Instagram continues to be one of the fastest growing social media platforms, and it’s therefore only natural that cars find their way into your feed. Vehicle supplier OSV has investigated which brands have been hashtagged the most, and also which particular model gets the most attention.

Unlike comparing which Instagram brand has the most followers, this list should ‘keep it real’ with what cars social media users are actually tagging. This is the top 20 in ascending order.

20. Mitsubishi #3.55 million

The Mitsubishi brand actually applies to everything from banking to industrial machinery and even air conditioning units. We’ll give the Japanese brand the benefit of the doubt and assume people are more inclined to post about their new car, rather than the latest forklift truck.

Less surprising is that the Lancer Evo tops the table for the most hashtagged Mitsubishi. Covering ten versions, and with a huge following in the tuning world, it would always be a winner.

#Mitsubishi

19. McLaren #3.65 million

McLaren Automotive has just delivered its 15,000th car in just seven years of production. It’s a far cry from the ultra-limited-edition world of the legendary F1 road car, but proof that the brand is certainly buoyant. Attention on Instagram can only help build that following.

The 650S might now be out of production, but currently holds the most tags. Expect the newer 720S supercar to overtake it in the near future.

#McLaren

18. MG #3.72 million

The olde-world image of MG and the shiny modern style of Instagram seems something of a juxtaposition, but the brand sneaks into 18th place on OSV’s list.

Maybe it’s all those hipsters finding a car like the TA Midget really suits a black and white photo filter, especially when combined with a beard and tweed jacket.

#MG

17. Lexus #3.97 million

Lexus used Will.i.am to promote the crazy angular lines of the NX when it was first launched back in 2015. Still, that association hasn’t stopped fans of the company from posting about Lexus on Instagram today.

OSV claims that ‘lexusfsport’ is the most popular hashtag associated with the Japanese premium brand. With Lexus now applying the F Sport badge to a number of models, we’ve picked the handsome RC F Sport coupe to highlight here.

#Lexus

16. Bentley #4.12 million

As one of the world’s leading luxury car companies, this again should not be too much of a shock. Instagramming Bentley products could cover anything from the brand’s participation in a variety of motorsport events, through to excitement at spotting the latest model on the street.

It’s the Bentley Continental GT that attracts the most attention, and we imagine that the all-new third-generation car will be driving the hashtags.

#Bentley

15. Mazda #4.28 million

Although not one of the outright largest car manufacturers in the world, Mazda does have a loyal and devoted fanbase. Enthusiasts love the MX-5, whilst the rotary Wankel-engined cars will always hold cult appeal.

Which is why we were somewhat surprised that the humble Mazda 3 is the one which apparently gets the most tags on Instagram, with more than 600,000 at present. Perhaps it’s those pesky hyphens in the RX-7 and RX-8 names ruining the hashtags…

#Mazda

14. Suzuki #6.86 million

As with many of the companies here, #Suzuki could easily apply to cars, motorbikes, or even all-terrain vehicles. However, as the third largest seller of cars in Japan, we’ll go with the assumption that it’s all about the automobiles with this one.

The global appeal of the Swift helps make it the most popular model to be hashtagged. We imagine the Swift being produced locally in India under the Maruti subsidiary brings substantial hashtagging potential.

#Suzuki

13. Subaru #8.24 million

The UK may have fallen out of love with performance Subaru models like the WRX STI, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world has too. Subaru’s performance brand is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and North America has just received the latest version of the STI saloon.

It’s the WRX model which steals the most hashtag attention on Instagram though. Probably not the ‘bug eye’ second-generation model from 2000, though – filters can only do so much.

#Subaru

12. Volkswagen #8.27 million

It may well be the ‘people’s car’ but Volkswagen needs more hashtags from fans to push it inside the top 10. Despite the Vee-Dub scene being eminently popular, perhaps those in it are just too cool for social media.

With more than 30 million examples built since 1974, the Golf is the most popular model to be hashtagged. Even dieselgate cannot kill the enthusiasm for the ever-present VW hatchback.

#Volkswagen

11. Mini #9.21 million

A classic British marque, or a modern brand within the BMW empire? Whichever way you choose to view Mini, it is at least popular on Instagram. More specifically, it’s the Mini Cooper that gets the most tags.

