The Best New Cars of 2021

Making newsworthy pronouncements about how quickly you are embracing new trends and technology is all the rage in the car business right now.

This March, Volvo declared it would not just be an EV-only brand by 2030 but that it’s also going leather-free, and that customers will only be able to buy new cars online instead of showrooms.

To mark the news, it also announced this C40 Re:Charge as its first purpose-built electric car.

A clear relation of the crazily popular XC40 SUV, the C40 carries a more coupé-esque profile and some subtle ‘Look I’m electric’ styling.

It’s not a million miles away from the feel of a Polestar 2 in fact – the electric performance brand owned by, you guessed it, Volvo.

And promising a 0-62mph time of 4.9 seconds, it’s officially only 0.2 seconds slower.

Also like Polestar, Volvo is promising to simplify customer choices and reduce model variations on its electric models. It’ll be interesting to see just how competitive the EV scene will be by the time the C40 hits the road at the end of the year.

Alfa Romeo’s spectacular Giulia Quadrifoglio was many people’s car of the year in 2017; a stylish and sassy saloon with a distinctly crazy side that saw it go from 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds and keep on going to 190 mph. Well, that car just got crazier with a special GTA version (that’s Grand Turismo Alleggerita, or lighter grand tourer, not Grand Theft Auto) which strips 100kg from its stablemate and tweaks the existing 2.9 litre V6 engine to produce 533hp, so becoming the most powerful Alfa ever built when it arrives in the summer. Alfa’s F1 drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi have been involved in fine-tuning it. Unsurprisingly only 500 will be made, costing a cool £150,000 apiece.

If you liked the Porsche Taycan – and we’re yet to find anyone that didn’t love Porsche’s four-door electric standard-setter – there’s good news. The first Taycan spin-off is due this summer, with a name that sounds like an enigma code, but for our money it might well be even cooler. We have to declare a slightly irrational love of anything styled like a shooting brake (or curvy estate if you’d prefer) but as with the Panamera, this format seems to really suit the Taycan body shape.

You might know the Toyota Yaris as a humble and trusty supermini, but this GR version is not of those. Think of it instead as its evil twin. It looks the same but is in fact a hand-built, race-ready rally version that might just represent the most fun you can legally have on four wheels right now. Super light-weight and packed full of clever tech, its bespoke 1.6 litre turbo-charged three cylinder engine produces 257bhp, delivered through a remarkable all-wheel drive system that can conquer the twistiest B-roads without breaking into a sweat. That a car can be this capable and look like it should be parked up outside Sainsbury’s – no spoilers, sideskirts or boy racer stickers - only adds to the allure. This car is all trousers, no talk.

If you weren’t aware of Lamborghini’s extraordinary racing know-how, this new Huracan spin-off will help jog the memory. It’s basically a road-legal version of the Huracan Super Trofeo Evo that won the Daytona three times, so while its engineers have taken road-driving into consideration, the track will be its spiritual home. Extensive aerodynamics work and chassis tweaking, alongside load-lightening across the board (even the floor-mats have carbon weave) produce a car that will be as stunning to take on a lap as it is just to look at.

Peugeot has a famous performance pedigree via its GTi division, so it’s saying something to announce that this new 508 Sport Engineered will be the most powerful road car in its history.

A 355hp plug-in hybrid with an electric motor on both axles, it can reach 0-62mph in 5.2 seconds with a limited top speed of 155mph.

The already good-looking 508 is given a little more attitude on the looks front too, via a grey and green colour combo, plus some neat styling tweaks. That the bespoke paint shade is being called Kryptonite should give you an idea of Peugeot’s ambition for this launch, which is available in fastback and estate.

Throw in 20 inch alloys and a tech-laden interior, and we’re looking forward to getting behind the wheel of a car that could kickstart something for this famous French marque.

The word 'iconic' may get bandied around a lot in the car world but the M3 is one model that’s very deserving of the status. This will be the sixth generation of BMW’s super saloon and carries a heavy-hitting line-up of new technology and features, central to which is a new twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six petrol engine.

The flagship 'Competition' M3 produces 503hp for a 0–62mph time of 3.9 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 155mph. Design-wise, it has more skirts and grilles than John Lewis, with a cabin you'd want to hang out in too. The result delivers just the right tone of style and aggression. Amongst the many clever gizmos and driver functions, the car offers a new drift analyser, which can be accessed through the infotainment screen to display how successfully you’ve been sliding. Or otherwise.

If you expect to at least get a roof and a windscreen for £765,000, don’t put your name down for Aston’s ultra-extreme V12 Speedster, which takes its inspiration from Aston’s stripped back Fifties racers. This one’s in carbon fibre, of course.

Not only is this two-seater exposed to the elements, it has no screen either, intending to restore the connection between road and driver. And given the car’s likely performance, concentrating on the road will be mandatory. A 5.2-litre twin turbo V12 will produce 690hp, achieving 0-62mph in just 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 186mph. Only 88 people will get to own one. Surely Bruce Wayne will be one of them.

What happens when you put an F1 engine into a road car? We’ll find out soon enough when the AMG-One arrives this spring. Yes, using the same the same 1000hp 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrid engine that Lewis Hamilton used to win the 2015 F1 world championship, this will be a hypercar that can legitimately be called unique.

F1 technology has also influenced aerodynamics, handling and suspension. Hamilton is also reported to be a big fan, having helped develop the original engine and driven the finished article during campaign filming. Unlike the F1 car, the One will also be able to run on purely electric power. Two sister models are also set to join it in AMG’s E Performance division.

Ford’s first ever all-electric SUV, arrives with plenty of chatter about its name. How does a modern and practical EV with a vegan leather interior relates to the original Ford Mustang, a throaty, thirsty two-door muscle car?

Aside from a few shared styling details like the raised front haunches, the short answer seems to be that the marketers at Ford want the world to be as excited about it as they are.

If you just appraise the Mach-E on its own terms though, you’re left with a very likeable, technical and capable alternative to the Tesla Model Y and Polestar 2.

With looks that stand out in this segment, very handy range and a well-pitched interior, it moves well too considering its size; the Extended Range AWD version manages a 0-62mph time of 5.1 seconds and produces 346hp. And coming soon is a GT that looks set to become the world’s fastest accelerating electric SUV of all.

Audi can’t stop adding electric SUVs to its line-up, with an eye on dominating what is clearly a hot category. Smaller and sportier than the original e-tron which came out in 2018, this Q4 carries the same curvy lines and imposing plastic grille that distinguish the brand’s electric SUVs from its petrol ones.

With an electric motor on each axle, the Q4 e-tron produces 300 horsepower for a 0-62 mph time of 6.3 seconds. Refined, solid and capable seem to be Audi’s watchwords in this category, and who can blame them.

When Elon Musk first announced the outlandish Tesla Cyber Truck, there were many who wondered if the post-apocalyptic and all-electric take on the traditional American pick-up would ever hit the roads.

Well, after a year which has felt like the apocalypse, perhaps we should no longer be surprised that it’s really happening, with production due to begin towards the end of the year. It can go off-road, has armoured glass and is going to be huge in every sense, with space for six adults. It will also come in three varieties, the flagship Tri Motor All-wheel Drive model promising 500-mile range, 2.9sec 0-62mph, a 130mph top speed and a towing capacity of 6.4 tonnes.

Bizarre as it is, anything which celebrates the wedged-styling of the Seventies in such spectacular style has our vote.