Articles by John Law

BYD is looking to drive sales at the end of the year, slashing prices by $3000 on all of its passenger car models for a limited time. Additionally, the Chinese carmaker is offering a $1000 home charger installation voucher in the bundle. This deal applies to the end of November across all BYD models currently on sale, including the Dolphin hatch, Atto 3 small SUV, Seal sedan and Sealion 6 plug-in hybrid medium SUV. It is the latest move in BYD asserting dominance in the Australian new-car market, with loft ambitions first to take a top-five place among manufacturers followed by a challenge on giant Toyota that currently has a lock on first place. The brand plans to sell 25,000 cars this year, double 2023’s sales figures. By the end of October, BYD had registered 16,913 new cars in Australia, with 1732 done last month.It will need to really lift its game to hit the 25,000 target, more than doubling its October sales figures for the last two months of the year to over 4000 in a typically quiet time for new-car sales.BYD was not able to quantify how successful the promotion yas been yet but a spokesperson told CarsGuide "sales are in the thousands to date across the festival BYD campaign."The $3000 discounts bring the Dolphin electric hatch (340km-427km WLTP range) down as low as $33,890 before on-road costs, in Dynamic guise. Close but not enough to undercut the MG4 Excite 51kWh that is still on offer for $32,990 drive-away.The popular Atto 3 Standard drops to a competitive $41,499, while the Seal Dynamic sedan — that already undercut Tesla’s base Model 3 — is a quite ridiculous $46,888, before on-road costs. Finally, the plug-in hybrid Sealion 6 Dynamic drops its price below an equivalently-equipped Toyota RAV4 hybrid at $45,990, before on-road costs. Discounts have been instrumental in driving electric car sales in Australia with brands such as Tesla and MG finding bursts of serious success by slashing prices. Not everyone is on board, though, with critics noting the effects on resale value and price stability. 

The 2025 Toyota Prado launched in Australia with a mildly-electrified 2.8-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder, but questions of a Prado hybrid are coming thick and fast. In the United States, the 250 Series Prado (where it’s known simply as LandCruiser) can be had with an i-Force Max petrol-electric hybrid that Toyota execs refer to as a ‘one motor’ system. Surely it can’t be far from reaching Australia, right?Toyota’s near-50 per cent hybrid sales mix suggests a Prado hybrid would be the right fit but Global Chief Engineer Keita Moritsu is not convinced the technology is up to snuff. “I recognise that carbon neutrality is very important but, as the chief engineer, I cannot compromise on the capability of the LandCruiser. At the moment, I believe that 48-volt is suitable for this market,” Moritsu-san told Australian media. “There is a hybrid variant available in the US, which we’re continuing to investigate. We wouldn’t rule it out. We certainly have no confirmation of that vehicle, or its suitability for Australia, but we won’t rule it out entirely,” clarified local Vice President Sales and Marketing Sean Hanley. CarsGuide pressed Hanley on the matter, with Toyota finally launching Tundra locally. The US-sized ‘big’ pick-up becomes Toyota’s first one-motor hybrid sold in Australia after a gruelling evaluation process to ensure the ute’s local right-hand drive conversion is up to par. Designed with ultimate grunt in mind rather than efficiency, the Tundra’s twin-turbo V6 based powertrain turns out impressive outputs of 325kW/790Nm, allowing a braked tow rating of 4500kg, when equipped with a heavy-duty hitch. The Lexus LX — the LandCruiser 300 Series’ uptown cousin — is confirmed to score a version of the twin-turbo V6 engine in Australia shortly, adding further fuel to the fire that Toyota could soon sell a hybrid LandCruiser product in Australia. “Anything’s possible,” said Hanley, “while I don't have any confirmation of the hybrid moving beyond where it is today, the realities are that through this platform we have options and flexibilities, and depending on the needs of each individual market, we can adjust if we need to.”Hanley clarified that it isn’t the hybrid drawing buyers to the new Tundra, though, “primarily, they just love the idea of a big ute!“I think that one-motor hybrid works for the car. It does work. I'm not sure it's the driving force behind someone buying one. I think it's more about the lifestyle — the towing, what it can do — before it comes down to the motor. “What they want in Tundra is capability. The one-motor hybrid delivers that capability; it gives everything they want,” explained Hanley. The snag comes from the LandCruiser 250 Series hybrid’s credentials in the United States. Despite the 250 Series’ i-Force Max engine punching out 243kW and 630Nm — far more than the 150kW/500Nm from the V-Active boosted diesel — the braked towing rating 2700kg, a way off the 3500kg Australian customers see as the standard. CarsGuide understands that the 250 Series’ hybrid powertrain is yet to undergo the rigorous evaluation the V-Active diesel engine was subjected to, much of which takes place in Australia. A version of the powertrain could still arrive, however."Toyota's multi-pathway approach is already helping customers reduce their carbon footprint. Everything from the fully-electric bZ4X and Mirai, to hybrids and 48-volt technology. But, having said that, we also know that we need to do more,” said Hanley.“We need to evolve our model portfolio to accelerate the opportunity for all customers to reduce their carbon footprint. For the next few years, I can tell you, we are well placed with our electrification of passenger cars and SUVs. “But we still, as we stand here today, have a big challenge ahead of us with heavier vehicles,” admitted Hanley before qualifying that HiLux and LandCruiser nameplates are here to stay. Don’t expect a Prado hybrid before the end of 2025, however. 

