Industry news

Xiaomi has finally revealed its highly anticipated new SUV sub-brand, SkyNomad, as details of its first model are revealed via regulatory filings.The N90 is 4960mm long, 1998mm wide and 1765mm tall placing it firmly in the large SUV category. It features a seven-seat version to rival to the likes of the GWM Tank 500 and BYD Sealion 8. There is also a five-seat version which could be more of a rival to the hotly anticipated Zeekr 8X that's due in Australia next year.Like the 8X, the SkyNomad N90 is exclusively a plug-in hybrid in contrast to Xiaomi’s previous two fully electric offerings, the SU7 GT and YU7 SUV. It uses a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 112kW mated to either a single electric motor (210kW) or dual electric motors (210kW rear + 100kW front).Like other recent Chinese hybrid large SUVs, the SkyNomad N90 uses large batteries, either a 52kWh or 76kWh unit for driving ranges of either 270km or 380km respectively to CLTC standards. Fuel consumption with the battery at reserve charge level (a required metric in China) ranges from 5.7L/100km to 6.1L/100km.Off the back of the filing reveals, Xiaomi has shared official images of the new car on its social media and opened a pre-order web portal.Unlike the sporty vibe of the 8X or the off-road focused bent of the GWM range, the SkyNomad N90 instead focuses on lifestyle, featuring a camping edition with a pop-up roof tent as part of its initial approvals.Its styling is also a massive departure from the sleek sporty lines of its SU7 and YU7, moving to a more traditional luxury SUV shape. The only related feature is the DRL strip which cuts through the middle of the front light clusters, while the side profile and rear box light fitting is more in keeping with Chinese luxury SUV trends.Inside it features a plush leather-clad design, and an unusual seating arrangement for three-row versions of 2 + 2 + 3. Images show reversible front seats and a centre console that transforms into a table.While the interior is yet to be fully unveiled, the images also show the usual large central touchscreen and digital dash, with a centre console that features its own touch control panel for middle-row passengers.The camping version, meanwhile, features a projector built into the roof of the boot, and a corresponding screen that unfurls from the roof above the front seats.Regulatory filings also show an array of wheel designs, from high-end 20-inch two-tone versions to a smaller 19-inch design with plastic aero covers.Xiaomi’s auto division has been overwhelmingly successful in China, with the SU7 and YU7 having attracted a massive waiting list as orders have exceeded production capacity by hundreds of thousands of units.As such, export markets have been bottom of the brand’s priority list for the time being. This may not be the case forever, as it invests with its BAIC partner on expanded capacity at new factory units.Even still, the brand has said it has global aspirations at some stage in the future.Stay tuned for more on Xiaomi and its new SkyNomad sub-brand as it nears its official Chinese launch.

Is Australia ready for the return of a modern, big single-cab ute?GWM admits it honestly does not know.But the Chinese brand might be willing to take a punt on the two-door coupe utility version of the body-on-frame P300 Bakkie – as the Cannon range is known in South Africa and some other markets – should Australian consumers demand it.Or, in other words, a spiritual successor to the iconic Ford Falcon RTV Rugged Terrain Vehicle – a raised and more-rugged version of the BA through BF II series ute made and sold in Australia from 2003 until the FG series arrived in 2008.Two-door coupe-utility models have largely disappeared from mainstream one-tonne ute price lists in Australia, even though they are commonplace elsewhere.The P300 Bakkie is available as both a Single Cab 2WD and 4WD across the globe.Speaking to CarsGuide at the recent China Auto Show in Beijing, GWM Australia and New Zealand Head of Marketing and Communications, Steve Maciver, revealed that his company is bold enough to take on a chance if an opportunity does exist.“Personally, I love it,” was his reaction after pointing to one at the motor show.“It looks good. Whether there's a big market for it. Who knows?“But I think, in terms of being a brand able to take brave decisions, do something a little bit different, right, potentially bring something in and test the market (it could work in Australia).”Maciver also agreed that there might be a niche to exploit now that Toyota has abandoned the bottom end of the base 2WD low-rider tray market with the deletion of the old 2.7-litre four-cylinder petrol engine in the latest version of the HiLux Workmate range.“Yes,” he said. “But we do have to think about complexity... and that makes it challenging at times for consumers and challenging for our dealers.”Released in 2019 in China and a year later in Australia, the P300 series Cannon is GWM’s global workhorse ute, and is offered in a range of four-cylinder petrol, turbo petrol hybrid and turbo diesel models.

