Car news today: Cheaper Tesla Model Y sampled, GMC Yukon is new SUV towing king, luxury Chinese electric car spied, and more – 22 April 2025

---

Thanks for joining us this Tuesday April 22, 2025. GMC Yukon stakes claim as towing king, new luxury Chinese electric car spied, Audi’s new combustion-engined A6, battery giant’s driving range breakthrough, and more. 

Browse this issue:

• Cheapest new Tesla Model Y sampled
• Land Cruiser beating tow rating for new GMC Yukon
• Spied: New Chinese electric car promises Model Y-beating luxury
• Don’t call it an e-tron: New Audi A6 revealed
• Battery giant’s 1500km driving range breakthrough
• New Tesla Model Y challenger reviewed: 2025 Xpeng G6

Cheapest new Tesla Model Y sampled

• Chasing Cars Founder Tom Baker gets behind the wheels of the new, cheapest Tesla Model Y rear-wheel drive to see if it’s any better than the car it replaces.

• Model Y’s range and suspension improvements show through, but an increasingly crowded marketplace dulls the Tesla’s light.

Land Cruiser beating tow rating for new GMC Yukon

• General Motors’ next launch is putting the Land Cruiser 300 Series and Ford Everest, with the GMC Yukon certified to haul 3628kg braked loads in Australia and New Zealand when using a 70mm tow ball.

• Hauling the Yukon (and its load) is a 6.2-litre V8 petrol knocking out 313kW and 624Nm. A 10-speed automatic, selectable 4WD with low range and air suspension are all standard. 

• The GMC Yukon is a big rig at nearly 5.4 metres long and more than 2.0 metres wide, it hits the scales at 2748kg. The gross vehicle mass (GVM) is 3447kg. 

• GMC recently upped the price by $5000 before the Yukon’s launch, up to $174,990 before on-road costs, due to exchange rate volatility, says GM Australia. The big bad SUV is arriving on Australian roads imminently.  

Spied: New Chinese electric car promises Model Y-beating luxury

• Chasing Cars spotted MG’s new flagship SUV, the IM6, testing in Sydney before its market launch later this year.

• The IM6 is a large five-seat SUV that will launch alongside another IM Motors — a joint venture between MG parent company SAIC and Alibaba — product, the IM5 sedan. 

• Expect the new models to sit above MG’s current value-oriented models, with some expecting the top-spec, twin-motor AWD IM6 that is capable of a claimed 3.5-sec 0-100km/h sprint to come close to $100,000, chasing the BMW iX3 and Audi Q6 e-tron.

• In China, IM Motors offers a semi-solid state battery known as the Lightyear pack, with 130kWh-plus capacity giving more than 1000km driving range. Aussie-bound models top out with a 100kWh battery for now for up to 550km WLTP driving range. 

Don’t call it an e-tron: New Audi A6 revealed

• Audi has revealed the new A6 combustion- and hybrid-powered large sedan, boasting a slippery 0.23 drag coefficient and many other improvements to beat the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class.
  

• The new A6, you may remember, was to be called an A7 as Audi looked to differentiate combustion-engined and electric-powered vehicles, though this was cancelled in February leading the A6 to be called what it was before, and sit on an entirely different platform — the Premium Platform Combustion — to the EV version. 

• Audi has raided its back catalogue to lower emissions, getting inspired by the second-gen Audi A6’s curved rear bootlid in the latest car. Interestingly, steel is used instead of aluminium for easier shaping. 

• Powertrains to start are turbo-petrol and turbo-diesel engines with mild-hybrid assistance, headlined by a V6 version. Expect sporty S and RS versions down the track. 

Battery giant’s 1500km driving range breakthrough

• The world largest battery supplier for electric vehicles CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology co. Limited) has announced a breakthrough enabling EVs to travel up to 1500km on a single charge.
  

• The brand’s new ‘Freevoy Dual Power Battery’ is an innovative solution, with a regular NCM battery combined with “a NCM self-forming anode battery” as an internal range extender for a total capacity in excess of 180kWh in large sedans. 

• The company also announced an ultra fast-charging battery able to take on electricity at 800kW, more than four times as fast as a Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Porsche Taycan. It promises up to 800km of driving range. 

• CATL also announced progress on more affordable sodium-ion batteries that are more temperature stable and less reliant on precious metals. Both the ultra fast charging and sodium-ion tech are coming to new cars soon, according to Reuters.
  

New Tesla Model Y challenger reviewed: 2025 Xpeng G6

• Chasing Cars founder Tom Baker takes a close looks at a new car from an all-new Chinese brand Xpeng. 

• The Xpeng G6 is a mid-size SUV, an answer to the ubiquitous Tesla Model Y, costing and measuring about the same as Musk’s popular EV.

• Baker praised the Xpeng’s real-world 500km driving range, 800V architecture, solid driving experience and value for money.

• Left in question is the brand’s longevity — not to mention lack of guaranteed future value — annoying safety aids, lack of AWD range-topper and the proliferation of cheaper alternatives. 

READ: Xpeng G6 2025 review

The next issue of Car News Today will be published on Wednesday 23nd of April at 4.30pm Sydney time.