ABM Q4 - Flipbook - Page 3

From the editor...

nnovation and the future of
automotive design. It’s a topic that
brings two distinct images to mind,
depending on your outlook. First,
for the realists and those of us
working on this content every day,
it’s advanced driver assistance systems
(ADAS) that tweak your steering wheel
a little too much, screens replacing
all your buttons and dials, softwareenabled vehicles and, of course, the
ever-approaching all-electric future. For
those with a little more imagination, or
perhaps who haven’t quite lost sight of all
the sci-fi promises of our youth, the mind
stretches a little further – maybe even all
the way to hover-cars zooming through a
neon skyline.
Imagine my surprise, then, when at a
recent Lepas event, discussion turned
to the next frontier, and it started to
sound like that latter group might not
be too far off the mark. With things
like wing mirrors and rear windows
already becoming a thing of the past,
the next seeming automotive staple
set for a reimagining might just be the
wheel itself.
The Team
Jessica Bird ....................................................... Managing Editor
The discussion ranged from batterycharging road surfaces, to the kind of
hover-style tech so-far preserved for air
hockey tables, and all I could think was:
when is a car no longer a car?
We’ve had wheels since about the
3500-3300 BCE mark, if my rudimentary
understanding of ancient history is
correct. That’s older than the pyramids,
or Stonehenge, if you want to go a bit
more local. Now, in 2026, conversation
among those in the know is centred
around whether we can potentially do
better. Perhaps the real question is:
should we?
The starry-eyed sci-fi fan in me, who
was promised a future of jet packs and
hover-boards as a kid, only to grow
up and be delivered cramped budget
air travel and traffic jams on the M25,
can’t help but find this exciting. The
jaded pessimist rolls her eyes and
wonders whether there might be some
more pressing room for improvement
in modern life, before we start, quite
literally, reinventing the wheel.
Jessica Bird
Contributors
Maria Bengtsson | Steph Newbury
Toby Poston | Øyvind Stavland Osjord
Milly Standing ................................................................ Reporter
John Jaddou | Will Gill | David Bushnell
Dylan Robertson ........................................................... Reporter
Oliver Holt | Natasha Fry | Damian Penney

ISSUE 4 Q4 2026
newsdesk@astormedia.co.uk
Brian West ................................................... Group Sales Director
brian.west@astormedia.co.uk | 07799 368 181
Stuart Wakeling ..........................................Head of Sales, Automotive
stuart.wakeling@astormedia.co.uk
Ashley Edwards ................... Director of Business Development
ashley.edwards@astormedia.co.uk | 07798 733 744
Orson McAleer .............................................................. Designer
Laura Strolconoka .................................... Campaign Manager
Niko Boeker | Inez Berkhof-Hollander
Simon Staton | Richard Hart | Rupert Gatty
Josh Collier | Iain Forsyth | Simon Neill

Craig Pennington | Geoff Potter | Chris Welch

Ryan Fowler ................................................................... Publisher
Felix Blakeston ........................................... Associate Publisher
Astor Media Limited
43 Albion Place
Maidstone
ME14 5DZ
United Kingdom
Helen Thorne ..................................................................................... Accounts
finance@astormedia.co.uk
Q4 2026
AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
3

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