DS is less of a known quantity because of its links with Citroen, but the company is attempting to offer a concierge level of service to DS No8 buyers.

Verdict

Winner: Volvo ES90

There’s a bit of a price difference between these two cars, with the base version of the ES90 costing more than the highest-spec DS No8, but it really is a case of getting what you pay for. The Volvo is more luxurious, more efficient and has better space in the back, and yet the base model is so well equipped that it seems frivolous to upgrade to another version.

It’s not without its faults, though. Rear space isn’t as generous as it could be, courtesy of the high floor, and while comfort is good, there’s not much fun to be had from behind the wheel.

Runner up: DS No8

There is a lot to like about the DS No8. The looks will be a matter of taste, but we like that DS has gone out on a limb with the coupé-SUV look after the more restrained DS9, while the cabin’s Art Deco ambience offers a breath of fresh air when compared with more conservative executive rivals.

It’s quiet and refined, and the suspension is largely comfortable, if not as pillow soft as we’d like from a maker that emphasises past luxury. The biggest disappointment is the relative lack of space in the back.

Prices and specs

What we would choose

Volvo ES90

You can add kit from Ultra trim to the Plus model, including electrochromatic tinting of the panoramic glass (£995) and air suspension (£1,995). Vented seats are £800, but Nappa leather (£1,495) is only an option on Ultra cars.

DS No8

The black bonnet and roof cost £500, while you can add smaller 19-inch wheels (£150) or larger 21-inch rims (£1,100). Our car’s brown Nappa leather is a £1,600 add-on; the Etoile model has blue Alcantara as standard.

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In contrast to the upper two dual-motor models, Comfort comes with a single, rear-mounted motor producing 308bhp. It derives its power from an 82.5kWh battery pack, and BYD quotes a 0-62mph time of 6.7 seconds. That ‘Blade’ battery is capable of up to 150kW charging speeds, which should get the battery from 10-80 per cent in around 32 minutes. Range is quoted at 300 miles.

But hold on a second. Aren’t high-end Chinese cars meant to be breaking the internet with their incredible charge speeds, performance and technology? A Volkswagen ID.5 isn’t just £10k cheaper, but it’ll also do an extra 45 miles on a charge and match the BYD for performance and top-up speeds. The flagship Ultimate model ups the range and charging to 329 miles and 230kW, but at £59,000 it’s hot on the heels of BMW’s new iX3 with its 500 miles and 400kW peak.

You sit high in the BYD’s driver’s seat, and the relatively low dashboard only accentuates this. The sloping roofline and tiny rear window don’t give it a particularly airy feeling – but the panoramic roof helps. 

Connectivity has its highs and lows. The screen is relatively fast to react and has no problem maintaining a solid wireless connection for Apple CarPlay. But simple tasks are buried in multiple menus. You can also rotate the screen in a typical BYD way, but I find this utterly pointless. 

We’ll go into more detail about how the Sealion drives and the sort of efficiency we’re getting over the course of the next few months, but at the moment it’s doing around 2.9 miles per kWh. This is less than what BYD quotes and is the result of largely urban driving so far, but that’s not such a bad number considering the recent cold weather.

The BYD will have to prove it’s worth the ambitious price tag by driving, cosseting and reassuring us to the levels we expect of its legacy-branded rivals that offer very similar, if not even better value. Only time will tell.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.

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Although it’s not as big as the 5008, the Qashqai has enough space for four adults and the Tekna+ model we’re testing has premium quilted-leather heated seats that include a massage setting. There is synthetic suede trim on the centre console and arm-rests, plus customisable ambient lighting. Overall, the interior feels very classy.

The 504-litre boot is large enough for all my photography gear and, as in the 5008, has a storage space under two removable shelves where I can store all the car-cleaning products that I need for photoshoots in winter. The ride is firmer than the 5008’s and there is slightly more noise in the cabin. Neither is a big issue, however, and the ride is still good. The pay-off is a more dynamic driving experience.

In fact, the only issue wasn’t the car’s fault at all. A day after it was delivered, a low tyre pressure warning popped up on the screen. I inflated the tyre to the correct PSI at a garage and I couldn’t see any damage to the rubber following a quick inspection. 

A couple of days later the warning light came on again, though, and this time I decided to have the tyre checked at an F1 Autocentre. The technician found a tiny hole in the sidewall that couldn’t be repaired. The right tyre wasn’t in stock, so I returned a few days later for a new Michelin Primacy 4 to match the other three tyres. It cost £251.56, which made for a frustrating start to the year.

