Sustainability and supercars at Revival 2022's Earls Court Motor Show

Between what other four walls will you find a Pininfarina Battista all-electric hypercar, with its four electric motors and 2,000PS, and an immaculate BMW ‘New Six’ saloon from the 1970s? What other four walls contain both an original classic Range Rover and a next-generation Deus Vayanne all-electric hypercar? All of these join the new Range Rover, the new BMW 7 Series, the new Aston Martin Valhalla hypercar alongside its DB5 ancestor, the new Polestar 5 all-electric super saloon and many more exciting cars, from bygone eras and indeed, eras to come. In the case of the 1998 Paul Smith Mini and the Charge Mustang, Earls Court shows off cars past that have been turned into cars of the future.

Particularly interesting to see is the all-electric i7 next to its distant ancestors, the BMW New Six and the E23 BMW 7 Series. These cars are separated by five decades and six generations of 7 Series BMW. So much has changed in what BMW’s idea of a flagship saloon is in that time, yet some things have stayed the same. The new car is much bigger, highly futuristic in its design, is chock full of tech and screens and is all electric. Yet it retains, to an extent, the time-worn three-box silhouette that BMW saloons of old, going back to the New Six, made iconic.

Moving down the way, we have a modern electric Mini sat next to its classic ancestor, though as above, these aren’t separated by as many years as you’d think. The new car is the Mini Strip, an excercise in showing the beauty of simplicity and rough edges. The usual paint is replaced with an anti-corrosive coating, while the grille shell and panoramic roof are recycled perspex. On the inside the cabin is massively stripped back, with sustainable and recyclable cork-based trim that doesn’t need to be glued. 

The project, a collaboration between Paul Smith and Mini, shows the car’s robustness and ‘material honesty’ while exploring outside-the-box sustainable manufacturing solutions. It sits alongside the aforementioned 1998 Paul Smith Mini, which thanks to the Mini Recharged project, has been retrofitted with a new all-electric drivetrain. See all this and more in the Earl’s Court Motor Show at the 2022 Goodwood Revival.