Sedan Reviews

Mazda has been a slow starter in the electric car race, but the brand is accelerating with the arrival of its all-new 6e sedan. Sourced from its Chinese joint-venture, this new addition offers good value and proven EV technology wrapped up in Mazda's trademark design. But is that enough for it to succeed in the competitive EV market? We drive it to assess its merits on-road and judge its value.

The higher of two pure-electric Mercedes CLA models, and the flagship of the five-model line-up is the CLA350 4Matic electric, priced at $91,300, before on-road costs.

The first of two pure-electric Mercedes CLA models, the CLA200 electric kicks off at $72,200, before on-road costs.

The top-spec hybrid model in the new CLA line-up is the AWD 220 4Matic, sitting at $84,300, before on-road costs, which puts it in the same price ballpark as primo versions of its German ‘Big Three’ rivals, the Audi A3 sedan and BMW 2 Series.

In 2021 there was the Porsche Taycan soon followed by its closely related corporate sibling, the Audi e-tron GT. The era of the large, powerful pure-electric, four-door GT had arrived and they were due to be joined around the same time by the subject of this review, the Polestar 5.But Covid threw a spanner in those works and here we are in 2026 getting behind the wheel for the first time.The 5 instantly leap-frogs Polestar up towards those heavyweights as well more recent newcomers like the BMW i5 and Mercedes EQE, with an initial two-model range - the Dual Motor at $171,100 and the Performance at $193,100 (both before on-road costs).Due in Aussie showrooms in the second half of this year, it’s ultimately very close to the design of the Polestar Precept concept that previewed the 5 way back in 2020.And at close to 5.1 metres long, just over 2.0m wide and a bit over 1.4m tall with a 2970mm wheelbase it’s a confidently sleek machine with a broad stance and an ultra-slippery 0.24 drag co-efficient.It’s underpinned by the bonded aluminium ‘Polestar Performance Architecture’ platform and clad with all alloy body panels to minimise weight and improve torsional rigidity. Kerb weight is still 2.5 tonnes, though. The interior is Scandinavian minimalism at its finest, but not at the cost of useful storage including generous door bins, a large central box, cupholders and wireless charging.The beautifully sculpted seats have been developed in collaboration with German specialist Recaro, the split-level dash is dominated by a central 14.5-inch portrait media screen, with a 9.0-inch driver display behind the wheel supported by a 9.5-inch head-up display. It looks cool and clean.Standard equipment highlights include a vast panoramic glass roof, top-end audio (up to a 21-speaker Bowers & Wilkins system), adaptive cruise, Pixel LED headlights, ambient cabin lighting, power-adjustable heated and ventilated front seats, four-zone climate control and heaps more.Lots of breathing space up front and the back seat is impressive. There are four primary seating positions, but Polestar positions the car as a ‘4+1’ so if you want to carry a fifth passenger (on shorter journeys) the enormous rear centre armrest/storage unit lifts up to a vertical position.And at 183cm I’ve got plenty of legroom, lots of headroom (helped by the height of the panoramic roof) and there’s a lot of storage in the doors, plus vents in the back of the front centre console as well as the B-pillar and hard shell map pockets in the seatbacks.Boot space is a passable 365 litres