Sedan

There’s no worse feeling than showing up to the party just as it’s winding down and everyone else is leaving. Well, perhaps showing up a day too early and missing all the fun entirely.I imagine that must be what it feels like for the people that designed the cars on this list. In recent weeks we’ve looked at how timing is crucial in the car industry, with electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid sales spiking as fuel prices soared in March and April, brands like Tesla and BYD have benefited from having the right cars at the right time.And as we’ve also looked at recently, sometimes car makers just completely miss the mark and introduce the wrong car and it was never going to succeed.But today we’re looking at the most unfortunate of vehicles - the cars that had the right concept and had the potential for success, but arrived either too early or too late to make an impact.We took a deep dive into the premature arrival of the Volt, but it’s worth reiterating that Holden was way ahead of the curve when it came to plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). Unfortunately, too far ahead.Sure, the Volt was overpriced (starting at $59,990 in 2012), but the technology wasn’t far away from what the likes of BYD and GWM are having huge sales success with today. Perhaps if Holden had pursued this technology further, or subsidised it to get more vehicles on the road, things might have turned out differently, but we’ll never know…The arrival of the MG4 Urban is a textbook demonstration of the right car arriving at the right time - a small and affordable EV at a time when people were feeling the pain at the pump. The Chinese brand’s MG7, on the other hand, will likely be a case study in getting the timing wrong.It’s hardly breaking news that sedans (and liftbacks, such as the MG7) are no longer in hot-demand in Australia… or really much demand at all.The BYD Seal and the Toyota Camry are the only exceptions and despite the MG7 looking great, having a punchy turbocharged petrol engine and a competitive asking price, it is likely to sell in very small numbers. MG Australia has sold less than 100 in the first five months of 2026, so it’s likely to be a rare sight on the roads.Buyers are simply too focused on SUVs to consider a sedan.Of course, the sedan was not always an unloved, niche corner of the market. The glory days of Holden and Ford saw Commodores and Falcons dominate Australian driveways. Towards the end, the performance-orientated models, such as the Commodore SS and Falcon XR6/XR8, became beloved, so much so Kia saw an opportunity.The Stinger was a direct rival to the local sports sedans, with a twin-turbo V6, rear-wheel drive layout that gave it solid credentials. The initial ride and handling tuning was slightly off, making it a bit more ‘skid happy’ than a family sedan should be, but overall the Stinger was a good car.Unfortunately its arrival almost perfectly coincided with the beginning of the end of the local sports sedans and the customers Kia was hoping to find had simply moved on.As the likes of Tesla, BYD, MG and Geely dominated the discussion around EVs, it’s easy to forget that Nissan was right at the forefront of this technology. If Nissan launched a small, electric hatch for $39,990 today it would be a great addition for the brand and give its Chinese rivals something to think about.Unfortunately the Leaf arrived too early, before the wider car-buying public had EVs on their radar, and initially launched with a $51,500 price - which was much too much money for a hatchback.In the end, Nissan did give the Leaf plenty of time and opportunity, spending more than a decade on sale, but it was never the right moment for it to find major sales success.A compact SUV, built in India to give it a competitive asking price is arguably exactly what Ford Australia needs now. Unfortunately, they launched the EcoSport way back in 2013.What makes the EcoSport really earn its place on this list is it somehow managed to be both ahead of its time and arrive too soon.When it launched in 2013 it was one of the first compact SUVs on the market, beating the likes of the Hyundai Venue, Kia Stonic, Mazda CX-3 and Suzuki Jimny. But Ford slightly missed the mark with the EcoSport, building a pint-sized SUV rather than a jacked-up hatchback, which is ultimately what the market decided it wanted a decade ago.But Ford would be well-served to have a sub-$30k, fuel-efficient compact SUV at this particular moment in time, especially one that is a bit more rugged and less hatchback, like the EcoSport was, to fit with its Ranger/Everest image.

The Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and RAV4 are typically Australia’s most popular cars in any given month. But what other cars are having a great 2026?We’ve scoured the latest new car sales data to reveal the cars that are off to a storming start in the first five months of this year. For our list we’ve tried to focus on cars that have shown at least double-digit sales growth and have sold at least four-digit volume, so we avoid niche models that are coming off a very low base.We also deliberately avoided focusing on electric vehicles, as we have previously written about the EVs that are enjoying a sales boom in 2026.This is by no means a comprehensive list, and there are several models that are enjoying huge growth from brands such as BYD and Chery, but we’ve limited it to one entry to highlight more brands.Chery Tiggo 7 Pro - up 200.2%Choosing a Chery to put on this list wasn’t an easy task, as the brand is enjoying a bumper year with total sales up more than 84 per cent. The compact Tiggo 4 Pro remains the brand’s sales leader, with more than 11k sold already, but the Tiggo 7 is the clear star performer in terms of growth.With sales tracking more than 200 per cent up, the Tiggo 7 Pro has moved from also-ran to serious contender in the intensely competitive mid-size SUV market. It’s still well-short of the class-leading Toyota RAV4, but only the related Jaecoo J7 (up 427%) and BYD Sealion 7 (up 297%) have experienced more growth so far this year.Kia K4 - up 103.5%Reports of the demise of the hatchback appear to be exaggerated. While small SUVs remain incredibly popular, Kia has demonstrated that the right small car (as the K4 is both a hatch and sedan now) still has plenty of appeal.The South Korean brand has sold 3850 examples of its Cerato-replacement so far in 2026, more than double what it managed this time last year, when the hatch was not available.BYD Seal - up 92%The Atto 3 and Sealion 7 EVs are also enjoying good years, and the new Sealion 5 and 8 plug-in hybrids are both off to a good start, but for this list we’re highlighting the under-rated Seal EV. Under-rated because, like the hatchback, sedans are supposed to be in terminal decline.And yet, BYD has managed to almost double the sales of its mid-size sedan in 2026, with 1885 sold year-to-date. This actually makes it one of the brand’s worst-performing models, only further highlighting just what a successful year BYD is having.For the record, sales of the Sealion 7 are up 297%, the Dolphin is up 115% and the Atto 3 is up 85% (despite being the brand’s longest tenured model). Everything is looking rosy for BYD so far in 2026.Toyota Camry - up 48.3%It’s not exactly the glory days for the Camry, 5221 sales in five months is small fry compared to its past, but it remains an under-rated sales performer for not just the brand. Combined with the Seal, these two very different sedans have almost single-handedly kept the family car segment afloat in recent years.Every other existing model in the mid-size sedan segment is down in 2026, but the Camry remains the automotive equivalent of a cockroach - impossible to ever count out.Hyundai Palisade - up 37.1%This was a borderline inclusion on the list, as Hyundai introduced a new generation Palisade in late 2025 so the comparison to last year’s sales is against the out-going model. But given the huge price jump from the old model, plus a small range, it suggests Hyundai’s biggest SUV is finding an audience.Aside from the Chery Tiggo 8 Pro and GWM Tank 300 (see below) the Palisade is the only other large SUV to meet our criteria, further underlining its strong sales performance so far this year.The addition of a more-affordable Elite trim grade, to go along with the initial flagship Calligraphy, plus the introduction of the more-rugged XRT Pro variant later this year may help the Palisade to continue its momentum.GWM Tank 300 - up 26.9%As mentioned above, the Tank 300 is another standout performer in the large SUV segment. The Chinese brand’s off-road capable offering has grown in recent times to include a diesel and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) alternative for buyers, which has clearly helped to expand its appeal.The relative struggles of the bigger Tank 500, which has only sold 529 units this year compared to 2228 Tank 300, is a clear demonstration that not all Chinese models sell in big numbers simply because they are cheaper than their rivals.The Tank 300 has therefore done enough to convince buyers to give it a chance and if this growth continues in the second half of the year it could become a key model for GWM.

