Articles by Stephen Ottley

Volkswagen SUV buyers with $60k to spend will soon have the freedom to choose between internal combustion, fully electric and plug-in hybrid variants.

Australia has a ute problem.

The recent news that Toyota Australia is discontinuing the GR Supra was sad for lovers of performance cars. But if you think that means Toyota is reverting back to its boring days of making ‘whitegoods on wheels’ then you are deeply mistaken.In fact, this is arguably the start of a golden age for not only Toyota as a brand, but the entire performance car market. Not only will the GR Supra be replaced by an all-new generation model, it is expected to be joined by a new Celica and possibly a revived MR2, if the rumours are true.And when I say ‘rumours’ I really mean teasers that Toyota itself has deliberately sent out into the world. In late 2024 it released an episode of its animated YouTube series, Grip, which featured a list consisting of: ‘Supra Mk6’, ‘Celica Mk8’, ‘MR2 Mk4’, ‘GR86 Mk3’ and ‘GR GT3’. Given Grip is an animated show and thought must be put into every element of the frame, those names didn’t appear by accident, but rather by design.Bringing back all of the brand’s iconic performance cars, which would join the existing GR Yaris and GR Corolla hot hatches in an expansive line-up of hero models would be something truly remarkable for petrolheads around the world.On top of this, Lexus just showed off a new sports car concept at the Monterey Car Week. This new rear-wheel drive coupe is expected to replace both the RC and LC coupes, form the basis of a new GT3 racing car and could even be V8 powered. If that all turns out to be true, it will be yet another major boost for the wider Toyota group’s coolness factor.It’s all part of a wider, all-encompassing strategy that Toyota began over a decade ago, with the launch of the revived 86 in 2012. This was a massive statement vehicle from the company, offering a rear-wheel drive coupe for under $30k, and a good one too, made a major impact on the perception of Toyota as a brand.The next most important model after the 86 to the brand’s current state of cool is the 2015 Toyota Prius. That was the first model to utilise the so-called Toyota New Generation Architecture or TNGA as it is more commonly known. Unlike the famous Volkswagen ‘MQB’ architecture, which was a modular platform able to be scaled up and down for a multitude of models, TNGA was broader than that. Yes, it was a scalable platform, but it spawned multiple platforms (TNGA-B, TNGA-F, etc) and it also represented a philosophical shift for the company.Under the leadership of Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company’s founder, this automotive behemoth made a conscious decision it was not going to be boring anymore. It decided that, even though it was incredibly successful, it should make a major change and not just make dependable, good value cars, but rather dependable, good value cars that are enjoyable to drive.This spurred the expansion of Gazoo Racing from Toyoda’s personal motorsport team to a global performance sub-brand that now offers multiple models with more clearly on the way. If all the speculation is right and Toyota rolls out a new Celica and MR2, alongside the new Supra, it will position the Japanese giant as arguably the most performance car heavy brand in the world.Which would be a remarkable turn around for a car maker that was once the subject of mockery from driving enthusiasts. Instead your future Toyota showroom has the potential to become a one-stop shop for car lovers looking for performance in any size and shape.