*Insurance quote for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.

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The only significant way my situation differs from the typical EX30 buyer’s is that I’m not an empty-nester – my wife and I have an 11-year-old daughter in tow. As a result, the EX30’s introduction to Pringle family life has been a diet of short suburban journeys, mainly to and from school, football training and matches, and the shops.

That means I haven’t tested the car’s range at all, although it was a deliberate choice to pick the Extended Range model – as most EX30 buyers do. This can officially manage 296 miles per charge, and while that hasn’t been a concern so far, a welcome side-effect is that I’ve only had to charge the car once in its first three weeks with me.

Tougher tests will come, but for now the EX30 is settling perfectly into its role. I’m enjoying the smooth and responsive electric powertrain around town, as well as the excellent refinement – in terms of both the lack of noise inside the car, and the way the suspension deals with poor road surfaces.

The Volvo is practical enough for our three-person family, and the tech works well, too. I particularly like the built-in Google Maps navigation, Apple CarPlay has worked faultlessly for streaming music, and I easily linked the car to the Volvo smartphone app.

My only complaints so far are that – as in so many cars these days – some of the safety-assist features are a little over-eager (although I’ve programmed a button on the steering wheel to turn off the speed alert with a single press). I’m going to need a while to get to grips with the complexities of the infotainment system, too. Otherwise, I’ve certainly come up trumps with this Volvo.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.

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Kia is rapidly expanding its EV lineup, the most recent addition to its fully-electric family is the being the EV4. It is offered in hatchback and sedan versions and is aimed primarily towards the European market.

The car should bridge the gap between the smaller EV3 and the larger EV6. Today we got our hands on the Kia EV4 hatchback, equipped with the larger 81.4 kWh battery in the Long Range trim.

It also came with the GT-line trim, which improves the look, but slightly decreases range. Combined with the 19-inch wheels, we had the car with the highest consumption, with EV4 Long Range Air with its 17-inch wheels representing the other end of the spectrum. Going for the sedan version would likely bring another range boost, but this model is not as widely available as the hatchback.

The purpose of today’s test is to determine how efficient the model is in the real world, whereas a dedicated review will be coming shortly, examining all aspects of the car in detail.

After completing severl real-world runs we plug in data to our widget, which uses our own complex algorithm for figuring out the range you can expect in any combination of temperature or speed.

We drove our usual test routes, doing the same track both ways at constant speeds at the same place as with every other car we test. The ambient temperature while testing the Kia EV4 Long Range was 46°F, which certainly isn’t optimal testing weather for an EV. Further improvements can be made by equipping more efficient summer tires and having smaller wheels to build on the range figures presented below.

Even so at our lowest testing speed of 37 mph, the Kia EV4 Long Range performed tremendously. At this lower speed the efficient motors are really counting for someting. Compared to most direct rivals in terms of shape, the EV4 hatchback has a comfortable advantage.

When we sped up to 56 mph, consumption rised noticeably as the shape starts taking its toll on efficiency. The EV4 still performs great for its segment.

At the highest testing speed of 81 mph, the EV4 hatchback continues being among the best in its class. At the highway test it’s only behind more aerodynamic sedans or larger models with bigger batteries. Still, it provides more than sufficient range on a single charge and shows that the EV4 is a great choice for longer trips both on and off the highway.

In the compact electric segment, the Kia EV4 hatchback stands out for its impressive efficiency and driving range. The big 81.4 kWh battery is among the biggest in this class and it delivers a well rounded and highly capable package.

Beyond its range credentials, the EV4 offers a number of appealing features that will be explored in greater detail in our full review. For now, the results from our efficiency testing highlight its ability to cover long distances with ease, making it a practical choice for extended journeys.

Naturally, the shape of the EV4 doesn’t allow it to compete with the very best performers in our range test. The closest rival it loses to is the Renault Scenic E-Tech, which comes with an even larger battery pack and offers similar efficiency. For buyers focused primarily on range in a compact electric hatchback, the Kia EV4 Long Range remains a strong and commendable option that largely delivers on its promise.

Coming back to the widget we mentioned earlier – feel free to give at try!

