up at forecourts is set to be a strain on finances in 2023. That's why learning 'hypermiling' techniques will benefit all drivers. This is the name given to a series of energy efficient measures motorists can put into practice to save petrol, diesel or electricity (if you own an EV). Here's our top 10 hypermiling tips.

The UK saw a 37% increase in the number of EV charging points in the UK last year, the latest figures from the Department for Transport and ZapMap shows. On-street chargers in particular saw welcomed growth of 36 per cent, making it easier for those who don't have access to home charging.

Logic would suggest that electric cars should be less likely to breakdown because they have fewer mechanical moving parts than a traditional petrol or diesel model. But does this theory really work in practice? Here's the countdown of the 10 EVs you can rely on - and three that suggest faults could occur and trigger breakdowns as well as high repair bills.

Some changes to Vehicle Excise Duty were announced last year during Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Autumn Budget statement in what were dubbed a stealth tax on petrol and diesel cars. However, other new rules affecting EVs were confirmed back in 2022 by the previous Tory Government and will be retained by the current regime. This is Money has detailed the three main updates to car tax that will hammer the wallets of the nation's drivers.