+++ Next month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed will play host to a major vehicle reveal for French automaker ALPINE . On July 9, the next-generation A110 mule will make its public global debut, with the BWT Alpine Formula One Team to present the car. This includes the team’s 2 drivers: Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto. The third-generation Alpine A110 will be the first to feature a fully electric powertrain using the company’s all-new Alpine Performance Platform (APP). Alpine says the APP makes the new A110 the “world’s first true EV sports car”. Rumors suggest the first model on the APP will have an 800 volt architecture with 2 electric motors positioned at the rear to maintain a 40:60 weight balance. An aluminum construction will help keep the weight down to Alpine’s targeted 1.400 kilogram curb weight, which, combined with active torque vectoring, should ensure it remains fun to drive. While that doesn’t match the current A110’s svelte 1.080 kilogram mass, it’s pretty light for an EV. In addition to the A110 coupe, Alpine is expected to launch a convertible variant, something that was not available in the past generation. The APP will also spawn a larger sports car with a 2+2 configuration, which could go head-to-head with the Porsche 911 at a higher price point. Electric powertrains are the only ones confirmed officially, but Alpine says APP was built to house a gasoline engine if needed. +++
+++ The M3 Touring will live on in BMW ’s Neue Klasse era, in part thanks to unexpectedly high demand in markets such as the US and China. While the M3 saloon is now in its 6th generation, the performance model has only been offered in estate form since the arrival of the G80-generation version in 2021. But strong sales since then have prompted BMW to bring the super-estate back with the next-generation M3, as previewed recently with the Vision M Neue Klasse concept. The current model is powered by a 530 hp twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-6, and a variant of that engine is set to be offered in the next-gen car, alongside a quad-motor pure-electric version. BMW has already previewed a new electric 3 Series Touring and, unlike rival Mercedes-Benz, it has pledged to offer EV and ICE versions of the standard car in estate form, and BMW M sales boss Sylvia Neubauer said the performance version will remain. “The M3 Touring is one of the best models that we have in our portfolio”, Neubauer told. “Normally China is not an estate market at all, but we decided to bring the Touring to China only in the M3 version. So you can’t buy a regular 3 Series Touring there but the M3 Touring is a lifestyle statement. And it’s been a huge success in China and in the rest of the world”. Neubauer noted that the M3 Touring has also been a hit in the US, another market where they don’t offer the standard estate because “it’s a market for SUVs and very big cars”. She added that demand for the model was largely organic. “Our dealers are so happy to have this car, because they don’t have to push it”, she said. “There’s demand, and they’re asking for more and more production, so we’ve been increasing the volume”. +++
+++ HYUNDAI is set to retire the i30 with no direct successor as demand for traditional C-segment cars continues to fall in Europe. The i30 has already been taken off sale in some European markets, but it will soon be axed for good and any replacement is set to take a different form. Asked about plans for the i30’s future, following the unveiling of a new-generation i20 earlier this month, and the launch of the similarly sized Ioniq 3, Hyundai’s Europe CEO Xavier Martinet hinted that no 4th-generation i30 is in the works. “There might be a reason why we don’t talk much about it”, he said of the company’s petrol-powered Volkswagen Golf rival. “The problem is that in this segment the demand is not growing, and it’s also a vehicle that historically was mostly a fleet vehicle, where profit is not so high”. The small proportion of retail sales is not enough to compensate for the low-profit fleet sales, he added, because “the price was lower, so the profits were as well. “When you put everything together, the business case is not extremely compelling”. In recent years, several of the i30’s closest rivals have also been cancelled, including the Ford Focus, Kia Ceed and Renault Megane. Strong-selling models including the Volkswagen Golf, Peugeot 308 and Toyota Corolla continue, but the segment accounts for far fewer European sales than it once did, with mid-sized crossovers becoming the default choice as practical family runarounds. Opel boss Florian Huettl voiced similar sentiments to Martinet recently when he hinted at plans to replace the Astra with a less “traditional” C-segment offering, potentially some sort of cross-over. Hyundai could take a similar route as it looks to fill the gap left by the i30, Martinet suggested: “We might still have some answers coming, but it might be a different answer to the one we’ve got so far. I might be a bit cryptic in my answer, but at some point in time we have to know when to stop and how to do the next generation. This is one of the question marks we have”. +++
