News

Toyota is looking at building the GR Corolla hot hatch in the UK in a bid to cater to massive demand in the US.

According to a new report from Reuters, the Japanese company is considering spending £41 million to establish a new line at its factory in Burnaston, Derbyshire.

The factory already produces the regular Corolla hatchback and estate for the UK and mainland European markets. The new line would give it the capacity to build around 10,000 examples of the GR Corolla annually, for export to the US, Reuters said.

The publication added that Toyota’s Motomachi plant in Japan – the so-called GR Factory, responsible for output of the GR Corolla, GR Yaris and GR86 – is currently at full capacity. It assembled 25,000 cars last year, of which around a third were Corollas.

Burnaston already has a ready supply of Corolla bodies and ancillaries and that makes it a “natural choice” to accommodate additional production of GRs, Reuters said, citing a Toyota insider.

Although the plan to boost GR Corolla production through the UK has not been informed by US president Donald Trump’s tariffs, the decision surely benefits Toyota on that front.

The US currently charges a tariff of 25% on all cars imported to the country from abroad, including Japan. However, the UK recently agreed to negotiate a deal that will cut the fee for its exports to 10%, within a national quota of 100,000 cars. Final details have yet to be confirmed but at present Toyota would have to pay a smaller fee on UK-built GR Corollas than those from Japan.

The prospect of adding production in the UK also lends weight to the possibility that the GR Corolla – currently offered in only a handful of markets, including the US and Japan – could be set for a launch in Europe.

Prototypes were last year spotted testing at Germany's Nürburgring, hinting at a launch. A spokesperson suggested it was standard procedure to test global products at the circuit but did not deny the prospect.

Toyota currently sells the GR Yaris and the GR Supra in Europe, the GR86 having been killed off in that market (including the UK) by the European Union’s GSR2 safety regulations. The Supra is soon to follow.

Regardless, the reported plan to produce GR Corollas in the UK will come as welcome news to staff at the Burnaston plant, which last year built its five millionth car since opening in 1992.

A spokesperson for Toyota told Autocar that the company could not comment on the report at this time.

The new Volvo XC70 plug-in hybrid has been outed ahead of its official debut, courtesy of new images published by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Earlier preview images gave a good idea of the reborn XC70's design, confirming that it would morph from high-riding estate into full-blown SUV, but these new images show just how closely it will be related to the larger XC90.

It measures 4815mm long and 1890mm wide, making it roughly the same size as the Volkswagen Tayron, Hyundai Santa Fe and Peugeot 5008, but unlike those cars – and its larger sibling – it is being offered from launch with five seats.

The MIIT filing also reveals some of the XC70's technical specifications for the first time, confirming that it will be offered exclusively as a plug-in hybrid, with either a 21.2kWh battery giving 62 miles of range, or a 39.6kWh pack which bumps that up to 112 miles - both according to China's generous CLTC cycle. 

That larger pack, for reference, is about the same size as that fitted to the pure-electric Abarth 500e, and larger than the battery in the Mazda MX-30 EV.

The XC70 will be available with front- or four-wheel drive, in both instances with a 160bhp 1.5-litre petrol engine working in collaboration with an EV motor of undisclosed capacity. 

Further details will be given closer to the XC70's China-market launch in September, where Volvo could announce plans to sell the new PHEV globally in response to sustained strong demand in certain markets for hybrid cars.

Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson believes extended-range plug-in hybrids could play an important role in Europe's electrification transition, particularly, strengthening the possibility of the new XC70 being sold here.

Speaking at the Financial Times Future of the Car conference earlier this month, he said: "In certain regions in Europe, the charging network will be developed later. If you look into the south and east of Europe, it will be slower. 

"The ones leading are Norway all the way in the west. There, there will be faster transition to electrification. But in other regions, it's really a good solution to have a long-range hybrid, because if you look into the environmental aspect, if you have a long-range hybrid, the absolute majority of the transport work will be done with electricity. And so in that way, it will be an 'electric car'.

"If you have a very short range, a large part of the transport work will be done with the petrol. And then, of course, it's not fossil-free anymore. So a long-range plug-in hybrid, I would argue, is an electric car with a back-up engine when the battery is flat, which will happen not so often.

"So I think it's a good solution, it's a good bridge and there is a lot of technology in that car which is in common with an all-electric car.

"It's a pragmatic bridge solution to wait for our customers to really feel comfortable with an all-electric car."

Samuelsson stopped short of confirming in which European markets Volvo could launch the XC70 or other long-range hybrids, nor did he give a timeframe.

The XC70 has been designed specifically "to meet the demand for longer-range plug-in hybrids in China", but Volvo also said it will explore "potential additional markets at a later stage".

It is based on a new architecture adapted for long-range PHEVs: the Scalable Modular Architecture (SMA) is said to be "a premium extended-range plug-in hybrid architecture", but no details of its relationship to Volvo's other platforms – or indeed those from the wider Geely group, of which Volvo is a part – have been given.

Fellow Geely brand Lotus is also investing in extended-range hybrids over the coming years in response to lower than anticipated demand for all-electric luxury cars, while LEVC (also owned by Geely) has been using an REx powertrain in its Volvo-engined TX taxi since 2017.

