Articles by Paul Gover

The breakthrough Nissan, claimed to be the world's first purpose-built electric car, is an impressive drive that looks like it ticks almost every box on the future of motoring.There is a downside - an estimated $60,000 pricetag and Australia's coal-fueled power stations - but the Leaf shows that electric motoring doesn't have to feel like a science experiment.Nissan Australia has landed the first two Leafs (should that be Leaves?) as it prepares for a $5 million electric car trial with the Victorian government from midyear and the start of local sales in around a year.The cars also celebrate Nissan Australia's successful tender for a $30 million-a-year export deal for aluminium castings used in the invertor housing used in the Leaf."This car is real," the boss of Nissan Australia, Dan Thompson, says simply. He has the proof in the carpark, with Leafs that are built in Japan for sales in the UK but charged in Melbourne and ready to run on Australian roads.The background to the Leaf runs back to 1992, when Nissan began its research on electric vehicles, and includes everything from a cumulative $5 billion in spending to a Leaf-based sports car, shared models wearing Renault badges and plans to produce 300,000 electric cars a year by 2013, The car itself is relatively simple.It's a similar size to the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla, runs a 250- kilogram lithium-ion battery pack under the floor, has 280 Newton- metres of torque, and is loaded with high-tech features including a very special electric aircon system and satnav that automatically tracks the location of the nearest plug-in recharge points.The Leaf is a long way down the electric road from a Mitsubishi iMiEV or Subaru Stella, or even the MiniE, which I have driven in the past. It's a genuine production car, which means all the touch-and-feel stuff is just like every other Nissan. The ride and handling, too, is impressively 'normal'.It's not a science experiment, or something that is closer to a golf cart than a car. Even the styling is pitched right, as the Leaf is different enough to satisfy the 'look-at-me' people who will compare it to a Toyota Prius, but not different enough to deter buyers. And it has a genuine five- seater cabin with a boot.Driving it in everyday conditions in suburban Melbourne, the Leaf has an impressive turn of pace and easily keeps ahead of most traffic away from the lights. It is very very quiet up to 80km/h and the aircon works well The high-tech displays take some learning, but the computers say there is 130 kilometres of driving range and that falls only marginally during my 20-kilometre run. Switching to Eco mode and killing the aircon stretches the distance to a planned plug-in by around 20 kilometres.This is only Day One of the Leaf story in Australia, and it's very hard to make a genuine assessment without a pricetag - estimated at $60,000, or roughly three times the price of a Corolla - but the signs look good.Now, if only Australia had more sources of green power to fuel this green machine ...

Just like the mythical bird that rises from the ashes, the Swedish PhoeniX is intended to help Saab rise from the collapse of General Motors and soar again as an independent brand. The PhoeniX was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show and is as radical as anything that has ever worn a Saab badge, with futuristic coupe styling that taps a new vein of Swedish creativity. Just as importantly, the PhoeniX - the name taps the X-car models in the Saab range including the latest 9-4X SUV - is built over the mechanical package that will be used for the upcoming replacement for the brand's bread-and-butter 9-3 range. Saab knows it faces a tough battle back from the troubles of recent years, but company chief Victor Muller - who sold his Spyker sports car company to inject cash into Saab - says the brand has the strength to survive. Muller says the PhoeniX is still only a concept but provides "a pointer to the future”. He doesn't see it making the step to production, but believes key design elements will soon be used on Saab's production cars. The freehand design of the PhoeniX - a metal-finished, distinctly aero coupe that disrupts the eye with its unusual lines - was unveiled in Geneva by stylist Jason Castriota. The most radical design twist on the car is C-pillar supports at the tail of the car that act as vertical spoilers. "The wings are there for a purpose. They help aerodynamics," Castriota says. But he admits they will never make it onto anything in a Saab showroom. The car also has butterfly wings that open up-and-out for access to the two-plus-two cabin, as well as pumped-out guards and a super-low roofline with a small glass area. "The PhoeniX establishes a new reference point for the future of Saab product design," says Castriota. The concept uses a 147kW 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine bought in from BMW and has all-wheel drive using the engine for the front wheels and an electric motor for the rear. It's a potential pointer to a product tie-up with the German company for Saab as it cuts its ties to the GM world, including its previous product partners at Opel in Germany. The bottom line for the all-wheel drive coupe could be fuel economy in the 4.9 litres/100km range with CO2 emissions of just 119 grams/kilometre. Muller is clear on the work that has gone into the PhoeniX and admits the mechancial platform is destined for the new 9-3 and, within five years, the next 9-5 and 9-4X SUV. The platform is flexible enough to cope with Saab's large model range but Muller says the architecture is "too expensive” to shrink for the planned smaller, 9-2 vehicle.