‘The empire strikes back: Ford’s plan to battle China’ was the headline we ran last week when the Blue Oval revealed plans for its new Universal EV Platform.For Ford’s sake, I hope they don’t end up like the Empire at the end of Return of the Jedi, but there does seem to be a real danger that Ford is making the same mistake the bad guys in Star Wars did — repeating themselves and being exposed by a rising rebellion.To translate that for non-Star Wars nerds like myself. The Universal EV Platform is meant to be Ford’s answer to China’s new wave of cost-effective electric vehicles. It will be a scalable platform, which will allow Ford to offer multiple models of different shapes and sizes.Ford has said it will start with a ‘mid-size pickup’ (or ute in the Aussie vernacular), which will join the iconic F-150 and city-friendly Maverick in the brand’s US pickup lineup.Ford claims that the Universal EV Platform will require 20 per cent fewer parts, 25 per cent fewer fasteners, 40 per cent fewer workstations in the production facility and be 15 per cent faster to assemble when compared to a “typical vehicle”.That all sounds great on paper, and certainly a pickup would seem like a good choice in the US market… except both mid-size and electric pickups have yet to show any signs of long-term success in the US or, to be blunt, any market.Americans love the F-150, they bought more than 732,000 examples of the big ute in 2024. But only a tiny fraction, just 4.5 per cent, was the all-electric F-150 Lightning (33,510 in total). And if you look at the existing mid-size pickup Ford offers in the US, the Ranger, it managed just over 46,000 sales. If you look at the mid-size electric pickups that are currently available in the US market, the news doesn’t get much better for Ford. The controversial Tesla Cybertruck reportedly only found 37,000 buyers and the Rivian R1T is still a very niche proposition with circa-15,000 sales.So it’s not clear why Ford is so confident that an electric mid-size pickup is the right answer, but the company is definitely confident.“I don’t think new EV startups will keep up with our Ford engineers and manufacturing teams making this a reality,” said Doug Field, Ford chief EV, digital and design officer. “New ideas are easy. But innovation is delivering ideas, in a way that millions can access.”Simplified parts and production methods are great, and should have a tangible impact on the starting price if Ford lives up to its hype, but having the most efficient production method does mean a car will resonate with buyers.Nobody buys a car because it has 25 per cent fewer fasteners. They buy a car (or mid-size pickup) because it suits their lifestyle and budget. Yet there is no clear and definitive evidence that there is a sizeable market for such a vehicle.Perhaps Ford is confident that it can out-perform both Tesla and Rivian. Even then, though, that’s 55,000 sales per year, is that enough to make such a vehicle profitable?To its credit, while the F-150 Lightning has underwhelmed, Ford has managed to carve itself a new place in the ute market with the smaller, SUV-based Maverick. It sold over 131,000 units in 2024, compared to just 32,000 Hyundai Santa Fe — despite the latter being first to market.But Ford isn’t launching its new electric ute into a vacuum. Slate Auto, a new car company with the financial backing of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, also plans to launch a simple, affordable and customisable small ute/pickup.The Slate Truck will be a more direct rival to the Maverick, rather than the new ‘Universal’ pickup, but the same questions around the market desire for this type of vehicle remain.Ford will obviously have other models it can spin-off from the Universal EV Platform to amortise the cost of development, but even so, the very slow transition to electric vehicles means any hope of mainstream success for electric utes seems to be a long way off in the future.Former Hyundai Canada and now Hyundai Australia boss Don Romano has a very different take on the current state of the market, which sees the Chinese brands undercutting the so-called legacy car makers. He believes the Chinese industry is being supported at an unsustainable level and eventually it will fall back into the reaches of the likes of Hyundai, Ford and others.”The real issue when you talk about competitiveness is probably when you look at Chinese EVs, and the question I’d have is ‘how long can they sustain that low price’ when we’re all using the same materials and the same equipment?’,” Romano said in a recent interview.“Eventually, when you look at the same systems that are used to build these cars and the same equipment and the same material, eventually, it comes to an equilibrium where we’re all having on the same cost factor that we’re going to have to all live with. And then the pricing really just comes down to what it takes to distribute the cars and market the cars. So I don’t think any change in our competitive pricing is something that is a long-term issue. I think we’re going to ultimately all be in the same bandwidth on a car-by-car basis.“I don’t know how they do it other than, you know, I read the same things you do about government intervention and support… “It’s one big world that we all live in and we’re all going to be living in the same economic environment, so whatever advantage one country has over another, and I’ve seen this happen in my 40 years, where it used to be cheaper to build in one country than another, and then suddenly it’s just as expensive, I think that’s ultimately going to happen. Whether that’s in my lifetime or not, that I can’t answer. But for right now it appears they have it.”Will Romano be proved right in time? Will Ford’s early call pay off and give it the advantage when customers do come rushing for an electric ute? Or will a new player like Slate change the market? Only time will tell, but hopefully none of it ends in a big bang like a Star Wars movie…

The biggest threat to the established ute order might be from a brand which currently doesn't have one.

Does Australia have enough EV charging? The answer might surprise you.

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It’s a horrible feeling - you turn the key on your car and nothing happens. The most common cause of a car failing to start is a flat battery and the easiest way to get it going is, typically, to find a friend who can give you a jump start. But what happens if you have a dead battery and no other car to help you jump start or any jumper cables?