Volkswagen has overhauled its ID.3 electric hatchback, with a new look, fresh cockpit and more range to fix long-standing flaws. It even gets a double-barrelled name: ID.3 Neo.

While the Volkswagen ID.3 was modified in 2023 with a new front bumper, extra body-coloured panels and plusher cockpit plastics, that was a drop in the ocean compared with this comprehensive update. It introduces new batteries, a 30 per cent more efficient motor and the ability to spot red traffic lights ahead and slow accordingly. One-pedal driving, something VW conspicuously avoided on the original 3, is now offered too.

But you can’t miss the main event, the redesign, which introduces much of the ‘Pure Positive’ design language that shapes the forthcoming, smaller ID.Polo and ID.Cross EVs. The designers have cleverly retro-fitted the brand’s new grille treatment, connecting the headlamps with a light bar containing an illuminated VW logo. Wheels span 18 to 20 inches, with a new supersized rim resembling a Japanese throwing star and named after the ID’s factory hometown of Zwickau.

The Neo also bins the black, with its predecessor’s dark windscreen pillars, roof and rear panel between the tail-lamps all eliminated to trigger a cleaner, more sophisticated look. It makes the ID.3 look less cartoonish but its unchanged, practically one-box silhouette won’t be mistaken for a Golf’s – and that’s why the ID.Golf name remains off limits. 

“[The name change] we were debating the most was the ID.3’s,” VW brand CEO Thomas Schäfer told us at a preview event of all the 2026 VW EVs. “A lot of people tell us: ‘call it Golf’. But it’s not a Golf, so we’re not going to call it ID.Golf. The proportions of the ID.3 are different. The downside was always its looks, especially inside and the materials, and that is now fixed.”

Read more: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen/id3/365486/new-volkswagen-id3-neo-ev-hatch-gets-massive-update-golf-look-and-lots

Diving right into the hotbed of the UK’s biggest selling segment comes the new Kia Seltos. We've been expecting it for a while but now Kia is shedding some new information on the mid-size SUV ahead of the launch in the third quarter of this year.

Launching with a pair of hybrid engine options, this Nissan Qashqai rival has the industry’s biggest sellers in its crosshairs, which also includes Chinese models like the Jaecoo 7 and BYD Seal U.

The Seltos is not a Kia model we’ve seen before in the UK, but has typically done big business in other global markets with its combination of a low entry price and spacious interior. This new generation aims to build on that foundation with even more space, paired with the stylish looks and high-tech cabin Kias are now becoming known for.

The two powertrain options are hybridised to different levels. The first is a front-wheel drive model that combines a 1.6-litre petrol engine with an electric motor and small battery pack to produce 152bhp. No performance or efficiency figures have been revealed so far, but we do know it’ll feature a six-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Read more: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/kia/368444/kia-seltos-arrive-uk-hybrid-and-e-awd-power

The all-new electric Nissan Juke, unveiled today in Japan, is the Japanese back at its “disruptive” best.

That’s the view of Nissan Europe vice president Jordi Vila, speaking exclusively to Auto Express at Nissan’s Grandrive test centre south of Yokohama.

The small SUV – which Nissan calls the third-generation Juke, even though the current petrol and hybrid sister models live on – is marked out by its edgy and modernist exterior design clothing a totally different bodyshell. And this differentiation continues beneath the skin, with the Juke EV having more in common with the marque’s new Leaf crossover, sharing a modified version of its CMF-EV platform. 

Nissan’s new baby will be a rival for small electric SUVs including the Renault 4, Kia EV2, Skoda Epiq and VW ID. Cross. 

Pilot production of the new EV begins this week at Nissan’s UK plant in Sunderland, where it will join its combustion-engined siblings, plus the Leaf and Qashqai, on the production lines. But the car’s commercial launch isn’t until spring 2027, which is why Nissan is keeping much of the technical information – and the interior – under wraps for now. 

“The new Juke is a key model for Nissan Europe,” Vila told us. “We are proud we invented the crossover in Europe with Qashqai and this model helps us come back with a disruptive approach to the segment.”

Read more: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/nissan/juke/361403/new-nissan-juke-revealed-sharp-origami-inspired-design-and-ev-power

It’s an important time for the VW Group’s EV strategy right now, with the first of its long-awaited new sub-£25k small cars being revealed in the form of Cupra’s Raval, and a heavy update to right some of the wrongs of the ID.3 hatchback. 

It seems odd to talk of what’s so bad about Europe’s fifth-best selling electric car last year, but the ID.3, and its ID.4 and ID.5 relatives, are not cars that VW will look back on with much pride. 