with the rear seats upright (including 52 litres under the floor), expanding to 1128 litres with them folded and there’s 62L in the frunk. But no spare, just a tyre repair kit, which is not good enough.Both grades are powered by dual permanent magnet synchronous motors, the entry-grade Dual Motor packing 550kW/812Nm and the Performance delivering no less than 650kW/1015Nm. More on those fireworks shortly…The drive battery in both models is a 112kWh lithium-ion pack, the car’s 800-volt electric architecture allowing DC charging at up to 350kW for a 10-80 per cent charge in as little as 22 minutes. An external charging indicator on the C-pillar is a cool touch. WLTP combined cycle energy consumption is around 18kWh/100km for the Dual Motor and a tick under 21kWh/100km for the Performance, for official ranges of 670 and 565km, respectively. For increased efficiency the rear motor of the Polestar 5 disconnects when not required.Behind the wheel, even the entry-grade Dual Motor is able to run 0-100km/h in 3.9 seconds and the aptly named Performance drops the number to an eye-widening 3.2sec. They are both properly quick!The front seats are equal parts comfortable and supportive. Superb location and not a twinge after several hours behind the wheel.Bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tyres are designed specifically for the chosen Polestar 5 wheel combinations ranging from 21s on the Dual Motor to 22 inches on the Performance. They are as quiet as they are grippy, which is to say, very.Then you can add ‘Active Road Noise Cancellation’ and the slippery shape means there’s virtually no wind noise, even up at highway speeds.Suspension is by double wishbones front and rear with ‘MagneRide’ adaptive suspension in the Performance. And while the roads we covered for this roughly 300km drive from Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast to Copenhagen in Denmark, were high quality there were multiple bumpy, patched sections and even the Dual Motor soaked them up effortlessly. You can cover big distances in this car with ease.The steering is accurate, quick to respond and adjustable through three modes. But that doesn't modify road feel, which I’d put somewhere in the middle - not the worst, not the best.There are three levels of regenerative braking (if you count zero regen as one). The most aggressive is a single-pedal mode which pulls the car up rapidly.The physical brakes feature Brembo lightweight 400mm two-piece discs up front clamped by four-piston calipers and it decelerates strongly.Worth noting the 5 uses the same camera-based virtual rearview mirror as the Polestar 4 because, as with its sibling, there’s no back window. Takes a bit of getting used to because there’s no depth of field.Also pays to be aware this car’s turning circle is 12.3 metres, so not exactly a micro car in terms of its ability to park and manoeuvre in smaller spaces.Active crash-avoidance tech is extensive with 11 HD cameras, a driver monitoring camera, a mid-range radar and 12 ultrasonic sensors onboardEverything from blind spot monitoring and lane keeping assist to rear cross-traffic alert and tyre pressure monitoring are also present and correct. There are eight airbags if a crash is unavoidable.The Polestar 5 will be covered by Polestar’s five-year/unlimited km warranty with roadside assist included, which is still the norm in the luxury segment. The traction battery is covered for eight years/160,000km and there’s a 12-year corrosion warranty.

