Luxury

Audi’s global boss has hinted that the iconic R8 mid-engined supercar might be making a return, and this next-generation model could be powered by the Lamborghini Temerario's astonishing hybrid V8The brand’s CEO Gernot Dollner revealed that despite tightening emissions laws, he still had the V8s on his mind."I'm a big fan of the V8," he said, according to Motor1. Audi is in the process of replacing the revered 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 in its high-performance saloons and SUVs with more efficient V6 hybrids.We’ve seen the Audi RS5 move from using a V8 10 years ago to a V6 plug-in hybrid in the just-launched new generation, Future versions of RS6, and others, are expected to also follow suit.But it appears there will still be a place for the V8, which Dollner admires. The new Lamborghini Temerario plug-in hybrid uses the same V8 paired with three electric motors. "There's no restriction to an engine like that," Dollner said.He’s not joking. The V8 in the Temerario can rev to 10,000 rpm, which is higher than any V8 production supercar has been able to hit. The output of the PHEV system is outrageous. The combined output of the V8 and motors in the Temerario is 676kW and the 0-100km/h sprint is over in 2.7 seconds.The same platform could easily be used for a new-gen R8 - Lamborghinis and Audi R8s have shared the same platform in the past.Production of the Audi R8 ended in 2024 after an 18-year run and during that time was powered by the V8 and a V10, also used by Lamborghini in its supercars.Whether a new Audi R8 actually happens will be down to demand, and of course Dollner.Emissions laws may not be the barrier some might think.Last year Audi Australian boss Jeff Mannering told CarsGuide the existence of more and more hybrids and EVs such as the Q4 and Q6 electric SUVs in the range means a couple of V8 models can be included without exceeding the overall fleet emissions limits.“A BEV, a PHEV, an ICE car - if you look at the market this is why the Q4 and Q6 are so important because it adds volume to BEVs, but we need plug-in hybrids as well because of those C02 targets,” he said. 

It’s hard to think of a person more connected and invested in the Ferrari brand than Luca di Montezemolo, but even the man who led the company from 1991 to 2014 and was Enzo Ferrari’s personal assistant in the early 1970s can’t abide the Prancing Horse’s new all-electric model.Having viewed the Ferrari Luce’s unveiling at this week’s Confindustria public assembly in Rome, Montezemolo told Italian outlet askanews, “If I were to say what I think, I would be hurting Ferrari. “It risks destroying a legend, and I'm deeply sorry. “I hope they at least remove the prancing horse from that car."It is definitely a car that at least the Chinese won't copy," he said.One of Italy’s most high-profile business and sporting personalities, Montezemolo went from the world of Ferrari, including close management of its Formula 1 efforts, to become Chairman of Alitalia and now sits on the board of McLaren Group.And Montezemolo is not alone in fearing Ferrari’s iconic status may be eroded thanks to the Luce.Speaking on X, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister (and Transport Minister) Matteo Salvini commented on Montezemolo’s views.“Electric, incredibly expensive (€550,000!), and aesthetically speaking, it speaks for itself... “It looks anything but a Prancing Horse car. “And this is supposed to be "innovation"? “I wonder what Enzo Ferrari would say…," he said.Former iPhone designer Jony Ive, who was commissioned by Ferrari to develop the Luce through his LoveFrom consultancy, has seemingly raised the hackles of Ferrari Tifosi around the globe.CarsGuide’s own coverage of the newcomer’s arrival has drawn fierce commentary on social media with feedback like, “Obviously, the designers are not car enthusiasts. Fire the CEO! Better yet, fire them all.  As well as, “One million??? For that Roomba???? Enzo is spinning in his grave!”  And perhaps most cuttingly, “The Ferrari design that became a global laughingstock.” It’s also worth noting Ferrari’s share price plummeted more than six per cent from €309.20 on the morning of the Luce’s launch to €290.00 by the evening’s close and currently sits at €283.75.