With Toyota’s evergreen HiLux being knocked from first place by the Ford Ranger and now the RAV4, Australia’s largest car brand sees big changes coming. 

Toyota Australia looks to have learnt its lesson. After the hot potatoes that were the LandCruiser 300 Series, 70 Series and RAV4, it won’t be making the same mistake with the new 2025 Prado. Instead, Toyota is being very upfront about how many Prados are coming in the first 12 months — and it looks like the family-friendly 4WD is set for a record-breaking year in 2025. Toyota Australia Vice President Sales and Marketing Sean Hanley announced that the country’s biggest new-car seller is holding plenty of orders for the new Prado: “As of today, our dealers have taken more than 17,000 orders,” he says.“It’s a level of demand that has prompted us to a whole new way of doing business, in terms of allocating these vehicles and communicating with customers,” he explains. This is Toyota’s response to the pandemic-related production slowdowns that saw LandCruiser 300 Series, 70 Series and RAV4 saddled with wait times exceeding 18 months. For high-demand models, such as the new Prado, Toyota customers will now be able to place an expression of interest to join a waiting queue before putting a deposit down to increase delivery time certainty. “We will not go back to the days of open-ended order taking for such a popular model. It’s not in our own interest and certainly — definitely — not in the interest of our customers,” says Hanley. Without giving likely sales figures away for 2025, Hanley announced Australia will get in excess of 25,000 new Prados, with that number likely to swell to 27,000 in total in its first full year on sale. For reference, the previous best Prado sales year was in 2021, when the 150 Series found 21,299 buyers. If Toyota manages the full complement of 27,000 deliveries next year, it will easily break records for both Prado and large SUV sales. “If you have a look at the fact that we’ve ‘sold’ 17,000 in a very short time, it’s quite conceivable. But in the end, customers will decide that…It’s probably probable,” jokes Hanley. He noted that, as long as enough cars get off ships, through customs and into customer hands before December 31, the company is likely to set a sales record for 2024, too. “If we don’t, it won’t be because of customer demand,” explains Hanley. The latest 250 Series has drummed up plenty of interest with its retro-chic appearance and new TNGA-F underpinnings it shares with the full-size 300 Series. Known as just the LandCruiser in other markets including North America, the UK and Europe, it joins the 70 Series and 300 Series Down Under. With a revised version of the 150 Series’ 2.8-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder with ‘V-Active’ 48-volt technology, the Prado develops peak power and torque of 150kW and 500Nm, respectively. A new eight-speed automatic drives all four wheels through a permanent AWD system. For the latest generation, enhanced stiffness in the body and chassis — up 30 per cent — help to make it capable of towing a 3500kg (braked) load, 500kg more than before. Toyota expects most buyers (50 per cent) to go for the mid-spec GX described by Hanley as a “sweet spot”, with 10 per cent opting for GX, 20 per cent for VX and the remaining fifth of buyers split between flagship Altitude off-road and Kakadu luxury trims. The Prado has arrived in Toyota dealers around the country now. Keep an eye out for CarsGuide’s in-depth review on November 21. 2025 Toyota LandCruiser Prado pricingPrices listed are before on-road costs 