A third model has been revealed as part of Chery’s iCaur sub-brand, set to head to Australia imminently.Expected to join the already revealed iCaur V23 and V27, the 2027 iCaur V25 is a mid-size range-extender hybrid electric vehicle (REEV) sharing strong boxy design links with the smaller V23.Coming in at 4636mm long according to data published by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in its home market and seen by CarNewsChina, the iCaur V25 sits about halfway between the V23 small SUV and the V27 large SUV in terms of size.It features a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine that makes 115kW and charges a 33.68kWh battery pack, providing the off-roader with an electric driving range of around 150km.Under WLTC testing, the V25 has a claimed efficiency of between 1.52L to 1.54L/100km depending on the model grade.At a little over 2.2 tonnes, the iCaur V25’s towing capacity is 1800kg, if an optional towing kit is included.According to the MIIT’s details, the V25 is also 1920mm wide, 1855mm tall, rides on a 1820mm wheelbase and has a track width of 1635mm at the front, 1642mm at the rear.Overhangs of 736mm at the front and 1080mm at the rear are also quoted, though an approach angle of 28 degrees and a departure angle of 24 degrees have also been reported.In Australia, Chery’s iCaur sub-brand, which focuses on electrified off-road vehicles, is set to launch in the second quarter of 2027.The local arm of the business is currently hiring senior members of its team to run sections of the business like marketing, branding, and PR, with advertisements for a number of roles live at the time of writing.

Volkswagen is about to make some big changes that could have knock-on effects for Australia.The brand is planning to cut up to half of its line-up across its brands.Auto News reports as many as 75 models could be ditched, which would reduce VW Group’s capacity from 10 million vehicle to nine million."The global situation has continued to deteriorate over the past twelve months," Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume said. "That is why we are ​acting now."There is no news yet on what models will be under threat, but Australia is unlikely to be immune from these changes.A spokesperson for Volkswagen Australia said this news will have no immediate impact on the local branch."As a next step, we will work closely with our headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, to assess what adjustments – if any – may be needed at the local level," they said.Audi, Bentley, Cupra, Lamborghini, Porsche and Skoda, as well as Volkswagen, all fall under the VW Group name, and the brand has a significant presence in Australia. VW alone has amassed more than 12,000 sales in Australia, but that figure represents a 16. per cent decline compared to June 2025.VW Group sales are declining globally as the brand grapples with soaring costs, including US tariffs, and increasingly competitive Chinese competition. Its profit margins were sliced in half between 2021 and 2025, according to Auto News.  Auto News is also reporting four German VW Group factories are in danger of seeing their doors closed for good, which are plants in Hanover, Emden, Zwickau and Neckarsulm.The brand is also planning to cut up to 100,000 jobs as part of its down-sizing. The proposed moves were subject to heavy protests from workers late last week.VW Group has deepened its ties to China recently, with CEO Blume suggesting the brand could export its China-only models to other markets. This could help cut down the costs for the brand to import cars to Australia. European-built models are often more expensive to produce and import than ones from China.