• Donut Lab released its second independent solid-state battery test result Monday.
• The pouch cell was subjected to extreme temperatures as high as 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
• It appeared to perform well at elevated heat, but one battery scientist said the limited data revealed little about its real-world performance.

Finnish startup Donut Lab has released its second independent test result for what it claims is the world’s first all-solid-state battery. Once again, the data is raising as many questions as it answers.

This latest test puts the cell through its paces at high-temperatures of 80 and 100 degrees Celsius (176-212 degrees Fahrenheit), roughly double the maximum operating temperature of conventional lithium-ion batteries. 

On the surface, the results look promising. But experts urged caution, pointing to data they say is far too thin to mean much. Some of Donut’s biggest claims, like all-important battery chemistry and energy density, are still unverified. 

Eric Wachsman, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering who specializes in solid-state batteries and solid oxide fuel cells, said the insufficient data does not represent real-world usage in automotive applications. 

“The cells are not violating any law of thermodynamics,” Wachsman told me in an email. “But the data presented leaves a lot to be desired for many reasons,” he said.

A 2.4 kilogram steel plate was placed on the Donut Lab solid-state cell for mechanical pressure while charging and discharging.

Photo by: Donut Lab

Researchers say solid-state batteries are a “holy grail” technology that can unlock superior driving range compared to today’s lithium-ion batteries, while substantially reducing charging times and fire risk. At least on paper, the technology has the potential to vanquish range and charging anxieties and unlock broader EV adoption.

Battery companies and automakers are racing to develop the technology, but mass manufacturing of solid-state batteries without defects is extremely challenging. Several solid-state battery startup CEOs InsideEVs has interviewed have said it’s an unresolved problem.

That’s why Donut Lab’s claims took the internet by storm early this year. The Helsinki-based startup says it has developed the world’s first all-solid-state battery that’s production-ready. It will power Verge Motorcycles EVs starting this quarter. 

The specs it’s put forward are extraordinary: 400 watt-hours of energy density (roughly double today’s lithium-ion cells), a five-minute charge time, an operating range of -30C to 100C (-22F to 212F), a 100,000-cycle lifespan, and zero rare earth materials.

Photo by: Donut Lab

The announcement was met with deep skepticism from industry experts for making bold claims without providing any proof, patent disclosures, or live demonstrations. The company is now responding to the blowback by releasing independent test results from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

After demonstrating its fast-charging capabilities in a lab test last week, the company released a second independent test on Monday. This one showcases the cell’s apparent stability at temperatures as high as 80C and 100C (176F and 212F). 

At 80C (176F), the cell appeared to have delivered more energy than at 20C (68F), reaching 110.5% of its normal capacity. It basically suggests that the chemistry is possibly running more efficiently at elevated heat. After the high-temperature discharge, it recharged without any visible damage, indicating normal performance.

The battery was then pushed even harder. The agency raised the temperature of the testing chamber to 100C (212F), which is the boiling point of water. Again, the cell performed better than it did at room temperature, delivering 107% of its normal capacity. And it was able to charge up normally again thereafter.

That’s impressive because regular lithium-ion batteries don’t handle heat all that well. As temperatures climb, they lose efficiency. And if you push far enough, they can become unstable or sustain permanent damage. Studies suggest that the optimal operating range for lithium-ion batteries is between 25-40C (77-104F). The Donut Lab cell was able to survive in temperatures over twice of that.

However, there was one notable development after the 100C test: the Donut battery’s outer pouch lost its “vacuum.” Wachsman said the pouch issue was a potential red flag. The loss of vacuum, he explained, may indicate that the cell lost its “hermetic seal,” the barrier that keeps outside air away from the sensitive internal chemistry.

“Pouch cells will tend to expand due to internal pressure as they can give off gas during cycling,” Wachsman said. “It’s clear they experienced excessive swell after a few cycles,” he said after comparing the fast-charging images from last week’s test to this week’s high-temperature results.

Potential swelling on the Donut Lab solid-state EV battery cell after a discharge test at 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit)

Whether this is a major safety issue or something that’s expected on solid-state cells remains unclear. However, the broader consensus is consistent among experts. Neither test reveals meaningful pack-level performance over the thousands of cycles that actually matter for real-world use. 

“To be commercially relevant, the cells need to be stable with less than 10-20% of capacity fade for thousands of cycles,” Wachsman said. “Without that, the tests are essentially meaningless.”

