Opinion

The Smart #1 is a good car, an impressive one, even — and yes, you pronounce it ‘Hashtag one’. This comes as a surprise as many first efforts from electric car manufacturers fresh to mature markets such as Australia and Europe have been disappointing.So often there’s a compromised suspension set-up, poor steering feel, software bugs or awful driver assistance systems. None of that in the #1, which is packed with technology, has decent driving range and very pleasant steering. It also looks quirky — in a good way, my art director partner tells me — and has one of the best ride and handling balances of any electric car on sale. It is quite good value, too, the Premium I sampled costs $58,900, before on-road costs and has 19-inch alloy wheels, synthetic leather upholstery, power adjust seats with heating, a heat pump, a Beats sound system and luxury ambience to rival Benz’s entry-level EQA, which is $30,000 more expensive. The #1 is also cheaper than a petrol-powered base model Mercedes-Benz GLA 200. You really have to want that Merc badge.Electric stats are decent, the #1 Premium has a 66kWh battery allied with a 200kW/343Nm rear-mounted electric motor for a brisk 0-100km/h sprint of 6.7 seconds and respectable 440km WLTP driving range. A more powerful Brabus variant is available but the regular #1 is plenty fast. There’s also a more distinctive coupe-like #3 available in a lewd Photon Orange paint that really stands out. To be fair, the Smart #1 had its fair share of gremlins. Twice during my week with the car the screen went dark and interfacing with the multimedia system (mostly to disable active safety systems) was like pulling teeth — it would be nice if the cute digital fox actually did something helpful. Hopefully, over-the-air software updates can fix these niggles. There’s also the back seats, which you can’t fold flat from the boot. The pull tabs to raise the backrest end up out of reach when they are folded, so you can’t pull them back up. Annoying and not salvageable by software updates. The real elephant in the room for Smart is the brand’s meaning today. Certainly if the #1 was in a room otherwise filled with Smart’s back catalogue like the minuscule 2.5-metre long ForTwo, or the 840kg Smart Roadster. An ultra-quick back-story of the brand: it started as a 49/51 joint venture between Swatch Watch’s owner, Hayek, and Daimler-Mercedes. The tiny ForTwo launched in 1998 as a response to the new millennium. Efficient, small and affordable but with endless customisation and pops of colour to make the chic urbanite use the car as a fashion accessory as much as a mode of transport. The latter new Mini and Fiat 500 did better jobs, but the Smart was a trailblazer. Smart became a Mercedes subsidiary after that and, in 2019, Chinese automotive giant Geely bought a 50 per cent stake, reinvigorating the range with what you see here — electric-only, semi-luxury SUVs.That’s pretty much the same space as a Volvo EX30, Polestar 2 and Zeekr X, which are all related to both of Smart’s new models. Outside of them, the circa-$60K electric car price bracket includes other small electric SUVs like the Hyundai Kona electric, the Renault Megane E-Tech and BYD Atto 3, with bigger models like the Tesla Model Y, XPeng G6, Deepal S07 and incoming BYD Sealion 7 also in the same price sphere. What a nightmare!Aside from being quite accomplished and having cute animal avatars like the Fox (or optional Cheetah), there isn’t a whole lot about Smart’s ethos that stands out — at least to my radar. There’s certainly less brand cachet than Audi, BMW, Lexus or Mercedes-Benz. That leaves the success of these new entrants, in what will be a shrinking new-car market come 2025, down to a combination of price and brand awareness. Smart has a leg-up on the price game as it is not imported by Mercedes-Benz Australia, which runs a fixed-price agency model. Instead, LSH Auto — one of the largest Mercedes-Benz dealer groups — is importing the cars. This means, in theory, discounting should be possible. Sharing dealership space with Mercs could be good, or could be negative, it all depends on the service and shopping experience. But they will probably be more visible than other new Chinese brands not associated with existing luxury brands. Will Smart succeed? Out of all the new names in the game, the tie-in with a legacy manufacturer gives it a semblance of sales security. However, if the cars don’t stand out to buyers, or aren’t priced right, it could go south fast. Let me know your feelings, are you comfortable taking a chance on an unknown brand? What kind of features would draw you in? Do you care about brand ethos? Have your say in the comments section. 