Thanks to regulatory filings in China, we have what might be our first look at an updated version of BYD’s Sealion 8 three-row hybrid SUV.Known as the Tang and Tang L in China, the new version of the car filed with the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology adopts similar styling to BYD’s flagship Great Tang SUV, which debuted earlier this year.This means a refreshed light profile in the front with a single light bar panel, a smoother profile across the body, tweaked rear light bar designs, more subtle logo work and an overall more premium feel. It also scores either 20- or 21-inch alloy wheels in fresh designs, and replaces the electronic pop-out doorhandles, now banned in China, with flush-set handles.For now, the new version of the car has only been filed in fully electric form equipped with a 300kW single electric motor, while the Sealion 8 version we get in Australia is only a plug-in hybrid.At over five meters long, the Tang has grown slightly over the outgoing model. Its interior is yet to be revealed, but is likely to include at least some of the cabin styling and features from the Great Tang flagship luxury SUV.It features a new steering wheel design, passenger-side entertainment screen, plaid leather seat trim, with an evolution of the geometric dash features which the Sealion 8 originally brought to the Australian market.It is likely it could be some time before such upgrades make it to our market, as BYD’s model strategy continues to diverge between its Chinese domestic line-up and its export market models.For example, Australia won’t receive the major updates to the BYD Atto 3 seen in the Chinese market. Instead, we’ll be getting the ‘Evo’ facelifted version, which has already debuted in Europe.Meanwhile the existing Sealion 8 has had a fairly robust year in Australia, having moved nearly five and a half thousand units in the first half of the year. This number was significantly boosted by a ship arrival, which accounted for 1961 units in June alone, but even without this boost the Sealion 8 has racked up more registrations than popular rivals like the Hyundai Santa Fe (3089 units), Kia Sorento (2752 units) and the ageing Toyota Kluger (2475 units) so far in 2026.In its current form in Australia, the BYD Sealion 8 is priced from $56,990 before on-roads for the entry level front-wheel drive Dynamic, to $70,990 before on-roads for the AWD Premium.It produces either 205kW/315 in base FWD form, or 359kW/679Nm in AWD form as combined figures generated from its 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine and either single or dual electric motor set-ups.BYD has shot to second position in the Australian new-car sales charts in the first half of the year, off the back of a massive model range expansion as well as dedicated ship deliveries to our market.It is already 10,000 units ahead of the previously second-placed Ford, having jumped 124.1 per cent year-on-year. It is second only to Toyota, although it appears to be closing the gap with Toyota down 21.4 per cent thanks to delays in the arrival of the new RAV4.Expect to learn more about the BYD Sealion 8 shortly as the official Chinese reveal nears.

Toyota in Australia has detailed its comparatively sluggish first-half sales results, saying its internal delivery issues, rather than competition from newcomer Chinese brands, is holding it back.Last month saw a staggeringly close – and, over the past 20 years, unheralded –brawl between Toyota and BYD for top spot on Australia's sales ladder, with the Chinese brand finishing just 243 sales short of Toyota's 19,124 deliveries.But Toyota insists it isn't feeling the rush of new Chinese brands is hurting orders, instead saying a strong second half of the year is coming as production frees up."I don't mean that in a disrespectful way," says Toyota's Vice President, National Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations, John Pappas. "We respect all our competitors and what they do."When you've got long lead times, at the end of the day, you need to be able to have a realistic short lead time for your customer. That's what we've been focused on. Because if we can do that, we know our loyalty is very, very high."We respect that with our customers, we never take that for granted, but we've really been focused on trying to reduce that lead time for our customer, together with our TMC colleagues. because we know that competition's fierce."We know that there's all these brands. We know, and we want to make sure that we can keep our customers happy by trying to reduce that lead time."Toyota has managed just 95,141 sales across the first six months of 2026, which if sustained, would see them sink below 200,000 sales for the year. But Pappas says the issue is supply, not demand, and a new pipeline of production will deliver more vehicles to customers in the second half of the year. The brand is targeting around 230,000 sales this year."Our biggest downfall this year has actually been our supply at the start, because we knew last year that we were coming into this year with a Q1 into Q2 shortfall, because we were launching the RAV4 later than we had liked," Pappas says."So the RAV4 is in our top two selling vehicles. We're only doing 40,000 RAV4s (compared to 52,000 in 2025) this year. "We'd like to do more than that because we know that car's good enough and we've got customer demand over a 12-month window to do more than that amount. So therefore, we're only really getting like a nine-month runway on RAV. So we're missing out a whole quarter of new RAV4 sales. "That's our biggest shortfall. And we knew that going into the year. So now the fact that we've been able to secure more production from the global allocation, particularly on hybrids and bZs and other vehicle lines, including Hilux, it's great because that enables us to shorten lead times for customers."