The ID.3 nudged the Skoda Enyaq out of the top five by fewer than 600 cars thanks to a December sales push, and was well off the Tesla Model Y and Model 3, Renault 5 and Skoda Elroq – a much better VW Group EV and the reigning Auto Express Car of the Year – sitting above it. 

Despite VW being Europe’s number-one EV seller last year, the ID.3 and ID.4 that claimed the largest share of sales have, to be frank, always been a bit of a letdown. The pretty dire infotainment and low-rent interior quality have ensured they’re not widely loved, despite finding buyers. Even current CEO Thomas Schäfer admits that VW got it wrong, a pretty rare and remarkable confession, which shows a level of awareness required to get on top of the issue. 

Cupra built the more highly rated Born using the same basic pieces as the ID.3, and likewise, the Skoda Enyaq is a much better car than VW’s ID.4 – again from the same starting point. Something had to click at VW sooner or later, and hopefully the ID.3 Neo is the start. Our first look at the car certainly gives the impression of vastly improved technology and interior quality. 

But what comes next is even more interesting. Cupra’s Raval kicks off the VW Group entry into the vital new arena of small EVs currently dominated by the Renault 5. The ID. Polo and Skoda Epiq will also be here within 12 months, ahead of the likes of Kia’s EV1 and the revived and R5-based Ford Fiesta. Sub-£25k chic EVs are going to be everywhere in a few years, and VW has a chance to do a much better job in this market than it did with its larger cars. 

VW building stronger, more desirable cars is good news for drivers, and hearing the firm’s engineering boss talking about getting back to cars the brand “wants to be proud of” makes it sound like it could, for the first time, give the class leaders something to think about. 

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen/369381/reset-begins-now-volkswagen-wont-look-back-id-era-pride

The EQS was Mercedes’ first all-electric limousine, the first car to gain the brand’s ‘Hyperscreen’ dash layout and the first to sit on its EVA platform. Later this year, it’s receiving a mid-life facelift – and yet again it’s introducing some all-new technology, along with delivering some eye-catching headline figures. 

The timing of the revamped Mercedes EQS is a story in itself. The new, all-electric GLC and C-Class arrive this year, but in the wake of their respective rivals from BMW, the iX3 and i3, with all four sitting on brand new architecture. Turning the tide somewhat, the covers have come off the new EQS just weeks ahead of the revised BMW i7, one of the electric Mercedes’ main rivals.

Mercedes has also recently launched the facelifted S-Class, which in its next generation will take over from the EQS with an all-electric variant. The EQS previously received a mild update back in 2024 with a new battery, but this latest model promises even more upgrades to help Mercedes stay at the top of the luxury electric limousine sector.  

Pricing for the 2026 EQS hasn’t been announced for the UK, but in Germany it’ll start from 94,403 euros (around £83,000 at the time of writing). However, we expect there to be an uplift over the EQS’ current UK starting price tag of £99,845 to take it over the £100,000 mark – just like the latest S-Class.

Mercedes says the EQS benefits from “generational leaps forward” when it comes to its powertrain. In terms of range, the previous car saw an impressive jump from 441 miles to 511 miles, which was enough to crown it the longest-range electric car in the world. 

Since then, the Lucid Air has arrived with a 596-mile range, although the American car is not available in the UK. BMW has also confirmed that the upcoming i7 will be fitted with its next-generation cylindrical battery cells, courtesy of Rimac Technologies, to improve efficiency and help it get close to the 500-mile range figure now expected of large, high-end electric saloons. 

The EQS also has a new battery set-up, with 122kWh capacity instead of the 118kWh of before. However, thanks to changes in the battery’s cell shapes and alterations to the chemistry, the dimensions of the battery pack remain the same. The result is up to 574 miles on a single charge – enough to drive from London to Inverness. 

Read more... https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mercedes/eqs/362338/new-mercedes-eqs-facelift-crowned-ev-range-king-574-miles-charge

There’s plenty of new technology in cars these days designed to make our lives easier, such as hands-free boot opening or autonomous self-parking. But Chinese firm Seres is taking things to a whole new level, with plans for – wait for it – an in-car toilet.

Yes, you read that correctly… a toilet, inside the actual car. Patent filings from China show an on-board toilet ‘hidden under the seat when not in use’ that can slide out from underneath the passenger’s seat either physically or through the car’s voice-recognition system. 

Read more: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/369402/chinese-car-brand-patents-car-toilet-when-nature-calls

It’s properly nuts finding a bright green, Italian-registered Aventador filling your driveway each morning, but even that’s nothing compared to finding it being reversed onto your driveway in a snowstorm. I’d been out for a play in my winter tyre-shod Golf and was in my kitchen making a brew when I heard the unmistakable drawl of the Aventador’s V12. ‘It can’t be,’ I said to myself, thinking about how few cars I’d seen out there but, yes, it was Dickie, keeping our appointment to swap cars. 

