Sedan News

Volkswagen's house of brands to lean more into individual strengths, but will it be enough to change the group's fortunes in 2025?

Should Toyota consider a taxi pack version of its new-generation Camry?

BYD's flagship sedan gets a major upgrade, but it seems like Australia will continue to miss out.

Kia’s Cerato successor is edging closer to an Australian release, with homologation documents showing the K4 has been formally approved for sale in Australia.

Mazda’s electric car offensive seems to be gathering steam.  The brand applied to trademark the name ‘CX-6e’ with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) earlier this month, as discovered by Autoguide.

Volvo is confident that it will rule the premium EV world with a two-tiered approach moving forward. While all will encompass the Swedish brand’s core pillars of safety, efficiency, technology and luxury, where they are positioned in terms of price and size will determine which platform each model will employ.

Reports out of the US are claiming Tesla will unveil its long-awaited self-driving Robotaxi next month at the Warner Brothers Studio movie lot in Burbank, California.

Whoever said sedans were a thing of the past clearly didn’t get the memo.Electric sedans have invigorated the segment and it looks like another one is set to join the growing throng of EV sedans.At the very end of a livestream reveal of its refreshed XC90 SUV, Volvo dropped a teaser for a new model, with the caption confirming the ‘ES90’ nameplate.The brief video showed the silhouette of a sleek four-door model with a sloping, almost fastback-like rear and a boot lip, but beyond that it’s difficult to make out any other details.This model has long been rumoured but now it looks set to join the growing Volvo line-up to take on the likes of the Tesla Model S or Model 3, depending on its eventual size, the Mercedes-Benz EQE and BMW i4.Volvo didn’t reveal any other details but it’s highly likely the ES90 will be based on the same SPA2 architecture that underpins the similarly positioned Polestar 4 sedan, as well as the Volvo EX90 SUV.That model is offered with two powertrains that could point to what the ES90 will get. The rear-drive single-motor Polestar has a rear-mounted motor delivering 200kW/343Nm, and a 100kWh battery for a driving range of 620km. The Dual Motor Polestar 4 adds another motor to the front for all-wheel drive and ups the outputs to 400kW/686Nm. Driving range is 590km.Volvo has another large sedan in its line-up, the S90, and while it remains in production for some markets, it was discontinued in Australia in 2019. The related V90 wagon and the smaller V60 wagon were dropped from the local line-up in 2021. The S60 medium sedan remains on sale Down Under.Whether the ES90 completely replaces the S90 remains to be seen, but given Volvo’s push to full electrification by 2030, and the slowing market for internal combustion sedans, it’s likely.Pre-production has already begun in China, suggesting that it will be built there. Volvo is owned by Chinese automotive giant, Geely Holdings. While sedan sales have dropped in recent years, electric sedans have given the old school body style a second chance against the influx of high-riding SUVs.Some of the biggest selling EVs in Australia are sedans. This year alone, Tesla has sold 14,600 examples of the Model 3, while the relatively new BYD Seal has already found 5033 homes. Even the more premium BMW i4 has shifted 1454 units.Given the teaser campaign for the ES90 has just begun, expect more tidbits to be dropped by Volvo in the coming months.

Tesla will begin producing a seven-seater Model Y in China, according to reports.

Toyota will band together with BMW to develop hydrogen technology, in what is the biggest indication yet that BMW is gearing up to enter a hydrogen-powered vehicle into the mainstream market.According to Nikkei Asia, the Japanese and German automakers are set to sign a memorandum of understanding confirming the partnership next week, with an announcement expected during BMW’s round table media event on September 5.It’s the latest evolution of a hydrogen partnership that dates back to 2012, when Toyota agreed to supply BMW with a limited number of hydrogen fuel cell components.This agreement will pave the way for a more comprehensive partnership, with Toyota supplying BMW with more sophisticated hydrogen tanks and fuel cell systems. According to Nikkei Asia, BMW will then use its in-house EV technologies to manufacture the rest of the vehicle.The announcement doesn’t come as a surprise, given that Toyota is already a well-established player in the hydrogen fuel cell segment, and BMW has increasingly expressed interest in producing a hydrogen cell vehicles for the mainstream market.BMW recently toured its hydrogen powered iX5 hydrogen prototype – which is built on the X5 SUV platform – across Australia in July, while Toyota introduced its hydrogen powered Mirai, one of two hydrogen vehicles available in Australia, on a special leasing agreement back in 2021. The Mirai has been offered in Japan since 2014.Hyundai is the only other brand in Australia with a hydrogen passenger vehicle, the Nexo SUV, which it distributes under a similar leasing scheme. The ACT and QLD governments are two of Hyundai’s biggest leasing partners for the Nexo. Each government leased a fleet in 2021 which they have both extended as of this year.The arrangement with Toyota may bring down the cost of any prospective hydrogen vehicle from BMW, although questions persist — particularly in Australia — about the feasibility of selling a hydrogen vehicle to the public.Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles run on electricity generated through a chemical reaction created between hydrogen and oxygen, with their only tailpipe emission being water.Their range and refuelling time is considered to be better than EVs, with the technology presenting itself as an attractive alternative as the demand for EVs begins to plateau.There are just 12 hydrogen refuelling stations in Australia, with the cost of delivering hydrogen infrastructure here remaining incredibly high. The CSIRO’s hydrogen refuelling and production station in Melbourne, for example, cost $2.5 million to build, but only generates enough fuel capacity for roughly 10 vehicles per day.BMW may struggle less in Germany though, where a network of 86 refuelling and production stations puts Germany as one of the global leaders when it comes to hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.Toyota Australia signed a memorandum of understanding last year with Hyundai, energy-giant Pacific Energy and fuel retailer Ampol to drive local infrastructure expansion.Hyundai’s XCIENT Hydrogen Fuel Cell trucks already operate across Europe on a commercial scale, with Hyundai and Toyota particularly adamant that hydrogen technology will first establish itself in the transport industry before it becomes available on a mainstream scale in passenger cars.