Category Archives: NEW CARS

NEW CARS

Škoda Peaq Spied: The Brand’s Biggest, Boldest EV Yet Is Almost Ready

Škoda is about to do something it’s never done before: launch a true flagship. And not just any flagship—a three-row, fully electric SUV designed to drag the Czech brand into a new, more premium orbit.

Meet the Peaq, a seven-seat electric SUV that’s been caught testing in Arctic-grade winter conditions just months ahead of its official debut. If the name sounds aspirational, that’s the point. This is Škoda aiming for the top of its own food chain.

Born from 2022’s Vision 7S concept, the production Peaq is shaping up to be the electric equivalent of the Kodiaq—only bigger, bolder, and far more ambitious. It will sit above the Enyaq in both size and price, lining up against a growing class of three-row EVs like the Peugeot e-5008 and Mercedes-Benz GLB, while undercutting pricier options such as the Kia EV9 and Volvo EX90.

A Concept That Actually Made It to Production

Spy shots from Sweden reveal a vehicle that looks surprisingly faithful to the Vision 7S. Sure, the surfaces have been smoothed and the edges softened, but the Peaq’s proportions—tall, long, and wide—remain unmistakably flagship-grade.

Škoda’s clever camouflage tells an even better story. Instead of the usual black-and-white swirl, the Peaq is wearing body-colored panels shaped to mimic the smaller Enyaq, hiding what’s underneath. But look closer and you can still see the truth: slim LED daytime running lights, a tall upright nose, and a wide lower grille that echoes the concept car’s rugged, tech-forward face.

Around the sides, the camouflage continues along the sills and C-pillar, trying to hide a design that appears to keep the Vision 7S’s distinctive rear side window treatment. Translation: this thing will look more futuristic and more assertive than any Škoda before it.

Built on VW’s EV Backbone

Underneath, the Peaq rides on Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform—the same architecture that underpins the Enyaq, Elroq, and dozens of VW Group EVs. That means big battery options, long range, and enough floor-mounted lithium-ion cells to keep seven passengers comfortable on a road trip.

Expect a flat floor, generous legroom, and a cabin engineered around Škoda’s traditional strengths: space, clever storage, and family-friendly usability—just with a lot more screens and a lot less gasoline.

A New Price Bracket for Škoda

Here’s where things get really interesting.

The Enyaq currently starts just under £40,000, but the Peaq will go higher—possibly much higher. Škoda’s leadership has already confirmed it will be the brand’s most expensive model ever, pushing into territory the company has never occupied.

But Škoda insists it won’t abandon its value-for-money roots. The idea isn’t to be cheap—it’s to be the best deal in the segment. That means undercutting luxury rivals like the Volvo EX90 while offering more space and practicality than similarly priced competitors.

In other words, Škoda wants to be the brand that makes premium-sized electric SUVs feel attainable.

Why the Peaq Matters

The three-row EV segment is still thin. Most electric SUVs top out at five seats, and families who need more space are still being forced into gasoline or hybrid alternatives. Škoda sees that gap—and it’s going straight for it.

Internally, the Peaq is more than just another model. It’s a statement that Škoda is ready to grow up, charge more money, and still convince buyers they’re getting a smarter deal than anyone else offers.

If the production car delivers on what the spy shots suggest—and if Škoda keeps the price in check—the Peaq could become one of the most important electric SUVs in Europe when it lands later this year.

And for a brand built on quietly clever cars, this might be its loudest move yet.

Source: Škoda; Photos: Autocar

NEW CARS

Bluebird Aero: How a Jet-Powered Featherweight Is Chasing Britain’s Next Speed Record

There’s something deeply British about trying to go absurdly fast in something that looks like it escaped from a kid’s downhill derby. The Bluebird Aero is exactly that kind of beautifully unhinged machine: a jet-powered, composite-tubbed, 47-kilogram projectile built by a tiny team of engineers who think 100 mph is a reasonable target for something that barely weighs more than a sack of cement.

This is not a car in the way we normally use the word. It has no engine in the traditional sense, no drivetrain, no gears, and no illusions about being practical. It’s a land-speed record weapon, inspired by the legendary Bluebird machines of Malcolm and Donald Campbell, scaled down to soapbox size but infused with aerospace thinking.

At the center of it all is Russell Annison, a veteran of the Bloodhound land-speed-record project and a former Lola wind-tunnel specialist. Alongside CAD wizard and driver Matt Sadler and brakes guru Adam Rogers, Annison has created something that looks simple but is anything but. The Aero’s carbon-fiber and aluminum-honeycomb monocoque traces its lineage directly back to a Lola gravity racer built for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2013. That car was all about minimal drag, and the Aero inherits that obsession.