Toyota cancelled another of its upcoming electric vehicles last week -in this case it was its luxury arm Lexus and the LF-ZC sedan leaving it even more exposed to the premium Chinese EV assault.So, are we seeing the fall of an empire here with Toyota or does the Japanese giant have a secret plan?Toyota's axing of the Lexus LF-ZC sedan isn’t surprising, it’s very much in keeping with the company’s change of plan to pursue hybrids rather than EVs in the short term.In 2021 Toyota held a global address announcing that it would launch 30 new EVs by 2030. Well, we are now only about three and a half years away from the end of the decade and Toyota has only launched about three and a half  EVs - the bZ4x, Toyota HiLux, C-HR, and the longer version of the bZ4x - the Touring. The reason is a change of direction. Two years ago Toyota revised its plans and decided that the uptake of EVs wasn’t as strong as many had expected and decided to double down on hybrids instead.The decision made sense - the world was experiencing a slow down in the adoption of EVs and Toyota delayed pouring A$100 billion into the development of 30 new models.Toyota Australia's Vice President Sales at the time Sean Hanley told CarsGuide in January 2025 that the company had read the market accurately after all.“The plain truth is that demand for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in markets around the world is not living up to the hype,” he said.Hybrid sales were booming and Toyota changed plans and went back to doing what it had pioneered - hybrid powertrains. But March 2026 saw the world change again with the war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz being blocked and preventing oil from being shipped through the channel. About 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas is transported through the channel and by the second month of the blockade the world’s petrol and diesel prices skyrocketed, particularly in Australia which sources its refined fuel from countries such as Malaysia which are supplied with oil from the Middle East.With this turn of events consumer interest in electric vehicles picked up again.Sales of EVs had gone from being down year-on-year by 61.9 per cent for cars (sedans and hatches) and down 12 per cent for SUVs in January 2025 to up by 77.4 per cent for cars and up by 150 per cent for SUVs.So why is Toyota still axing EVs? Well, never underestimate Toyota. The brand may look like it’s suddenly behind the eight-ball after a huge geopolitical change and it may also look like the victim of a surprise attack from a multitude of appealing Chinese electric offerings from brands such BYD and Zeekr, but Toyota is the world’s biggest car manufacturer and you can bet it either has a plan… or it can buy one.There are several possible plays going on here in my opinion.First, Toyota is probably banking on the spike in EV interest to fall once the conflict is over and believes consumers will return to hybrids. This is probably the most likely scenario, although I doubt people will return to buying petrol and diesel cars now without thinking about it as they did in the past. The fuel crisis has been a major catalyst in the switch to EVs.A second scenario is that Toyota is close to a solid state battery breakthrough and is holding off EV development until an affordable and practical example can be made, but this seems less likely.Toyota finding the solid state holy grail of batteries seemed like a possibility five years ago but Chinese carmakers such as Chery, BYD and battery maker CATL are reportedly already testing the tech in prototype form before an expected market launch between 2027 and 2030. When the solid state battery breakthrough comes it will be thanks to a Chinese carmaker - with recent commentary from Toyota itself placing doubt on the idea of the technology ever being ready for mass production.And third, which is probably going to happen, Toyota may decide to take the vehicles it produces in joint-ventures in China  and launch them globally.Toyota already has two major joint ventures in China - one with Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) and the other with First Automotive Works (FAW).Toyota-GAC models include the bZ7 fastback along with Chinese versions of the bZ3X and bZ4X.And before you scoff at Chinese Toyotas, just look at the bZ7. To my eyes this is one of the most beautiful Toyotas from the past decade which isn't hard considering the brand is famous for making what some people consider whitegoods on wheels.And with the changing of the guard in Australia, Toyota locally now appears to have decided which plan to go they'll pursue.Toyota Australia's new Vice President of Sales, John Pappas has a slightly different take on the situation than his predecessor and appears to be embracing the possibility of the company using its global manufacturing reach to sell cars into the future. “So the beautiful thing, the benefit of being such a global company like Toyota, and being in around 180 markets all around the world, and having so many manufacturing plants, that enables us to assess - whether it's sourcing of the vehicle, spec, powertrain.”  The future may prove to be a bit of scenario one to start and then into scenario three with Chinese made Toyotas. Either way the world’s biggest car brand has plenty of options to survive and thrive.  

The multimedia set-up is basic. There are enough buttons on the steering wheel to avoid fiddling with the stereo but it hasn't aged well. Bluetooth drop outs are frequent.Car is very practical if you just need something to commute in. The interior is simple and the fabric seats are easy to clean with just a vacuum. Despite being a hatch the boot is more than big enough.Drives really well. The (manual) gearbox and clutch are super smooth. Auto stop/start sometimes leaves you waiting an extra second for the engine to restart, worrying someone's about to lean on the horn or run up your backside. Ride height is a pain. You have to crawl up and down driveways to avoid scraping the front bumper.Great on fuel, consistently averaging under 7.0L/100km. Insurance is fairly cheap, too (full comprehensive under $1000). Servicing is fairly straight forward. No major services required until you hit 120,000km.Never had major mechanical issues. Mazda originally had a recall notice out on the windscreen wipers, but it's never caused a problem.