The red team had huge trouble in convincing customers they needed a compact people mover, even if the Zafira was a hit in Europe and very popular as a taxi in Germany. Now the Zafira is on the comeback trail, although it will have to wait until Opel sets up its own local operation for sales in 2012. The Zafira is part of the plan, which will be led by the Astra, and it's likely to be with an all-new model currently under development in Europe. Carparazzi has caught the 2012 Zafira during Opel's regular winter testing in northern Scandinavia and reports some significant differences as it gets closer to the production line. The basic shape is still focussed on families, with a multi-function seat layout in the cabin, but the Zafira has a slightly flatter roofline and is likely to have a more aggressive frontal treatment. It is expected to share its styling direction with the new Astra, although it is still hard to get a clear picture with so much camouflage on the test cars. Carparazzi says the third-generation Zafira will go public on the Opel stand at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

One Carsguide reader attacks it as a "s-box" and says China's first passenger car should never have been cleared for take-off in Australia. Another, with experience importing Chinese goods and dealing with Chinese companies, says there will be rapid improvements to the J1 and these will be passed down to the cars that follow. Some people are surprised that Carsguide does not launch an all-out attack on the car's failings, while others are shocked at the depth of the complaints about the car's quality and performance. So the J1 has definitely made an early impact. We've also seen the first improvement, although it's only been made on paper. Ateco Automotive says during our exclusive first drive of the J1 that Chery's baby makes 245 grams of CO2 for every kilometre it travels. This is not good, either for a 1.3-litre engine, or at a time when carbon and carbon pollution is becoming a major topic of discussion and argument in Australia. Ateco went back to Chery and now has an updated, and correct, CO2 emission of 159 grams-per-kilometre. It's better but still not a breakthrough to rival the work being done by European brands, including Benz and BMW, on the CO2 emissions from their engines. There was a time when the most important numbers at any press preview of a new model were the top speed and 0-100km/h sprint time. These days the focus is on the fuel economy and the CO2 number. This week BMW has the all-new X3 and trumpets a CO2 number of 147 grams/kilometre for the 2-litre turbodiesel model. Yes, that trumps the Chery J1 and the X3 is a five-seater prestige SUV with all the bells and whistles. The X3 result is the sort of thing we can expect in coming years, and is reflected in the latest official CO2 numbers from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. The lobby body for the motor industry says the average CO2 number for the new-car fleet in Australia during 2010 is 212.6grams/kilometre, a 2.7 reduction from the 2009 figure of 218.6. The figure includes all passenger cars, SUVs, and light-commercial utes, vans and buses up to 3.5 tonnes. "The result is a combination of improvements in vehicle technology and a change in consumer buying preferences," says FCAI chief executive, Andrew McKellar. The number is proof that carmakers are taking pollution seriously, at a time when debate of a carbon tax in Australia is heating up fast. But there is more to CO2, as the FCAI is also lobbying the Federal government strongly on other uses for the pollution numbers. It wants to see taxation and support based on CO2, perhaps even with the hated Luxury Car Tax - something that's incredibly unpopular with people shopping in the $60,000-plus price bracket, particularly as Australia has no luxury tax on planes, helicopters or boats - being based on the grams-per-kilometre CO2 emissions of the upmarket cars in Australian showrooms.