With a drag coefficient of just 0.22 and an ultra-small frontal area, the Bluebird Aero cheats the air like a racing bullet. Which is a good thing, because its propulsion comes from something equally ridiculous: a 2.8-kilogram gas-turbine jet engine built by JetCat, a German firm better known for powering radio-controlled model aircraft. Spinning at up to 123,000 rpm and delivering 17 kilograms of thrust, the little turbine fires a 700-mph jet stream out the back. It’s loud, violent, and wildly inappropriate—and that’s the point.

In May 2024, Annison strapped himself into the Aero and set a record at 55 mph for a prototype dual-propulsion electric-and-jet vehicle. Even more impressive than the number was the way it got there: the car was still accelerating after the jet was shut down, proof that the aero efficiency is doing some of the heavy lifting.

Now the team wants nearly double the speed. With new 3D-printed dive planes increasing front-end downforce under braking, Annison believes the power is already there for a near-100-mph run. The real enemies now are stability and tires. Yes—tires. The Aero currently rides on Schwalbe bicycle rubber, which is very good at being round but not so great at being asked to survive speeds normally reserved for highway traffic.

Under the skin, the Aero is an engineering jewel box. The bicycle-sourced disc brakes are water-spray cooled. The fuel tank is a bespoke welded aluminum unit. The low-pressure fuel system is designed specifically to reduce fire risk in what is, essentially, a rolling jet engine wrapped in carbon fiber.

If everything aligns, the team hopes to make another run in May—exactly two years after their last record. That timing isn’t accidental. It would coincide with the long-awaited return of Donald Campbell’s restored Bluebird K7 jet hydroplane to Coniston Water, the site of his fatal 1967 attempt to exceed 300 mph. In other words, it would be a week where British speed history gets a very loud encore.

But the Bluebird Aero isn’t just about one team grabbing one number. Annison wants to turn this into a competition. His goal is to challenge students and young engineers to build their own rival micro-record cars and go after the mark. The Aero itself already travels to schools as a rolling STEM ambassador—a 100-mph physics lesson with a jet engine.

In an era when the car industry is increasingly about software, subscriptions, and sterile efficiency, the Bluebird Aero is a reminder of something more visceral: speed as a pure engineering problem. How light can you go? How clean can you slice the air? And how fast can you make something that, on paper, shouldn’t even exist?

A 100-mph soapbox shouldn’t make sense. That’s exactly why it does.

Source: Autocar

NEW CARS

MINI Is Prepping a More Rugged Countryman for the Great Outdoors

For most of its life, the MINI Countryman has played the role of urban adventurer: all the rugged styling cues, none of the muddy consequences. But that may finally be about to change.

The current third-generation Countryman—known internally as the U25—is still a fresh face, yet MINI already seems eager to push it into new territory. With production expected to stretch into the early 2030s, the crossover’s runway is long enough for some genuinely interesting variations. And now we know at least one of those variations will try harder to live up to the “country” part of its name.

MINI has already dipped a toe into the outdoorsy waters with the Countryman Rugged Edition in South Africa. It’s a mostly cosmetic exercise, featuring chunkier General Grabber AT3 all-terrain tires and a few visual upgrades, but underneath it’s still the same soft-roading crossover. The real news came not from the spec sheet but from the design studio.

Speaking with Motor1, MINI design boss Holger Hampf all but confirmed that something more serious is in the pipeline. He pointed to a growing desire for “outdoor activity and independence—freedom that the car has always given us,” adding that we’ll “certainly see some of that in the next couple of years.” In MINI-speak, that sounds an awful lot like an off-road-leaning Countryman.

Don’t expect locking differentials and rock-crawling heroics. The Countryman is still a unibody crossover, not a ladder-frame bruiser, so it won’t be squaring up against a Jeep Wrangler anytime soon. But a factory-built “adventure” trim—complete with a raised suspension, protective cladding, standard all-wheel drive, and real all-terrain rubber—would go a long way toward making the Countryman more than just an REI catalog on wheels.

MINI has flirted with this idea before. The rally-inspired Countryman X-Raid and the Dakar-themed concepts proved that the shape and stance work surprisingly well when you lean into the rough-and-tumble aesthetic. The U25 platform could take that formula and finally make it showroom-ready.

And MINI isn’t alone in this push. Its parent company, BMW Group, is also gearing up for its most ambitious off-road move yet. A standalone three-row SUV, internally known as the “Rugged” project and codenamed G69, is slated for a 2029 debut and is reportedly aimed at heavy hitters like the Land Rover Defender and Mercedes-Benz G-Class. It won’t be quite that hardcore—but it should be more trail-capable than any BMW that’s come before it.

In other words, the BMW empire is discovering dirt. And if MINI’s upcoming Countryman variant is any indication, it plans to enjoy every muddy mile.

Source: Motor1