However, while those two firms are using combustion engines as a generator to top up a traction battery, Volvo's new XC70 is a more conventional PHEV. 

Nonetheless, the XC70 will help the firm cater to huge demand for extended-range hybrids in China, and its announcement follows the recent unveiling of the new China-oriented Volkswagen ID Era REx concept at the Shanghai motor show.

That car – similar in size to the XC70 – has been engineered in partnership with MG owner SAIC to target the burgeoning market for REx cars in China, with companies like Li Auto, Leapmotor and Avatr among the biggest players.

However, like Volvo, Volkswagen's sales and marketing boss told Autocar that a global launch was not off the table: "Range-extenders today are already a very big thing in China. They will be of relevance in North America and we are convinced they will also have relevance in Europe."

The XC70 has an especially important role to play for Volvo as the company embarks on a wide-reaching global cost-cutting drive in response to industry "turbulence" and a "challenging external environment". 

Even amid that turbulence, Volvo said it "remains firm on its ambition of becoming a fully electric car company", but just a fifth of its sales in the first quarter of 2025 were electric, and it said "premium plug-in hybrids provide a pragmatic bridge for customers not yet ready to switch".

The XC70 name had been dormant since 2016, when the off-road version of the third-generation V70 estate was taken off sale. It was originally called the V70 XC, with 'XC' standing for 'Cross Country'.

BMW will completely overhaul its current combustion-powered line-up, starting with a heavily updated 5 Series, to bring these models into line with a range of incoming Neue Klasse electric cars.

The new-era EVs will begin with the unveiling of the iX3 at the Munich motor show in September and this will kick-start a rapid-fire refresh programme for BMW, which is working to ensure its current-generation models are not outpaced by newer siblings.

The next 3 Series will follow shortly after the iX3 and use the same EV-first architecture, which, in time, will be the base for all BMWs.

Before then, though, BMW will redesign and substantially upgrade models that are not yet due for replacement, to ensure a coherent, logical line-up.

The first of these will be the 5 Series, due next year. Although the eighth-generation saloon was launched in 2023, recent spy shots reveal that it is already preparing to undergo a significant refresh. This update – which is also destined for the M5 – is centred on a striking, prominent new nose that will bring its design into line with the Neue Klasse models. While nothing has been confirmed, an interior makeover could be on the cards too, given BMW is set to roll out its new Panoramic iDrive set-up.

This features a new dashboard, an extended head-up display, a redesigned steering wheel and an angled 17.9in touchscreen – plus the removal of physical buttons. The system will first be used by the iX3 and then adopted by all BMW models.

Given it is only a mid-life facelift, the 5 Series will continue to sit on the same CLAR architecture; in the future, all BMWs will use the firm’s new electric-first NK platform. Power, too, will come from the same units as today: either a 205bhp mild-hybrid or a 295bhp plug-in hybrid system. Both employ the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine. The M5 is also likely to retain its 4.4-litre V8 PHEV set-up that puts out 717bhp.

Following the 5 Series revamp, there will also be a new X5 and updated versions of the 2 Series, X2, 7 Series and X7.

Speaking to Autocar, product boss Bernd Körber clarified that Neue Klasse refers to “the next generation of all cars and all toolboxes when it comes to engine, digital, ADAS etc”.

He added: “We will launch the Neue Klasse on a BEV-purpose platform with iX3 and 3 Series, but then the rollout will be within three and a half years across the entire portfolio.”

So while the new iX3 and 3 Series will look radically different from the rest of the line-up initially, BMW will quickly implement a more uniform approach to styling and functionality.

According to BMW Group design boss Adrian van Hooydonk, this is because the new-era BMW models shouldn’t make the current cars appear like a previous generation.

“We will make sure that the form language that we are developing now – and starting this year at the IAA [Munich show] with the first of the Neue Klasse vehicles – will be rolled out over the entire product portfolio, leaving no car behind,” he said. “Of course, it would not be good for us or for our customers if there would be a new type of BMW and a ‘classic’ type of BMW. We’re going to change the look and feel of the BMW brand.”

He added: “There will be a family resemblance but each car will have its own distinct character traits, just like we have today. But everything will look very new in a short space of time. We’re not only launching one car now in September: it will be the beginning of a whole range of new vehicle launches in the next two to three years. We’re going to renew pretty much the whole product line-up.”

Van Hooydonk said this all-encompassing decision was made in recognition of automotive technology and design advancing faster than ever before. “Why are we making this much change in design? Because the technology is changing this much. Society’s appetite for change has sped up,” he said.

As reported by Autocar, the 1 Series is likely to be the next car after the X5 to be replaced by a new-gen Neue Klasse model, probably in 2028.

Core models including the 2 Series, 7 Series, X1 and X2 that were introduced only two to three years ago will get a heavier-than-usual facelift by 2029, with the new design language, interior arrangement, powertrain technology and technical functionality.

It remains to be seen exactly what the future holds for older model lines such as the 4 Series and 8 Series. There has been no indication yet that new generations are in the works but they are likely to be too close to the end of their natural life cycles to warrant such a significant and expensive round of updates.