+++ JAGUAR is diving headfirst into its electric future with the Type 01: a massive, battery-powered luxury sedan designed to take on the likes of Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Unfortunately for Jaguar, the rollout of its next EV hasn’t exactly been met with unanimous praise. The internet bashed the concept for its Minecraft-like design and the automaker’s, let’s say, unorthodox marketing approach. Regardless, Jaguar pushes on with its new Type 01, revealing its name just a few months before prototypes hit the street. An official debut is scheduled for October. Ahead of what might be Jaguar’s most important debut in the company’s more-than-100-year history, I wanted to speak to the man who spent more than 20 years leading the company’s design department and get his thoughts on Jaguar’s new look and direction. Ian Callum is an industry vet. He began his career in the late 1970s with Ford, before working his way up to lead Jaguar in 1999. Callum left the automaker in 2019 to start his own company, Ian Callum Design. I asked him a difficult question about his former employer: What does he think of the new Jaguar? According to Ian, the new Jaguar (at least, in concept form) lacks one thing: beauty. ‘The Type 00 concept is very bold and it’s very dramatic. It lacks beauty. I won’t deny it’s bold and it’s dramatic; it’s a very extreme proportion. For me, the proportion is too retro… but the extremity is brave. It’s brutal, but it lacks beauty and I think a criteria of Jaguar is to be beautiful. Not to say it’s a bad design, it just lacks that very important element of Jaguar design’. Callum would know a thing or two about beauty. During his 20 years as head of Jag’s design department, he penned some of the most iconic Jaguar designs of all time. Callum brought sedans like the XF and XJ to life, as well as coupes like the XK and F-Type. Callum also came up with the forward-thinking I-Pace, which he still considers one of his greatest designs. His final act at Jag was the gorgeous C-X75 concept. Although it never made it to production, you can still sort of buy one from his company today. For Callum, though, the Type 01’s lack of beauty isn’t the car’s only issue. He believes that the electric powertrain will also limit the large Jag’s appeal as more buyers eschew pricey EVs. ‘I think where the Type 01’s biggest challenge will be is the fact that it’s electric. That’s not an opinion on my part; that’s just a fact of life. If you look at all the electric supercars, nobody seems to want any. People who buy supercars aren’t going to worry about fuel consumption; that’s for sure. They tend to view a certain age group (generally older). They’re not 25-year-olds; they’re 65-year-olds, and they’re of a certain generation where the noise of the engine and the changing of gears is very important to them. That’s not going to continue forever’. +++
+++ LAND ROVER has issued a recall for 250,857 SUVs. They could have airbags that may fail to deploy during a crash. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall report, the vehicles may have a driver-side airbag connector that may develop fretting corrosion over time. If this happens, it can lead to increased resistance in the circuit, potentially causing the airbag to fail to deploy when needed. The recall affects the 2022-2026 Range Rover, 2021-2026 Discovery and 2020-2026 Defender. Affected vehicles will have an illuminated airbag warning lamp that will appear “at least 500-650 km prior to potential non-deployment. Land Rover began investigating a potential issue in August 2025 after noticing an increase in warranty claims related to the airbag warning light. In November 2025, investigators learned that returned clockspring connectors showed signs of oxides present on the pins. The automaker’s engineering team ran experiments to recreate the issue, and it wasn’t until March 2026 that it uncovered the culprit. Land Rover discovered, after completing vibrational rig testing, that normal vehicle articulation could induce corrosion. +++