It feels like the Suzuki Jimny has been around forever, but compared to its predecessor, the fourth-gen 4WD’s six-year vintage means it is still a long way from its mid-life crisis. 

Although it’s made by a Japanese company in another country, the Toyota LandCruiser Prado has become a part of Australian life and, to make sure the new 250 Series survives our tough environment, this country played a key part in its development.

Getting out among new car buyers can be a rare occurrence in this line of work, with a focus on new products and the promises of executives filling our regular days. So it was refreshing to man the CarsGuide EV advice stand at the 2024 Sydney International EV show for the weekend and get some insight into how electric car buyers think. Although it was a smaller footprint than Sydney Motor Shows of old, fervent visitors started filling the halls from 9am on all three days. In total, more than 30,000 bodies passed through the doors over the weekend. The overwhelming takeaway from talking to buyers was this sect of Aussies was not at all concerned about brand history, with Toyota and Ford’s stands dramatically quieter than the barely-known start-ups from China such as Xpeng, Zeekr and Deepal.It helps that these new marques dressed their stands to impress. Aside from a wild flying machine, XPeng also had a luxurious seven-seat people mover essentially purpose-built to generate public interest with a huge rear entertainment screen and ‘business class’ reclining rear seats with heating, cooling and foot rests. The G6 is the first retail model from XPeng and it was also well-trafficked, along with the larger G9 the brand is considering for local release. Zeekr turned up with the X small SUV along with a few extra bits of eye-candy like the confirmed-for-oz 009 people mover, a 475kW 007 sedan in a lewd yellow paint colour and a 001 FR the Geely-owned marque’s Polestar 2-related first model. The other new entrant was Deepal, which is being imported by well-known company Inchcape that also handles Subaru, Foton, Peugeot and previously Citroen. Along with the classic Tesla Model Y rival, the S07 electric family SUV, Deepal had some cool stuff. Namely, a Cybertruck-like electric and range-extender compatible E05 electric sedan-pick-up amalgamation that was catching attention. Kia’s front-and-centre placement helped drive plenty of traffic to the brand’s new EV5 while also making Hyundai’s lack of presence quite obvious. With the Tasman due next year and the EV5’s sharp price, it’s a brand that’s sure to go from strength to strength. Tesla’s presence was held up by the Australian owner’s club while BYD was represented by a dealer, with an unfortunate lack of Shark utes on the stand. It was Ford and Toyota that were visibly the lowest traffic OEMs over the weekend, and Australia’s third most-popular brand Mazda didn’t even turn up with its plug-in hybrids. With a pair of bZ4Xs on display and charge-box-on-wheels, Toyota’s wasn’t exactly a dull stand yet it proves that people are more interested in the whizz-bang new models — that’s the point of a motor show, after all. As for Ford, despite having prime real estate among the newcomers, it seemed that not so many punters were interested in the Mach-E and plug-in hybrid Ford Ranger Stormtrak, even with the ute’s vehicle-to-load system that can power a coffee machine, TV, work tools and more.Some other mainstream carmakers present were Audi, BMW, Cupra and Volvo though these stands were notably smaller than the others. As for other brands from China, Chery and GWM proved relatively popular but the Smart stand was quiet. MG’s choice to only bring a Cyberster rather than the affordable MG4 seemed a bit short-sighted — next year, maybe.The most common line of questioning was if we would recommend the XPeng G6 and what the best alternatives to a Tesla Model Y are — we fielded almost no questions about the bZ4X or plug-in hybrid Ford Ranger Stormtrak. Plenty of test drives were taken over the three days and at one point on Sunday, you would have had to queue for four hours to sample XPeng’s new G6. But what does all this tell us about the new car landscape?MG has already proven sharp pricing can drive mega traffic into electric vehicles and that, when EVs reach parity with combustion-engined and hybrid options, they are much more attractive. In this case, customers aren’t cross-shopping, say, a Tesla Model Y with just other EVs, but similarly-priced combustion and hybrid models, too. Electric cars aren’t competing with themselves, but in a battle to bring the other 90.6 per cent of the new car market out of combustion and hybrid-engined choices. Most worrying for big carmakers, though, will be the lack of brand devotion. Despite what the bZ4X advertising campaign suggests, there were very few talking about Toyota’s proven low-cost servicing or reliability. Instead, the long seven- and even ten-year warranties of newcomers seemed enough to allay most fears. Don’t expect Toyota, Ford or Mazda sales to drop off a cliff anytime soon, but the interest and willingness of local buyers to branch out and sample an unknown product will definitely cause a headache.