Donut Lab says more independent results are coming in the weeks ahead. Energy density figures and battery chemistry disclosures remain the two things worth watching for. Until those surface, the jury is firmly still out.

Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com

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Since the John Cooper Works arrived on our fleet, MINI has upped the price from £31,200 to £33,530. That’s a fairly significant jump, because it means the car is now more than £2,000 dearer than its closest competitor, the Volkswagen Polo GTI. 

In addition, the JCW is now £5,000 more than the MINI Cooper S and £3,500 more costly than the new Skoda Fabia 130 – two cars that I would definitely consider going for, thanks to their slightly softer, more friendly chassis set-up. 

If you do opt for the JCW, it makes sense to do what we did and choose the £3,800 Level 3 option pack. This brings much-needed tech such as a heated steering wheel and seats, a panoramic roof and a head-up display, which is a must considering the lack of a screen for the driver.

MINI John Cooper Works: Second report

Funky hatch is – mostly – helping our man recapture his youth

• Mileage: 6,331 miles
• Efficiency: 38.7mpg

If there’s one car brand that trades heavily on its youthful appeal, then it’s MINI. And potentially the most youth-oriented of its models is the JCW hatch I’ve been running over the past few months. I really enjoyed blasting it around the Curborough sprint course when it first arrived, and more recently I’ve noticed this hot hatch may have been influencing a change in my lifestyle. 

Although I’m very much on the far side of 30, I’ve decided that now is as good a time as ever to get into some of my old pastimes. Despite how creaky and distinctly un-youthful my body feels, I’ve managed to nail down a ‘pop shuv-it’ in skateboarding (you might want to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater if you don’t know what I’m on about), started playing for my local 11-a-side football team, and even tried to make sure I’m not completely wasting the money I spend on my gym membership. 

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Pro-4X is Nissan‘s dedicated off-road brand—a competitor to the Jeep Trailhawks and Toyota TRD Pros of the world. It’s synonymous with extra ground clearance, knobbier tires, and locking differentials—the sorts of things you want if you do serious wheeling. So when Nissan invited me to sample its lineup of 4×4-ready Frontier and Armada Pro-4Xes at Silver Lake Sand Dunes in western Michigan, I was immediately game.

What do all those mechanical upgrades translate to out here on sand? In a word: overkill. To be fair, we got lucky in the grip department. After a dry summer and early fall, our trip to Silver Lake happened to come on the heels of a burst of rain. Contrary to most other performance driving situations, water actually gives you better grip on sand, packing it heavy and tight beneath your tires. Dry sand behaves more like an uncooperative liquid than anything resembling a hard surface, gleefully flowing away from your contact patches. With enough grip, navigating Silver Lake comes down to ground clearance and a little bit of momentum—and the Nissans offer both in spades.

The former, of course, is baked in. In the case of the Armada, it’s further augmented by the settings of its fancy air suspension. You get between 9.6 and 9.9 inches of ground clearance with the standard car (and a bit less with the Nismo), but the extra lift baked into the Pro-4X and Platinum Reserve models provides another two inches on top of that, for a max of 11.6. The Frontier has to make do with a fixed ride height, but the Pro-4X has nearly an inch more ground clearance than the SV 4×4.

Momentum, however, is a different story. If you’re a racing fan, you might associate the term with cars that are down on power relative to their competitors and thus likely to struggle if they can’t capitalize on their typical advantages on technical courses. On track, momentum management can be the difference between finishing first and finishing last. Out here, it often determines whether you finish at all.

Despite my earlier allusions to wheel-to-wheel racing, this is what you might call more of a PvE (“Player vs. Environment”) type situation than PvP (“Player vs. Player”). That was especially true in mid-October, when we convoyed out to the dunes. By the time we arrived, the lakeside town had long cleared out for the season. 95% of the time, we had acres of park to ourselves in every direction. The effect was magnified after Nissan’s chase crew cut us loose with a radio and spoken assurances that they’d be able to locate us should anything go awry.

The rhythm of climbing sand dunes is simple to grasp but tricky to master. Ideally, you generate all the speed you need as quickly as possible, letting gravity bleed it off as you climb. If you time everything correctly, you’ll arrive at the peak with just enough inertia to tip your nose over the crest, but no more. Arrive with too little speed, and you’ll bog down before you reach the top. Get there too hot, and you’ll overshoot, which can send you ass-over-teakettle down the far side. I’ve seen it done, and frankly, I wouldn’t recommend it. Sand’s soft, but not that soft.