This does leave us with one of the great social media mysteries of our time, though. Is Mini Cooper Instagram equivalent to Fiat 500 Twitter (look it up)? And, more importantly, do we really want to know the answer to that?

#Mini

10. Jeep #10.51 million

Even people with virtually no interest in cars can identify a Jeep, or at least use the brand name to describe any number of different 4×4 and SUV models. Perhaps that generic association with off-road vehicles helps push #Jeep higher up the rankings.

Branding is all about being easily identifiable, and despite the Jeep Wrangler being into its fourth-generation, the link to past models is clear to see. It still proves popular with buyers, too, notching up annual sales of more than 200,000 across the world.

#Jeep

9. Lamborghini #10.91 million

We’ll admit that we expected this particular Italian supercar brand to be higher up the list than ninth place. Tellingly, #Lambo has more than two million hashtags alone, so the company could be even higher if people would stop being lazy and use its full name.

The Aventador might be one of the newest models to emerge for Sant’Agata, but it has also combined with a enhanced social media presence from Lamborghini. Perhaps Instagram is just the modern replacement for sticking a poster of a Countach on your bedroom wall.

#Lamborghini

8. Porsche #11.99 million

Identified as one of the most profitable companies in the world, Porsche still manages to somehow avoid appearing too corporate to be liked on Instagram. The brand is booming, and a long way from the potential collapse of the early 1990s.

Enthusiasts will be pleased to note that the 911 is the most hashtagged Porsche according to OSV, rather than the Cayenne or Macan SUVs.

#Porsche

7. Toyota #13.22 million

It’s the second-largest car manufacturer in the world, so the placing of Toyota on the list is a formality. However, that the company is so far up the rankings suggests we shouldn’t automatically assume that it’s products are so anodyne to discourage people from hashtagging them.

Also forget the Corolla, Supra, or MR2, as it’s the American-built Tacoma that gets the most attention on Instagram.

#Toyota

6. Ferrari #13.73 million

We had to double check the figures on this, and we imagine the Italians will be running to the stewards in protest, as Ferrari has been edged out by Mercedes again. Still, sixth place in the rankings isn’t too much to complain about.

OSV’s figures had the 599 as the most popular Ferrari model on Instagram, although our research suggests the iconic F40 actually has more tags. That’s all the excuse we need to roll out the retro model from the 1980s again.

#Ferrari

5. Mercedes #13.78 million

Simply using the hashtag Mercedes on Instagram can open the door to a wide array of contenders. Be that the Mercedes-Benz name itself, the racier Mercedes-AMG sub-brand, or simply people bestowed with the name Mercedes.

The most popular model is also #MercedesAMG it seems, which leaves the door open for a number of cars. We’ve gone with the thundering Mercedes-AMG GT R supercar here.

#Mercedes

4. Audi #13.91 million

German behemoth Audi sneaks ahead of Mercedes, even though we can’t imagine many children sharing a name with the Ingolstadt brand. As such, this must be on pure car popularity alone, and a reminder of how far the company has come in recent years.

On the data supplied by OSV, the Audi Q7 SUV was listed as the most hashtagged model. However, our own research suggests that the R8 supercar gets far more attention. It’s also prettier, too.

#Audi

3. Ford #17.12 million

Taking the bronze medal in the list of the most hashtagged car brands is one that has a truly global appeal. The scale and reach of the Ford name is staggering, so that fans are happily taking photos and tagging the Blue Oval should be a certainty.

The Mustang being the most popular model should also be no surprise. Immediately identifiable, and now offered in more markets than ever, muscle car love is a given.

#Ford

2. Honda #22.78 million

As another vast corporation producing virtually anything with an engine, and even some things without, Honda has the potential to attract a lot of attention with ease. But let us not underplay the following that cars like the NSX and Civic Type-R have with enthusiasts.

Tellingly it’s the Civic that gets the most hashtags. A long time favourite of the modified car scene across the world, the keen marketing of the latest Civic Type R will undoubtedly have helped channel attention to Instagram.

#Honda

1. BMW #29.26 million

We’ve reached the end of the list, and BMW is a clear winner with almost 30 million individual hashtags on Instagram. Maybe the short name helps avoid typographical errors, or maybe it’s that owners really do just love the ‘ultimate driving machine’.

