Another EV brand has entered the Australian chat, Toyota is entering the Australian racing series Supercars, new Camry hybrid is here, as is the new Mustang. Also a chat with a Cupra high up about betting the house on EVs and Alpine’s new SUV spied.
Another Chinese EV brand Leapmotor has launched in Australia with a new mid-size SUV for less than $50k. Yeah, so what? It’s an EV. I think you can say it’s on like Donkey Kong if punters warm to this idea.
Leapmotor is partly owned by the Stellantis Group, which is primarily Fiat but a whole lot of other brands too. While it doesn’t look particularly striking – and doesn’t have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto – an EV at this size for less than fifty large (so they’re saying, anyway), is pretty wild.
Here’s The Right Car?‘s Matt Campbell with the lowdown.
In a pretty wild turn of events, Toyota is to enter the Supercars racing category in 2026 with a V8-engined Supra.
The Supra is a BMW Z4 in drag that most definitely does not come with a V8, but neither did the Nissan Altima, so that’s hardly the point. It will run on the Gen3 Supercar chassis with a no-doubt lengthened Supra body plonked on top. And a top Ford team has defected to run the campaign, so that’s a bit of added spice to a very tribal fan base.
Anyone who rides in a lot of Ubers or taxis will want to know what’s coming up next for the brand’s legion of drivers. So here’s the new, hybrid-only Toyota Camry.
I’ve always thought that if Toyota could just punch out an electric Camry they’d basically own the road for urban mobility because government and fleet would lap it up and Uber drivers would abandon pretty much any other brand. But, Toyota is stubborn, so here we are.
The excellent John Law has tested the new Ford Mustang for Carsguide. John is a terrific young journalist who I have worked with and knows his way around the car market like few others. He’s a dead-set champ and you should listen to what he thinks.
Also at Carsguide, another excellent fellow is Tom White. He interviewed Cupra’s Executive Vice-President for Research and Development, Dr. Werner Tietz, who reckons betting it all on electric cars now is a bad idea. See what you think.
Car UK has got spy shots of the new Alpine A390 sporty SUV. Like Porsche and Lotus, to stay alive ya gotta go large(r) and this is where we find ourselves. As I will always say, as long as it means we get to keep delights like the A110 (or 911 and Boxster in Porsche’s case), we just have to hold our noses.
And that’s today’s links we like. Cor blimey, it’s been a busy week. Don’t forget, if you haven’t already, to read the first part of Did YouTube kill the car show?
An interesting week with Hyundai teaming up with GM to make, move and research stuff, a tasty 968 Sport for sale in Queensland, a new Lotus concept car, some awesome new stickers on Etsy and a bonkers farewell to the Hemi V8.
Note: for some reason not all the links are getting previews. No idea why.
GM and Hyundai struck a deal to work together on pretty much everything but including new vehicles and technology. This is pretty wild when you think about it. Hyundai has been marching steadily forward for the last few decades while GM has shrunk in the last ten years, retreating from Europe and Asia and – technically – right-hand drive (although the Corvette is produced with the wheel on the correct side)
This 1994 Porsche 968 Sport is on Collecting Cars and I really like what I see. I’ve always liked the 924/944/968 as the kind of Porsche you can own and nobody knows you’ve got a Porsche.
Of course, if you ask me it’s a 968 CS or GTFO but if I had the readies for this little silver gem, I’d be there because a CS is wildly expensive.
Lotus has released its Theory 1 electric supercar concept. It’s a carbon fibre machine with whacky doors and, critically, no Type 1XX designation, so it really is a concept car. Car companies don’t really make concept cars as often as they used to, so it’s nice to see one actually made rather than fired into Gran Turismo as a download.
Speaking of Gran Turismo, someone on Etsy has come up with drivetrain stickers for the real world. Available in FWD, AWD and RWD, they look amazing. The Etsy page says they’re for JDM cars, but we’d never suggest just those (thanks to Mike Stevens for this spot)
Dodge unveiled the latest in a long line of V8-powered special editions, this time the Durango SRT Hellcat Hammerhead. For those of you not across Dodge’s model line, the Durango is a seven-seat SUV. It’s completely mad because the Hellcat is a supercharged Hemi V8 with 710 horsepower.
