This week in car news showed, perhaps more than ever before, that the future is coming and very quickly.
Of the six cars that were announced this week, four were electric. Mini set a goal to become an electric-only brand by the early 2030s and Audi confirmed it would not develop a next generation of combustion engines.
When looking to Australia specifically, we had a wave of electric news with Swedish brand Polestar announcing its arrival date and BMW confirmed the iX large SUV was coming to Australia – but fear not lovers of combustion for we also have some V8 hooliganism in our midst.
Kia announced the EV6 which is the brand’s first dedicated EV
Kia EV6 unveiled
This week Kia launched the EV6 SUV which is the brand’s first dedicated EV and is the first of seven EVs based on the Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP platform that the marque plans to release before 2027.
The EV6 shares a similar shape to the Ioniq 5 which sits on the same platform, but with a radically different face and a rear that utilises a singular rear tail light design.
More details are expected to be released very soon but expect the EV6 to have figures similar to the Ioniq 5 which has 470km of range, up to 225kW of power and 605Nm of torque in the all-wheel-drive guise.
Polestar announced it would be coming to Australia before the end of the year
Polestar to coming to Australia
Swedish brand Polestar has announced it will be expanding into the Asia-Pacific region with a long list of countries that includes Australia.
Polestar currently only makes one car, the Polestar 2 midsize SUV, after it announced it was stopping production on the Polestar 1, but it’s a vehicle that is more than capable of making a mark in what is an increasingly populated EV segment.
The Polestar 2 has impressed overseas with up to 300kW of power and 660Nm of torque from two electric motors, 470km of WLTP tested range and a DC charging speed that matches the likes of the Audi e-tron at 150kW.
Mini has confirmed it will become an all-electric brand sometime in the early 2030s
Mini to go all-electric by early 2030s
In BMW Group’s annual conference this week Oliver Zipse, the group’s chairman of the board of management, said Mini would be its first brand not to offer a combustion engine in their lineup.
The new last new combustion engine will be released in 2025 before the automaker transitions entirely to EVs sometime in the early 2030s.
Mini’s shift towards electrification was no doubt influenced by a move from the United Kingdom to ban the sale of all petrol and diesel cars by 2030, with more European nations to follow soon after.
Audi CEO Markus Duesmann announced the company would not develop new combustion engines
Other car and SUV news that mattered this week:
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Audi’s CEO, Markus Duesmann, announced this week that the company will no longer develop next-generation petrol and diesel engines and would continue to refine their existing line up instead.
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BMW revealed the i4 Gran Coupe which essentially functions as the electric 3 Series of the range and boasts some impressive figures with 590km of WLTP tested range beating out the best the Tesla Model 3 can offer.
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MG announced the Marvel R Electric which acts as a performance midsize SUV in the range with three electric motors putting out a combined 212kW of power and 665Nm of torque while also providing 400km of WLTP-tested range.
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Alongside the new SUV was the MG 5, a new station wagon that is slightly less exciting and is unlikely to come to Australia but still has the 400km WLTP-tested range claim.
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Audi gave its feisty SQ2 small SUV a starting price of $64,400 before on-road costs in Australia. It uses a turbocharged two-litre four-cylinder engine with 221kW of power and 400Nm of torque to deliver a 0-100km/h of 4.9 seconds.
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BMW announced the all-electric iX large SUV will be coming to Australia in the fourth quarter of this year, boasting up to 600km of real-world range and 150kW DC fast charging.
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Hyundai announced the Staria people mover this week which will be coming to Australia before the end of the year. The Staria is effectively a replacement for the iMax but moves considerably more upmarket with more tech and luxury features on offer.
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Maserati has given the Levante large SUV and Ghibli and Quattroporte large sedans the Trofeo treatment which adds a Ferrari-built twin-turbo V8 433kW of power and 730Nm of torque to create a lineup of seriously fast machines.
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Toyota released updated pricing and specifications on its steadfast Camry. The popular sedan drops the thirsty V6 from the lineup and bumps up the price of entry by $2,000 to $30,990 before on-roads, with tech, styling and safety upgrades to justify the added cost.
