This week on Chasing Cars: T60 Max arrives, F-Type goes V8-only and the new car brand coming to Australia

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If you wanted a definitive sign that Chinese car manufacturers were becoming a serious contender for Australian buyers then this week had to be it.

With MG climbing up the sales charts month after month, a new Chinese ute in the form of the LDV T60 Max on sale in Australia and the Lynk & Co brand on the way, their market share is growing.

You may not have realised that well-known car brands such as Volvo and Lotus are Chinese owned – and often built – so it’s no wonder people are taking them seriously.

It was a busy week at Chasing Cars with some big industry movements as the Federal Government announced its wet noodle of an EV policy and multiple car brands rallied against a COP26 pledge to ditch combustion engines by 2035. 

On the review side of things, we finally got to review the new-generation Kia Sportage and pitched our Genesis GV80 long termer against the formidable Audi Q7. 

But that’s just a handful of things we covered this week so let’s jump into it.

LDV T60 Max arrives in Australia

Once upon a time utes used to be cheap, durable machines and wouldn’t require you to take out a second mortgage on your home to buy -those days are now over. Or are they? 

The facelifted LDV T60 (now known as the T60 Max) is determined to prove that cheap utes can be worth owning and the latest update brings some worthwhile features.

This begins – but doesn’t end – with the 2.0-litre twin-turbo four-cylinder engine that produces more power than a top-spec Toyota Hilux with up to 160kW and matches it for torque at 500Nm.

Priced from $35,779 driveaway and topping out at $42,621 driveaway, the T60 Max can be had in a choice of two grades with either a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic and all feature four-wheel drive with low range.

A 10.25-inch touchscreen comes standard, it can tow 3.0-tonnes braked, it has disc brakes and on the high trim gets power seats with leather trim. It does lack some important safety equipment like AEB, however.

But how does it compare against its closest rival the GWM ute? We’ve written up a separate article to compare it spec for spec.

Jaguar F-Type goes V8 only

In some ways, the F-Type switching to a V8-only strategy in 2022 is essentially saying that the reasonably large model range has been gutted to just two grades – but that’s also not quite fair.

For one, Jaguar now offers two V8 grades – known as the R-Dynamic P450 and the full-fat R – with the former available as both a coupe and convertible while the R enjoys no such top-drop shenanigans.

Both are fitted with Jaguar’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine that produces 331kW of power and 580Nm of torque in the P450 and 423kW/700Nm in the R.

Jaguar previously offered the F-Tyre with a 2.0-litre turbo four-pot and a 3.0-litre supercharged V6 in Australia but its local arm said it was time for a change.

Lynk & Co coming to Australia

The Chinese-owned car industry giant Geely announced this week that its Lynk & Co brand would be expanding into a slew of new markets including Australia.

Although only founded in 2016, Lynk & Co has gained some serious momentum with a line-up of six vehicles that it could send to Australia, including a punchy hatchback, a sports sedan and a few fully-electric SUVs.

Nothing has been announced yet but the Geely brand has already shown with Volvo, Lotus and now Polestar that it’s committed to Australia.

We’ve detailed the six cars that could potentially come to Australia but Lynk & Co will soon expand its lineup even further with five new models to diversify its model range – so who knows what we could end up getting.

All the cars and SUVs we reviewed this week:

Over on the Chasing Cars Youtube Channel we are getting excruciatingly close to 100k subscribers so if you haven’t already, please go join the fun.

It’s also worth mentioning that we now do a video version of the weekly wrap up that packs in the best news of the week into a bite-sized video.

Our now full-time staff member John Law reviewed the Kia Sportage and gave his thoughts on the latest midsize SUV. We’ve published the review in both video and written form.

This week we reviewed the recently updated Lexus ES that now has an expanded line-up due to the demise of the IS sedan. After a hard week of driving in the ES, editor Tom Baker explained why he thought the ES was a good pick due to its lovely suspension and build quality – with a price point that will be appealing for fleet buyers.

Next, it was time to pitch our Genesis GV80 long-termer against the arguably segment-leading Audi Q7 to find out which luxury seven-seat SUV comes out on top.

Other car and SUV news we covered this week:

• After a long wait, the Morrison Government released its Future Fuels and Vehicles strategy and it was even more disappointing than pundits were expecting. While there were some funds for EV chargers, no subsidies or tax incentives will be offered to make EVs cheaper.

• The October sales result were released and sales were down massively thanks to the semi-conductor shortage killing supply. Nevertheless, the Ford Ranger took the top spot once again.

• Looking just at SUVs, The Toyota RAV4 took the top spot (though its sales have dropped) with second place going to the Hyundai Tucson despite recording less than half the sales.

• Mercedes-Benz told Chasing Cars that its all-wheel drive EQA 350 EV has been delayed until early next year after it was originally pitched to arrive in November or December 2021.

• Australia took a big step forward in safety this week by mandating AEB from March 2023 for new cars while those already on sale can wait until March 2025.

• The fully-electric successor to the Kombi known as the ID Buzz has been a long time coming and is now closer than its ever been with a full reveal expected next year.

• Toyota updated the BMW-built Supra coupe with wireless Apple CarPlay, though Android Auto still requires a cable. Prices remain unchanged.

• In a worrying sign of just how dire the semi-conductor shortage has become, BMW was forced to remove the touchscreen functionality in around 200 cars sold in Australia.

• But in some sad news, the 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine option was dropped for the Genesis G80 large sedan after only going on sale in June 2021.

• Toyota’s first EV known as the BZ4X midsize SUV is already taking customer orders in Australia ahead of its arrival in the second half of 2022. 

• Meanwhile, Subaru unveiled its version of the BZ4X known as the Solterra while not confirmed for Australia just yet, its local arm is in discussions with the factory.

• The fully-electric Renault Kangoo E-Tech is now under consideration for Australia and we hope it comes because with 300km of range (WLTP) and more grunt it could be a great option for city businesses that want to lower their fuel bills and emissions.