So you want to have the biggest ute on the road? You’ll have to pay for it.  Just like here in Australia, the best-selling vehicles in the United States are pick-up trucks. In their case, it’s the home-brewed Ford F-150 and has been for over 40 years. In Australia the F-truck’s Ford Ranger cousin will take top honours this year. 

Getting out among new car buyers can be a rare occurrence in this line of work, with a focus on new products and the promises of executives filling our regular days. So it was refreshing to man the CarsGuide EV advice stand at the 2024 Sydney International EV show for the weekend and get some insight into how electric car buyers think. Although it was a smaller footprint than Sydney Motor Shows of old, fervent visitors started filling the halls from 9am on all three days. In total, more than 30,000 bodies passed through the doors over the weekend. The overwhelming takeaway from talking to buyers was this sect of Aussies was not at all concerned about brand history, with Toyota and Ford’s stands dramatically quieter than the barely-known start-ups from China such as Xpeng, Zeekr and Deepal.It helps that these new marques dressed their stands to impress. Aside from a wild flying machine, XPeng also had a luxurious seven-seat people mover essentially purpose-built to generate public interest with a huge rear entertainment screen and ‘business class’ reclining rear seats with heating, cooling and foot rests. The G6 is the first retail model from XPeng and it was also well-trafficked, along with the larger G9 the brand is considering for local release. Zeekr turned up with the X small SUV along with a few extra bits of eye-candy like the confirmed-for-oz 009 people mover, a 475kW 007 sedan in a lewd yellow paint colour and a 001 FR the Geely-owned marque’s Polestar 2-related first model. The other new entrant was Deepal, which is being imported by well-known company Inchcape that also handles Subaru, Foton, Peugeot and previously Citroen. Along with the classic Tesla Model Y rival, the S07 electric family SUV, Deepal had some cool stuff. Namely, a Cybertruck-like electric and range-extender compatible E05 electric sedan-pick-up amalgamation that was catching attention. Kia’s front-and-centre placement helped drive plenty of traffic to the brand’s new EV5 while also making Hyundai’s lack of presence quite obvious. With the Tasman due next year and the EV5’s sharp price, it’s a brand that’s sure to go from strength to strength. Tesla’s presence was held up by the Australian owner’s club while BYD was represented by a dealer, with an unfortunate lack of Shark utes on the stand. It was Ford and Toyota that were visibly the lowest traffic OEMs over the weekend, and Australia’s third most-popular brand Mazda didn’t even turn up with its plug-in hybrids. With a pair of bZ4Xs on display and charge-box-on-wheels, Toyota’s wasn’t exactly a dull stand yet it proves that people are more interested in the whizz-bang new models — that’s the point of a motor show, after all. As for Ford, despite having prime real estate among the newcomers, it seemed that not so many punters were interested in the Mach-E and plug-in hybrid Ford Ranger Stormtrak, even with the ute’s vehicle-to-load system that can power a coffee machine, TV, work tools and more.Some other mainstream carmakers present were Audi, BMW, Cupra and Volvo though these stands were notably smaller than the others. As for other brands from China, Chery and GWM proved relatively popular but the Smart stand was quiet. MG’s choice to only bring a Cyberster rather than the affordable MG4 seemed a bit short-sighted — next year, maybe.The most common line of questioning was if we would recommend the XPeng G6 and what the best alternatives to a Tesla Model Y are — we fielded almost no questions about the bZ4X or plug-in hybrid Ford Ranger Stormtrak. Plenty of test drives were taken over the three days and at one point on Sunday, you would have had to queue for four hours to sample XPeng’s new G6. But what does all this tell us about the new car landscape?MG has already proven sharp pricing can drive mega traffic into electric vehicles and that, when EVs reach parity with combustion-engined and hybrid options, they are much more attractive. In this case, customers aren’t cross-shopping, say, a Tesla Model Y with just other EVs, but similarly-priced combustion and hybrid models, too. Electric cars aren’t competing with themselves, but in a battle to bring the other 90.6 per cent of the new car market out of combustion and hybrid-engined choices. Most worrying for big carmakers, though, will be the lack of brand devotion. Despite what the bZ4X advertising campaign suggests, there were very few talking about Toyota’s proven low-cost servicing or reliability. Instead, the long seven- and even ten-year warranties of newcomers seemed enough to allay most fears. Don’t expect Toyota, Ford or Mazda sales to drop off a cliff anytime soon, but the interest and willingness of local buyers to branch out and sample an unknown product will definitely cause a headache.