This time a decade ago, Top Gear was riding incredibly high having already been on air for twelve years. The show was going from strength to strength, trying new things, tweaking the format, increasing budgets but staying loyal to BBC2 despite its second-string reputation.
An ill-fated Australian version had come and gone and several moderately popular ones, notably in the US and Korea had been mounted or would be soon. It was a global juggernaut with or without the local editions.
The Russian one was as successful as a more recent Russian attempt to copy something else (Nazis, if you’re wondering) and quite a few sank almost without a trace. In fact the Russian one was so poorly-received the broadcaster switched back to showing UK episodes. Another eerie parallel…
But in 2024, it’s all a bit grim. The UK version of Top Gear is on hiatus after a scandalously reckless production team nearly killed host Andrew Freddie Flintoff in 2022, leaving him with broken ribs and a badly scarred face.
Top Gear Australia 2024 cast (image: Network Ten)
Top Gear Australia was relaunched on streaming service Paramount Plus this year, but nobody is really paying that much attention to it, despite being markedly better than either SBS or Nine’s productions.
The only show that’s recognisable from the same time a decade ago is Fifth Gear.
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After the Clarkson/Wilman-helmed Top Gear was fundamentally murdered by a badly-behaved Clarkson physically assaulting a production assistant, the team went on to Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour. The whole creative team, including producer Wilman and writer Richard Porter (also of Sniffpetrol fame) followed.
Setting aside Clarkson’s oafish and often toxic behaviour off-camera (and in newspaper columns), he and executive producer Andy Wilman are very savvy people. TGT operated roughly as TG had done before but differently enough to avoid the BBC’s laywers. It was a familiar evolution of the format.
The show aired for three seasons and its ambition matched its budget. Like Top Gear it was tweaked in response to audience feedback, with Wilman in particular responding on fan forums and talking about their importance to the shows’ successes and failures.
During the latter half of the 2010s, automotive YouTube created a whole new class of motoring celebrity – putting a lot of noses out of joint – and the team realised that new car reviews were stale by the time they were released on Amazon Prime as part of a season of shows.
Prestige television takes a long time to put together but a review is a review, whether it’s filmed on your phone or with a crew of 20. People want it now and YouTubers and influencers could turn around a review much, much faster.
(Just quietly, I discovered this the hard way with The Redline. By the time I got my hands on a performance car here in Australia – and I remain indebted and grateful to those in the intdustry who supported me – it was old news. Made some good videos, though…)
What people wanted to see were the epic specials and so that’s what The Grand Tour became. An emotional Clarkson signed off the final magazine-style TGT at the conclusion of the third season.
From the fourth season, the show became a series of big specials while the hosts went and did other things with their spare time, including weathering a pandemic.
And now in 2024, they’re bowing out altogether. This is a smart decision made by smart people. The trio are too old – particularly Clarkson and May – and Hammond’s many serious injuries are no doubt catching up with him.
Hammond is busying himself with the Drivetribe YouTube channel while also offering moral support to others like AutoAlex’s Alex Kersten and his burgeoning empire of ex-CarThrottle and ex-Overdrive presenters and crew.
Fifth Gear is soldiering on as it always has, a low-cost, rapid fire show featuring ex-BTCC driver Jason Plato, the tremendously entertaining Vicki Butler-Henderson and now Rory Reid, himself an ex-Top Gear presenter and sometime YouTuber, most recently for Autocar.
Weirdly, Fifth Gear is out on its own, having largely stuck pretty keenly to its winning formula from 20 years ago. It may not be on UK’s free-to-air Channel 4 anymore but instead on Discovery+ and Quest, but it’s still going. It’s still fun and looks great and long may it reign.
The end of The Grand Tour marks the end of a more than two-decade long domination of automotive television by a team that went from a scrappy, under-funded reboot of a BBC consumer advice show to a global sensation.
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Top Gear’s Chris Evans Misstep
The complicated Chris Evans Top Gear Relaunch
The Clarkson/Wilman Top Gear had two important ingredients.
The first season hade had a false start with the third presenter Jason Dawe. On his own he’s fine but it didn’t work with Clarkson and Hammond. The addition of James May in season two created an instant chemistry.