Vettel repeated Webber's first-day domination by taking his RB7 racer to the top of the times on the second day of the final pre-season test ahead leading up to the Australian Grand Prix.Once again, the Bulls' margin to their nearest challenge was clear and obvious around the Barcelona track, although this time it was Sebastian Buemi of Toro Rosso who best-of-the-rest. McLaren, which was runner-up on day one thanks to Jenson Button, was only fourth as Lewis Hamilton jumped into the action while Ferrari, Mercedes and Williams were back in the pack after starting their track work a day late."The speed looks good as far as  we can judge, but I think we have to wait until after Melbourne - maybe in Malaysia or China - to really see where we are," Vettel said."It was a good day and a good time, although to be honest, it's difficult to say where we are, as the lap times of the teams are all over the place." Buemi was quick in the B-team for Red Bull, although no-one is expecting Toro Rosso to be a serious contender at Albert Park."We showed a reasonable performance level and the team did a very good job in preparing the car so well. Overall, it has been a productive test. Now, we must wait and see if we can make even more progress over the next two days with Jaime driving and then we can see where we really are when we get to Melbourne," said Buemi.The other repeat from Monday's track work was Vitaly Petrov's run to the third-quickest time in his Renault.  "The most important thing was to complete the race distance, which we managed this afternoon. It's the first time I've been able to do consistent long runs and really start understanding the tyres," Petrov said.Ferrari said it was not chasing pace with the 150, as Felipe Massa logged an impressive 101 laps to bed-in some aerodynamic changes since the most-recent test.McLaren had a disrupted day as a hydraulic failure stopped Hamilton in the morning and then his car had an exhaust problem in the afternoon. But the former world champion is not optimistic about Albert Park. "Do I believe I have a car to win the world championship at the moment?"I don't. No," Hamilton said. "It was a bit on-and-off today, it wasn't a great day for us, but in terms of how the car felt there was an improvement with some of the upgrades we have. So that is at least a positive, it's not all negative."From today, the improvements we've had, it's something that can grow to be better, so as long as we keep pushing in the right direction with the development, and the new things we have coming several races down the line, hopefully they will enable us to close the gap and compete for wins."BARCELONA TESTING - Day 21. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault, 1:21.8652. Sebastian Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari, 1:22.3963. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:22.6704. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:22.8885. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:23.3246. Paul di Resta, Force India-Mercedes, 1:24.3347. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber-Ferrari, 1:24.4368. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:25.8079. Jarno Trulli, Lotus-Renault, 1:26.09010. Pastor Maldonado, Williams-Cosworth, 1:26.989

For the first time since he retired from fulltime V8 Supercar racing, the most successful driver of his generation will be back in action at Albert Park.But Skaife, who won Bathurst last year as a part-timer alongside Craig Lowndes and will continue in their 'dream team' at Mount Panorama this year, will not be racing a TeamVodafone Commodore at the AGP meeting. Instead, the veteran is taking on a new challenge as the guest star in the Carrera Cup championship for idential Porsche 911 racers.Skaife has had a brief trial in one of the cars at Phillip Island and told the Herald Sun yesterday he is looking forward to the challenge, including a battle against Carrera Cup specialist Craig Baird and V8 Supercar refugee Steven Richards."I'm at an age and stage that I can pick and choose what I want to do," Skaife said. "I'm not interested in novelty events or road rallies, but this looks good. It's an opportunity I've never had in my career because I've been so busy doing other stuff."To have a drive at the grand prix is relatively low-key, it's a circuit I really like, and a car I enjoy driving. It's a good thing to do."Skaife drove the Porsche for the first time at Phillip Island and eventually lapped just a half-second slower than Baird in the same car. He said he will take time to adjust to the car at Albert Park but hopes to be a contender."I don't expect to look like a megastar. I'm expecting to be up there somewhere. But I'm under no illusion, the guys who drive these cars are very good - Craig Baird is probably one of the best Porsche drivers anywhere in the world."

