Articles by Dom Tripolone

The BMW 3 Series has hit a big milestone Down Under. The iconic luxury sedan is celebrating its 50th year on sale in Australia, and has released a special edition to commemorate the occasion.

BYD and Tesla have been put on notice.

There is a new electric car distance champion.The Lucid Air Grand Touring now holds the Guinness World Record for the longest journey by an electric car on a single charge.It covered 1205km to beat the previous record of 1045km set by the Nio ET7.Lucid isn’t well known on a global stage, but the American company has been slowly building an impressive line-up of luxury focused and long-legged electric cars.The record-breaking journey started in St Moritz, Switzerland and ended in Munich, Germany.Lucid said the journey took in alpine roads, highways and secondary roads. Starting in the Alps means the Lucid would have benefitted from plenty of downhill driving rather than the energy-sapping drive up the mountains.Electric cars use regenerative braking to feed juice back into the battery. CarsGuide’s experience driving electric cars down mountain roads in Australia and in the Alps has shown it can add a substantial amount of energy to the battery.Despite the added benefit of downhill driving the feat is still exceptional.At its core the Air Grand Touring is a monster 112kWh that has a WLTP verified range of 960km. Excellent aerodynamics help the Air Grand Touring in achieving its long range, with a drag coefficient of sub-0.2, which trumps all other mass-produced electric cars. This means it uses just 13.5kWh per 100km, which is one of the lowest of any electric car.Its 900-Volt architecture allows for speedy DC charging at up to 300kW, which it said can add 400km of range in 16 minutes.Despite its hyper-miling ability, it has some serious performance.It has two electric motors delivering all-wheel-drive grip and outputs of 610kW and 1200Nm.This enables the Air Grand Touring to hit 100km/h from a standstill in 3.2 seconds on the way to a top speed of 270km.Lucid’s Senior Vice President of Product and Chief Engineer, Eric Bach, said the vehicle’s record-setting run showed the brand’s technological edge.“Our Lucid products combine world-class vehicle efficiency with the most advanced drive units, ultra-high voltage architecture, and battery management technology available today, which lets a Lucid travel further with less energy than any other vehicles,” said Bach.

Toyota is working on a solution to some of the biggest issues facing electric cars. Toyota Executive Vice President, Hiroki Nakajima, opened up about the importance of solid-state batteries in a recent interview.

Land Rover has turned to the dark side.The British brand has released a blacked-out version of its V8-powered off-road monster, dubbed the Defender Octa Black.It combines a potent 467kW/750Nm 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 and mild hybrid assistance with muscular off-road performance and primo luxury kit.The man in charge of the Defender program, Mark Cameron, said the Defender Octa is the tallest and widest Defender, enabling it to tackle even more extreme terrain.“The introduction of Defender Octa Black takes things up a notch,” said Cameron. “We know our clients love giving their Defenders all-black finishes, so our designers have applied this principle to every possible surface – inside and out – to create the ultimate tough luxury Defender Octa,” he said.Gloss-black finishes cover nearly all surfaces, including the exhaust tips, Land Rover oval badge, 22-inch inch alloy wheels and even underbody elements.Inside there is black leather upholstery and black seat backs, armrests and dashboard.It also comes with a whopping big 700W 15-speaker Meridian stereo, 13.1-inch multimedia screen and what Land Rover calls Body and Soul Seats that pump the audio signals from the stereo through the seats so passengers can “feel the music".There is advanced air suspension, which Land Rover claims responds to any driving style and gives the driver greater control over any terrain. The air suspension allows for a 323mm ground clearance and approach and departure angles of more than 40 degrees, along with a ramp angle of 29 degrees and a wading depth of 1000mm.This is coupled with a special Octa driving mode for off-road, which has a special ABS calibration that is designed for driving on gravel roads.Its beefy V8 can propel it to 100km/h from a standstill in 4.0 seconds on the way to a top speed of 250km/h. Fuel of 13.1 litres per 100km isn’t great.The Octa Black is only available in the 110 body style and is priced from $313,800 (before on-road costs), or about the same as three Toyota LandCruiser 300s.

MG is powering up its family SUV.

A new kind of EV war is brewing in China. This fresh battlefront isn’t about how long your car can drive on a single charge, but how fast you can refill its battery.

Toyota’s family-friendly Kluger SUV is due a facelift. The seven-seater is now approaching the half way point of its eight-year lifespan, which means big changes are on the way.

Toyota is brewing a new HiLux that it hopes will get it back on top. The HiLux is showing its age and has been shown up by the far newer Ford Ranger in the past few years, so what is Toyota going to do about it?

There’s a new number-one seller in town. The Ford Ranger has run down the Toyota RAV4 at the halfway point of the yearly sales race.