These three stuck together and remained loyal to each other through scandals (mostly Clarkson’s), injuries (mostly Hammond’s) and…well, May stayed largely out of trouble. But on-screen they were clearly having the time of their lives and that’s what makes TV that is fun to watch, particularly “factual” programming.
By the end of their tenure, it obviously wasn’t purely factual, but you know what I mean. It was hard to tell what was scripted and what wasn’t because they gelled so well.
The second ingredient was that they knew what Top Gear fans wanted and rarely deviated from that. The challenges, the specials, the breakdowns – the British car challenge was absolute peak Top Gear – they got it.
Once the trio had departed under a cloud of Clarkson scandal that turned into a shower of Amazon millions, the BBC had a great opportunity to go back to basics.
Get three car nerds together and let them work it out for a season or two before really getting behind it.
YouTuber Chris Harris was thought to be the absolute front-runner. Names came and went. The fans knew who they wanted if they couldn’t have the other three. Forums were abuzz with speculation. Understandably worried about the losing the show’s momentum, the BBC could have had a good, long think about what to do and how to reboot the show.
Instead, a bunch of television management buffoons who were now the custodians of the brand thought it would be a top idea to sign the searingly unlikeable Chris Evans and put him in charge. Evans had a history of scandal of his own and it’s the kind of galaxy brain move that only television people can make and nobody gets fired.
The BBC has a long history of terrible decisions regarding on-screen talent.
He’s a product of the kind of thinking that let people like Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Russell Brand loose, as well as boosting Nigel Farage’s political career.
I’m not suggesting for a second that Evans is a monster like them because I don’t know and nothing has been to court, but he was certainly no angel nor the automotive-obsessed workaholic that both Clarkson and Wilman are. Even at the time there were standing allegations against him regarding his workplace behaviour.
Matt LeBlanc followed, completely out of the blue. He was at the time in a Showtime-BBC co-production called Episodes. This show was initially filmed in the UK (which was great, by the way) and the folks at the BBC liked him. He seems like a nice fellow so I can see why they like him.
Chris Harris made the cut as did Rory Reid, another successful YouTuber.
Also along for the ride in an expanded cast was the wonderful and much-mourned Sabine Schmitz who didn’t spend nearly enough time on screen.
Rounding it all out was Eddie Jordan, another mystifying choice. I still can’t work out the point of him and to say his spots were cringeworthy is an understatement.
Part of Jordan’s problem was that he had run a very professional Formula 1 team and was hyper-competitive. And he had to be the centre of attention at all times. It’s how he is, he’s a big personality but he’s not a performer and not a team player. He ran that Formula 1 team with the kind of autocracy that is required in that sport and being second fiddle wasn’t his bag.
It just felt like he was a mate of Evans’s who said yes because he had nothing better to do. Problem is, Evans is the same kind of character as Jordan.
The BBC heads seemed to think that because both Evans and LeBlanc owned and liked fast cars, that made them car guys. I don’t think Evans is a car guy, I think he’s an obnoxious rich guy in the mould of Kyle Sandilands who buys expensive cars to show everyone exactly how rich he is.
The Top Gear story where James May drives Evans’s Ferrari 250 GTO (the last one of those changed hands for A$80m) sorely tested my normally-iron constitution until Evans was off-screen.
I didn’t think Evans had it in him to make it work from the start, partly because of the threat of Harris’s existing global popularity with the core audience. LeBlanc’s global star power with GenX sitcom fans would inevitably rankle, too. Only British people knew who Evans was, but even the British press absolutely dragged his version of the show.
The main problem with Evans and LeBlanc was that neither of them were at all relatable. For all their faults – and perhaps because of them – Clarkson’s on-screen persona of oafish incompetence, Hammond’s beaming optimism and May’s Mr Bean-like demeanour, all of it was relatable.
They played characters based on themselves the way LeBlanc did in Episodes (really, it is a great show, LeBlanc is funny and self-aware as you’ll see in this trailer).
Matt LeBlanc and Chris Evans were both fabulously wealthy celebrities and the latter had a great deal of control over the show, at least early on. It became a complicated and bigged-up version of what went before, but none of it was all that interesting except for Harris and Read and the occasional Schmitz appearance.
