Articles by Stephen Ottley

The Kansas City Chiefs claimed the NFL's top prize yesterday in the 2020 Super Bowl - but there was no clear winner in the battle between car companies for the best television commercial.Car makers spend millions and hire some of the biggest names in Holl

The very thought of an electric ute seemed laughable only a few years ago.

Australia Day is a time for reflection. But instead of our nation’s history and its political impact, we’re going to reflect on cars. Specifically, the cars we’d love to see on Aussie roads as soon as possible.

Of course the Toyota HiLux is Australia’s favourite ute. Heck, it’s our most popular new vehicle full stop. But when we took a deep dive into the top-10 utes of 2019, we found some surprising results.

When it comes to hot hatches the heroes are the big boys - Volkswagen Golf GTI, Ford Focus ST and Hyundai i30 N - but the smaller siblings are trying to catch up

Skoda is reportedly planning to add a plug-in hybrid option to its red-hot Octavia RS line-up.

The 20-year marriage of convenience between Renault and Nissan looks headed for a messy divorce.The Financial Times reports that Nissan executives have begun planning for a split from its French 'alliance' partner as the fallout from the Carlos Ghosn case continues. The two sides have never completely merged in two-decades of doing business together, underlining the factions within the French and Japanese companies.Ghosn's daring escape from Japan has reportedly moved up the timetable for the Nissan executives and increased the divide between the two companies, with Renault declining to charge the former chairman and CEO with any misconduct despite Nissan's case.However, splitting the two brands after 20 years of working together will not be easy. Several key models share engineering architecture as well as technology and suppliers, so going separate ways will an expensive and time-consuming process for both brands.According to the Financial Times report the Nissan executives are willing to go through this painful process because they believe Renault is a drag on the Japanese company.Ghosn has pointed to a Japanese conspiracy from the Japanese company to oust him and tarnish his reputation as a way of stopping his plans to merge the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles."My unimaginable ordeal is the result of a handful of unscrupulous, vindictive individuals," Ghosn said at his press conference last week.He added: "The collusion between Nissan and the prosecutors is everywhere; the only people who don't see this are, perhaps, people in Japan."

Geely, the Chinese brand that owns Volvo and Lotus, has reportedly taken an interest in under-fire Aston Martin.The British sports car brand is looking for investment after reporting a drop in sales in 2019 as well as extra expenditure on marketing which has seen its share price drop significantly since it floated in 2018. The Financial Times reports that Geely has begun talks and its due diligence to take a stake in Aston Martin. It's unclear how much Geely wants to invest in the brand, with a minority holding and technical partnership seemingly the most likely option.Geely has been on a spending spree in recent years, buying Volvo from Ford in 2010, investing 10 per cent into Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler and taking control of Lotus in 2017. It's worth noting that Mercedes-AMG already has a technical relationship with Aston Martin to provide engines and other powertrain components, so further Geely investment would only strengthen the connection between the brands.Geely isn't the only interested party in Aston Martin, however, with Canadian billionaire businessman Lawrence Stroll also in talks to take a stake in the company. Stroll, father of F1 driver Lance, has built his career investing in brands at a low point and rebuilding their value. He did it successfully with fashion labels Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors. Stroll is also no stranger to fast cars, aside from his investing in his son's career he lead a consortium to take control of the Racing Point F1 team. He also has a huge collection of Ferraris and other supercars and even owns the Mont-Tremblant circuit in Canada. According to the Financial Times report it's unclear if Geely will still want to invest in Aston Martin if Stroll's consortium takes its stake, rumoured to be 19.9 per cent. Regardless of who owns it Aston Martin is pushing ahead with its 'Second Century' plan in 2020 with the launch of its first SUV, the DBX, and its first mid-engine model, the Valkyrie hypercar.

He didn't smash anything this time, but Tesla boss Elon Musk once again became the centre-of-attention at the latest Tesla event.After the embarrassment of the Cybertruck unveiling, where he encouraged his chief designer to throw metal balls at the window of the new pick-up only to have them break the glass, Musk played it safer at the opening of the American electric car company's new Chinese factory.The new Gigafactory 3 is located in Shanghai and has been designed to build the brand's Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV as well as battery cells. Musk was clearly in a good mood at the event and came onto the stage dancing and even removed his suit jacket before appearing to do 'The Egyptian' dance moves.Musk had reason to be dancing, the move into China should help the company avoid any tariffs on US made products in the on-going trade war between to two biggest electric vehicle markets in the world.But Musk wants to go a step further, he revealed plans to design and develop an all-new Tesla model in China for export to the world."Something that would be super cool... So we're going to do it... is to try to create a China design and engineering center to actually design an original car in China for worldwide consumption. I think this will be very exciting," Musk reportedly told the audience.Work has also begun on Tesla's next overseas factory, a new plant outside of Berlin, Germany that will also build Model 3 and Model Y. The company has claimed that the eventual goal of Gigafactory 4 - as the Berlin location will be known - is to produce up to 500,000 vehicles per annum; a huge increase on the approximate 365,000 it built in 2019.If Tesla can build that many cars in the near future Musk will have more reason to dance.

It’s safe to say the Hyundai i30 N has been a surprise hit.