Articles by James Cleary

After years of on-again, off-again teasing, evasion and false-starts, recently-installed Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa has confirmed a Ram Dakota ‘mid-size’ pick-up for North American production in 2027.

It’s been on sale in Australia for less than 12 months but already the Zeekr X EV SUV has been updated in China with a substantial power boost.

It broke the ice, unveiling the first Chinese passenger car to hit the Aussie new car market when its city-sized J1 hatch arrived here in 2011.

Ford to resurrect its Focus hatch as a hybrid and electric SUV?

Ferrari has unveiled a new twin-turbo hybrid supercar that resurrects one of the most iconic nameplates in the Italian maker’s storied back catalogue.

Hyundai’s just-released Ioniq 9, a large, three-row electric SUV, has come through independent Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) safety testing with a maximum five-star rating.Evaluated against the organisation’s latest 2025 protocols, the dual-motor, all-wheel drive six- and seven-seater 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9 impressed across ANCAP’s four key pillars - Adult Occupant Protection (84 per cent), Child Occupant Protection (86 per cent), Vulnerable Road User Protection (77 per cent) and Safety Assist (85 per cent).In announcing the result ANCAP Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg said, “Consumers and fleet buyers can be confident the Ioniq 9 provides high levels of protection for occupants, as well as other road users.”Adopting test results from sister organisation Euro NCAP, ANCAP called out numerous Ioniq 9 safety highlights including a stable passenger compartment in frontal offset testing and maximum points for protection of the driver in the full width and side impact tests.At the same time maximum points were awarded for child dummies in the frontal offset and side impact crash tests, with head-protecting airbags extending to the third row.The car’s active bonnet, designed to minimise injury in a pedestrian impact, also came in for special mention as did “high levels of performance across a range of collision avoidance test scenarios – particularly detection and crash mitigation with cyclists and motorcyclists”.Further detail on the Hyundai IONIQ 9's safety performance is available at www.ancap.com.au.

Effectively an electric counterpart to the Karoq, the Skoda Elroq is the Czech manufacturer’s second EV SUV to arrive in Australia, following the larger Enyaq.

Affordable Skoda EV on the way.

Effectively an electric counterpart to the Karoq, the Skoda Elroq is the Czech manufacturer’s second EV SUV to arrive in Australia, following the larger Enyaq.

Volvo Australia has launched a new Cross Country version of its EX30 small EV SUV, which it says is “designed for people who want big experiences from their small, fully electric SUV”.