Bentley Bentayga S Review Is This Iconic Luxury SUV Still the Benchmark in a...
The world has changed around Bentley's 10-year-old SUV, but it doesn't really care It’s all in the details. The little CGI model of the Bentley Bentayga on the driver display has indicators and brake lights that illuminate when their real counterparts do, the sound insulation under the bonnet is quilted and you press the B in the rear badge to open the boot. Neat. The Bentayga is all about occasion. Transplanting the cross-country luxury credentials of the Continental GT and Flying Spur into a hulking SUV silhouette, it quickly became Crewe's best-selling model when it was launched, and remains so a decade later, having been recipient of many important technical and visual upgrades in the intervening years.But time marches on, and with the Continental GT and Flying Spur both recently receiving an extensive round of updates – which most importantly introduced a new V8 PHEV drivetrain – and Bentley poised to introduce a radical new design language, beginning with its landmark debut EV next year, the Bentayga is starting to feel like something of an outlier.So, as a new generation surely looms on the horizon, let's take stock and see how the Bentayga stacks up in today's luxury car market. With Bentley’s goliath W12 engine retired, the Bentayga is now available exclusively with the choice of a 449bhp V6 plug-in hybrid drivetrain, or a pure-petrol twin-turbo V8. The ICE car touts a generous 542bhp and 568lb ft as standard, or a colossal 626bhp and 664lb ft in the range-topping Bentayga Speed - which no longer uses Bentley's long-lived W12 but more than compensates for the missing four cylinders with outrageous firepower and explosive, supercar-baiting pace.Beyond those three motive options, there's a characteristically mind-boggling array of special editions, trim packages and personalisation options to choose from across the Bentayga line-up, including the option of the gigantic, 5.3m-long extended-wheelbase variant. But for as representative an overview as possible, we're testing what is roughly the mid-point of the range (it's all relative, at circa £200,000): the handling-focused Bentayga S, which promises "extra sporting agility" (it's all relative, at 2.4 tonnes) and is marked out by a performance-flavoured makeover that majors on sporting appeal, with black exterior trim, a beefy exhaust and lashings of carbonfibre inside. 
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Tata’s Finance Chief Steps In as JLR CEO Amid Turmoil and Electric Car Uncertainty
Not much is known about PB Balaji, but he could be the safe pair of hands that JLR needs
The appointment of Tata’s highly experienced chief financial officer, PB Balaji, to replace Adrian Mardell as CEO of JLR will always be remembered for the extraordinary intervention of US president Donald Trump.
The 47th president claimed, out of the blue and without the slightest justification for such incendiary remarks, that Mardell was leaving “in disgrace” and that Jaguar was in “absolute turmoil”.
If Balaji (pictured below), JLR’s first Indian CEO, didn’t already know he was facing a tough assignment, he certainly does now.
The sheer speed of the Balaji announcement makes it clear how anxious the Tata parent board must have been to get its hands directly on the reins of its cash-cow British subsidiary, which has recently been generating up to two-thirds of Tata’s total group revenue.
Balaji’s appointment was confirmed on Monday, just four days after Mardell’s departure announcement, even though JLR had originally intimated, with the mock calmness of routine corporate announcements, that the identity of a new CEO would be announced “in due course”. It is now perfectly clear that Tata felt there wasn’t a moment to lose.
There had already been ample warning that JLR’s recent excellent financial results were about to be torpedoed in the latest quarter by a dearth of Jaguars to sell and by the ill effects of rising US tariffs (which forced the brand to stop US exports in April amid the uncertainty). The latter looks especially serious since the Discovery and best-selling Defender are made in higher-tax Slovakia, not alongside the Range Rover in lower-tax Solihull.
It was also clear there would be no abatement in the new electric Jaguar turmoil of the past nine months, given that the Type 00 concept design was continuing to prove highly controversial and the recent news that the launch of production models would be postponed (along with that of the Range Rover Electric) because of a feared lack of demand for luxury EVs.
Whatever the shortcomings of outgoing CEO Mardell and his even more controversial predecessor, Thierry Bolloré, PB Balaji seems to have a rock-solid pedigree. He has run the Tata Group’s finances since 2017 and is credited with righting a corporate ship that was listing dangerously when he took over, an achievement that has brought a healthy rise in Tata’s share price. It is still to be established whether he can be classed as a 'car guy' in the way of Ratan Tata, the group’s patriarch, who led Tata’s acquisition of JLR 17 years ago.
JLR sources say Balaji has been involved in the management of the British operation “for many years” and well understands the intricacies of the Reimagine strategy revealed with Bolloré. That does not prevent him making changes, however. One of the fascinations of the near future will be watching whether (and how) JLR’s shape changes.
So far, Balaji has had nothing to say about his future plans and little is known of his management style. But his record speaks of proven competence at managing difficult situations, a commodity JLR looks like needing in spades.
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Vauxhall Frontera Electric Extended Range Delivers 253 Miles for Under £28K
Bigger battery for chunky little crossover EV adds up to 67 miles of range per charge
Vauxhall has added a new Extended Range version of its new Frontera Electric crossover, offering up to 253 miles per charge for less than £28,000.
The longer-legged version of Vauxhall's Ford Puma Gen-E rival switches the standard 44kWh battery for a 54kWh pack that adds up to 67 miles between charges on the WLTP test cycle.
It uses the same 111bhp, 192lb ft front-mounted motor as the 44kWh car, giving a 0-62mph time of 13sec and a top speed of 88mph.
Peak charging speed is put at 100kW, which Vauxhall says will give a 20-80% charge in 28 minutes.
Available to order now from £27,495, the 54kWh Frontera has been priced well under the £37,000 threshold for the UK government's new Electric Car Grant (ECG).
It hasn't yet confirmed whether any Vauxhall models will be eligible for the grant, but the technically identical Citroën e-C3 Aircross, which is built alongside the Frontera in Slovakia, was among the first models to be added to the scheme.
It was deemed eligible for the lesser grant of £1500, making it likely that the Frontera Electric will be likewise.
The Frontera is now available with a choice of two electric powertrains – priced from £23,995 – or as a petrol-engined hybrid that produces 99bhp (for £24,225) or or 134bhp (for £28,165).
UK deliveries of the Frontera Electric had been scheduled to begin in the spring but have yet to commence. Autocar understands the car will arrive later than planned due to delays in the production ramp-up.
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Lotus Evija Redefines Speed as the Most Powerful Production Hypercar Ever Tested
This is the most powerful production car we've tested - and it wears a Lotus badge Between all the talk of more layoffs and even a UK factory closure, Lotus Cars Ltd could do with a good news story right now. And it just so happens that the headline performance car project that Hethel itself has been working on for the past five years is at last ready for the scrutiny of the Autocar road test.So, when you need to cut through the noise and remind the world what your brand is capable of, you can always hand over the most powerful hypercar yet delivered into series production and let Autocar fix satellite timing gear to it. That ought to do the trick.Finally, and after a rather protracted gestation, the Lotus Evija has landed. This road test will aim not to concern itself with whether, philosophically or strategically, it is the right kind of car for Lotus to have made at all, how many it has sold, or how close to its production-run target of 130 units its maker is ever likely to get in light of the hypercar-buying public’s apparent lingering ambivalence towards megawatt EVs.Here and now, we will simply pore over this stunning hypercar, survey its design, interrogate its habitability and usability on the road, and witness the outer limits of its dynamic capabilities on track, as only the Autocar road test can.Spoiler alert: those are quite some outer limits. By the time we’re finished here, your idea of what ‘fast’ looks like in terms of numbers on a page – and what it feels like from the driver’s seat – might never be the same again.
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