Luke Wilkinson

1 week ago | carmagazine.co.uk | Luke Wilkinson

►How Leapmotor fits into Stellantis►Cutting carbon for the other brands…►… and potential for R&D sharing laterIn 2023, Stellantis bought a 21% stake in the Chinese electric car company, Leapmotor. When the deal was struck, its reported purposes were quite simple. The biggest aim was to increase Leapmotor’s sales outside its home market, using Stellantis’s enormous dealer network. Stellantis achieved this by forming a new company called Leapmotor International.

1 week ago | carmagazine.co.uk | Luke Wilkinson

► Leapmotor’s bold new approach to safety tech► Lane assist and speed warnings off as standard…► … and it doesn’t care if it loses an NCAP starDrivers hate active safety technology. A study on our sister publication Parkers found 25% of UK drivers who have lane assist don’t use it because they find it ‘actively annoying.’ Plus, 16% said they never use their car’s adaptive cruise control, while 15% report they avoid driver monitoring systems whenever possible. And I agree. It’s all annoying.

1 month ago | carmagazine.co.uk | Luke Wilkinson

►Alfa has set about saving its V6 engine►The next Quadrifoglio won’t be an EV►Could use Alfa’s current 2.9-litre unitAlfa Romeo has some challenging years ahead. The brand has embarked on the Sisyphean task of convincing its petrol-swilling customers that electric motors can be interesting and, crucially, that it’s hottest Quadrifoglio performance cars won’t lose any of their charm if they’re forced to surrender their V6 engines.

2 months ago | carmagazine.co.uk | Luke Wilkinson

► It’s a rebodied Alfa Romeo Giulia…► … designed to look like a 1962 Giulia► And it certainly doesn’t come cheapItaly has a rich coachbuilding history. There’s Zagato, Touring, Bertone and Carrozzeria to name but a few – and they’ve all produced some truly wonderful works of automotive art, each with their own unique personality. But every Italian coachbuilder has one thing in common. They all do their best work when their starting point for a project is an Alfa Romeo.

2 months ago | carmagazine.co.uk | Luke Wilkinson

►We take advantage of Leapmotor’s tech…►… by making our own electrical gremlins►The feature has practical uses, howeverLast week, I attended the UK launch of the new Leapmotor C10. While I was beetling around Sussex, I discovered the car had a ‘routines’ function that, once programmed, allows you to perform a series of actions, like you can with your Google nest at home. This has some serious benefits.