The Toyota-owned Lexus brand has given the motoring world some truly desirable sports cars, and even a legendary supercar.Yamaha-tuned naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8 engines have graced the engine bays of sedans, coupes and tourers, and a similarly developed 4.8-litre V10 found under the long bonnet of the Lexus LFA supercar is often cited as one of the world's best-sounding.More accessible, the still-available (for now) Lexus LC500 sounds like a NASCAR on the limiter, and the back-to-basics dynamics of cars like the relatively recent RC F were a far cry from the ‘retirement-spec’ Lexus SUVs that make up the bulk of the brand’s sales (and, at times, image).At the Australian launch of the updated 2026 Lexus RZ electric SUV, CarsGuide asked the brand’s local top brass where the next desirable halo model is coming from.Lexus Australia Chief Executive Jack Hobbs said, for now, the F Sport models available in the line-up and cars like the LBX Morizo have enough pep to fill customer demand for performance.“Certainly you know we'd love to have those sorts of products in our suite,” he told CarsGuide.“At the same time I think we've got enough offerings through the F Sport grades across the model range, and offerings like the LBX Morizo to, I guess, extend the range enough at this point in time.”While Lexus doesn’t quite have a high-performance aspirational model like the LFA - not even the limited-run RZ 600e F Sport Performance seems to fit the bill - the Lexus LFA Concept unveiled in stages as the Lexus Sport Concept in 2025 is starting to become more concrete.It’s just that it’s a battery electric vehicle.Strategic Communications Manager Nam Luong added some context around what the brand sees as its future direction, focussing on mobility and luxury rather than outright performance.“Yes, I think what you saw at the Japan Mobility Show in the Discover concepts, what we're looking at is broadening the expansion of the model range to encompass multiple forms of mobility, in terms of land, sea and air.”Other concepts that joined the LFA under the ‘Discover’ banner included a high-end people mover, the LS Concept, and a high-riding LS Coupe Concept sedan. Autonomous personal pods and even water-faring luxury yachts are part of the vision.“From a land perspective, the LFA concept has a role to play from that performance point of view, but what we're trying to identify is, well, how do we create a Lexus experience ecosystem beyond just the land element, seeing where and what Lexus Australia can continue to deliver on is also ‘what is that lifestyle experience’ that we can provide to our customers as well.”

Bentley's Frank-Steffan Walliser has added his voice to a growing number of disgruntled carmaker CEOs counting the huge cost of a global mismanagement of the transition to EV power."If you add it all up, all the profit corrections we have seen over the last year, the misassumptions made, the misjudgement about the tipping point to full EV, it has cost the global automotive industry €100 billion (A$162b)."You could have made a lot of e-fuel to reduce CO2 with that," said the former Porsche chief engineer.Walliser and his former colleagues in Stuttgart lobbied institutions like the European Commission hard when it was drafting the original EU emission targets to include synthetic fuels that led to the most aggressive electrification plans, with some success, but despite that, the Bentley boss says the move to EVs remains inevitable."In the long term everything will be electric, is what I expect and we stay committed to the CO2 reduction", but the damage has already been done with billions now being written off as EV programs – even from the likes of Porsche – are now being cancelled, postponed, or reconfigured drastically to finally take into consideration what actual customers want."We have to look at the customer's choice. It's all about choice and not to limit the choice artificially."Walliser knows only too well from working on the front line in a small car-maker that had to write down an astonishing €3.9 billion (A$6.4b) as part of Porsche's EV retreat but, despite that, is confident it's time for Bentley to roll out its first electric car."On our short to midterm strategy it's clear hybrid is right, but we will balance portfolio by offering a fully electric car. What I'm very happy about is 20-25 per cent of the market is already electric. And we see a movement, and all our luxury competitors will soon have an electric car on offer. It would be a mistake to not offer one", said Walliser.Another mistake would be to abandon those who still demand petrol power too, says the Bentley boss, declaring that so long as there is demand and the small British car-maker can keep homologating them, V8s will remain part of the Bentley offering.

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.