EVERY car in the Clipsal 500 will make special recognition to the people of Christchurch following the recent disastrous earthquake in the New Zealand city. The V8 Supercars community - many from New Zealand - will pay tribute with a black Christchurch sticker on their racecars in the shape of the country's silver fern.BMW racer Glenn Allerton took top points away from the Symmons Plains round of the Australian Superbike Championship to extend his series lead over Troy Herfoss and Jamie Stauffer. Wayne Maxwell won the first of two heats for Team Honda but it was  Josh Waters of Team Suzuki who finished runner-up for the round.SCOTT Pye is continuing his drive towards Formula One with a fully-  funded season in the crack British Formula 3 championship this year. After taking last year's British Formula Ford crown the youngster, who is partly backed by Roland Dane and his Triple Eight Engineering operation, will race for the Double R team owned by former world champion Kimi Raikkonen. SEBASTIAN Loeb returned to his usual place at the top of the World Rally Championship pack with victory in Rally Mexico last weekend. He trailed his Citroen team mate Sebastian Ogier for a while, but when the youngster crashed he was able to cruise home ahead of Ford's Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala. CHAD Reed is closing on second place in the AMA Supercross series with another podium place in Daytona last weekend on his TwoTwo Motorsports Honda. Reed was second in Florida and is now only one point behind James Stewart, although they both trail series leader Ryan Villapoto of the Kawasaki team by more than 20 points.THE starting order for the Albert Park 400 could get a shake-up after a rule change for the V8 Supercars events at the Australian Grand Prix. A draw will be held after qualifying that will see a selection of the field inverted prior to the Top 10 Shootout, jumbling the field and creating the potential for any car that qualifies in the top 20 to move through into the Shootout. FOUR-time Australian rally champion Neal Bates is planning a comeback this year after losing his factory backing from Toyota when it withdrew from the series two years ago. The difference is that Bates will be driving a classic Toyota Celica from the 1980s, in place of his Super 2000 Corolla, as he joins a growing following for the championship conducted by the Australian Classic Rally Association.HE Mercedes-Benz grand prix team is now more than just a high-speed showcase for the German luxury carmaker. The one-time Honda team, which then became Brawn when technical chief Ross Brawn took over the ownership, is now a 100 per cent member of the Benz team following a 100 per cent takeover of the company by Daimler and Aabar Investments, the largest single shareholder in Daimler. PAUL Morris is expanding his motorsport interests after becoming an official CAMS licensing operator in Queensland. The V8 Supercars team owner will operate the licensing tuition and testing from his Gold Coast base, which is also the home of the Holden Performance Driver Training Centre. CHAMPION off-road racer Bruce Garland is headed for more surgery on top of the back injury that forced him to withdraw from this year's Dakar Rally in South America. The Isuzu team boss and lead driver has been diagnosed with heart trouble and faces a multiple bypass operation in Melbourne.

Timo Glock has been sidelined by appendix problems and will have to skip the Spanish test with his Virgin team after an operation. It's not as dramatic as Robert Kubica's life-threatening rally crash, which is likely to keep the Renault team leader on the sidelines for most of the year as he recovers from hand injuries, but it's still a big blow for Glock and Virgin. Glock had an operation on Tuesday to have his appendix removed after falling ill at his home in Switzerland on Monday. "Timo had an operation yesterday to remove his appendix after a sudden case of appendicitis," said Virgin team manager, John Booth. "The procedure was routine and Timo is recovering well in hospital in Switzerland, where he is likely to remain for a further 24 hours." But his comeback will not begin until Virgin joins the other F1 teams at Albert Park. "To ensure a swift recovery, it is unlikely that he will take part in next week's test in Barcelona and that Jerome (d'Ambrosio, his team mate) will run on all four days instead,"Booth said. "We will make a final decision early next week. We look forward to   having Timo back with us very soon." Virgin is working - like most other teams - on a late update to its car for the final hit-out at Barcelona next week.

