Motors in Shotley Peninsula

You might have never heard of Rimac. But the company is certainly well-known by other car makers, especially those who want a bit of help engineering electric cars. In just ten years, the Croatian founder Mate Rimac has companies such as VW and Hyundai fighting to sign him up as a development partner.

But for now, Rimac is concentrating on producing his own car. It is seemingly irrelevant and unachievable for anyone who isn't a billionaire – but it is a technology showcase full of innovations which will filter down to the cars we drive in the near future.

A new study has found that owners of electric cars may want to consider heading to Tesco for their weekly shop as nearly half (45%) of its stores have charging point.

However, Sainsbury's loyalists who own an electric car face a lottery when it comes to charging their cars, with fewer than one in 10 (7.2%) of its stores currently providing charge points for customers.

One of the most frequent questions we get from readers is about electric seven seaters. Here is a car which goes one – or even two - better. The Citroën ë-SpaceTourer can seat up to nine people.

There's no escaping how Citroen has managed this feat of packaging: the ë-SpaceTourer is based on a van. In this case that's not necessarily a bad thing, as we've been impressed by the commercial version previously.

The new Kia Sportage, which is due to arrive in the UK later this year, will come as a plug-in hybrid the Korean carmaker has said.

The Sportage has been one of Kia's most important models in the UK in the last decade, and the new fifth-generation model will come with mild hybrid and full hybrid power. And, for the first time in a Sportage, there will be a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version.

Ferrari has electrified one of its most successful sports racing cars ever – the 250 Testa Rosa.

Limited to just 299 units, the special recreation has been sanctioned by the Italian marque. The only problem is it's limited to 37mph and primarily designed for teenagers.

Volkswagen is investing massively in electric. It believes that it can produce the next 'people's car' in the same way that it did with the original Beetle and then the Golf. The ID.3 is the car that it thinks will spearhead that revolution and is the first in a long series of interesting models it has planned, ranging from a beach buggy to a reborn version of its classic camper van.

It has dabbled before in electric cars, with battery-powered versions of the Golf and Up! city car, but the ID.3 is the first VW to be designed from the ground-up as an electric vehicle. All of its future EVs will use this structure and layout, so it has gone all-out to make sure it is impressive.

There is a theory that the old Land Rover Defender is one of the 'greenest' cars in the world, as owners can fix them rather than just throwing them away after 15 years. But there is little that is green coming out of the exhaust pipe of these ancient survivors.

This new Defender PHEV is designed to drastically reduce the sooty fumes part of Defender ownership, although you'll have to ask your children to check back in 30 years to see if its subsequent owners have made do and mended.

Hyundai's premium brand Genesis might only have been in the UK for a matter of months, but it's now revealed its first bespoke all-electric car.

Called the GV60, it uses the same major components as the Hyundai IONIQ5 and Kia EV6, but it's aiming for posher end of the electric SUV market.

Kia has finally killed off the 'First Edition' of the Soul EV which has been on sale since the car's launch and replaced it with a new 'Maxx' model. The Maxx has been cunningly priced at £34,945 on-the-road, making it eligible for the UK Government's £2,500 Plug-in Car Grant for electric cars costing less than £35,000. This reduces the price that customers pay to £32,445.

The equipment list still includes black leather upholstery, heated front seats and steering wheel. The 'Maxx' also receives two new metallic paint colour options including Snow White Pearl as standard. Fork out extra cash and you can opt for two tone colours.

BMW has set a record by revealing a new version of a car it hasn't actually launched yet. The iX3 has been given a 'facelift' to bring it into line with the newer version of the petrol-powered X3, with a new look at the front and rear.

Deliveries of this new car will begin in December, while the first UK versions of the 'old' car will be delivered in September – meaning it will be on sale for just three months.