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Joe Simpson
Former Car Editor
Joe is Pocket-lint’s car editor; a role he recently moved into having written about cars for the site since 2010. Joe has a Masters in Car Design and has been working in the automotive industry for over 12 years. Joe worked for Ford in North America, before becoming a consultant to the car industry - specialising in developing future strategies and conducting user research. Previously he’s worked with brands from Audi to Volvo from his base near Leeds, UK. A regular at the major global auto shows, Joe has been a commentator and journalist for over 10 years, and besides Pocket-lint has written about design, cars and technology for Car Design News, Stuff, Core77, The Guardian and Wired. He’s also lectured internationally and teaches on the Vehicle Design Course at London’s Royal College of Art. As Pocket-lint’s primary car guy, he’s driven almost every important new car over the past five years and is fascinated by the way cars and technology are coming together. He’s just finished writing a chapter in a book about Autonomous cars, too. He likes the fact that his work allows him to further his love of travel, is a hopeless Apple addict and outside of work is busy being sleep deprived by two young sons, trying to keep his old Alfa Romeo working and wondering where to store a growing collection of trainers. He wants to run, but currently doesn’t.
Twitter: @joesimpson
Latest articles from Joe
This year's Geneva Motor Show is full of new electric and hybrid cars, but also new supercars from Ferrari and Aston Martin Read more
Formula E is billed as the electric future of car racing - here's why. Read more
Jaguar adds four-cylinder engine to the F-Type convertible sports car, creating a cheaper but no less appealing car to drive. It's a looker, too. Read more
The 2018 Paris Motor Show is Europe's biggest, we round up all the important electric, hybrid, supercar and SUV models Read more
Car brands are joining Formula E – Jaguar, BMW, Porsche, Nissan, Mercedes are all joining Formula E racing due to technology transfer Read more
The second-gen Volvo V60 is a rival for BMW 3 Series Touring and Audi A4 Avant. It has better proportions and tech and is more Swedish than before. Read more
The Volkswagen Polo is a small hatch champ. VW's 7th generation is now almost Golf-sized and comes with good tech. Fiesta, Ibiza are stiff competition Read more
BMW has refreshed its X4, the SUV with a sporty, coupe attitude. It's the sassy sister to an X3 and competitor to Mercedes GLC Coupe and Porsche Macan Read more
The Arteon is Volkswagen's replacement for the Passat CC and a much better car, with a genuine style of its own, high equipment levels and strong tech Read more
BMW hybrid electric supercar gets updates, including a bigger battery, four years after launch. Still amazes with its performance and style. Read more
We’re living with BMW’s futuristic electric city car for two years. It’s fast, fun to drive, looks odd and has a Manhattan loft interior Read more
The 2018 VW EV plug-in e-Golf provides a bigger battery with more range. Is the electric Golf the perfect, emission-free Volkswagen? Read more
Say it slowly: K-i-a Sting-er G-T. Nope, it still sounds funny.Excuse us for poking fun at a name, but can you imagine walking into a party and saying Read more
The BMW X-series car revolution began in 1999, with the X5. Since then we've had X6, X4, X3 and X1. But BMW has never made an X2. Until now.So what is Read more
What does the future look like? It's a perennial question, one that for cars feels more pertinent than ever. What you're looking at here is the Aicon, Read more
After months of teasing we're in Portugal and behind the wheel of Jaguar's great future hope – the i-Pace electric SUV. It's the first of the mainstream Read more
This is the Skoda Karoq, which, as the little brother to the 7-seat Skoda Kodiaq SUV, joins the ranks to replace the Skoda Yeti.There will be a few people Read more
Are you ready to plug-in yet? In an environment where many are shunning diesel, yet where many petrol models still don't deliver stellar fuel economy (and Read more
Our round up the best SUVs available. All the top crossovers, mid-sized and large SUVs on the market. Find out why they've become the UK's favourite. Read more
The Volkswagen Golf is Europe's best-selling car. When we reviewed the MK 7 back in 2013 it gained a coveted full-marks score. But five years is a long Read more
Audi owns the fast estate car genre. Mercedes might make some enticing AMG-models which allow you to bring the dog and kids along, but no car defines that Read more
