We’ve assessed what will be on the road this year and these vehicles are the best of the best – from the Renault 5 to the Audi A6 e-tron
Gazing into the year ahead is always fraught with danger, most notably that 12 months later one will be proved spectacularly wrong. Yet it wouldn’t be a particularly risky, Nostradamus-like prediction to suggest that the issues that plagued 2022 will persist. So, the current shortage of vital components will keep impacting the supply of new and used cars, and the consequent high prices will continue.
The new Euru 7 emissions regulations will start to affect the price and the complexity of new combustion-engined cars so that the meeting point between the price of battery and combustion cars looms ever closer. Perhaps we’ll all be choosing to drive battery cars long before their petrol and diesel counterparts are banned in the UK; perhaps not…
The other thing we’re going to see next year is a glut of Chinese-produced cars, sold under their own badges or those of existing European car makers. Chinese firms tend to make rather grandiose claims about delivery dates, but of all of those we’ve seen and driven it’s the BYD Atto 3 with its lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology that has impressed the most.
Most of the Chinese-made vehicles are aimed at the family crossover market, where price takes precedence over the badge, so think of Geely’s Lynk & Co, Shanghai Automotive’s MG brand or Great Wall Motor’s Ora brand and its Funky Cat as typical contenders, although only MG is calling its pricing strategy “disruptive”; a phrase calculated to send chills through the bones of non-premium giants such as Ford, which has a couple of family crossovers to launch next year, or Opel Vauxhall.
Then there are the Chinese-made cars sold by European brands, including the new Smart, new Mini and Volvo’s XC60, S90 and forthcoming small SUV models. Europe’s carmakers have called for tariff protection against what looks like Chinese cars sold at near to or even below the cost of production (known as dumping), but while the European Union has been quick to slap anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese-made electric bicycles, I wouldn’t expect any action against cars produced in China despite the damage they could potentially do to Europe’s car makers, as well as automotive jobs and investment.
Tariff protection would be difficult to frame and enforce and would be seen as inflammatory to Sino-European trade relationships. Moreover, since European carmakers are unable to produce soon-to-be mandated battery cars at the sizes and prices that ordinary folk can afford, these cheap Chinese battery-electric machines are a way of UK and European legislators justifying their monomaniacal battery-at-all-costs strategies. Oh, the things we give away in the name of the environment…
The other thing that might come under more scrutiny is battery-car range; well, certainly at The Telegraph. Not only are the WLTP range tests completely hopeless for battery cars, but even within these figures, in real-life testing, some cars do well while others do appallingly. Again, our technically illiterate Government hasn’t understood the ramifications of battery-car efficiency or miles per kilowatt hour.
So, the Chancellor’s new VED charges on electric vehicles take no account of the efficiency of each car, which provides no incentive for things to get better. For you, the buying public, battery range (particularly in cold weather) amounts to capability you’ve paid for but aren’t getting. It’s a rip-off that we’re going to be all over throughout 2023 – watch this space.
The top 10 best cars coming in 2023
Mini three-door
No full or plug-in hybrids and no diesels, just a Chinese-built electric version and a Cowley, Oxford-built combustion-engined version. They have distinct chassis platforms, but Mini reckons they should offer a similar driving experience (we’ll be the judge of that!). Nevertheless, the new car will be shorter than the current model and, as always with Mini, smaller is better.
Fiat Panda
Heavily influenced by Fiat’s innovative Centoventi concept of 2019 (pictured), the new Panda is expected to be a no-nonsense battery electric city car priced from about £22,000. It will be sold alongside the bigger and better-provisioned electric 500, while there’s expected to be a larger SUV Panda as well.
Lotus Emira
Deliveries are going ahead, but of fully signed-off press evaluation cars there has been no sign so far. Some are saying the Emira, billed as Lotus’s last-ever combustion-engined car, is nothing but a development of the old Evora with a £72,000 price tag. But since the Evora Sport was one of the finest handling mid-engined cars ever, that’s not such a bad thing, is it?
Audi A6 e-tron
After the Q6 e-tron comes Audi’s first battery-electric saloon (albeit with a coupé-style roof) aimed at a market carved out by Tesla and more latterly BMW with its excellent i4. With up to 100kWh from its battery, A6 e-tron prices are expected to start at about £50,000 for the rear-drive version with a quattro 4×4 to follow. Let’s see what they can do…
Polestar 3
Billed as the “performance SUV” (and so it should be for £80,000-plus), this has a total output of 483bhp and 620lb ft of torque from its twin-motor, four-wheel-drive drivetrain along with a claimed range up to 379 miles. The 3 is a marker of this Geely of China-owned firm’s desire to enter the premium big time.
Kia EV4
With several awards, not least the 2022 European Car of the Year title under its belt, it’s fair to say the Kia EV6 has done pretty well. Its little brother, the EV4, promises to be just as impressive, but smaller and more affordable – expect it to be about the size of Kia’s Sportage SUV and more upright than the swoopy EV6 – yet it will still feature fast charging and a long range. If it’s anywhere near as good as its bigger sibling, expect it to be another award winner.
Renault 5
Meet the crest of Renault’s so-called “new wave” – the first of several retro-inspired, fashion-conscious electric cars. The 5 apes its supermini namesake of 1984-96, with cute, boxy looks that will set it head-to-head with the Fiat 500 and Honda e and should have a beautifully finished interior – and there’s even the tempting prospect of an Alpine-badged performance version.
Honda electric SUV
Honda’s switch to electric got off to a lukewarm start with the cute-but-pricey e; it will be hoping this electric SUV, likely to sit between the e and the hybrid HR-V SUV in size, will take it into the mainstream. But while the new SUV will share a platform with the e, expect the looks to be quite different; a toned-down version of the Honda SUV e:Concept the company showed at the Beijing motor show in 2021.
Kia EV9/Hyundai Ioniq 7
Seven-seat EVs are thin on the ground at the moment, but that won’t be the case for long. This year, Hyundai and Kia will both launch their first electric seven-seat SUVs.
As with their hybrid equivalents – the current Sorento and Santa Fe – they’ll share a common architecture. And like the upcoming EV4, you can expect the same class-leading technology we’ve already seen in the Ioniq 5 and EV6 – and, hopefully, some clever packaging to maximise interior space, as suggested in the concept shown here.
Volvo EX90
A new name for an old hand: joining the Hyundai and Kia on the seven-seat SUV market will be this, the EX90. As the name (and styling) suggest, this all-electric model will eventually replace the existing petrol and diesel XC90; expect, therefore, a super-plush interior, a suite of cutting-edge safety equipment and a smooth ride. Do, however, be prepared to wince at the near-£100,000 price.