The first rung up the Mercedes CLA ladder above the entry-level 180 is this CLA200 at $68,100, before on-road costs, which puts it in the same price ballpark as its German ‘Big Three’ rivals, the Audi A3 sedan and BMW 2 Series.

The Mercedes CLA line-up kicks off at $66,500 for the entry-level 180, which puts it in the same price ballpark as its German ‘Big Three’ rivals, the Audi A3 sedan and BMW 2 Series.

The CLA coupe-style compact sedan has been a minor player in the Mercedes-Benz passenger car portfolio... until now. An all-new version offering hybrid and pure-electric power is designed to step out of the shadows and take the fight up to its premium Euro rivals.

There's something newer and far more advanced on the horizon, but does the BMW i4 electric liftback still have enough appeal in 2026?

Sedans aren’t dead, as it turns out, with newcomer brands breathing life into the ailing segment in recent years.The issue for brands like MG, BYD and now Geely, as always, is the venerable Toyota Camry which absolutely dominates the sales charts.How do you knock such a legendary vehicle off its perch? Geely reckons it might be onto something with its hybrid-first Emgrand, set to hit our shores in 2027. Let’s take a look.First up, let's see where the Emgrand sits, and how it might be priced to succeed.At 4806mm long, this offering from Geely is bigger than a traditional small sedan like a Kia K4 or Hyundai i30 sedan, but a little smaller than a Camry. It’s a good format, and with a long wheelbase and seemingly ample interior and boot space, it certainly has the right ingredients.Geely’s people tell us the Emgrand is set to start life in Australia initially as a plug-in hybrid using the brand’s EM-i system, which combines a 1.5-litre engine and hybrid transaxle with a pretty sizeable battery pack under the floor.The version of this car sold in China (from Geely’s hybrid and electric Galaxy arm which also sells the EX5 and Starray SUVs) is priced at the equivalent of $A24,600, reaching up to the low-$30k mark at the more premium end of the spectrum.It's doubtful we’ll see the entry-level car make it to Australia though, so a starting price of around $30k wouldn’t be surprising.For reference, the Kia K4 hybrid is $32,090, the Hyundai i30 sedan hybrid is $33,250, the soon-to-launch BYD Seal 6 starts from $34,990, and the Toyota Camry is priced a little higher, at $39,990, all before on-road costs.As the Emgrand will be a plug-in hybrid first, its closest rival will be the BYD, and this is where things start to get a little technical for the Geely, because it will need to be specified and priced just right to thread the needle between its plugless and plug-in rivals.In my opinion, though, launching with the plug-in isn’t quite the right move, and the Emgrand would be better served using Geely’s new plugless hybrid i-HEV setup instead.This system claims to use as low as 2.2L/100km in the Emgrand (to lenient Chinese measuring standards) and can drive more than 80 per cent of the time in fully electric mode, despite not needing to plug in.Geely’s Australian boss, Alex Gu, told CarsGuide the system was very much on the radar, despite our tough new emissions laws making it difficult for plugless hybrids in the future.What makes more sense for the primary audience of this car though?A ride-share driver would much rather have the convenience of the plugless system doing hundreds of kilometres a day, compared to the inconvenience of needing to plug in.At least the EM-i system this car is set to launch with is claimed to consume as low as 2.9L/100km even when the battery is at the reserve level, so perhaps it won’t matter.The styling is pretty sharp. If you think it looks a little reminiscent of a Volvo S60 with its tall, sharp belt line, distinctive grille, and tidy European proportions, that's because Geely owns Volvo and has no doubt called on its design expertise.Inside things are remarkably restrained compared to some rivals, with an elegant dash layout and nice material choices.It includes a combination of a 14.6-inch multimedia touchscreen with the brand’s Flyme software, and 10.25-inch digital dash cluster, both of which are present in the EX5.A big bonus compared to the EX5 though, is the presence of a control dial and a few shortcut toggles on the centre console, which help to reduce the dependence on the touchscreen for everything.For what it’s worth, Geely’s software looks a bit better than some of its rivals, but is still clumsy to use with odd menus and poorly used screen real estate.Despite wielding a decent battery size, the Emgrand had plenty of room for my 182cm frame in both the front and rear seats, even with the front seat set to my comfortable driving position.Unlike plug-in sedans I’ve driven in the past, the Emgrand’s GEA platform places the battery under the cabin floor rather than the boot, so it maintains a generous 609 litre boot space. Great for the airport run, no?Powering the Emgrand is a 1.5-litre non-turbo four-cylinder engine (82kW136Nm) mated to a hybrid transaxle with an electric motor producing 120kW/210Nm and driving the front wheels. It is backed by either an 8.5kWh or a 17kWh battery pack which provides either 60km or 125km of pure electric driving range, according to the more lenient CLTC measuring standard.It’s hard to see the 8.5kWh version having much of a run in Australia, but 17kWh is much more appropriate. Charging speed is 35kW on DC for the larger battery, allowing a 30-80 per cent top up in 20 minutes. All versions of the Emgrand are capable of vehicle-to-load at 3kW.How does it drive? In our limited test which involved an agility exercise and a 0-100km/h sprint with a moose test, the Emgrand proved remarkably sharp. Its tidy, lower-riding chassis and surprisingly responsive steering is no doubt helped along by a long wheelbase and firmer suspension to make for a fun jaunt compared to an SUV.It’s also quite rapid in a straight line thanks to the primarily electric drive, and like the better batch of plug-ins, the Emgrand seems to maintain enough reserve charge not to take the wind out of the motor’s sails when it’s needed most.Time will tell, however, how the final product fares on more challenging Australian roads, especially when it comes to active safety calibration, which can ruin an otherwise great car.