We’ve departed again from OSV’s most popular model data, which suggested that ‘bmw5’ was the winner. A little digging finds over a million hashtags for the BMW M3, and this eye-searingly orange M3 GTS seems a much better place to end.

#BMW

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Land Rover sold 126,078 Discovery Sport vehicles in 2017: this is more in a single year than any Land Rover in the firm’s 70-year history. To mark this, the 4×4 company has decided to launch a new Landmark special edition, priced from £40,400.

The Discovery Sport Landmark is offered in three colours, Narvik Black, Corris Grey and Yulong White. All three get a unique Carpathian Grey contrast roof and Graphite Atlas detailing.

Unique Gloss Dark Grey 19-inch alloys are fitted, as is a more dynamic front bumper (the air intakes are larger); inside, grained Ebony leather seats are standard, along with a dark Ebony roofliner. Land Rover’s also chucked in dark satin grey aluminium dash trim, a panoramic roof, heated steering wheel and a Meridian sound system as standard.

All Discovery Sport Landmark models are powered by the same 180hp 2.0-litre TD4 engine, and come with a nine-speed automatic gearbox as standard. Average economy of 43.5mpg is claimed, and both five- and seven-seat variants are offered; the former does 0-62mph in 8.9 seconds, the latter dipping a little to 9.2 seconds.

Why are people flocking to the Discovery Sport? Because, says Land Rover’s global product marketing director Finbar McFall, “it demonstrates the breadth of Land Rover’s ability, offering unrivalled all-terrain capability with the versatility for up to seven people and a premium interior”.

Since its launch in 2014, he adds, more than 350,000 Discovery Sports have been sold globally: the 2017 production record was marked on 30 April, Land Rover’s official 70^th birthday, when the Discovery Sport became the first Land Rover built that day.

The vehicle will now be used to support a number of Land Rover community projects, the first of which will be in Scotland starting in June.

More than 50 electric and electrified cars will go on show at Silverstone next weekend (9th and 10th June) at the inaugural Fully Charged Live motorshow – a gathering that organisers promise will be the largest number of electric vehicles ever assembled in Britain.

• The must-visit car shows of 2018

First-look cars include the new Jaguar I-Pace and Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model S ‘Shooting Brake’, plus converted EV curious such as a Ferrari 308 GT, 1965 Fiat 500 and a Jaguar XJ-S.

Every new electric and electrified vehicle currently on sale in Britain will be there, promise the organisers. 

Red Dwarf star, Scrapheap Challenge presenter and Fully Charged founder Robert Llewellyn is the man behind Silverstone’s Fully Charged live show. “It’s been an exciting few months since we announced Fully Charged Live,” he explained, “and the list of exhibitors, speakers, sponsors and vehicles that will be on show and the volume of tickets sold is incredible.

“The Fully Charged team have worked tirelessly to include the ingredients that our audience love in a live format and we’re really looking forward to welcoming them on the 9th and 10th June.”

There will be a number of live sessions, presented by Llewellyn and fellow TV colleagues Jonny Smith (Fifth Gear) and Helen Czerski (From Ice to Fire). The idea is to educate visitors about the electric car scene, with sessions including ‘introduction to owning an electric vehicle’ and ‘generating your own heat and power at home’.  

There’s also an ‘ask the experts’ area, a hospitality zone and plenty of things for kids to do while their parents gen up on whether an EV is for them.

Fully Charged was a concept born on YouTube: in eight years, 300 shows have gone live, now viewed by two million people a month. The Fully Charged Live show is the first step in the scale-up strategy for Llewellyn’s Fully Charged concept.  

Fully Charged Live 2018

• Where: Silverstone Wing
• When: 10am-6pm, Saturday 9th June; 10am-5pm, Sunday 10th June
• How to book: www.fullychargedshow.co.uk