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 internet can be a horrible swamp, and the comments surrounding Ferrari’s unveiling were particularly, though predictably, brutal.“Great thing Enzo can’t see this garbage,” read one. “He’ll be rolling in his tomb,” said another. “This is such a cynical marketing product purely conceived to make money for the company. It hurts me on a cellular level to see Ferrari stoop so low,” wrote another user who clearly needs to get outside more. Fun fact, though. Those comments had nothing to do with the Luce, Ferrari’s first EV that was revealed to much fanfare and even more furore this week. That was actually the reaction to the Purosangue, the brand’s first SUV, and the model that would – according to the internet at least – definitely, absolutely and entirely destroy the fabled Italian marque.That didn’t happen, though, did it? I recently met an Australian buyer who’d dropped $1.1m on his Purosangue, and he had to wait almost two years for his production slot to open up, such was the demand. It is a massive driver of Ferrari profit, too, and is consistently among the brand's best-selling models, despite a production cap.The point is, the internet was wrong. And I suspect this same Luce storm will die in the teacup in much the same way.Now, I’d be lying if I said my eyebrows didn’t shoot skywards when I first clapped eyes on the Ferrari Luce at its unveiling event in Italy. I can’t say for sure what I expected, but I can say for sure that it wasn’t this. But having now spent some time with it, and even more time digesting it, I can tell you that the internet is wrong once again.The point has been so painfully missed by the Ferrari Facebook army, who seem to have been expecting an 849 Testarossa with a battery. Ferrari has made it clear this isn’t a vehicle designed to appeal to Ferraristi faithful. It’s designed to appeal to an entirely new audience, and that is not an audience with a poster of a petrol-powered Prancing Horse on their wall.The Luce had to look different to everything else in the Ferrari range, both to appeal to a new buyer, but also (and I suspect more importantly) to ring-fence the rest of the Ferrari range and preserve their fuel-exploding mystique. I think that's also why the Luce is slower than the fastest Tesla and lacks the brand's angriest driving modes – it can't have its EV outshine the lustier, brand-defining models."This is a different kind of Ferrari. And that was the point. That was the entire purpose of the exercise," LoveFrom (the firm who penned the Luce) co-founder Mark Newson told me.This wasn't supposed to be in the mould of other Ferraris.But I actually think the more pressing question is, if not this design, then what? Is the issue with the Luce, or is merely the fact that it’s electric?If it’s the former, then tell me what design could have possibly pleased the traditionalists? Something more like a Rimac Nevera? Perhaps, but I would argue Ferrari already has cars like that, and that plonking a couple of electric motors on a 12Cilindri would have only riled the web up worse.If it’s the latter – and I think it definitely is – then what the hell is everyone so upset about? There is one electric Ferrari, and nine petrol-powered options in the brand’s regular range in Australia. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it – the fleet is still 90 per cent in your favour. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder – or whoever is behind the keyboard – but I can tell you this; the exterior design has continued to grow on me. It is undeniably forward-looking, and I think a pretty bold vision of what a family friendly Ferrari EV can be. Is it my favourite-looking Prancing Horse? No, but it doesn't have to be. And if the exterior of the Luce is controversial, the cabin isn't. The interior is spectacular, blending elegance and tech in a way that feels really, really special.Will I buy one? Irrelevant, I'm afraid. I can't afford it. And that's one thing the internet masses and I have very much in common.

Are there common engine or gearbox issues with the 1.5 turbo engine in the 2019 Honda Civic?

Yet another about face on a new electric vehicle program has come courtesy of Toyota’s decision to discontinue development of the Lexus LF-ZC sedan.Unveiling the LF-ZC Concept in 2023 Lexus positioned it as “a symbol of Lexus' electrification journey, characterized by its sleek proportions, low center of gravity, spacious cabin, and an emotionally charged design that seamlessly blends functionality and aesthetics.”But three years later the automotive world has changed thanks to a slower than expected market uptake of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) globally and ongoing consumer preference for hybrid and pure-combustion models.At the same time, a combination of political factors including high US import tariffs and President Donald Trump's elimination of tax incentives for EV purchases, as well as the European Union’s revision of its ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035 have also thrown a big spanner in the EV development works.Global players including Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Volvo, VW, and most recently Subaru, have also shelved multiple EV model programs. Volume Lexus LF-ZC production was scheduled to begin late this year at Toyota’s Tahara plant south-east of Nagoya, using large section ‘gigacasting’ techniques to split the vehicle’s alloy body into front, centre and rear sections for reduced complexity and cost as well as lighter weight and increased rigidity.Recently postponed to mid-2027, Nikkei Asia has reported Lexus will now discontinue development, to “instead focus on developing SUVs and other vehicles amid a global slump in EV sales.” Despite the cancellation Toyota and Lexus will continue research and development into gigacasting and battery technology as the LF-ZC was set to feature “advanced high-performance batteries made with a prismatic structure engineered to achieve approximately twice the range of conventional BEVs through improved aerodynamic integration and weight reduction.” A “compact powertrain” also helped deliver an ultra-low Cd (Coefficient of drag) value of approximately 0.20 for the car.

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.

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.”