In just over two weeks he will become a grand prix driver for a day when he hot laps a McLaren Formula One car at Mount Panorama, Bathurst. Final approvals are through, the cars are set, the date is booked for Tuesday, March 22, and Lowndes said yesterday he is fit and focussed for the F1 challenge."I'm going to live the dream. If I feel good I'll give it a bit of a go," Lowndes said yesterday. "The amazing thing will be driving it over the top of the mountain. It will be so fast."Lowndes will be strapping into a McLaren in a 'changing places' promotion orchestrated by Vodafone, which sponsors both his Commodore team in the V8 Supercar championship and the McLaren team. As part of the deal, former world champion Jenson Button - who drove a Vodafone Commodore at Albert Park last year in a swap with Jamie Whincup - will strap into Lowndes' car."It's actually happening. It's all finalised and going ahead," Lowndes confirmed yesterday. "I cannot imagine the budget for this. It's bigger than Ben Hur. They have to close the track, find all the marshalls, get the two teams organised, everything else."Lowndes is now famous in Australia as a five-time Bathurst 1000 winner and three-time V8 Supercar champion, but there was a time when he was headed to Formula One. He was backed by the late Tom Walkinshaw for a season of open-wheel racing in Europe, driving a Formula 3000 car as team mate to Juan Pablo Montoya, who subsequently raced F1 with Williams and McLaren."That was 1997. It didn't work out," Lowndes said. He knows he is getting a second chance and, even if it's only for a day, he is happy. "The ultimate goal is not to crash it. I didn't make it to racing in Formula One so this is the next-best thing."Lowndes says he is hoping for around 10 laps at Bathurst and plans to push hardest through the two easy 90-degree turns onto and off pit straight. "They are the easy ones to get a feel. If I can get about four laps to find my way, then I'll have a bit of a go.  Across the top I'm expecting it to be pretty exciting."Jenson Button helped drive Craig Lowndes' grand prix dream with his request for Bathurst laps in a V8 Supercar. Button traded places with Jamie Whincup a year ago in the lead-up to the Australian Grand Prix, lapping his Holden Commodore at Albert Park. But he said he really wanted a crack at Mount Panorama. "It was on his wish list. He wanted it to happen," TeamVodafone boss, Roland Dane, said yesterday."We're happy to provide him with one of our Commodores. For us it's about the F1 car at Bathurst but for Jenson it's about ticking one off from his bucket list. Dane said the car will be running on soft-compound tyres to give Button better feel, but there is no plan to attack the lap record. "There won't be any timing. But there is going to be a brilliant viral video at the end of the day," he said.

The 9-3 range is already heading back to local showrooms, the 9-5 sedan is set for April, the 9-5 SportCombi will arrive late this year, and the 9-4X SUV will be early in 2012. The Swedish brand only delivered 16 cars during 2010 but is targeting more than 500 deliveries through 2011. "We're looking somewhere north of about 500 cars, as a gentle easing back into the market. We're not talking about a re-launch, we're talking about a re-invigoration," says Stephen Nicholls, managing director of Saab Cars Australia.  The company is now operating as an independent distributor, after General Motors sold the parent company to Victor Muller through his Spyker supercar business and GM Holden ended its time as importer. "The board approval to reform Saab Cars Australia was taken in late October. We had a few plans ready at that stage," says Nicholls. "What you see now is the result of us working since early November to get things in place. We'd been keeping in touch with our core dealers.  It was a fairly quick process to get cars ordered and on the boat." Nicholls is a 30-year Saab veteran who was the company's Asia-Pacific regional director before taking on responsibility for Australia. Nicholls says he has been surprised by the groundswell of interest in Saab and is happy with the response to the showroom return. "We've got cars on the ground now. We've had them for about 10 days,"   he says. "We have all 9-3s, Sports Sedan, convertible and SportCombi including the new 9-3X." The new-model rollout begins with the 9-5 sedan, which has only had a lukewarm reception in Europe, followed by the station wagon and the SUV. "We're targeting the middle of April for the 9-5 sedan," says Nicholls. "We're going to call it the wagon the 9-5 Estate in Australia. That   probably won't be with us until October-November. "The 9-4X is starting left-hand drive production now. We won't start right-hand drive production until September-October, which means a launch date very late this year or early next year. The 9-4X is definitely in the plan and is going to be an important car." Nicholls is not specific about prices for the whole range but confirms   a sub-$50,000 starting price for the return of the 9-3. "With the carryover products, if I can call it that, we're pretty much line-ball with where we were before. Against Audi and BMW we have a pretty good story to tell. "It's $46,900 for the 9-3 Sports Sedan Linear with a 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine. That's 147 kiloWatts."