2009 Nissan 370Z Manual Road Test Review
HSV Confirms E Series 2 Update
Aston Martin DB9 Road Test Review
2010 BMW X1 Announced, In Australia Early Next Year
Forza Motorsport 3: New Images
2009 Nissan Micra City Collection Road Test Review
2010 BMW X1 Official Gallery Leaked
2010 Jaguar Goodwood Special XKR To Debut At Festival Of Speed
2011 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe Previewed And Spied In Testing
2010 Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Valentino Balboni Edition Revealed
2010 Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Spied During Testing
Report: 2010 Audi Ur-Quattro Draws Nearer To Reality
HYBRID TECH is increasingly the flavour of the month; now, even the most un-green marques such as Ferrari are contemplating their own petrol-electric high-performance models.
Not wanting to be left out of the game, it appears McLaren is looking to establish a hybrid vehicle program of its own.
The British supercar maker has advertised a job vacancy [...]
ALTHOUGH BMW WON’T be bringing the admirably powerful diesel-powered 740d Australia’s way, the German automaker’s local arm will still be rolling out a number of new diesel models in the near future.
Chief among these is the new 330d sedan, which shares its 3.0 litre twin-turbo diesel powerplant with the just-launched 730d.
Generating a healthy 180kW and [...]
NOT TOO LONG AGO hydrogen was the flavour du jour of the alternative energy movement, with most of the world’s major carmakers scrambling to establish their own experimental hydrogen car programs.
Now the tables have turned, and the humble electric motor - which ironically was more popular than the internal combustion engine before the widespread discovery [...]
PORSCHE HAS made a big thing out of its four-door Panamera, and now news has come through that the German supercar manufacturer will offer V6 and hybrid versions of the currently V8-only super saloon in 2010.
Porsche is working to bring a hybrid version of the Cayenne SUV to market, using an Audi-sourced 3.0 litre V6, [...]
AS A SPORTSCAR MANUFACTURER, Porsche has traditionally avoided any new technology that would get in the way of, or otherwise compromise, the outright performance of its evergreen 911 model lineup.
While battery-electrics like the Tesla Roadster have proved that scintillating acceleration can easily be delivered by electric power alone, Porsche has been loath to adopt the [...]
MORE THAN A FEW writers have explored the idea of an advanced future society that, having left the car and its pollution-belching engine behind, lives in perfect harmony with the environment.
It seems however that there’s a little less fiction in the idea than we might have thought. The German town of Vauban, near the [...]
THE RUDD GOVERNMENT and State Premiers are expected to discuss the introduction of mandatory carbon emission standards at this week’s Council of Australian Governments meeting in Darwin - a move which could precipitate radical change in the local car industry.
Green-car incentives are also said to be on the agenda and, if approved, could give buyers [...]
THE DIFFERENT REGIONS of the world may offer an irritatingly wide range of plug shapes for accessing regular mains power, but with the approval this week of the J1772 charging connector, owners of electric vehicles can breathe easy.
Standard J1772TM “Electric Vehicle Conductive Charge Coupler,” sets out the requirements for the physical, electrical and performance criteria [...]
Hybrid buses have been run successfully overseas, and now Australia is set to get its first two.
THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT has announced a partnership with Grenda bus company that will soon see hybrid buses plying Melbourne’s streets.
The initial trial of two hybrid diesel-electric buses will cost the Victorian and Federal Governments $500,000, and will run on [...]
Chevrolet Volt Vehicle Chief Engineer Andrew Farah takes the first pre-production Chevrolet Volt for a drive in Warren, Michigan.
A WEEK AHEAD of schedule, GM’s Chevrolet Volt hybrid has hit the road, in pre-production form, ahead of its market debut around November next year.
While all of the previous sights of the Volt have been mockups and [...]
BMW IS SET TO bump up the efficiency credentials of its 3 Series range this September, when a super-frugal 2.0 litre turbodiesel engine will make its debut in the European-market 316d ES.
The 2010 BMW 316d ES will sit below the current 318d, and promises to deliver exceptional fuel economy and low emissions. Just 3.75 litres [...]
WITH JUST ABOUT every volume-selling carmaker - and more than a few supercar and luxury manufacturers - getting set to offer all-electric vehicles in the near future, a universal infrastructure is vital.
So important is the electric car’s future in the new car market that, according to US consulting firm Pike Research, the number of recharge [...]
CODE-NAMED INTERNALLY as Project i, BMW is planning to launch a family of ultra-efficient electric vehicles by 2012, according to US magazine Car & Driver.
Despite recent talks that BMW and Fiat would form a joint project to develop a range of electric vehicles, the German manufacturer is understood to be devoting a significant chunk of its [...]
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is developing a scheme to help build a greener, more efficient car industry in Australia. First announced by Prime Minister Rudd in November last year, the Automotive Transformation Scheme replaces the Howard Government’s Automotive Competitiveness and Investment Scheme (ACIS), bringing a greater focus to innovation, with increased Federal [...]
NISSAN ANNOUNCED today that it plans to mass-produce a range of zero-emission electric vehicles from 2012, to be offered through its dealerships worldwide.
Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said Nissan would unveil its first electric vehicle in Japan on August 2, this year, and begin sales to the Japanese market next year.
The company will then move [...]
MITSUBISHI UK has announced the availability of its ultra-efficient version of the already thrifty Colt, the Colt ClearTec, which uses a number of mechanical refinements to lower fuel consumption and boost efficiency.
