New cars come with umpteen sockets for charging 12V and USB devices, but what about if you need to plug in something you’d ordinarily hook up at home? Land Rover thinks it’s stolen a march on the competition here – by introducing its first model with built-in three-pin plug sockets.

The new 2018 Range Rover Sport now comes equipped with two three-pin plug sockets. There’s one domestic socket in the rear of the centre console, for back-seat passengers, and Land Rover has also fitted one in the load compartment.

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The idea is to allow passengers to charge up laptop computers, and owners to plug in, say, portable coolboxes in the boot – although the possibilities are endless: if it has a plug, plug it in. The car won’t quite have the electrical oomph of a domestic socket, but it should easily handle a power-hungry laptop while you sip your motorway service station coffee.

The addition of two domestic sockets takes the total connection points on board the new Range Rover Sport up to 14 (yes, they’ve counted them). In the front, there are USB, HDMI and 12V connections in the front cubby, plus another 12V socket in the glovebox.

In the rear, there’s another suite of 12V, USB and HDMI sockets, plus the domestic plug socket, and the boot carries both the second three-pin plug socket and yet another 12V hub.

Swelling the 2018 Sport’s plug and play credentials yet further is the introduction of a new P400e plug-in hybrid version – whose petrol-electric drivetrain and extra-capacity lithium ion batteries give the big SUV 101mpg claimed fuel economy potential and the ability to run for 31 miles as a pure EV.

Making the new Range Rover Sport the most plugged-in new car on sale?

Land Rover has launched the first-ever Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid, one that combines a 404hp total power output with official fuel economy of 101mpg and an all-electric driving range of up to 31 miles. It joins the range in a series of updates for the 2018 model year.

The new Range Rover Sport P400e pairs a 300hp 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo Ingenium engine with an 85kW electric motor. Combined with permanent four-wheel drive, this gives it a 0-62mph time of 6.7 seconds and a top speed of 137mph.

Yet the Range Rover Sport P400e PHEV also officially emits 67g/km – making it easily the best-ever Land Rover or Range Rover for exhaust emissions.

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A 13.1kWh lithium ion battery gives it enough juice to travel over 30 miles as a pure EV, which also makes it the first time a zero-emissions Land Rover has ever been offered. Owners can even programme the sat nav to work out when best to swap between engine-on and engine-off modes, by using GPS data along the route.

Land Rover hasn’t given it umpteen confusing driving modes though, choosing instead to keep things simple – either Parallel Hybrid mode, which juggles engine and electric motor automatically, or EV mode, which runs the Range Rover Sport as a pure EV until the batteries are low.

The batteries take 7 hours 30 minutes to charge from a home socket, or 2 hours 45 minutes from a dedicated wall box.

The off-road Terrain Response 2 tech has been reprogrammed as well, so it’s able to make best use of the high-power, instantly-accessible electric motor’s output. And it performs so well, it’s led Nick Collins, JLR vehicle line director to exclaim: “The introduction of our advanced plug-in hybrid powertrain is a watershed moment in the history of our performance SUV.”

By 2020, all new Jaguars and Land Rovers will be offered with an electrified drivetrain: the Range Rover Sport PHEV is thus just the first of many new JLR plug-ins, hybrids and full EVs to come.

2018 Range Rover Sport revisions

Since launching it in 2005, Land Rover has sold 732,000 Range Rover Sport – and almost 50,000 of the latest 2013 model in the UK alone. This mid-life facelift aims to continue its strong sales with mildly tweaked looks and more tech.

Slimmer new Matrix Pixel LED headlights sit astride a redesigned grille, while a new front bumper gets a sportier style. On PHEV models, the 7kW charger socket is hidden behind the Land Rover badge on the grille. At the rear, a new roof spoiler has more slots, and is claimed to keep the rear window cleaner in grotty weather. 

Land Rover’s introduced a new colour, Byron Blue, and a new carbon fibre exterior detailing pack. There are three new alloy wheel choices too, including 21-inch and 22-inch designs.

Inside, all new Range Rover Sport get the Touch Pro Duo ‘twin screen’ infotainment system first seen in the Range Rover Velar. There also up to 12 power points, including two domestic plug sockets, and a new gesture-controlled sunblind. The front seats are slimmer and more supportive, and have ‘a more technical appearance’. 

A neat touch is a bigger central cubby, up from 5.8 litres to 7.8 litres. Land Rover says it can not only swallow four 500ml drinks bottles, optional cooler functionality can ‘rapid chill’ them down to 5 degrees C in minutes. 

At the top of the line, the Range Rover Sport SVR’s power has been upped to 575hp: 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds makes it the fastest Range Rover ever.

Ordering is open now, with first deliveries of the revised Range Rover Sport due in early 2018.