After the launch of the Taycan facelift in August, Porsche has brought two more lower-spec variants into the fray in the Taycan GTS and Taycan 4. 

Back in 2018, Nissan cobbled together a Leaf silhouette racecar with twin electric motors producing 240kW and a weight of just 1220kg thanks to a carbon fibre body. 

Is MG the latest headache for Tesla and Toyota? October’s electric car sales suggest the Chinese brand just might be. Tesla is out and MG is in, and it’s all thanks to price cuts that have bumped the highly regarded MG4 hatchback not only ahead of Model Y and Model 3 sales, but in front of Elon Musk’s controversial brand entirely. In October 2024, Tesla sold a total of 1464 cars, 1042 of which were Model Y and the remaining 422 Model 3s. During the same period, MG shifted a seriously impressive 1486 MG4 hatchbacks. For context, in the small-car segment that puts the MG4 only behind the Toyota Corolla (1751) and ahead of all others, including stalwarts such as the Hyundai i30, Kia Cerato (967) and Mazda3 (742). It also outsold the Toyota Camry.The MG4’s direct rivals including the GWM Ora (154) and BYD Dolphin (67) were nowhere near the MG last month. So what’s driving sales over at MG? It’s price. That’s the long and short of it. The brand is offering startlingly low entry points for its electric hatch, with the Excite 51kWh with 350km of WLTP range currently $32,990 drive-away — and that’s a national deal for MY24. Not only is that cheaper than the GWM Ora ($35,990, drive-away) and BYD Dolphin ($38,990, before on-road costs), but about $3000 less than a Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport hybrid, too.Stepping up to the Excite 64 with 450km driving range and the up-spec Essence, the brand’s offering an $8000 factory bonus, though that is restricted to MY23 models. Current versions (with minimal changes) are $44,990 and $46,990 (drive-away), respectively. Historically more popular than Ora and Dolphin anyway, the MG4 was finding between 300-400 homes a month earlier in the year. It was the dramatic price cut on September 20 that has drastically impacted sales. MG Chief Commercial Officer Giles Belcher made note of other reasons for MG4's success last month."At MG we believe we have a winning formula when it comes to buying a new car, and this includes EVs – we have award winning products, backed up by an industry leading 10-year warranty and at a price point that represents great value," said Belcher.To be fair to MG, while the Excite 51kWh was the most sold variant with 53 per cent share, that still leaves the other variants doing heavy lifting in sales terms.Price has been one of the biggest factors affecting EV popularity. Tesla is a great example, after a few mid-1000 Model Y months in April and May it slashed prices, corresponding to a huge month-on-month increase in June with 2906 Model Ys and 1777 Model 3s sold. That same month saw other marques, including Nissan, Peugeot and Ford, dramatically discount their electric cars. A near-instant increase in sales followed.If MG manages to keep such a sharp price point on the MG4 hatch while covering its operating costs, rivals like the Dolphin, Ora and other new rivals are unlikely to catch up by the end of the year. There will be a bigger challenge next year with more cut-price rivals such as the Kia EV3 and Hyundai Inster, not to mention fresh rivals such as Aion's new hatch, entering the fray.