I’ve had a few weeks to get acquainted with the Q6, which has allowed me to come up with some meaningful data on its running costs. I’m currently achieving 3mpkWh – shy of the claimed 3.3 figure but still impressive, especially as most of my journeys have been stop-start affairs with the air-con running at the maximum. A few longer trips have helped eke out the average figure, which means I’m getting a real-world 290 miles from a charge – pretty decent for a 2.2-tonne SUV.

I think with a few more longer distance trips (without the need for fierce air-conditioning) a useable 300-mile range is well within reach. And that would equate to a single charge to cover two round trips from my home in the Midlands to the Fleet World office north of London.

The Q6 is a car perfectly designed for commuting journeys such as that one – two-odd hours of a frustrating crawl up and down the A1 makes you appreciate the silence inside the cabin and the comfortable suspension (it’s not often you say that about an S line Audi).

Elsewhere, the size of the Q6 makes it an ideal family holdall, swallowing tonnes of gear in the boot and with ample space in the back seats for two adults to have plenty of head and leg room.

Any niggles? Yes – the twin charge point doors seem hugely over-engineered, taking a fair amount of time to open and close (what’s wrong with manual versions?) and the black veneer trim inside the cabin is a dust and fingerprint magnet, meaning the car looks dirty and untidy within days of being cleaned.

Julian Kirk

The plethora of Chinese car companies that have entered the UK market have made legacy manufacturers sit up and take notice in all sorts of ways. In the Seal, one example of this deviation from the norm can be seen in the infotainment. One of BYD’s USPs is a rotating screen – something that seems like a great idea, but I’ve not really had reason to change it from its default landscape setting. I can imagine it would be great for some instances, such as navigation, but as an Android Auto user, the display doesn’t function in portrait mode.

Talking of screens – something regular readers will know I’ve had a love/hate relationship with, but am learning to live with (quite literally) – the climate control offers something a bit different. Swiping left or right with three fingers increases or decreases the fan speed, while doing the same vertically changes the temperature. In lieu of physical buttons, it’s a straightforward alternative that is really quick and easy to do. Certainly safer than having to swipe through a load of sub-menus, too.

Performance-wise, the Seal’s dual-motor setup is something to behold. I know I’ve talked recently about driving more slowly and sedately, but there have been times when I’ve needed to optimise plenty of the 530hp and 670Nm torque. That said, I’m mindful that driving like that can eat away at the car’s range, so those moments are only fleeting – and where conditions allow (officer…).

On the subject of range and efficiency, the latter is more than adequate – and I even managed a couple of longer trips out the other week after forgetting to change the car. In terms of efficiency, I’m pleased to report that my occasional lead-footness hasn’t hampered my return, with the Seal’s 3.3mpkWh not too far away from the stated 3.4mpkWh in the car’s blurb.

John Challen

The Rafale has had a service. In truth, the service indicator lit up a few months back but I hadn’t bargained on how long it would take my local Renault dealer to book a service. A lead time of approximately six weeks for Renault Platinum Trowbridge is not what you would want to hear if you were a Renault van customer. Getting hold of the service department by phone was almost impossible, so I booked online in the end.

I opted to have the car collected and delivered, I had chosen a day when I would be at my computer, so didn’t need a courtesy car. In fact, the delivery driver simply left a Zoe parked up the road for the duration of the service then took it away again when he brought the Rafale back.

It came back clean with a vacuumed interior and the price of £185.83 (ex-VAT) included the service at £126.05 (ex-VAT), a cabin filter for £39.78 (ex-VAT), plus £24 (ex-VAT) for collection and delivery, as well as software updates and a vehicle health check. Despite the long lead time, the dealership seems to have done a good job, so the Rafale continues to be a good travelling companion, eating up the miles on longer trips while its manoeuvrability makes it easy to use in town too. Why have I only seen two others on the road?

John Kendall

After a few months with us, Volvo’s compact electric SUV continues to impress with its modern Scandi-minimalist looks and strong performance.

But, as with a number of EVs these days, the EX30 subverts quite a lot of traditional automotive practices and I’ve been left pondering in recent weeks about what’s change for change’s sake and what’s actually good progress?

It’s taken me a little bit of time but I’m now au fait with the EX30’s alternative take on traditional car layouts and appreciating many elements.

The column-mounted gear shifter is quick to use and quite frankly I’m loving the extra space that it liberates in front of the highly versatile central armrest, which is also equipped with retractable cupholders and a bottom storage layer.

I’m not quite there yet with the windscreen wipers and washers, which are on the end of the left stalk, but to be fair, the decent weather since the Volvo’s arrival means they’ve not been used much!

I’m not a fan yet of the indicators. Shift the left stalk slightly and they blink three times while a firmer press keeps them on continuously. But I’m finding they’re sometimes on when I want them off and vice versa. And sometimes I just can’t seem to cancel them at all. It’s all reminding me a bit of the old Vauxhall Vectra one-touch indicators from the early 2000s, if anyone remembers those.

Volvo’s reposition of the window control toggles and central locking button to the middle armrest is quick to get used to and the streamlined system with toggle switches to change between front and rear window operation works just fine.