"E-Pace? Is that the electric one then?," asks a man inspecting our Jaguar SUV as we're taking photos of it for this very review.Despite Jaguar launching Read more
How much do you want an SUV? It might have escaped your notice, but every other car we now review seems to be an SUV or crossover. And every time someone Read more
We've driven it under camouflage, on ice in northern Sweden, and swooned at it in concept form in LA, but today Jaguar unveiled the production I-Pace - Read more
The XC40 is Volvo's third SUV, and its smallest to date. It slots in below the larger XC60 and biggest-of-the-bunch XC90, being the first time the company Read more
The last Peugeot 5008 was a traditional MPV (Multi-Purpose Vehicle). And nobody wants one of those anymore. So for 2018, the 5008 has been reinvented as Read more
The Honda Civic is a funny old car. It's a real challenge to pinpoint who, exactly, it's aimed at, yet equally difficult to fault – despite historically Read more
Mid-sized SUVs have become hugely popular over the past few years – particularly at the premium end of the market, if they're wearing the right German Read more
Byton. It's not a name you're likely to have heard. But you might want to remember it, because the auto company has big plans, and by unveiling its concept Read more
At CES 2018, Toyota - the world's biggest car company - announced a new autonomous vehicle, called e-Palette, along with news that every Toyota and Lexus Read more
It might seem scarcely believable, but in 2017 the Toyota Prius celebrates its 20th Birthday. To mark this momentous occasion, we took the opportunity Read more
Land Rover used to have a slogan: "The best 4x4x far". This was when a Land Rover was the domain of your local farmer, or rich landed gentry. But at what Read more
The first Mazda CX-5 kicked off a revolution at Mazda. It was Mazda's first mainstream SUV and the first car to feature the company's new "Kodo – soul Read more
In a world of iPhones, Snapchat, Pokemon and a whole host of digital distractions, do little boys and girls still put posters of supercars on their walls? Read more
You've decided you want a mid-sized SUV. You'd like something from a reputable brand, that the neighbours won't question. But you just can't get your head Read more
How do you define fast?For some it's a case of bald figures. The Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio does 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of 190mph. Read more
The outgoing Volvo XC60 continued to be the best seller in its class right up until the end of production. Whereas other "new" Volvos — the XC90, S90, V90 Read more
Do you remember the exact moment when every manufacturer scrambled to add a high-riding SUV to their line-up? It was around the time the Nissan Qashqai Read more
"Cars, they all look the same these days." It's almost as if the designers of Toyota's new C-HR had that phrase in mind, and were determined to shoot it Read more
The Frankfurt Auto Show is Europe's biggest car show — quite literally, as we already have sores on our feet from the 12 miles walked on day one.Despite Read more
Daimler has revealed its Smart Vision EQ ForTwo concept in Stuttgart, two weeks before it gets shown to the public at the Frankfurt Auto Show.The concept Read more
GT R. If that's a name that sounds familiar, it's because you'll normally find it attached to the boot-lid of Nissan's fastest road car. But it's also Read more
French brands have never really succeeded in selling larger cars in the UK. There's one notable exception: the Renault Espace, a ground-breaking people Read more
"Fahren, fahren, fahren auf der Autobahn," Emil Shult chants out of the Bose stereo as we speed up the A1 in the new Porsche Panamera 4S. Kraftwerk's Autobahn Read more
Say Hola! to the new Seat Ibiza, the fifth-generation of the Spanish firm's popular small car.Seat has suddenly got very popular in the UK – the new Ateca Read more
Mercedes says everything it knows about how to build a car has gone into the new E-Class. Being that it is the oldest car brand in the world, that's probably Read more
The new BMW 5-Series is a car we already know to be talented. In our 5-star review of the upper-spec 530d, we said that, judged in isolation, it goes "straight Read more
There is a saying that, to be a true car fan, you must have owned an Alfa Romeo. But a Mito, and a Giulietta (the extent of Alfa's range until now) hardly Read more
Some cars are considered as class benchmarks. The Volkswagen Golf GTI is one such car. And with the German firm having just refreshed its best-selling Read more
Given its status as the best-selling car in Europe and its leadership of the compact hatchback class, when Volkswagen updates the Golf, you take note. Read more