Articles by Tom White

There are some surprising changes to Tesla's Model Y which reverse some controversial choices made on the Model 3.

It’s a chilly overcast day on the outskirts of Hangzhou and there’s a hum in the air. The ominous tone is generated by no less than 40 fast electric car chargers, which sprout from an otherwise empty field on the side of a freeway.This is the Shaoxing Service Area, a ‘Rest Stop’ on the freeway between two major Chinese east coast cities. It features three rows of fast chargers where in Australia you’d be lucky to find one, a two-storey shopping centre to keep you entertained, and one of Nio’s even more futuristic battery swapping stations hidden away at the back.If you wanted a look into the year 2030, when we’re all meant to be driving zero emissions vehicles, this is it. China is already living in what many consider to be an unattainable existence, where everyone has a free bay to charge and there’s plenty of things to do while you wait, whether it's an hour or just 15 minutes.To give you an idea of the scale of the problem Australia faces though, China already has over 1.8 million public DC chargers, whereas Australia only just cracked the 1000 mark by June of 2024. At one point last year, China built more AC and DC public charging than has ever been built in the USA in just a 73 day period.A better way to look at it is the ratio of chargers to the amount of electric vehicles currently on the road. Even with its astronomical EV sales compared to the rest of the world, China has kept pace with its infrastructure. It has roughly seven electric cars per public charging location.In Australia it is closer to 150 cars per charger, according to the EV Council's data.So if you’re an EV owner wondering why it’s so hard to find a station, or you’re a combustion car buyer wondering where all the chargers are, your answer is there’s nowhere near enough of them yet.The Shaoxing Rest Area, with its 40 plus chargers, isn’t even one of the biggest ones in China. The Xiawuji Battery Charging station on the outskirts of Beijing features no less than 70 fast charging bays offering similar facilities.Shell has opened what appears to be the largest fast charging facility in the world in Shenzhen, sporting an absurd 258 public DC fast chargers all in one location.Shell said the facility services over 3300 EVs a day and has rooftop solar capable of generating up to 300,000kWh of electricity a year to help at least subsidise what can only be an eye-watering energy cost.On the topic of facilities, the Shaoxing location I saw has a two storey shopping mall, mainly occupied by a range of dining outlets, whether it’s a local hotpot shop or a Starbucks. It also had enormous toilet facilities, complete with showers. There’s plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. Interestingly the site still offered a Sinopec refuelling facility for non-EVS, but it consisted of a handful of bowsers taking up about a third of the space of the EV charging bays.It’s the utopia many EV owners are currently looking for, particularly on the great heavily-travelled expanses on Australia’s east coast, yet this little sample of the 2030 future doesn’t come without its own warnings of building up too quickly.According to multiple sources, the use rate of some of these larger sites are surprisingly low, showing what some are calling a “high seasonality” with strong demand in summer travel periods followed by steep declines in demand for charging in winter. It’s reflected at the Shaoxing site. I was there in December on a chilly winter's day and only a handful of the 40 sites were in use. Reuters has reported on a heavily fractured charging market, with the five biggest charging vendors making up only 65.2 per cent market share as of 2023. It reported estimates from Rystad energy, which indicate the pylons of even the largest player are earning less than US$10 a day.Australian charge providers who are yet to develop such large sites can learn from China before they fall into the same traps.For example, Australia’s EV charging networks started out with rapid fragmentation between brands, meaning a similar frustrating experience requiring an array of phone apps to activate and pay for them. Established networks have now become more dominant, with most public DC sites run by either Chargefox or Evie Networks, and most AC slow chargers now being able to be paid for via a single Exploren app.How far are we away from Chinese-style ‘Rest Stops’ as a harbinger for the 2030 future? Certainly a way off yet, but our first glimpse of it might come via Ampol’s redevelopment of the M1 Northbound site in Wyong, NSW, which has been approved by the NSW government for funding for ten DC charging bays. It won’t be the largest site in Australia, with that title already held by the Tesla charging station in Albury. It is hidden away in a public multi-story carpark featuring 16 pylons, but it most resembles a ‘rest-stop’ style location by the side of a highly-trafficked intercity route.While it comes with its own set of warnings to heed then, spots like the Shaoxing rest stop should come as proof that a 2030 future where the majority of us are driving electric cars is not only possible, it’s nothing to be afraid of after all.

The Audi Q6 e-tron Performance is the entry option to the mid-size electric SUV range.

From a distance, the Q6 e-tron just looks like another Audi, so why does the brand claim this new mid-sizer is its most important car in a decade?

Mahindra’s key mid-size seven-seat SUV has scored a slew of upgrades as part of a mild refresh for 2025.