Silent and heavy. Two words that usually stalk any big-battery EV. And the two words Ferrari has spent five years, and untold millions, trying to banish from its new and potentially brand-defining electric vehicle, the Luce.The Luce is arguably the biggest gamble Ferrari has taken in decades. It’s no secret that savage, sonorous exhaust notes and fuel-exploding engines are staples of the supercar world. Which is likely why so many supercar makers — including Lamborghini, Aston Martin and McLaren — have either cancelled, delayed or walked back their EV plans.Ferrari, though, has continued at full throttle. The five-year project has at last reached its zenith, with the covers coming off the Luce in Rome ahead of its Australian arrival next year.The project has been shrouded in near-complete secrecy, but the veil has finally been lifted, with the Luce now detailed in full.We now know the Luce isn’t just staggeringly powerful, but will also be among the world’s most expensive EVs, with a price tag expected to sit above one million dollars in Australia.There is a litany of firsts here, too. The Luce is Ferrari’s first EV, the first model the brand has produced with seating for five, and the first vehicle since 2010 to have had its design entirely outsourced.Instead of being penned by Ferrari’s in-house design studio, the Luce was designed — inside and out — by LoveFrom, the US-based design collective founded by former Apple chief designer Jony Ive and Australian Marc Newson.As a result, it bears almost no resemblance to Ferrari’s supercar family. Instead, it adopts a mostly familiar four-door EV silhouette, complete with a sizeable glasshouse designed to look as though it sits beneath the Luce’s outer shell, as if the bodywork has been lowered from above.There are still several truly Ferrari elements, though, like the razor-sharp nose and the deep aero channel that funnels air over the bonnet and beneath the boot spoiler. Then there are the massive staggered alloys – 23 inches at the front and 24 inches at the rear – and spellbinding in the new Turbine wheel design, machined from a solid piece of aluminium.“The concept that we came up with very, very early on — which became kind of the overarching philosophy of part of the exterior design — was this idea that you had an interior glasshouse, which is basically this large, black glasshouse area,” says Marc Newson.“That’s essentially surrounded by the body of the car, which at the end of the day is probably doing most of the aero work.“The reason we identified that as a really interesting direction, or an interesting sort of philosophy to pursue, was that it gave us the opportunity to create some very clean and very unique forms.”But there is no escaping the fact this is unlike anything else in the Ferrari portfolio. And that, Newson says, is no accident.“This is a different kind of Ferrari. And that was the point. That was the entire purpose of the exercise,” he says.The other thing that still feels very Ferrari is the power and performance on offer. Ferrari hasn’t quite reinvented the wheel here, but it has made each of them a hell of a lot more powerful, fitting every corner of the Luce with its own electric motor.Yes, that’s four motors in total, producing a combined 772kW and 990Nm. And that has exactly the effect on performance you might expect, with the Luce clipping 100km/h in 2.5 seconds and 200km/h in 6.8 seconds.In fact, there is a lot going on at each of the Luce’s corners, with every wheel able to deliver power, capture regenerative energy, provide steering inputs or dictate vertical movement to improve contact-patch grip.“The car has an agility that you don’t expect, that you cannot link with your perception of the dimensions of the car,” says Raffaele de Simone, Ferrari’s head of test development and test driving.“The feeling of the Luce is based on the fact that at these four corners, the four motors are managed by a control unit that decides how to satisfy in a very harmonic way. You don’t perceive which system is working on the four corners, you just have to turn the wheel, to place the car where you want on the road, and the car goes there.”The power can flow naturally in automatic mode, or the driver can take more control through the gearshift-style paddles behind the steering wheel. Ferrari’s take on a simulated gearbox doesn’t actually deliver a shift-like step in power, but instead controls torque flow and regenerative braking, effectively delivering more power or more stopping force with each pull of a paddle.“On the left side, you increase the engine braking, exactly like a combustion-engine car. On the other side, you unleash power,” de Simone says.