Korea’s new electric performance hero is here. Hyundai high-end sub-brand Genesis has released pricing for its GV60 Magma SUV ahead of its arrival in Aussie showrooms this month.It will start from $130,000, before on-road costs, making it almost $50,000 more than the standard GV60. Genesis is Hyundai’s answer to European giants Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and this is the brand's first attempt at a high-performance car.The GV60 is a small SUV and goes up against the BMW iX2, Volvo XC40 Recharge and Zeekr X, but none of them can go toe-to-toe with the GV60 Magma variant. Its performance pitches it closer to the larger Hyundai Ioniq 5 N ($91,700) and Kia EV6 GT ($99,660).It is smaller than the mechanically similar Ioniq 5 and 6 N performance cars, but packs the same punch.It has two electric motors that drive all four wheels and produce 448kW and 740Nm.It can shift from 0-100km/h in 3.4 seconds using the boost function that increases power to 478kW and 790NmThe car is equipped with a 84kWh battery, offering a total driving range of 425km, according to WLTP standards. Its interior features a 27.0-inch OLED screen for the instrument cluster and multimedia display, while there is also a head-up display. The GV60 Magma has a virtual gear shift system, which gives the Magma the feel of real gear changes in a petrol car.There is also a drifting mode that can direct power to the rear wheels using an electric limited-slip differential to enable dynamic, track-based driving.  Hyundai confirmed production of the GV60 Magma in mid-2024, when it was revealed as a concept, with it finally now hitting Aussie shores.It will join the updated base GV60 that recently got a serious price cut in Australia, now starting from $88,300, down from more than $100,000. It will only be available with rear-wheel drive, meaning the Magma will be the GV60 with AWD available.

Reports out of the US overnight point to a significant delay in the start of production for the all-new, pure-electric Toyota Highlander large SUV, marking another faltering step in the Japanese giant’s shift towards broader adoption of battery-electric models.According to American automotive marketplace Cars.com, a Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) spokesperson told it the company is making “additional adjustments to the vehicle prior to launch.” Toyota uses the name Highlander in the USA and selected export markets while the Kluger nameplate is well established in Japan and Australia, with local Klugers coming out of Toyota’s Princeton, Indiana plant.The top-spec all-wheel drive 2027 Highlander has two electric motors, producing 252kW/438Nm and there are two battery options - 77kWh for a 462km range and 96kWh for 515km between charges. Initially set to launch in North America before the end of the year, a “minimum eight week delay” to production ramp up means the new-generation battery electric vehicle (BEV) may not hit showrooms there until early 2027.With no confirmation of revised launch timing for the new Highlander, TMNA also advised the current 2026 model will stay in production through to the end of the year.It’s worth noting while the Kluger is hybrid-only in Australia, the current Highlander is offered in pure-combustion and hybrid form in the States and US Highlander sales are currently strong, especially for hybrid variants. In fact, Cars.com has theorised part of Toyota’s motivation for holding back the new model is to “enjoy some extra profits on the fast-selling, top-dollar Highlander hybrids to keep that cash machine ringing while RAV4 production continues to slowly ramp up.”There’s no doubt a production extension for the current car will be welcomed by Toyota Australia, its dealers and Kluger buyers. Local sales for the first half of this year were down 46.3 compared to the same period in 2025, but additional supply could add a much needed boost.The new-gen Highlander EV is currently off the agenda for Australian consumption, with a Toyota Australia spokesperson previously telling CarsGuide there are no current plans to add a Kluger version to the range Down Under.But we’ve heard that line before, so don’t write off the Hyundai Ioniq 9, Kia EV9 and Volvo EX90 competitor for Australia just yet.On side note, the hold up will surely upset launch plans for the Lexus TZ, the Highlander’s premium counterpart and the Subaru Getaway, based on the upcoming model’s platform and basic architecture, both initially planned for 2026 introduction.After single-mindedly sticking to its long-term hybrid-led new energy vehicle (NEV) strategy Toyota has gradually moved towards EVs, introducing the bZ4X and more recently the bZ4X Touring and Electric HiLux locally, with the C-HR+ EV locked in for 2027.The plug-in hybrid RAV4, just-released in Australia, is on the same TNGA-K platform as the 2027 Highlander, which also opens the door to a future EV version.