2018 Range Rover Sport: prices

You wouldn’t sell your mobile phone without giving it a hard reset to clear important data such as call records and messages – but many company car drivers are happy to hand their vehicles back without removing such information.

Until now, firms that handle the remarketing of secondhand cars haven’t been under any pressure to delete these records, meaning they could soon be passed onto the car’s second owner. However, new data protection rules set to be introduced in May 2018 could give remarketers a headache, the Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA) has warned.

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“Anyone who has bought a used car in the last few years will know data such as satnav and phone records from the previous owner is often not removed when a vehicle is sold,” said the VRA’s deputy chair, Sam Watkins.

“It’s probably a good idea in general that this data should be deleted – it provides a very good indication of a person’s movements, work and social activities – but GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] makes it a legal responsibility. At some point in the supply chain, it has to be deleted. The question is – who should be responsible for doing this?”

General Data Protection Regulation will replace the Data Protection Act 1998 in May 2018. It is European legislation designed to unify the separate EU member states’ regulations and to give people living in the EU more control over their personal data. It’s fundamentally the same as the Data Protection Act, but with a higher degree of emphasis on accountability and transparency.

“We have been aware of the GDPR legislation for some time and preparing for this legislation in a number of areas,” said Tim Bailey, fleet services director at Auxillis Services, a vehicle rental company providing replacement vehicle services. “Since the end of last year, on collection of vehicles from our customers, we remove all previous sat nav and in-car phone records as a matter of course. Given the varying methods employed by the manufacturers, this is no easy task, but is essential nevertheless.

“Any record that can be tied back to an individual needs to be dealt with in accordance with GDPR and your company’s resultant control policies.”

Deleting all sat-nav and phone records from your car can be a fairly simple task, depending on the car. Consult your owner’s manual for detailed advice – and let us know how easy it is with your car.

The new Seat Arona small crossover SUV will launch in UK dealers on 17 November 2017 with prices starting from £16,555, the firm has now confirmed.

Seat’s Ibiza-derived rival to the Nissan Juke and Renault Captur is its smallest crossover yet, sitting below the smash-hit Ateca, and follows the now-established trend of offering several ‘First Edition’ launch specials.

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The core model range of SE and SE Technology, FR and FR Sport, Xcellence and Xcellence Lux will be joined by an £18,730 SE First Edition and £22,020 Xcellence First Edition, which will be the key cars dealers will be showing to customers from mid-November.

Seat says the model range has been tailored to be easy and straightforward: instead of making buyers fret with configurators over options and other choices, they simply choose the trim level, engine and colour. It is, reckons the firm, “an innovative new approach to simplifying customer choice for easier car buying”.

Regardless of this, buyers can still pick up to 30 colour combinations, including three different roof colours – and metallic paint is standard on every Arona, even the base SE.

Five engines are offered, a 1.0 TSI 95 or 115, a 1.5 TSI Evo 150, and either a 1.6 TDI 95 or 115. Manual and DSG gearboxes are available but you can’t get an all-wheel-drive Seat Arona.

2018 Seat Arona: standard equipment

• SE: 17-inch alloys, bi-colour roof, LED running lights, air con, five-inch touchscreen
• SE Technology: Connectivity Pack Plus (eight-inch touchscreen with nav, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto), wireless charging, rear parking sensors, two SD card slots
• SE Technology First Edition: Storage pack, Winter pack, auto wipers, climate control, adaptive cruise control, folding door mirrors, auto-dim rear-view mirrors
• FR: full LED headlights, sport front seats, flat-bottom steering wheel, sports suspension, rear disc brakes
• FR Sport: 18-inch alloys, Alcantara upholstery, Dynamic Chassis Control
• Xcellence Lux: 18-inch alloys, Alcantara upholstery
• Xcellence First Edition: Beats sound system, winter pack, front sensor, rear-view camera, park assist

2018 Seat Arona: prices

Earlier this summer, thefts of motorcycles and scooters in Birmingham shot up. In response, the city council came up with a novel strategy – ticketing at-risk machines.

These were not real parking tickets, though (despite how official-looking they appeared). Rather, they were reminders to owners about the importance of extra security measures, and were only stuck on motorcycles lacking any form of security.

The ‘polite’ reminders were part of the ‘lock it or lose it’ initiative, run as part of the Motorcycle Industry Association’s ‘MASTER’ security scheme.

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PC Paul Ennis from West Midlands Police admitted that “people can get a little defensive when they are approached by a cop, but I have been very impressed by the supportive comments and gratitude shown to us all… it has been a really positive experience”.

Officers also noted down the mix of motorcycles with or without extra security fitted. When the scheme was launched in early August, just 40 percent of Birmingham’s motorcycles were protected with security devices such as a chain or disk lock.