“The more you go on the left, the more you have engine braking. The more you go upshift, the more you release power. These power stages are called Torque Index.“Supposing that you are approaching a tight corner, on the exit you will have the chance to exploit only part of the power of the car, because it’s a way to better control the huge amount of torque. And this helps the driver to be connected with the throttle, with the limitation in power to find the right sensitivity on throttle.“It’s something that, with electric powertrains, was not possible. You were driven by computers, managing in your place the stability of the vehicle. Now you are back to driving, you are back to control, and this is a tool to control it.”Ferrari has also controlled almost every part of the EV build process, including assembling the battery. In this case, it is a 122kWh NCM unit that the brand says delivers a driving range of more than 500km, though there is a catch.Given the power on offer here, gentleness is required to maximise range. Ferrari makes that part easy by limiting output in its different drive modes to preserve the battery. In Range mode, power is capped at 320kW, with the grunt fed through the two rear motors. In Tour, all four motors contribute a total of 460kW. Finally, Performance delivers 725 kW and, presumably, drains the battery very, very quickly.Ferrari says the battery is designed not only to be repaired, but also fully replaced. If, as expected, battery chemistry improves significantly in the next 10 years, the Luce’s 122kWh unit could be swapped out for better tech.Perhaps the biggest change, though, is in the cabin, which feels less like a traditional Ferrari interior and more device-like and tech-focused. It is a beautifully appointed, modern-feeling space, and one in which screens are supplemented by tactile controls.A thin, elegant steering wheel frames a new, ferociously high-tech and layered driver display, in which the top screen has circular cut-outs, creating a gauge-like impression for the screen behind. Physical needles are then attached, rising and falling with your inputs.The central screen is a thing of beauty, too. It is hinged so it can be angled towards the passenger if required, while the switches and toggles beneath are exclusively aluminium or glass. In the top right corner, another needle-adorned digital gauge can cycle through a clock, stopwatch or compass.Also fun is the launch-control function, accessed via a fighter-pilot ejector-seat-style handle mounted next to the driver’s head.“It’s a fusion between digital and analogue, and the physical world,” Ferrari says.But back to the idea of weight and sound — or the lack of it. Ferrari knows the importance of a soundtrack, and it has developed an in-house solution it likens to an electric guitar, and that it says makes a driver feel like Jimi Hendrix.There are no fake Jetsons sounds here. Instead, a sensor and accelerometer capture the sounds and vibrations of the e-motor, match them to your driving inputs, and then amplify them inside and outside the cabin.The system took five years of work and 40,000km of dedicated track testing to develop, with the result, Ferrari says, being an almost rock-star sensation for owners.“Now one might wonder, ‘Okay, but you are amplifying, so it’s fake, right? It’s fake, you’re amplifying,’” says Antonino Palermo, vehicle NVH and sound engineer at Ferrari.“If we think to the musical parallel, an electric guitar musician — Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour — when they are playing, they have expressivity. When they play the guitar you can feel the human aspect, the intention.“Here the musician is you. It’s your driving.”The second key element is the positioning of the battery, and the design of the vehicle itself, with a laser focus on lowering the Luce’s centre of gravity. Ferrari says it is 95mm lower than in the Purosangue, helping the Luce feel at least 400kg lighter when cornering than its actual 2260kg kerb weight. The claimed driver experience, then, is akin to a car that weighs closer to 1700kg.“You look at the car on the outside, you go into it with a forecast of what a big car could be like to drive. You have your background experience that says where the SUVs are and where the sedans are, and then where the rear mid-engine Ferrari is,” de Simone says.“Where to place in this scenario the experience of the Luce? The car has an agility that you don’t expect, that you cannot link with your view of the dimensions of the car.“For this type of car, in terms of size, roominess and versatility, there is no connection with the handling of the car. This ratio has been completely rewritten.”

