It’s versatile and likably unpretentious but won’t be a default fleet pick

PLUG-in hybrid cars, depending on who you believe, are either a wasteful technological dead-end or a sensible compromise and valuable stepping stone to pure-electric vehicles. The truth, as ever, is m

ESSENTIALS Volkswagen Golf GTE Price: £40,140 Powertrain: 1.5 4cyl plug-in hybrid, 268bhp 0-62mph: 6.6 seconds WLTP efficiency: 196mpg Official EV range: 81 miles Annual VED: £620 Toyota Prius Excel P

As the fortunes of their opposite numbers from the Fast East have risen, European volume car makers have had it tough. While consolidation of ownership has given some a lifeline, others have simply fo

THE COOPER S WAS A SOGGY effort and this isn’t any better. You can forgive a hot hatch appalling ride but when it’s on top of a transmission that’s hard to gel with, an uninspiring soundtrack and impr

Engineers don’t like plug-in hybrids. It’s the ‘two engines rather than one’ factor, and all that extra associated ballast. Marketing types have always liked them, though – dare I say, because they un

It was probably fate for the current version of the Volvo XC90, the vehicular embodiment of pragmatism and rationality, to steadfastly refuse to die. Why would it, after all, if it could still be usef