And now? More than 90 percent of machines are carrying extra security measures.

“When we set out on this campaign,” said PC Ennis, “we had one simple objective: to make riders aware of the risk of theft when parking a motorcycle and to use some additional security. 

“When we started this, the majority of motorcycles in this area were inadequately protected. Today the majority are well protected.”

Indeed, it’s been such a success, there are plans for the campaign to continue into the autumn. So, riders, if you park up in Birmingham and return to find a ticket on your machine, don’t worry. But maybe consider buying some extra security tech for next time…

The striking new Kia Stinger is now available to order in the UK with prices starting from £31,995. Deliveries of the large new four-door GT coupe begin on 1 January 2018.

One of the most ambitious new Kias yet, the Stinger GT firmly pushes the brand upmarket – not least thanks to the top-spec model’s very potent 365hp 3.3-litre twin-turbo V6 engine. This hurtles the rear-wheel drive car from 0-62mph in just 4.7 seconds; top speed is a fiery 168mph.  

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But despite the headlines, V6 versions will make up a small slice of sales. Most Stingers will be powered by four-cylinder engines, either a 197hp 2.2-litre CRDi turbodiesel, or a 244hp 2.0-litre T-GDi turbo petrol. An eight-speed automatic gearbox is standard on all; Kia’s only bringing rear-wheel drive Stingers to the UK, despite all-wheel drive versions being offered in Europe. Because the UK is a driver-focused market, we get a standard limited-slip differential instead.

Oh, and the four-cylinder models are not exactly slothful, either: the petrol will do 0-62mph in 5.8 seconds, and even the diesel will run it in 7.3 seconds, despite also averaging 50.4mpg and emitting less than 150g/km CO2.  

First seen as the GT Concept way back in 2011, the Stinger is being described as a game-changer by Kia, which rather breathlessly describes UK pent-up demand as “reaching fever pitch”. Hence its decision to open ordering early, ahead of the January on-sale launch.

Three trim lines – GT-Line, GT-Line S and GT-S – will pad out the range to a five-model line-up, with prices starring from £31,995; the top-spec V6 is £40,495.

Kia Stinger: specification

All UK Kia Stingers come with 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment with standard sat nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. A 7.0-inch TFT display is standard, as are all-round parking sensors, reverse parking camera and even a head-up display.

The standard sound system is a nine-speaker system with a subwoofer under the front seat; GT-Line S and GT-S come with a 15-speaker Harman/Kardon setup boasting subwoofer, external amp and a front centre speaker. Leather upholstery is standard too, upgraded to Nappa leather on the GT-S.

Premium-like features abound as standard: the D-shaped steering wheel is adjusted electrically, the dashboard is clad in leather, the headlining is suede and heated front seats are backed up by heated rear seats in the GT-Line S and GT-S – which also include ventilated front seats.  

Wheels? 18-inch on the GT-Line and GT-Line S, 19-inch on the GT-S – which also has Porsche-line mixed tyre sizes: 225/40 on the front, 225-35 on the rear. The GT-S also has electronic suspension.

Kia Stinger: UK model range

• Stinger GT-Line 2.0 T-GDI
• Stinger GT-Line 2.2 CRDi
• Stinger GT-Line S 2.0 T GDI
• Stinger GT-Line S 2.2 CRDi
• Stinger GT-S 3.3 T GDI V6

Amazon Alexa is to be integrated into all new BMW and Mini models from 2018 – and users won’t even need to hook up their smartphone in order to use it.

Because all new BMWs and Minis come with a built-in SIM card, the firm is able to fully integrate Alexa and deploy it en masse; it means everything that Alexa users do from Amazon Echo devices, they’ll soon be able to do in their car too.

It’s presumably as easy as saying, “Alexa…”

The move is a development of the BMW Connected Alexa ‘skill’, that’s been offered for around a year: it allows BMW and Mini owners to ‘ask’ Alexa questions such as the state of charge in their electric vehicle, or how much fuel is in their diesel or petrol.

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Full integration will bring the home-based convenience of Alexa into the car, says BMW. Adding a digital ecosystem “will open up all sorts of new possibilities that customers can access quickly, easily and safely from their car,” said Dieter May, senior vice president of digital services and business models at BMW.

Examples include asking Alexa which movies are on at the local cinema (and what times they’re shown), listening to playlists or checking the weather at their destination. Naturally, as it’s an Amazon product, online orders can be made while driving.

“We are excited to work with BMW to bring the Alexa experience to their drivers,” said Ned Curic, vice president, Alexa Automotive. “Using your voice to enjoy content and interact with Alexa makes a great driving experience even better.”

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