Car.co.uk Weekly News - May 14 2021

The new VW Polo GTI expected in June 2021

Another edition of weekly automotive news. Highlights include - Volkswagen has teased the new Polo GTi which will get its official debut in June & Land Rover has launched a HST version of its Evoque with sporty design bits and a 300 hp motor.

The Mercedes-Benz Citan small van has been popular with everyone from tradespeople to rental companies for years and a new one is on the way later this year. This week though, Mercedes revealed its concept EQT, an electric leisure vehicle that also hints at what the new Citan could look like. The EQT heralds the look of the upcoming new new T-Class models, a range of MPVs that are designed to be practical and styl-ish. 

The concept is fully electric and even includes a clever electric skateboard charging dock in the boot, per-fect if you just happen to be Tony Hawk. It can take up to seven people with loads of flexibility when it comes to seating and storage plus it’s really cool panoramic roof makes it all look rather light and spa-cious. It’s also got plenty of modern tech and could be a snazzy solution for active, trendy families.

If space is what you’re after then the clue is in the name with the new Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace. The popular Tiguan was updated last year so really the seven-seater version is just a bit late to the party. There are a few design changes but mostly it’s about more tech with new touchscreens, LED headlights and driver assistance systems. 

Space is also a feature of the new Genesis G70 Shooting Brake revealed this week. With Hyundai’s luxury brand launching in the UK next month, this follows hot on the heels of the saloon and SUV we showed you last week. Before anyone gets pedantic about it, yes, technically a shooting brake should only be a three door and this is really just an estate, but you know, marketing and all that. We’ve given up arguing the point. So the G70 Shooting Brake will be a full five-door with loads of interior space and luxury. Unlike the new Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo, the Genesis won’t be electric, at least not yet.

What will be electric though is the new Subaru Solterra. Yes, Subaru has a brand new model, the first in for-ever it seems. The battery-electric SUV will sit on the new e-Subaru platform, although that doesn’t tell the whole story because the platform is a joint development with Toyota. We haven’t been told much else about it, but there’s plenty of time for us to find out before it launches in the middle of 2022. 

Land Rover has added yet another Range Rover Evoque derivative this week in the form of the P300 HST Edition, so-called because it has 300 hp using both a 2.0-litre Ingenium petrol engine and some mild hybrid technology. Priced from £50,440 it features a number of design changes to make it look more sporty, kind of like the Range Rover Sport HST, but not. 

If you’re after something sporty then we’ll wrap up this week’s news with a teaser from Volkswagen, this time for the new Polo GTi. The facelifted Polo had its reveal a few weeks ago so of course a GTi was ex-pected to follow. More details will be revealed when it makes its debut in June around the time that the big GTi Wörthersee event would traditionally take place in Austria. No confirmed date for its arrival in the UK but we expect it’ll be here towards the end of summer. 

 

Written by Mark Smyth