To make matters worse, the flow of the trail is constantly changing. Each trip up the dune is a hard reboot—a new surface potentially hiding new challenges. Driftwood? Small boulders? A cluster of millennia-old seashells? You never know what might get churned up—or worse, when somebody might get stuck and make a mess digging themselves free. And when inertia alone isn’t enough to get the job done, that’s when you call in reinforcements—in the form of torque, naturally.

There are two levers to pull in order to increase your available torque: engine output and mechanical multiplication. The first is exactly what it sounds like: By stepping on the throttle, you feed the engine more air and more fuel, which it then converts into torque. The second is a five-dollar way of saying it all comes down to what gear (and range) you’re in.

Enthusiasts get all fizzy over two-speed 4×4 transfer cases for exactly this reason. By shifting into low-range, you multiply the torque going to the wheels at a given speed. This shortens all of your gears, meaning your engine spins at a much higher RPM than normal to achieve the same forward velocity. Translation? Lots more noise producing and a lot less forward progress. Sounds bad, right? Usually, it would be, but out here, it means you can produce WAAAAAH! levels of torque without WAAAAAH! levels of forward progress.

Normally, deep sand is exactly where you’d want a low-range gearbox and locking rear differential, which is why Nissan only bothered to bring Pro-4X models along for our outing. But with all the rain, the top layers of the dunes were packed solid, inviting tires to grab with very little drama. Four-wheel drive was still mandatory, but low-range proved unnecessary. Manually selecting second gear to keep the trucks from up-shifting into the torqueless abyss of fuel-efficient ratios proved more than enough to keep the engines operating within the meat of their respective power bands, and the tires were aired down to aid in keeping the trucks afloat on the crushed white quartz that emerges from eastern Lake Michigan.

My first stop on my solo expedition was the same one visited by countless others over the decades of 4×4’ing at Silver Lake: Test Hill. Its name says it all, really. If you can get up Test Hill, you can go anywhere in the park. It’s a climb of less than 200 feet, and if you do it right, you should complete it in seconds. Get it wrong, and you’ll gain new appreciation for just how high that really is.

My first go was in the Frontier, which lacks the Armada’s turbocharged torque (516 pound-feet!). Still, 281 lb-ft is nothing to sneeze at, and like the SUV, the pickup allows for manual gear selection. I hadn’t driven this truck at all until today, and my familiarization with the powertrain came from the two-minute crawl from our beachside staging area to the base of Test Hill. A few hundred yards away, I could see one of our recovery trucks parked where its occupants could quickly deploy to the stickier spots should anybody need assistance. I decided then and there not to be that guy.

With that in mind, I gave the Frontier about 60% throttle and dedicated my attention to keeping it pointed straight ahead. It not only lacks the Armada’s grunt, but also its heft, especially over the rear axle. It bucked and wiggled its rear end under throttle, alternately biting and then bouncing free as the sand gave way beneath the tires, but with a little finesse and some patience, it found the ruts and settled—just in time for the top of the dune to disappear beneath the Frontier’s hood, followed by the brief sensation of vertigo as the front wheels gently tipped over the crest.

Not today, tow strap!

Committing to Test Hill means committing to several more massive crystalline undulations. This section of the park is one-way due to dangers that would be posed by blind, two-way traffic over the sky-scraping crests. Each successive dune is easier to clear than the one before it, but all are unique. One nearly bends over itself at the top—that’s one you really don’t want to take too hot. Counting the seconds until your wheels touch back down sounds awesome in the abstract, but it’s a bit dicier when your clenched cheeks are about to absorb the brunt impact.

After I concluded my tour in the Frontier, I made my way back to the staging area to find somebody looking to trade their Armada for the pickup. Before long, I was back at Test Hill in the big SUV, waiting on a small buggy of some sort to free itself from its high-centered perch atop the dune. I glanced toward where our recovery crew had been staged earlier and found them missing—probably checking in on another driver, as I’d heard nothing at all over the radio. So I sat while the recovery played out. Once the way was clear again, I saddled back up and charged at the dune in the big Armada—only to bog down completely just short of the crest.