The rather elegant-looking solid polished metal door handles on the interior not only look great but their position closer to the front of the door makes them easier to access. I also like the fact that to open the rear doors from the inside, you need to pull the door handle twice, preventing accidental use.

I’ve come around to having the speedo in the centre screen. It seemed for a while to take that fraction of a second longer to check, although I know Volvo has figures to prove otherwise, but I’m now fine with it.

But while sat-nav directions for upcoming junctions will pop up over the top of anything on the centre screen, I do miss having a driver display for a quick check on what’s coming next.

The climate system’s air filter and air quality sensor, which monitors fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) and switches to recirculated air if needed, is appreciated. And the loops used to control the air vents, rather than dials or knobs, are actually simple yet effective. But it took me a while to fathom how to change the temperature and put the air con on. A lot of functions – such as the glove box, as mentioned in a previous report – are controlled through the central touchscreen and you need to go into two different menus to change fan speed and temperature.

On the plus side, the voice-activated Google Assistant is excellent and I’m now asking it for help with everything from activating the air con to telling me the upcoming weather forecast, or the news, or the artist for whatever song is playing on the radio. Oh and playing cow sounds – a definite sign of automotive progress in the eyes of younger passengers.

Natalie Middleton

So after eight months in our care, Cupra’s finest BEV (arguably, given how much we liked the Born) has now zoomed silently back to Cupra HQ – and still appears to be sitting where it was parked 48 hours later if the MyCupra app is anything to go by.

Its replacement – a clean and sparkly Cupra Leon e-Hybrid in a rather fetching shade of light metallic greeny-grey (Taiga Grey, to be precise) – has arrived just in the nick of time – and hopping between the two underlines the differences. Principally, it highlights that the Tavascan feels chunky and spacious because it is both and, as someone who is a passionate advocate of downsizing where possible, its dimensions took a bit of getting used to initially in December 2024. The cabin of the Tavascan is also noticeably brighter, illuminated by the full-length panoramic sunroof.

We didn’t have any other colours to compare ours to on the roads, but this wasn’t surprising as we seemingly managed to snaffle one of the first Tavascans on these shores. As we saw more and more on the roads, we realised that although our beige Atacama Desert model looked cracking in isolation, the pick of the colour range – and the best at complementing its coupé-on-steroids lines – is the unimaginatively named Tavascan Blue.

That said, V2 trim gave our Tavascan the 21-inch machined alloy wheels with copper accents as standard, so the car always looked like it meant business. And at one stage, I lost count of the number of people that would casually sidle up to the car at charging bays with almost exclusively positive comments. I nearly always prefaced this by saying that the car wasn’t mine as such, but then with so many BEVs now finding their way onto fleets due to the tax benefits, I guess most drivers of the Tavascan and its closest rivals will be in a similar custodian position to me.

And that’s also to say very lucky, as the Tavascan – much like the Born we ran on the FW fleet back in late 2022 – is hugely impressive. The 77kWh battery theoretically added another 75 miles to the Born’s 58kWh battery range but, in reality, in the spring-summer months, we sometimes peaked over 400 miles, and the Born we ran managed 300 miles in the summer. Either way, these are the sort of mileages that dispel any suggestion of range anxiety for most and with fast charging available at public charge points – and app-controlled, intuitive home-charging available overnight (for those with access to charge points) – there are virtually no BEV downsides any more for company car drivers.

For those drivers with families, the Cupra Tavascan would obviously make more sense than the Born but a £16k cost differential between the two in V2 trim probably reflects this. The extra legroom in the back of the bigger brother was always welcome too and the interior is extremely well put together. Cupra appears to be an object lesson in how to make a car’s interior feel a bit special with neat little design touches. It helps that the seats are fantastic too, with several 200-mile-plus round trips producing no issues whatsoever.

If we were being hypercritical, the armrests weren’t quite in the right place for resting elbows on a long journey but this may be a compromise of creating a roomy driving position and, of course, a matter of personal preference. That said, the driving position is adjustable in just about every way possible so we’d defy anyone to not be able to get comfortable behind the wheel.

Performance-wise, the car never once made us hanker after the more powerful 340PS VZ trim models, and the V2 will deservedly be the best-seller in the range for fleets. Especially as it offers a greater range too, although the 19-inch alloy-shod V1 trim offers a greater theoretical range still, and potentially a more comfortable ride.

Our Tavascan also covered 6,500 miles without a single issue – not one that I can recall, anyway – and that includes fast-charging, overnight smart charging and super-slow charging. It just worked, which frankly is what 99% of company car motorists will want. It’s been great to be able to test the car in the depths of winter and pretty much the height of summer too. For sure, the range suffered in January/February but even a battery full-to-empty capability of 240 miles with heaters on etc will be enough for most.

For drivers with families, the Tavascan is a great all-rounder and there really is very little to report in the demerit column. In fact, the big Cupra pretty much does everything very well and it’s also (until 25 December this year at least) £15 cheaper to drive around London’s congestion charge zone. No wonder we keep seeing them on the roads these days even if, sadly, ours is no longer parked outside Fleet World HQ every day.

Luke Wikner