Electric car sales are still growing, but as the ‘early adopter’ phase comes to an end, the rate of uptake has slowed the past few months.Some brands have bet heavily on electric vehicles early in their explosive sales climb, this latest slow-down in pace might have actually handed Audi an advantage as its Q4 and Q6 e-tron SUVs finally arrive in Australia.Audi bet less heavily on EVs than its most direct rivals, BMW and Mercedes in the past few years. Rather than try to replace some of its most hallowed nameplates with electric versions, Audi instead added low-volume electric flagship offerings to its range in the form of the e-tron GT and now the Q8 e-tron.In Australia, the delayed launch of the Q4 e-tron has coincided with the arrival of the government’s new vehicle efficiency standards (NVES), giving it the leverage it needs with its international head office to expand its range of hybrid offerings to live alongside its new electrics.Speaking to CarsGuide at the launch of the Q6 e-tron, Audi Australia’s managing director Jeff Mannering explained how the game has changed in Audi’s favour.“It’s an overall strategy we’ve got now” he said of the brand’s new MHEV+ hybrid tech arriving at the same time as the Q6, “because what we have to think about is whether it’s just going to be battery electrics going forward.”“The market has switched around a little bit, I think the spike in battery electric sales where everyone was saying it was going to be fifty per cent of the market that’s simply not the case anymore.”“Q4 and Q6 are important because it adds volume to our battery electrics - we need that, and we need plug-in hybrids as well because the C02 targets are now there.”“You’re not so reliant on a BEV if you have a PHEV. It’s our clear direction to have something for every customer in every segment.”Not every brand has managed to navigate the tightrope of emerging technologies quite the same way. BMW has led the way with its competitively priced and well-received electric cars, although its plug-in hybrids have struggled. BMW leads the German three, amassing a whopping 25,341 units last year, nearly 30 per cent of which were electric. Over at Mercedes, plug-in hybrids were pulled from its range altogether after years of slow sales in Australia (although they will return), while its electric offerings have been shunned. It was down a notable 17.8 per cent last year, with its car division falling to 19,989 units.Audi remained in third position, moving 15,333 units. It was down a sizeable 19.5 per cent compared to 2023, which the brand is hoping its nearly entirely refreshed range will reverse in 2025.Not only has the Q4 and Q6 arrived, but they will be joined in the third quarter by the Q5 and A5, debuting the entirely new PPC combustion platform and MHEV+ technology. Other less significantly upgraded nameplates include the A1, A3, Q2, Q7, and Q8, all due before year’s end.As Mannering said, replacements or updates to some of the brand’s longest running models will give it a shot at more impressive sales volumes in 2025.“If you look at the lifecycle of our cars, some are up to their eighth or ninth year now - We’ll have the newest line-up in the market this year and it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to say that.”Will this range let it beat out Mercedes or even challenge BMW in 2025? Check in later this year to find out.

After revealing the new G6 in teaser images, XPeng has detailed its deeply upgraded mid-size electric SUV, revealing its interior ahead of a March launch in China.The 2025 XPeng G6 facelift features a slightly revised exterior with new front lighting, fresh sets of wheels and a mildly tweaked tailgate with a new spoiler alongside a slew of new colour choices, but the biggest upgrades are under the skin and inside.Significant features inside include a larger set of screens, a 10.25-inch digital dash (up from 10.2 inches) and a 15.6-inch multimedia touchscreen (up from 15 inches) with additional processing power thanks to a new Qualcomm 8295 processor.Styling wise, the interior features a new design motif, with new pattern-work for the speaker shrouds, while the shape of the steering wheel has also been tweaked.It also features capacitive functions for the steering wheel, a video-capable rear-vision mirror, a new ambient lighting feature, as well as ventilation, heating, and message functions for the front seats.The brand also promises some form of AI-integration and an upgraded array of self-driving technologies in order to rival Tesla’s controversial full self-driving (FSD) suite.Additionally, the standard-range 60kWh battery has been replaced by a 68.5kWh unit, offering an additional 70km of range (according to the CLTC measuring standards). It will maintain its 800-volt architecture, 280kW peak DC charging speed, and corresponding 10 to 80 per cent charge in around 20 minutes.There are further upgrades which are yet to be detailed. The brand’s founder, He Xiaopeng posted to Weibo that more details of the facelifted G6’s touted 81 feature upgrades would be revealed closer to its March launch in China.The car is also said to be physically 34 per cent new, suggesting further yet-to-be-detailed hardware upgrades, with the brand saying “more surprises” were in store for the mid-size SUV.The XPeng G6 only arrived in Australia in late 2024, priced from a keen $54,800 before on-road costs for the entry-level Standard Range.At the time it was an aggressive starting price to rival the Tesla Model Y, but the updated version of that car is set to arrive in Australia later this year starting from $63,400 before on-roads and incentives. Upgraded or not, the new G6 will also have to face new rivals in the form of the Geely EX5, Leapmotor C10, and incoming offerings from GAC.However, Chinese media is also reporting the new car could have a lower entry price than the outgoing version, with information leaked from Chinese dealer sources reportedly suggesting a circa-AU$4500 price cut in its home market. Whether this translates to a similar tweaked pricing structure in Australia remains to be seen.The brand has re-committed to an ongoing 10-year warranty locally, which was initially offered on a promotional basis.XPeng’s local expansion plans are confirmed to include its G9 large SUV and X9 people mover, although whether the P7 sedan and G7 Coupe SUV also join the line-up remains to be seen.

How Audi is able to have its V8 cake and eat it, too.

XPeng has only just started delivering its G6 mid-size electric SUV to customer hands, but a major facelift is already set to launch in its home market.

Mitsubishi has revealed its next new small SUV model, the Grandis, which will sit above the ASX but below the Outlander in its international line-up, offering both mild and full hybrid drivetrain options.