An all-new brand, nimble and contemporary, designed specifically to take-on the emerging markets and beat competition from more established brands.Volkswagen’s idea to revive the Scout brand as a primarily electric offering with an SUV and pickup seemed like a great idea when it was announced more than two years ago.But times have changed, dramatically.When the idea for Scout was revealed to the public, hopes were high the electric pickup truck market was about to boom in the USA, with the arrival of the Ford F-150 Lightning, Tesla Cybertruck and the Rivian R1T.The Scout Terra ute and Traveler SUV concepts the brand revealed in the US recently look promising, both stylish and with good on-paper specifications.The problem is, the EV market has not evolved as expected. The F-150 Lightning has failed to spark with customers, the Cybertruck is an oddity and Rivian is still struggling to make a profit. Launching a new brand into these conditions looks like a far worse idea than it did two years ago, but Volkswagen is committed now and must carry on.Scout Motors president and CEO Scott Keogh tried to put a positive spin on the situation.“The original core idea — rugged, versatile vehicles capable of off-road adventure and family duty — is more relevant than ever,” he said. What Keogh failed to mention was the electric powertrains, originally a key selling point for Scout. Along with battery only. the brand will offer a range-extender option for those who don’t want to commit all the way to battery power. Scout is not going to offer petrol or diesel combustion engines.Whether this will be a gamble that jackpots or goes bust remains to be seen, but it does highlight the shifting fortunes in the EV market. After a slow start there was a boom for EV demand as models like the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y became more mainstream, even in markets like Australia. It saw multiple brands commit to an all-electric future within the next decade, but the EV sales growth has cooled. Electric car sales are still up year-to-date in Australia, but account for about 7.4 per cent of the total market. Australians continue to prefer petrol and hybrid powered vehicles — and that doesn’t look like changing dramatically anytime soon.The good news for Volkswagen Australia is there are no plans to offer the Scout models locally, they’ll be made in the US for the US market only. But the story of Scout and its early decision to nail its colours to the mast of electrification is a cautionary one for many car makers.Toyota has been criticised for its slow introduction of EVs, offering only the bZ4X SUV alongside a fleet of hybrid options. And yet, Toyota remains Australia’s favourite brand by some margin thanks to its ‘multi-pathway’ strategy of offering different options for different buyers.Not that EVs won’t become more popular in Australia, especially if the New Vehicle Efficiency Standards (NVES) helps to drive more investment in the segment and push down prices as hoped, but there is no guarantee it will.As the team at Volkswagen and Scout can no doubt tell you, a lot can change in two years…

You never know what’s going to bob up in an otherwise dry, sombre, Powerpoint-driven financial results presentation.

It’s been a busy period for new utes with all-new models coming our way from Kia, BYD, Foton, JAC and more to join the likes of the Mitsubishi Triton, Isuzu D-Max and Mazda BT-50 in a highly competitive market.

Can an unknown, all-new car brand help rescue the sales fortunes of one of the world’s biggest car makers in Australia?

Australia is big like the United States with deserts and oceans and the inhabitants love the same things like the outdoors and sport, and even the same kind of cars and music and beer, well, maybe not beer. But it made sense that with so much in common between these two peoples on either side of the planet, the arrival of the extra large pick-up trucks would be met by open Aussie arms. 

Just as there was scepticism about Japan's global auto expansion in the 1970s and resistance to Korea's meteoric rise in the '90s, there are staunch detractors of Chinese cars today. 

It’s been a long time since someone who’s not that interested in cars gushed to me about how much they like Tesla (it doesn’t help that the man in charge of Tesla has done less and less for his own reputation as time rolls on), so if Tesla isn’t the brand at the cultural forefront of electric cars then, who should be?