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His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has introduced a new rate for claiming back the cost of using public chargers for drivers who use company-owned EVs.

It follows criticisms that the single-tier system wasn’t matching what they were spending.

From 1 September, drivers will be able to claim 8p per mile for journeys where they charged at home or a higher rate of 12p for using public networks. It’s the first time the Advisory Electric Rate (AER) has differentiated between those two costs.

Both rates will be adjusted every quarter, using the weighted average efficiency for electric company cars over the last three years (currently 3.6mpkWh), domestic energy prices from the Office for National Statistics (27p per kWh) and the Zapmap Price Index for public chargers at 50kW or less (51p per kWh).

The AER’s simplistic approach to charging expenses has been controversial since it was introduced in 2018. HMRC’s single 4p-per-mile rate didn’t change until December 2021, when energy prices began to rise, and only introduced quarterly adjustments in December 2022. 

This compares to the much more granular system of Advisory Fuel Rates (AFRs), which are different for petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vehicles, and each fuel has three rates based on engine size. Those rates also apply to hybrids, including plug-in hybrids.

However, EVs’ efficiency can be just as variable as their combustion-engined counterparts. 

For example, the new Mercedes-Benz CLA – one of the most efficient EVs available in the UK, at 5.0mpkWh – would cost 10p per mile on a public charger, based on the same Zapmap data used by HMRC, compared with 18p per mile for the least efficient version of its stablemate, the EQS SUV (2.8mpkWh).

The public charging AER also doesn’t account for the higher price for using ‘ultra-rapid’ chargers (with an output of more than 50kW), which are now increasingly common at motorway service areas. 

Zapmap’s latest Price Index suggests an average cost of 76p per kWh for using ultra-rapid chargers. That’s almost 50% higher than the AER and equates to 15p per mile for an efficient EV like the CLA so wouldn’t cover the driver’s costs.

Fleets can pay higher mileage rates, adjusted to match what they’re really spending on fuel and charging, but must be able to prove it’s accurate to HMRC. Otherwise the excess can be taxed as additional income. 

Paul Hollick, chair of the Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP), welcomed the announcement, saying: “This is very good news for fleets.

"We’ve been working alongside the BVRLA [British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association] for some time to promote the idea of split public and private charging AER rates and, while it has been a long, long process, we’re delighted that HMRC has listened.”

Audi is priming a track-focused special edition of the RS3 as it celebrates the hot hatch’s signature five-cylinder engine, with the unit under threat from forthcoming EU emissions regulations.

The new variant has been spotted testing on the Nürburgring Nordschleife for the first time ahead of its launch, expected to take place early next year.

It sports several racing-inspired modifications, including a more aggressive front splitter, new canards and a chunkier rear spoiler, intended to maximise its pace on circuit. 

The RS3 prototype also wears a new set of brake calipers, painted blue rather than the standard black, hinting at extra stopping power and the potential of a special colour scheme or livery.

The new car is also likely to bring a significant uplift in power and torque from the 401bhp and 369lb ft of the previous RS3 Performance Edition, the punchiest version of the hot hatch yet offered. 

Sebastian Grams, former managing director of Audi Sport, told Autocar in 2023 that “there's still a way to go” with the five-cylinder engine compared with the RS3 Performance Edition.

Dutch sports car maker Donkervoort previously boosted the 2.5-litre turbocharged unit to 493bhp for its F22 open-wheeler.

It remains to be seen whether Audi will push it that far, but a tangible improvement in output could make the RS3 the most powerful petrol hot hatch on sale, outdoing the 416bhp Mercedes-AMG A45 S.

It's likely that the new RS3 variant will represent one last hurrah for the car and its engine, in similar fashion to 2022’s Audi TT RS Iconic Edition.

The five-cylinder unit has been the RS3’s unique selling point since its arrival in 2011, but Audi previously said the powerplant's production would end when the current iteration of the hot hatch comes off sale.

It is possible that it could be reworked to meet the rules, be it through redevelopment or by way of electrification, however.

In the months after the Dyson car project wound down in 2019, Autocar was invited in for a full debrief and to see the prototype that had already cost £2.5 billion to develop.

Even though the car was ready to go, Dyson baulked at the further cost needed to take it into production and laid bare just how hard it is for a start-up, however well funded, to industrialise a new car and see money roll back in. No wonder Tesla gets so much credit.

Apple kept its own car programme – Project Titan – in development for five years after the Dyson car was axed, but it too was killed off as bosses failed to see how it could ever see a return on its investment. Low-margin, high-cost, hugely regulated cars are not phones or laptops.

Secrecy has always surrounded the Apple project and it was never spoken about publicly. News of automotive names involved in the project were typically limited to LinkedIn profile updates showing Apple as their employer.

Among them was Manfred Harrer, now head of vehicle development at the Hyundai Motor Group (HMG). His CV shows he was senior director of product design engineering while at Apple, but with the NDA still surely fresh in his mind, Harrer isn’t keen to break the wall of silence around it.

Still, here’s a senior exec sitting in front of me who has worked at Apple, a firm lauded for its ability to blend hardware and software. With the car project off the table (I tried!), I ask: more generally, what can the car industry learn from Apple?

“It’s customer first. It’s so customer-centric,” recalls Harrer. “And the attention to detail is extreme.” Such an approach “is kind of inspiring”, and while it’s one that HMG follows, Apple takes it further, which shows “you can do even more”.

That’s just what Harrer is doing. He says: “If there’s something you think is a given, challenge it. You can question it. You can think it through. It’s my personal learning that we can do more on this.”

He admits the amount of extra regulation for cars, compared with consumer electronics products, can make it harder for an automotive engineer to adopt such an approach but, even so, “how the customer looks, thinks and experiences the product” is where car makers really need to focus and can “squeeze out more”.

The ubiquity of smartphones in daily life is impossible for automotive engineers to ignore when developing cars, particularly interiors and usability. Harrer says “it’s not only the size of a screen any more but the responsiveness of the apps”, the data and services behind them, and the ability for updates and bugs to be fixed.

“Our children are growing up with this… It doesn’t matter if it’s Samsung or Apple: to bring this experience to the car is the expectation.”

While the world isn’t getting an Apple car, its impact on automotive development is being felt.