Fully Charged Live electrified vehicle line-up

• BMW CSi
• BMW i3
• BMW i8
• Ecotricity Nemesis
• Ferrari 308 GT
• 1965 Fiat 500
• Hyundai Ioniq
• Jaguar I-PACE
• Jaguar XJS
• Kia Niro PHEV
• Kia Soul
• Land Rover Defender 110
• Mazda RX8e
• Mercedes-Benz B-Class
• Mitsubishi Outlander
• Morgan EV3
• Nissan E-NV200
• Nissan LEAF
• Peugeot iON EV
• Classic Range Rover
• Renault Kangoo
• Renault Twizy
• Renault Twizy DELIVER-E
• Renault Zoe
• Renault Zoe Signature
• Renault Zoe Rally
• Riversimple Rasa
• Tesla Model S
• Tesla Model S ‘Shooting Brake’
• Tesla Model X
• Volvo S90
• VW Beetle
• VW Camper
• VW e-Golf
• VW e-up
• Westfield Protera
• Zero Motorcycles

Car-sharing company Zipcar has ordered 325 all-electric Volkswagen e-Golfs for London members. The new cars will be available to hire through the new Zipcar Flex service, which allows ‘drive and drop’ one-way vehicle rentals.

The expansion into fully-electric e-Golfs is a development of Zipcar’s existing Volkswagen deal, which has seen the car-share firm run plug-in hybrid Golf GTEs for the past two years. “Thousands” of people have since got behind the wheel.

It’s Volkswagen’s 2017 revisions to the e-Golf that seem to have encouraged Zipcar to go EV. The car’s range was improved to 186 miles on the NEDC cycle, which VW says translates into a realistic real-world range of 124 miles – meaning the cars can viably be used as daily drivers without the need for frequent recharges.

A larger capacity lithium ion battery – up from 24.2 kWh to 35.8 kWh – also helps the latest e-Golf deliver 15 percent more power, and run from 0-62mph in 9.6 seconds.

Volkswagen UK director Alison Jones is excited by the deal. “Thousands of Zipcar members will experience electric driving, perhaps for the first time, and we know they will love the functionality and ease of use that the all-electric e-Golf provides.”

The UK importer’s head of marketing, Geraldine Ingham, said there was evidence inner-city residents are looking for new alternatives to car ownership – they like the flexibility of cars, but not the complications of actually owning one.

“This development of the relationship between Volkswagen and Zipcar offers the best of both worlds: the benefits of access to a car and zero emission motoring across the UK’s capital.”

Zipcar UK general manager Jonathan Hampson says the deal is another key milestone for Zipcar and “another step towards our vision for a greener London where car sharers outnumber car owners, making our amazing city an even better place to live for all”.

Londoners can now sign up for a Zipcar UK account online, and then rent one of the new e-Golfs either online or via the firm’s app.

For what seems like decades, concept cars have been shown with fancy, tiny ‘virtual’ door mirrors. Only to then make production looking largely identical – save for the addition of massive ‘Dumbo ears’ on each door. But now, Audi is making every concept car designer’s dream a reality, with the world’s first production-ready virtual door mirrors.

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They’re appearing on the new Audi e-tron, which will be revealed this summer ahead of production starting later this year. At this stage, they’ll be a (likely expensive) option, rather than standard fit, but it’s still proof that Vorsprung durch Technik is alive and well after all at Audi.

The firm says they’re much narrower than normal door mirrors – they reduce the overall width of the e-tron by a healthy 150mm. They also reduce drag and, most noticeably, significantly reduce wind noise.

So how do they work? Via built-in cameras, which feed to high-resolution OLED displays mounted between the dashboard and the door. 

Audi says they adapt to different driving situations, displaying three different views through the MMI system – there are bespoke displays for motorway driving, turning and parking. 

We’ll get more details of Audi’s virtual door mirrors in the build-up to the car’s official release in the coming months – including details of how Audi’s going to overcome European legislation that still mandates at least one physical exterior rear-view mirror (Japan has, however, already altered legislation to allow cameras instead of mirrors: others are expected to follow its lead). 

For now, listen carefully and you’ll probably hear the cheers in advanced car design studios across the world…

Land Rover used to say it is the best 4x4xfar. Now it aims to move this claim into the autonomous age by developing vehicles that drive themselves off-road, with the launch of a new all-terrain autonomous programme called CORTEX.

The ambitious project has been announced with £3.7 million of funding, to develop vehicles that can drive themselves no matter what the weather and terrain – this includes dirt, rain, ice, snow and fog. Today’s driver-assist technology is frequently disabled when it rains: Land Rover aims to overcome this.