A basic stop-start system is the biggest change, cutting fuel use by shutting down the engine when the car rolls to a stop.
The Colt’s [...]
AS AUSTRALIAN CAR BUYERS gradually warm to the idea of diesel engines, and Peugeot, Citroen and Volvo forge ahead with their plans to bring diesel-electric hybrids to market, Toyota, the world’s current hybrid-car leader, has reportedly nixed the idea of an oil-burning hybrid.
Toyota currently produces a diesel hybrid truck for the Japanese market, but it [...]
HONDA’S FRESH NEW Insight has been going gangbusters in Europe, where the hump-backed hybrid has been flying out of showrooms.
According to figures from industry data analysts JATO Dynamics, the Insight comprehensively outsold every other vehicle in the hybrid and alternative fuel segment in its first month of European sales.
The news isn’t entirely surprising however, as [...]
BMW’S DIESEL-SIPPING 730d luxury sedan will arrive in Australian showrooms next month, rounding out the new 7 Series range and giving well-heeled buyers a genuinely frugal option for their next large-car purchase.
With 180kW and a huge 540Nm coming from its 3.0 litre twin-turbocharged diesel inline six, the 730d won’t exactly be a slouch either. The [...]
ALFA ROMEO, like many of its European peers, is looking to smaller engines and forced induction to achieve greater fuel efficiency without sacrificing power.
Replacing the existing 2.2 litre naturally-aspirated petrol engine in the 159 and Brera will be a turbocharged 1.8 litre petrol engine, delivering 147kW, compared to the 138kW of the current engine.
On [...]
The next-gen C-Class is expected to feature a three-cylinder engine option.
MERCEDES-BENZ is looking to lead the fuel efficiency pack, and, like rivals BMW and Audi, plans to drop cylinders and look to forced-induction to keep power up.
In a recent interview with Autoweek.nl, Mercedes R&D boss Thomas Weber has revealed that the German luxury marque [...]
EARLIER THIS MONTH we brought you news that TV personality and part-time daredevil Jesse James would be taking to the salt flats of California in an attempt to set an all-time land speed record for a hydrogen powered car.
Well, James has done exactly that, smashing the previous record of 297.7km/h held by the BMW H2R [...]
THE PORSCHE CAYENNE HYBRID has been a long time coming, but now Wolfgang Durheimer, a board member with the German supercar manufacturer, has told German newspaper Rheinische Post that the Cayenne hybrid will finally hit the road in the second half of next year.
Details of the Porsche Cayenne hybrid have been thin on the [...]
HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, Korea’s largest carmaker and a serious player on the world stage, has announced that pre-launch orders for Elantra LPI Hybrid Electric Vehicle are now open in Korea.
Hyundai’s new hybrid is the world’s first hybrid electric vehicle to be powered by a Liquefied Petroleum Injected engine, first unveilled at the 2009 Seoul Motor [...]
WITH THE 2010 JAGUAR XJ just around the corner, the British luxury marque is looking to give its all-new flagship that little extra edge in the market, and the company believes hybrid technology is the key.
Courtesy of a £307 million ($636m) loan from the European Investment Bank, Jaguar and Land Rover are working on [...]
REPORTS OF a new dedicated roadster from Jaguar, to be named the XE, first surfaced back in early January, and the story has done nothing but build momentum since then.
The XE was initially expected to debut at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, but according to Motor Trend, that date is now looking less likely, [...]
LEXUS AUSTRALIA has today announced the Australian release of the petrol-electric hybrid 2009 Lexus RX 450h, the world’s most efficient luxury hybrid SUV (first previewed in 2007 at the Tokyo Motor Show as the LF-Xh).
Arriving in showrooms on July 13, the Lexus RX 450h will offer fuel economy and emissions figures not far off [...]
WORD IS CIRCULATING in Germany that Mercedes-Benz is contemplating a plug-in hybrid variant for its upcoming next-gen M-Class SUV.
According to German car mag Auto Bild, the next-gen ML may feature a 60kW electric motor mated to a twin-turbocharged 3.5 litre direct-injected petrol V6, with a plug-in system allowing an electric-only range of some 30km.
By plug-in [...]
FOR THE MOST PART, your garden-variety LPG system isn’t synonymous with tyre-smoking or track days. HSV would like to change all that; its engineers have been busily working on an integrated LPG system to add some environmental and ‘hip-pocket’ benefits to its high-performance catalogue.
The HSV system, dubbed LPi (liquid propane injection), takes an advanced [...]
FIRST SHOWN IN late 2008, the 2009 Volkswagen Golf Plus was designed to lift sales of the pumped-up hatchback while visually aligning the new Plus with the Mk VI Golf.
To add to the appeal of the larger Golf variant, Volkswagen is now offering a BiFuel version (LPG and Petrol), which makes this the second dual-fuel [...]
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2009 Nissan 370Z Manual Road Test Review Aston Martin DB9 Road Test Review 2009 Nissan Micra City Collection Road Test Review
2009 Skoda Superb V6 FSI, 1.8 TSI And 2.0 TDI First Drive Review
2009 Kia Grand Carnival EXE CRDi Road Test Review
2009 Ford Fiesta Zetec Five-door Road Test Review
2009 Volkswagen Golf 118 TSI Road Test Review
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2009 FPV F6 310 Road Test Review
2009 BMW 320d Road Test Review
2009 Suzuki Swift LE Road Test Review
2009 Hyundai Sonata SLX CRDi Road Test Review
