Coupe News

Toyota has sunk its flagship sports car in Australia.

In the early 1960s when Ferruccio Lamborghini was warming up for a punch on with Enzo Ferrari over the price of a clutch replacement for his 250 GT the already successful businessman famously took the bull by the horns and decided to make his own sports car.

The Yangwang U9, you know, that wicked Chinese supercar that you’ve likely seen pop up (literally, it can hop) on TikTok or Instagram here and there — has just gotten a little bit more extreme.

The next-generation XPeng P7 has debuted in China, with enviable specifications to put an end to range anxiety.

Honda has finally outed the full production-ready version of its reborn Prelude sports car and the good news is, it’s locked in for Australia.

Audi is reportedly set to unveil a new electric sports car concept at this year’s Munich motor show in September ahead of the production version expected to launch in 2027.Speaking with German newspaper Bild, Audi CEO Gernot Döller referred to this car as “TT Moment 2.0”.Döllner said the car will be “a highly emotional sports car – not a TT, not an R8, but something in between”.It’ll form as a new halo model and an “identity builder” for the German brand, with Döller noting it’s critical for Audi to correct its trajectory following software issues and a current line-up that’s not resonating with buyers.“I don’t want to beat around the bush; we have to get back on track now,” said Döller.Although only the concept version of this Audi electric sports car will be unveiled in September, Döller made it clear that “the car will be built”.It’s expected this concept version will likely have some wild design elements that mightn’t make it to the production version.However, the design language this sports car will receive is expected to filter down to the rest of Audi’s line-up.At this stage no other details are confirmed about this new Audi electric sports car, however previous reports indicated a TT successor could be based on the forthcoming Porsche 718 EV.This could see it share the same platform and electric powertrains with the Porsche, though tweaks are expected to differentiate the two.Audi has been without a sports car halo ever since the TT ceased production in 2023 and the R8 ceased production in 2024.Sure there’s the Audi RS e-tron GT and the RSQ8 Performance, but neither of these cars are dedicated sports cars as there are regular non-performance versions of both.In Australia Audi has been experiencing a sales slide. A total of 6839 vehicles have been sold so far this year, which is down 16.4 per cent year-on-year.

The mighty Ferrari is benchmarking its newest supercar against a Chinese upstart.A Xiaomi SU7 Ultra was seen leaving the Prancing Horse’s headquarters in Maranello.Ferrari bought the high-performance electric car for testing and development purposes as it prepares its first electric car next year, according to reports.The SU7 Ultra is the flagship vehicle from Chinese smartphone producer turned carmaker Xiaomi.It is the fastest electric car around the Nurburgring and delivers a bonkers amount of grunt.The SU7 Ultra uses three electric motors to make an insane 1138kW, which is about the same as 10 Toyota Corollas combined and more than the quad-turbocharged W16 engine from the Bugatti Chiron.  Those outputs are good enough to catapult it to 100km/h from a standstill in blistering 1.97 seconds on the way to a top speed of 350km/h.The SU7 Ultra weighs 1900kg, which makes it a relative lightweight by performance electric car standards and means it tips the scale at about 400kg less than the Taycan Turbo S.It’s a seriously impressive machine on paper, and one of the world’s most intense car makers has taken notice.The Italian supercar firm is in the final stages of developing its first electric car, which it will unveil on October 9 this year.If it is to be a proper Ferrari it’ll need to be better than the competition, and the most advanced electric cars are from China.Details of the electric car are scarce, but we do know that it will make an “authentic noise”, according to CEO Benedetto Vigna.A previous report by Reuters speculated its price tag could be as high as €500,000 (A$886,900), although this hasn’t been confirmed directly by Ferrari.Ferrari is slowly transitioning to low-emissions power, with models such as the plug-in hybrid GTS 296, GTB 296 and SF90 Stradale, making up 51 per cent of its sales in 2024.The company has no plans to ditch V12-power from its range until it is forced to by various governments.Meanwhile Xiaomi's SU7 sedan and new YU7 SUV have set the Chinese market on fire, with hundreds of thousands of orders well exceeding the electric upstart's capacity to fill demand.

Chinese cars have conquered a lot of segments, but the next wave of vehicles is going after the best in the business. GWM has teased its Ferrari-fighting plug-in hybrid supercar, which is the latest in a line of a new breed of performance cars such as the Yangwang U9 and Xiaomi SU7 Ultra.

Is Toyota about to spring a reborn Celica on us? A mid-engined 300kW GR Celica that’s just 1.2m tall with a weird windscreen? The rumour mill is working around the clock right now, but our friends at Japanese auto publication Best Car Web, who are often on the money, say they are receiving inside information about an almost ready new-gen Celica that’s very exciting.

Ford’s iconic muscle car is the first to cop a price increase due to penalties now in effect based on Australia’s new emissions laws. The price of a 2026 Ford Mustang has increased by $5000 across the board, with the entry point to the line-up now $71,990 before on-road costs.