The Land Rover Defender Octa Black is supposed to be the 'ultimate Defender', but I'll be the judge of that after living with this monstrously capable high-performance luxury SUV for a week.

Cadillac is known for its larger than life, ultra-flashy cars and it has finally launched a baby Escalade in Australia with an electric powertrain. See how it stacks up against fierce competition.

They say going to the movies has declined since the rise of larger home televisions. It seems if Mercedes-Benz has its way, we will soon be watching movies in the car instead.At least if the all-new C-Class EV interior is any guide to the brand’s future. While it’s still an optional choice, the new 39.1-inch MBUX Hyperscreen is one of the largest screens I’ve ever seen in a car. And it might be one of the worst design decisions I’ve ever seen Mercedes-Benz make.It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Mercedes has gone down this path. The German giant’s design leader, Gordon Wagener, is on the record with both his love of a large screen and his dislike of rival brands.In a rare on-the-record assessment of his rivals, Wagener told the UK’s Top Gear magazine at the 2025 Munich motor show that the new Audi Concept C interior had “too little tech” and looked like “it was designed in 1995” – which is a pretty generous critique of 1995-era technology and design.In the same interview he explained his decision to introduce larger and larger screens into new Mercedes models, because he believes that owners might want to “watch a movie and stuff like that.”The problem I have with this is two-fold. Firstly, it's not good design. I know that design is subjective, but objectively speaking, the new C-Class EV loses so much about what made Mercedes look and feel luxurious. The difference between Mercedes and mainstream brands was the quality and presentation inside the cabin. I haven’t sat in the just-revealed C-Class EV yet, but looking at the images it feels like it could be something produced by any of the new Chinese premium brands.Yes, there are still some nice premium trims and I’m sure it looks impressive, but for me it doesn’t immediately project a sense of class and sophistication that Mercedes is known for. Mercedes’ arch-rivals at BMW have taken a slightly different approach, its ‘neue klasse’ 3 Series and iX3 feature a combination of large multimedia touchscreen, in a conventional sense, with a narrower screen wrapping around almost the entire base of the windscreen. It’s a different kind of big, but it’s still big. Not to sound like an old person, but… back when I was younger and obsessed with cars, whenever I sat in a Mercedes, BMW or Audi, you could tangibly see and feel the difference between them and their competition. But that differentiation is getting harder to feel these days, as new brands without the heritage of Mercedes and company can simply go inch-for-inch in terms of screens.If you look at luxury houses, they do not fill every room with a huge television or make every room feel like a movie theatre. Good design is about moderation and restraint as much as anything. Secondly, and more importantly, we shouldn’t be ‘watching movies and stuff’ in the car. If you want to watch a movie, stay at home – or heck, go and watch it on an actual ‘big screen’ at the local cinema.Cars are for driving and safety should always remain both the car makers and the driver’s top priority. In case any of these designers have forgotten, cars are approximately two-tonnes of metal and glass that typically travel up to 100km/h. This isn’t an entertainment device, it’s transport. If you can’t go one car ride without watching a movie or having a screen in front of you, maybe you should see a doctor, not your local car dealer.Also, just a reminder in case anyone has forgotten, it is very much illegal to touch your smartphone with its 6-plus-inch screen, so why do the lawmakers not have any problem with these absurdly large screens that are becoming increasingly common – and increasingly distracting?To be fair to Mercedes, the German brand is alone in introducing ridiculously large screens. Instead, I blame Tesla.The American EV brand really kicked off this trend when it realised it could save costs – sorry, I mean create a minimalist interior design – by getting rid of as many buttons as possible and replacing them with a touchscreen.Rival brands saw the acceptance of this technology by consumers and didn’t need any more excuses to save money on buttons and dials. And, of course, like anything in the car industry, it soon became a… measuring competition… between the brands. And thus we find ourselves now in the era of the hyperscreen.The saviour, somewhat ironically, may actually be the Chinese government, which is mandating that car makers do include physical controls for key functionality, which is forcing a rethink from not just Chinese car makers but anyone who wants to sell cars in the world’s biggest market.While this won’t mean the end of the large screen, hopefully it will restrain future designs and reprioritise design, usability and safety.

Audi has released an updated version of its Q4 e-tron electric compact SUV in Europe.The Q4 e-tron is a direct rival to the BMW iX1 and iX2 as well as the Volvo EX40, along with the Zeekr X.The new model starts in Europe from 47,500 euros, which is around $77,000. Cars imported from Europe incur a substantial price hike on sale Down Under, meaning it will be more expensive than its predecessor. The current generation of the Q4 e-tron in Australia starts from $84,900 (before on-road costs), with prices rising up to $107,500 on up-spec models. There is no official news yet on the arrival of the updated SUV in Australia, but it has been confirmed it will be available for order in Europe from May of this year. Audi Australia when contacted for comment said there were no confirmed timings for the car launching Down Under.Among the key updates for this new model is that it now features vehicle-to-load charging capabilities for the first time. DC fast charging speeds have also increased on the Q4 e-tron, with the car now capable of charging at 185kW, enabling a 10-80 per cent fast charge in 27 minutes. On the inside, the car gets a single panoramic display made up of an 11.9-inch digital driver display and 12.8-inch central touchscreen. The car can also be optioned with a separate passenger display. The Q4 e-tron will come with four power set-ups, with the base rear-wheel drive model featuring a single electric motor, producing 150kW and 350Nm. The highest grade of the car has dual electric motors, boosting power to 250kW and torque to 545Nm for the rear motor and 134Nm for the front one. This is the same output as the current generation.It can complete the 0-100km/h sprint in as fast as 5.4 seconds, coming with all-wheel drive.It will have two battery choices which are a 63kWh unit offering a driving range of up to 451km, while the 82kWh option has up to 578km, representing incremental increases.