+++ Developing a new vehicle from the ground up costs a lot of money, money that MITSUBISHI does not have. That’s evident by looking at the company’s latest model, the Eclipse Sportback, which is essentially a rebadged version of the Nissan Leaf. Mitsubishi’s CEO was open about why the company isn’t going all-in on developing new EVs during the company’s shareholder meeting on June 18. Takao Kato said: “The reality is that EV growth has been slowing down globally. Our approach is to address this through collaboration”. Kato-san explained to shareholders that building a bespoke EV for Mitsubishi would require a “massive investment” and if the company was forced to incur significant losses due to lower-than-predicted sales, it would “pose a major management problem”. Fellow Japanese automaker Honda recently opted to scrap its upcoming 0 Series EVs just before they were set to launch, incurring nearly $16 billion in restructuring costs. Such a move would be far more disastrous for Mitsubishi, which sold 883.828 vehicles in 2025 compared to Honda’s 3.396.057. Mitsubishi will announce another EV later this year, built by Foxconn in Taiwan. It’s unlikely that this vehicle will be sold in Europe, but it will be exported to nearby markets like Japan and Australia. Mitsubishi currently sells an EV that uses the Eclipse Cross name, but like the Eclipse Sportback, it is a rebadged model: it’s based on the Renault Scenic E-Tech. Despite being one of the first automakers to offer an EV back in 2009 with the i-MiEV, the vehicle was never given a second generation, and none of Mitsubishi’s other small EVs from the Japanese market were ever brought stateside. Instead, the company has relied on the X-Trail-based Outlander and the Outlander PHEV, which recently got its own reverse rebadge job from Nissan called the X-Trail PHEV. +++
+++ POLESTAR is being forced to stop selling cars in the United States due to new rules targeting Chinese manufacturers, and as a result the brand will now have to pin its hopes on Europe. Polestar is the spin-off brand of the quintessentially Swedish firm Volvo, but both are owned by the Chinese conglomerate Geely, which owns Lotus and Smart, too. The Polestar 2, Polestar 4 and new flagship Polestar 5 are built in China, although the Polestar 3 is made in the US at the Ridgeville plant in South Carolina that also produces the Volvo EX90. The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security denied the brand approval to sell new cars from model year 2027 onwards in the country under its ‘Connected Vehicle Rule’. This currently restricts the sale of “connected vehicles by connected vehicle manufacturers owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of China or Russia, and vehicles using their covered software”. The justification for these rules is the protection of national security, as Washington believes companies from these countries may be compelled to share data or allow remote access to connected vehicles in the US. Curiously, Volvo was granted authorisation from the same government department to continue importing and selling its cars in the US, avoiding the same fate as its sibling. Meanwhile, Ford is in the process of getting a similar exception to the rule in order to continue selling the China-built Lincoln Nautilus. Lotus is in the crosshairs of the US’s anti-China rules, as part of the Geely family, with its Eletre and Emeya being made in China. However, at the time of writing, there’s been no word on whether it will be forced to stop sales, too. Polestar launched in the US in late 2020, and had built up a network of 30 dealers across the country. While America made up a small percentage of the brand’s global sales, Polestar had still managed to shift several thousands of cars there. Thankfully for customers who bought them, the company promised to continue to support customers, including providing access to its service network. It’s also going to sell existing stock of the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 in the US for the time being. The only possible silver lining from this news is that Polestar will now be focusing more of its efforts on Europe, which is by far the biggest market for the brand, accounting for roughly 80 per cent of its retail sales. In announcing the company’s exit from the US, Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller said: “The automotive industry is entering a new phase, based on regional dynamics. Our strategy reflects that, with Europe being our largest growth engine and our plan to manufacture Polestar 7 in Europe. Our record sales in 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 show that we are making strong progress, with several new market launches taking place in Europe this year. In addition, we will continue to invest in markets where we have opportunities to continue to grow, like Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Canada” +++