The Geneva motor show saw countless new cars revealed and a number of important announcements from the world’s biggest car makers. What it also gave us is some suitably gossip-worthy snippets of motoring news, including the reasons behind Skoda’s late arrival, the delay faced by EV buyers in the UK and more.
VW’s final diesel V8
One hidden gem on Volkswagen’s Geneva motor show stand was a new V8 diesel-powered Touareg. It’s likely to be a swansong for V8 diesels in VWs, and sales and marketing boss Jürgen Stackmann hopes it’ll become as sought after as the old V10 diesel Touareg. The V10 was considered mighty when it was launched with 553lb ft. The new V8 gets 664lb ft and hardly an eyelid is batted.
Nearly a Geneva no-show
Skoda’s Vision iV electric SUV concept arrived very late to the show – for reasons you couldn’t make up. Czech sources say two separate trucks bringing the car from Skoda HQ broke down, the second one having gone to rescue the stricken concept from the first, before a third then got pulled and was held by the Swiss authorities. By which point it was too late to make it to the VW Group preview evening.
You can bet on Brexit
There was much muttering at Geneva from PR teams of UK-based makers about how many Brexit questions they and their chiefs would face. Rumour has it that one manufacturer even started a sweepstake on how many times the B-word was mentioned in interviews.