Chinese brand Foton has released a range of new accessories for its Tunland pick-up to help it battle the big name utes. Foton has focused on three distinct packages catered for potential uses for its ute in partnership with Ironman 4x4. The first is designed to elevate off-roading and adventuring experience, and includes canopies, roller covers and roof platforms.It is the most expensive of the packages.  The canopy is available with either solid alloy opening panels or glass windows around the sides, both costing $6,845.85. The manual roll cover costs $2814.08, with the electrically operated one increasing the price to $3717.07. A rear tonneau cover is also available for purchase with a sports bar on the V9 and without it on the V7, both priced at $950.62. Both models can also be optioned with a roof platform costing $2558.05. The maximum cost of this cargo package is $14,071.59.This would push the price of a base Tunland V7 up to more than $54,000, before on-roads. The next package available focuses on its load lugging capacity. A seven-pin tow bar kit is available for $1560.89, along with RedArc electric brake controller costing $871.33 that is on run out. There are three items that are only available for pre-order at this stage, which are an electric brake controller ($1428.61), Anderson plug kit ($992.95) and recovery point kit ($418.01).This costs a total of $5271.79.The final package targets the general use of the Tunland, with a series of covering options. There is a carpet mat set ($129.95), rubber deep dish set ($212.64) and a hybrid of the pair ($288.86). A rubber tray liner is available for pre-order and will cost $232.42. All accessories are covered by the seven-year warranty.The Tunland returned to Aussie shores late last year with workhorse V7 and lifestyle V9 models. It starts from $39,990 for V7, with prices ranging up to $49,990 for the top-end V9.The Tunland finds itself in a tough battle against the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux.It is powered by a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine and mild hybrid set-up, producing 120kW and 450Nm. It sold 715 units up to June, but is yet to make a dent in the hold of the established pack. 

Nissan has officially revealed a new small SUV that’s aimed at the Indian, Middle Eastern and African markets, but don’t expect it to be coming to Australia.The Nissan Tekton is essentially a rebadged Dacia or Renault Duster. It has been developed in India and will be manufactured in partnership with Renault in India.There are two powertrains on offer, a 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine and a 1.3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine. The latter produces 100kW and 280Nm.Depending on the powertrain there are either manual or dual-clutch automatic transmissions on offer.A wide array of trim levels are available in India but available equipment includes a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, 10.1-inch touchscreen multimedia system with Google built-in, LED headlights, panoramic glass sunroof, dual-zone climate control and ventilated front seats.Although the top-spec models get 18-inch alloy wheels, a number of the more affordable models get 17-inch steel wheels.On the safety front there are six airbags, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), blind-spot monitoring, lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, front and rear parking sensors, as well as a surround-view camera.Although the Tekton is built in right-hand drive and is set to be offered in 50 global markets across the Middle East and Africa, a Nissan Australia spokesperson confirmed it is “not currently under consideration for Australia”.Renault launched the related Duster in Australia during 2025. It's built in Romania alongside the Dacia Duster and comes in two- and all-wheel drive guises.As it stands, Nissan's smallest vehicle in Australia is now the UK-built Qashqai. The new-generation Juke EV isn’t coming to Australia.Nissan recently launched the Kicks small SUV in right-hand drive for Japan but it’s not confirmed for an Australian launch either.It’s offered in Japan exclusively with e-Power hybrid powertrains.