BBC Top Gear Magazine December 2025

@jack_rix @rixjack jack.rix@bbctopgearmagazine.com We’ve been talking about it for a while now, but the chasm is beginning to widen. This idea that EVs will become the catch all solution for everyday driving, getting from A to B, family trips etc, and combustion engines will become the preserve of enthusiasts who are prepared to stomach rising fuel costs and taxation. Total separation is yet to occur of course, there are still plenty of excellent petrol and diesel (remember that?) cars out there, and a handful of EVs aimed at speed freaks, but I’m sensing an acceptance that this is how the future will be. It’s a phenomenon brought into relief by our Performance Car of the Year test and the recent Munich motor show where 98 per cent of the new…

It just looks ‘right’ somehow. A leaky, draughty garage with no hot or cold running electric inside, backing onto a railway line. The natural habitat of the beleaguered British sports car perpetually midway through a hopeless restoration. But Scott Adshead’s MGB GT breaks that mould… while he fights to stop it going mouldy. Scott isn’t your quintessentially bearded MG spanner. He’s 28, tinkering under the bonnet in designer trainers when I arrive. And this isn’t yet another tedious multi decade marriage killer destined never to turn a wheel. In fact, it’s approaching the end of Scott’s second glow up – after his first attempt was cruelly obliterated by a flood. “I daily drive it – it never goes away for winter. Old boys see me doing my weekly shop in…

WE’LL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE FIRST half of next year to see the interior and exterior design of the first all-electric Ferrari, one we know designer Jony Ive of Apple iPhone fame has had a hand in. That’s when we’ll also learn the real name – Elettrica is just a working title for now – but to whet our appetites, Ferrari has revealed a glut of details around the chassis, motors, batteries and software and we went to Maranello to take all in. Starting with the motors. There are four of them, two on each axle – permanent magnet synchronous motors, with Hallbach array rotors no less. All you need to know is they’re derived from F1 tech, almost identical to those you’ll find on an F80 and designed…

TG’S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF BELIEVES FERRARI CAN DO IT Predictably, the online love for an electric Ferrari is lower than its CoG… and I sympathise to an extent. A Ferrari without an engine is like a 99 without a Flake - frankly what's the point? But there are currently 14 separate Ferrari models you can buy with combustion engines, so if you're not an EV fan, you're not exactly short on choice. As engineering exercises go, finding out whether Ferrari can find a way to inject excitement into the electric experience is fascinating - and it's clearly getting creative in plugging the 'engagement' gaps left by the lack of noise and gears. I think the haters are in for a shock. “Ferrari is getting creative in plugging the gaps” THE EV AFICIONADO…

CITROEN 2CV. FIAT 500. MINI. VW BEETLE. DACIA HIPSTER. Wait… what? Before you get too excited, the Hipster is officially still just a concept. But it’s got our attention, for all the size of it. It’s 3m long and 1.5m wide yet there’s room for four adults inside, and the boot can swallow up to 500 litres. It’s 20 per cent lighter than Dacia’s electric tiddler, the Spring, and aims to halve the carbon footprint over its life cycle compared to the best EVs currently on sale. The Hipster also acknowledges another important issue: even cheap electric cars are still too expensive to work as mass mobility solutions. Hence the allusion to those, yes, iconic ‘people’s cars’ mentioned at the start. It’s time for another paradigm shift. Dacia says it…

THE ELECTRIC PORSCHE CAYENNE looks like being the world’s first car where you can option wireless charging. Fortunately there’s now a defined standard for this, SAE J2954. It’s neater than trailing wires, and wouldn’t need socket boxes mounted on walls or poles. It’s a boost for disabled drivers who find heavy cables and plugs a struggle. As with a Qi phone charger, the pad on the ground contains coils powered by alternating current, producing an alternating magnetic field. That induces a current in the coils in the charged device or car. For your phone, pad and device need to be touching. In a car, there’s an air gap. The Porsche reduces it by lowering itself in the air suspension. It can charge at 11kW, so efficiency is comparable to cable…