But it’s even more complex than that. The autonomous systems need to be able to read all types of terrain, no matter how steep, uneven or extreme. This is why the core of the project is the development of the world’s first ‘5D’ technology: it is this that will enable highest-level Level 4 and Level 5 off-road autonomy.

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Land Rover says 5D will combine acoustic, video, radar, light detection and distance sensing tech in real time, with the addition of machine learning to help the vehicle improve and get more sophisticated over time.

“It is important that we develop our self-driving vehicles with the same capability and performance customers expect from all Jaguars and Land Rovers,” said Jaguar Land Rover’s connected and autonomous vehicle research manager Chris Holmes.

“Self-driving is an inevitability for the automotive industry… CORTEX gives us the opportunity to work with some fantastic partners whose expertise will help us realise this vison in the near future.”

Land Rover will now work on the algorithm development, sensor optimisation and physical testing at off-road tracks throughout Britain – in association with the University of Birmingham and machine learning experts Myrtle AI.

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There is an official BSI certification standard for blastproof and bombproof civilian armoured vehicles, called PAS 300. Now, Skoda UK is offering a civilian armoured Superb Estate that’s been certified to this standard – it’s on sale now from £118,688.

Based on the regular Superb 2.0 TDI 190 estate, it’s the result of a three-year engineering project by the British team, and is expected to become a popular new option for police forces – particularly undercover cops.

That’s because it’s “virtually indistinguishable from the standard production car, yet offers bullet and blast protection to occupants”.

This has been achieved through fitting bulletproof glass, along with the use of high-strength steel and composites. Skoda intentionally isn’t revealing too many technical details about the conversion, arguing they “must remain secret”. It has, however, been proven by an independent test facility, which fired different types of ammunition at it, as well as exposing it to blast and fragmentation threats.

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Run-flat tyres and wheels have been fitted, so the car can continue to drive after a blowout, and Skoda’s also packed in emergency lights and sirens – both well-hidden for suitably incognito duties. For off-duty entertainment, occupants have the 8.0in version of Skoda’s infotainment system, with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and GPS.

Although the engine is standard, both suspension and brakes have been uprated to cope with the (unquoted) additional weight of the bulletproof, bombproof extras.

Want to see more of the most expensive Skoda ever sold in the UK? Check out the video below. Oh, and reassuringly, adds Skoda, no matter how many bullets and blasts it resists, the standard three-year warranty remains valid…

Films can be a tough watch for car fans. Whether it’s watching a vehicle being unceremoniously crushed in the name of entertainment, or spotting a 1980s hot hatch in a 1970s period drama, we often find it hard to keep track of the narrative. And let’s not forget the movie-based game with the clumsy and made-up title of ‘See how many times you spot the same car in the same scene’ – Volkswagen Beetle in the Bullitt chase scene, anyone?

The team at GoCompare must have a lot of time on their hands, because they have scoured the pages of the excellent Internet Movie Cars Database (IMCDb) website to create a list of the most popular cars used in films. Here are the results, starting with the most frequent models. We promise that the Welsh tenor from the TV ads won’t be making an appearance.

10. Lincoln Town Car

The Lincoln Town Car is in 10th place, making an appearance in 300 different movies. According to GoCompare, the luxury saloon has appeared in the likes of The Hangover Part III, Desperado and The Bodyguard. We should add that the Town Car also played a pivotal role in Fight Club, first as a burnt out wreck, and later when crashed by Tyler and The Narrator.

9. Toyota Land Cruiser

In the horror film The Mist, David Drayton drives a Toyota Land Cruiser, while the Emerson family also relies on Toyota’s tough-as-old-boots off-roader in The Lost Boys. According to GoCompare, the Land Cruiser has featured in 307 different movies.

8. Volkswagen Golf

Volkswagen has built 150 million vehicles since series production began in 1945, and its current portfolio extends to more than 60 vehicles worldwide. The Golf is the model you’re most likely to see in a film, appearing in 312 different blockbusters.

7. Chevrolet Camaro

From the trivia section of the IMDb website: “Bumblebee’s original alternate mode in The Transformers (1984) was a Volkswagen Beetle, but this was revised to a Chevrolet Camaro. This was because Michael Bay wanted to avoid comparisons with (Herbie) The Love Bug, and felt that the Camaro held a more tough-but-friendly quality than the Beetle.” So now you know.