No sweat, though—the trick is not to panic. Off-roading is a hobby defined by one of our best-known societal maxims: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. In this case, that means backing down the dune to the starting point and starting from scratch. It’s simple enough, but you have to be careful about keeping the thing pointed straight downhill. If you get too much steering angle, it’s easy to lay the truck on its side—or even roll down the hill completely. Yep, seen that too.

But 30 seconds later, I was back at the proper launch point, shiny-side-up and ready for another try. I glanced again to find that the recovery crew had returned to its perch with their truck facing Test Hill—like a turkey vulture curiously eyeing what might be a sick bull.

No chance, you ugly, bald f-

I sent some gnarly rooster tails up on the second go, and the way the Armada bit in, I knew I was golden. As I approached the crest, I saw the huge concave area that the buggy had scrubbed out. Just as it disappeared beneath the hood, I goosed the throttle for a fraction of a second to bring the nose up, hoping it would keep the front bumper from coming down on the crest and killing my momentum. It worked. By the time the nose rebounded toward the ground, the front axle was already dropping away beneath me, and with just a mild dab of brake to keep the rear end honest, I was once again gently descending in the right direction. High on the clean finish, I made my way through the park and back around for another go, which ended up being unremarkably trivial.

This is the second time I’ve visited the dunes. My first was at the wheel of a Ford F-150 Raptor R alongside The Drive‘s indefatigable Joel Feder. While that’s a very different automobile from the two Nissans I drove this time around, the experience proved comfortingly familiar for one simple reason: Modern 4x4s are just stupidly capable.

Decades ago, a discussion of must-have factory off-road equipment usually began and ended with steel bumpers, upgraded axles, and two-speed transfer cases. Today, we’re constantly being bombarded by new tech that further trivializes what used to be car-thrashing obstacles. In today’s increasingly massive 4x4s, items like surround-view camera systems and hill descent control can actually enable trickier maneuvers than any commercially available lift kit.

As depressing as that reality may be for some, the simple fact is that the automotive industry has left the short-wheelbase, two-door 4×4 formula behind in favor of modern engineering solutions that allow OEMs to fit massive wheel and tire combinations to mid- and even full-size trucks and SUVs. Even AEV, which prides itself on offering capability without real-world compromises, is finding ways to stick 40-inch tires on anything with four wheels—and the resulting vehicles are genuinely more capable for it.

Can the same be said for Nissan’s Pro-4X lineup? In the case of the Armada, I say yes. Its air suspension keeps it from turning into a tippy mess on pavement and offsets the NVH impacts of its burlier tires. That’s a trade-off I’d accept in a heartbeat. The Frontier’s value proposition is a bit trickier since it doesn’t offer anything to offset the downgrade in creature comforts. For the pickup buyer, however, that may not matter much. It certainly wouldn’t around here.

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Apparently, I’ve also followed 70 or so per cent of Duster customers by opting for the full-hybrid powertrain. In part, buyers want the promised excellent fuel economy, but choosing this set-up is, for the time being, the only way to get yourself into a Duster with an automatic gearbox.

Despite all that, this is a car with a list price of less than £26,000 – lower than the most basic version of the Ford Puma – yet it comes with lots of premium tech. My car’s Journey trim includes all-round electric windows, a multiview camera, keyless entry, sat-nav and a smartphone charging pad, plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

So, once I’d taken delivery of the car, was the Duster as impressive on the Great West Road and beyond as it was in the glitzy showroom? To cut a long story short, yes. In fact, I’ve done a few hundred miles since these pictures were taken, and they’ve all been very pleasant. Admittedly, pretty much all of them have been around suburban south-west London – which plays to the car’s strengths – but I have no complaints.

The ride is smooth over the pothole-ridden roads, and the transmission is silky, switching neatly between petrol and electric power. The icing on the cake is that I’m getting more than 50mpg without making any great effort to drive economically. Given that the car’s official economy figure is 55.4mpg, this is very pleasing. Indeed, on one 19-mile round trip to play some sport in another part of London, I managed a record (so far) of 71.7mpg. If the car continues to hit these numbers, I’ll be very happy indeed.

The practicality, too, is perfect for my three-person family. My wife and I have plenty of room in the front seats, and there’s enough space for our 11-year-old daughter in the back. I’ll test the boot with a tip run soon. 

I also like the way you can personalise the driver settings through the touchscreen, then apply them at the start of each trip with just two button presses. When you can get so much for so little it’s no surprise whatsoever that so many people are signing up to drive a Dacia.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.