I was chatting over the fence with my neighbour and he was grinning and shaking his head at the figures – 759bhp, 218mph, £440k… ‘Would I be able to even drive something like this if I ever got the chance?’ he asked. Good question.

The answer is yes. If you could get used to the alien environment – the width and the lack of visibility compared to a regular car – then there’s no reason why not. What makes it possible are power steering, automated gearboxes, and traction and stability control, which make current supercars accessible and exploitable by all of us. Way back in 1990 I had the Aventador’s great grandad on test for a Performance Car cover story: ‘Three days with the Diablo’. It demanded so much effort with manual steering and a super-stiff clutch pedal, and care given that traction control was down to you. If you wanted to enjoy the thrills of that 485bhp, 5.7-litre V12 you had to put the effort in.

To that list of what makes today’s supercars easy to handle you can add immense anti-lock brakes and advances in tyre technology. I was staggered at how much grip the Pirelli P Zero Corsas had when it was wet and close to freezing. The Corsa is not just a summer tyre, it’s a tyre for a summer trackday, with light tread and a compound that needs heat to work at its best (and at least 8deg C to function properly). It shouldn’t work in snow and you’d forgive the Aventador for feeling a bit treacherous on cold, slick asphalt, except that it doesn’t. There was barely a flicker from the stability control light.

I wasn’t brave enough to turn off traction and stability control but why would you? This is not a car you hustle into corners; there’s too much mass behind you and not enough room if the broad tail gets moving. Just get it locked onto the line before squeezing the throttle as much as you dare, because that’s what we are all here for: that huge, loud, monster of an engine is still the star of the Lamborghini show.

Read the story - https://www.evo.co.uk/lamborghini/aventador-svj/206849/i-daily-drove-a-ps440k-lamborghini-aventador-svj-and-its-not-the

Every year since 1988, we’ve tested more than 600 car-care products and accessories, putting them through our rigorous trials to see if they are worth your money. We always look at them from a consumer’s perspective; if a car wax claims to have exotic materials and costs hundreds more than an old favourite, we will see if the difference is visible without having to look through a microscope. 

This year there have been some interesting trends and innovations. We’ve seen the continued surge of bargain-priced tools, treatments and tech from China, mainly sold through online outlets. Most are offered at prices that seem suspiciously cheap. However, we’ve put these through the same tests as the more established brands and have found that some are genuinely good. There’s no denying that others are a complete waste of your cash, though. 

We’ve also seen a surge in car-care chemicals that claim to use ceramic and graphene ingredients, supposedly bringing miraculous benefits and protection – at a price. As always, we let the results of our trials tell the truth.

Below you will see the highlights of the past year’s tests, including in the most popular categories such as tyres, dash cams and pressure washers. The awards showcase the very best in their sectors, judged on their performance, ease of use and value. The Best Buy in each segment is a worthy winner, but you might find one of the Commended products will better suit your needs or budget.  

Finally, our Product of the Year is the top award, given to an innovation that might not necessarily fit into one category, but is something new that has impressed us more than any other. For the first time this year we have included two runners-up as well, because they deserve recognition for innovation and excellence too. Congratulations to all our winners.

Best car products 2026

Scroll down to find our Product Awards 2026 winners in each category...

• Product of the year: Rocket TT
• Best all-season tyre: Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF3
• Best summer tyre: Pirelli P Zero (PZ5)
• Best winter tyre: Continental WinterContact TS870
• Best car battery charger: Draper 12V Intelligent Battery Charger
• Best car shampoo: Bilt-Hamber Auto-Wash
• Best car wash wax spray: Dodo Juice Future Armour
• Best dash cam: Miofive S1
• Best inspection lamps: LAP Inspection Light
• Best leather cleaner: Supernatural Leather Cleaner
• Best pressure washer: Hawksmoor High Pressure Washer 140bar
• Best rain repellant: Gtechniq G5 Water Repellent Coating
• Best scratch remover: Diamondbrite Diamond Cut
• Best snow foam lance: AVA Premium Foam Cannon Kit
• Best snow foam: Bilt-Hamber Touch-Less
• Best trim cleaner: Dodo Juice Total Wipe Out 
• Best trolley jack: Clarke Racing 1.5 Tonne Aluminium Garage Jack CTJ1500QL
• Best wheel cleaner: Bilt-Hamber Auto-Wheel

Read the full story... https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/awards/91484/car-product-awards-2026-very-best-kit-your-car