6. Mercedes-Benz S-Class

The Fast & Furious franchise might be famous for wild performance cars and drift kings, but the Mercedes-Benz S-Class has played a small but significant part in the popular movies. First, as the vehicle responsible for the death of Han (Sung Kang) in Tokyo Drift, and again later in the series when it was revealed that Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) was at the wheel of the big Merc.

5. Ford Econoline

GoCompare lists Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Dumb and Dumber and Enemy of the State as three notable movies to feature the Ford Econoline. In the latter, the van is used as a surveillance vehicle when Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) is being tracked by the National Security Agency (NSA). Also look out for a majestic Chevrolet El Camino driven by Edward Lyle (Gene Hackman).

4. Chevrolet Caprice

The Chevrolet Caprice is a favourite amongst movie makers, appearing in the likes of The Dukes of Hazzard, Se7en, Point Break, Scream 2, Species and Days of Thunder. According to IMDb, the 1991 model year Caprice used in Days of Thunder was not actually on sale when the film was released in June 1990, but the Chevrolet dealer received the car ahead of its launch in October.

3. Chevrolet Impala

In at number three, with appearances in 501 different movies, is the Chevrolet Impala. Appearances include Jeepers Creepers, Raising Arizona, Saturday Night Fever, Mad Max, Boyz n the Hood and Supernatural. On the Complex list of the 50 coolest movie cars, the 1964 Chevrolet Impala driven by Doughboy in Boyz n the Hood was ranked number five.

2. Ford Crown Victoria

From Blues Brothers 2000 to Men in Black, the Ford Crown Victoria has appeared in 755 movies. The question is – assuming you’re still with us – what’s the most popular movie car of all-time? We should probably leave you hanging, like a Harrington Legionnaire at the end of The Italian Job, but we’ll get straight to the point…

1. Ford Mustang

It’s the Ford Mustang, which has appeared in some of our favourite films, including Goldfinger, Bullitt, Gone in 60 Seconds, Death Race, I Am Legend and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. According to GoCompare and IMCDb, the Mustang has appeared in 809 films.

10. Citroen

Next, we move on to the top 10 marques, rather than make and model. Citroen has appeared in 1,758 films, including a memorable scene in For Your Eyes Only. Four 2CVs were used in the 1981 film, all of which were powered by flat-four engines from the Citroen GS. The movie car even spawned a road-going special edition, featuring 007 logos and stick-on bullet holes.

9. Toyota

Sadly – or should that be, fortunately – Toyota never offered a production version of the Sienna inspired by The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, but you’d have had little problem finding it in a shopping mall car park. Toyota has appeared in 2,026 movies.

8. Cadillac

Cadillac Ranch is an art installation located on the famous Route 66 west of Amarillo. Texas. The mountain range behind Radiator Springs in Cars pays tribute to the row of nose-down Cadillacs. Meanwhile, the Ciel concept car featured in the 2015 film Entourage.

7. Fiat

Here’s Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) at the premiere of Zoolander 2 in 2016. Shot predominantly in Rome, the film saw the fashion character team up with the Fiat 500X. Had things worked out differently, a trio of Fiat 500s might have been used in The Italian Job, as the British Motor Corporation (BMC) refused to donate any cars to the film. The director insisted on Minis, and the rest is history.

6. Dodge

Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) from the Fast & Furious movie franchise: the perfect photograph for Dodge. The American giant has appeared in 2,287 films. Meanwhile, the other American giant, Vin Diesel, has featured in 45 movies.

5. BMW

BMW has featured in 2,340 movies, including Red Sparrow, the spy thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence. The BMW 7 Series accompanies Dominika Egorova (played by Lawrence) on her journey from elegant and graceful prime ballerina to self-assured secret agent. The BMW 7 Series and its positioning suit her character perfectly,” said Uwe Dreher, BMW head of brand communications.

4. Volkswagen

Herbie is undoubtedly the most famous Volkswagen to grace the big screen, but the German marque also played a key part in Little Miss Sunshine. Fans of Cars will also remember Vroomaroundus Bugus: the flying insects based on the VW Beetle. The producers used actual Beetle engine sounds to create the buzzing noise.

3. Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz has played a part in 4,176 films, with the S-Class, E-Class and SL the most popular models. Meanwhile, the GLE Coupe made its big screen debut in Jurassic World, while the V-Class was on hand to transport Snoopy and friends on a promotional tour of the world.

2. Chevrolet

Here are three Autobots from Transformers, including the Camaro-based Bumblebee and the Corvette-based Sideswipe. In Beverly Hills Cop, Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) drives a 1970 Chevy Nova.

1. Ford

American Gangster is just one of 8,988 movies to feature a Ford vehicle, making the Blue Oval the biggest star of the silver screen. Other famous Fords include the Gran Torino in the movie of the same name, the Falcon XB GT in Mad Max and the Ford Ka in Quantum of Solace. OK, perhaps the last one is stretching it, but the gleaming Ka enjoyed a fair amount of screen time. #productplacement

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One of the biggest inconveniences for electric car owners is having to plug their car in at the end of a journey. If you have to do it every day, it becomes a bit of a drag, particularly if it’s raining, or your hands are full, or simply if your commute’s been bad and you can’t face getting the cables out the boot and going through the plug-in routine.

Now, help is at hand. BMW has become the first carmaker in the world to launch a fully-integrated wireless inductive charging system for its plug-in hybrid 530e iPerformance – and it works both in a garage or outdoors.

The BMW Wireless Charging system is initially available as a leasing option on the 530e iPerformance, with prices to be announced. The product consists of a GroundPad (the inductive charging unit) and a CarPad which is attached to the underside of the car.

Using the same inductive charging technology as wireless smartphone charging and electric toothbrushes, charging is literally cable-free: owners simply have to park the car over the GroundPad, and recharging will commence as soon as the stop/start button is pressed.

The system’s 3.2kW charging power will replenish a 530e iPerformance’s battery in around three and a half hours. BMW says charging efficiency is 85 percent, which is only around 7 percent worse than a wired system.

Of course, the car needs to be fairly accurately parked over the GroundPad itself – there’s around 140mm of tolerance, but positioning is still important. It’s thus created a ‘Wireless Charging parking aid’: a wifi connection to the charging pad helps provide precise location via the colour infotainment screen – drivers position the car with the aid of a graphic icon.

It is, however, immune from the effects of weather. Charging can be carried out regardless of the weather – even if it’s raining or snowing. The only time it will be automatically switched off is when a ‘foreign matter’ is detected. So the cat sleeping on the GroundPad will be protected, even if they may disturb your vehicle’s recharge routine…

Production starts in July for the German market, with its UK launch following soon after – ahead of the US, Japan and China. Prices for the UK will be confirmed nearer to its market launch: once it’s in full production for the 530e iPerformance, expect it to come to other plug-in and possibly even fully-electric BMWs, as part of the firm’s ambition to create “infrastructure that will make charging the battery of an electrified vehicle even simpler than refuelling a car with a conventional engine”.

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A decade after it “revolutionised” the motorcycle security scene, AutoTrac is now taking on the classic car enthusiast market, with prices for the firm’s tracking device starting from £299.

Boasting high-level Thatcham Category 6 and Category 7 ratings, the device utilises GPS, GPRS and RF functions: this means both the Police and the AutoTrac monitoring team (which never sleeps or has a day off, says the firm) can very precisely locate a vehicle that’s been stolen.

This, it claims, can prove invaluable in issuing search warrants, due to the detailed location information.

The firm’s Bill Taylor said it was an “old hand at tracking stolen vehicles” and has currently recovered more than 800 stolen motorcycles through working with UK police forces.

But AutoTrac offers more than just ‘fit and forget’ tracking security for owners. Taylor reckons it will “enhance their experience” and add connected car-like features to old motors.

“An owner can see their vehicle’s location real-time on desktop or app, monitor battery voltage, view recent journeys and even download and share routes. On top of this, AutoTrac can even notify a next of kin if the unit detects a severe impact.”

The live battery voltage function will be particularly interesting to classic car owners – as will functionality that can be set  to text you when the voltage runs low. So, no more surprise flat batteries, the bane of retro car owners for years.

AutoTrac has its own battery, which lasts for 30 days at a time, so won’t be drawing power from the car itself.

The unit is the smallest currently on sale, adds Taylor: it’s priced from £299 and subscriptions start from £9.99 a month – “with unlimited calls, texts and emails”.