Charlie plays a key role in setting the news agenda for the automotive industry.
In addition to his contribution to Autocar Business, Charlie regularly features in Autocar’s traditional news pages, covering the new car launches and technological developments poised to reshape the industry in the coming years.
He joined Autocar in July 2022 after a nine-month stint as an apprentice with sister publication, What Car?. He's contributed to The Intercooler, and placed second in Hagerty’s 2019 Young Writer competition with a MG Metro 6R4 feature.
Before he joined the automotive media, Charlie studied History at the University of Winchester, where he specialised in the impact of mobility – and the automobile – on 20th Century Europe.
Charlie is an expert in:
- The UK’s car industry
- Electrification and alternative fuels
- Learning to drive
- New car news
- Electric car news
- Start-up news
Charlie Martin Q&A
What was your biggest news story?
I was proud to be among the first to notice that the EU’s proposed legislation banning sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035 – as it read in February 2023, before e-fuels took hold of the news agenda – included an exemption for low-volume manufacturers. I was soon on the phone to some of the UK’s most influential marques (Ariel, BAC and Morgan, to name a few) about the lifeline they had been given and my reporting was quickly circulated among the wider automotive media; a real moment of personal pride.
What’s the best car you’ve ever driven?
My Fiat Panda 100HP. It’s perfectly proportioned for the cut and thrust of traffic in suburban London, where even a Ford Focus can feel ungainly; with a revvy 1.4-litre four-pot that makes much fuss at entirely safe and sensible speeds. Sport mode amplifies the fun by forcing you to keep the rev counter on the boil – drop below 4000rpm and the whole car bucks like it’s about to stall. The reduced power steering assistance is also welcome, given it’s ordinarily as communicative as local anaesthetic.
What will the car industry look like in 20 years?
I dream of a world where public transport abounds and the roads are free of traffic everywhere that you would want to drive; that we won’t need to use cars in the cramped cities where driving is little more than an exercise in anger management and clutch control. However, I doubt much will change without some kind of moonshot technological development that makes zero-emission cars as convenient to run as today’s ICE models – be it solid-state batteries, solar tech or even hydrogen (as unlikely as the latter may seem…)