LeBlanc was oddly downbeat in his presentation as though being himself made him uncomfortable. Which is hilarious given Episodes followed an amped-up, rogueish version of himself navigating his relationship with the writers of a US remake of a popular British television show into which he had been incongruently cast.
The irony of his incongruent casting in Top Gear is not lost on me.
Why did this happen?
TV people think they know better. Not the creators of the show, not the people who know the format best and spend years, decades even, polishing, refining, changing and experimenting.
TV people see a success, attach themselves to it and think they know how it works. Often they have no familiarity with the subject matter (or “cars” in this case), the audience or even the source material.
The early days of Top Gear with Wilman in charge were hilariously sketchy, the team regularly reciting the maxim, “Ambitious but rubbish.” The low budget vibe made it all the more enjoyable.
The cast of the newly-resuscitated (and better funded) Top Gear Australia has two hosts that are not known car people. The first is actor and Survivor Australia host Jonathan LaPaglia and the second is ex-footballer and Amazing Race Australia host Beau Ryan.
Ryan even says in the first episode of the show that he doesn’t know anything about cars. He’s very entertaining but it’s not an authentic casting decision – he’s there because he’s famous.
(I was once told I’d never be able to make an automotive TV show because I didn’t have the credibility. I wonder if the same producer hired Ryan…)
It’s almost like TV people think there is a finite number of people who should be on television and they let Blair Joscelyne in to please the fans because a YouTuber did well on the UK version. He’s by far the best person for the job and is great to watch both on Top Gear Australia and in the cultural phenomenon he created with his friend Marty that is Mighty Car Mods.
Ryan is very likeable and very funny but his car knowledge is not there. LaPaglia is somewhere in the middle but it seems like he’s there in between Survivor shoots. I’m sure they’re both lovely people, they’re just not car guys.
The BBC TV people definitely weren’t car people and that was obvious – they’re entertainment people. This is also obvious in the failed international versions because I’ve a pretty good idea that the rights holder is heavily involved in casting decisions and hold a controlling hand over the content, too. In other words, TV people control the brand and its vision and know bugger-all about either.
TV people also don’t understand chemistry, they think they can engineer it. I bet Wilman and Clarkson fought tooth and nail to get May on the show. If you were to ask the people they fought, they’ll tell you they backed his ascendancy all the way because retconning is one of the things they’re really good at.
The now-infamous open casting call for the original Top Gear Australia was a stunt. The three chosen were clearly overlays for the original cast, with Charlie Cox (breaking the rules by being an established TV personality), cartoonist Warren Brown and the only good choice, Steve Pizzati, making up the cast.
(Yes I tried out, yes I got an interview, no I didn’t get anywhere near it and, of course, I dodged a bullet so I’m genuinely not bitter)(I would still like to be paid to make a car show, however)
There was no real chemistry, the writing was terrible and the budget tiny. Revisiting original Top Gear challenges was excruciating because, for example, they only had the money for one carboat.
Australian TV people also had no concept that you can’t ask for a dozen cars and smash them up before handing them back with a shrug. Marketing and PR budgets can’t be amortised the way they can in the UK. It was doomed to fail and a revolving door for two of three hosting positions over a few calamitous seasons didn’t help much.
Car companies pulled their fleets away because too many cars came back in pieces. A move to the Nine Network from SBS wasn’t any help either.
Car shows are dying on TV and streaming because TV people don’t understand car people and don’t hire them often enough to make car programming. When you look at what is working on YouTube – outside of the catastrophically dull influencer sphere – it’s a couple or a trio of blokes messing about with old cars, buying them, fixing them and using them.
(There aren’t enough women outside of the aforementioned obnoxious influencer sphere, but that’s another story for another day)
AutoAlex and Top Dead Center [sic] are clearly capturing the spirit of early Top Gear without forcing it. The cast of both channels left the properties they built which have been ruined by management types coming in and telling them how to do the jobs they’ve been so good at.
Setting up their own shop, they’ve gone back to basics and have rapidly built a following based on a seemingly tireless formula – buy crap cars, see what they can do. Nobody is stopping Top Gear or anyone else from doing this. Except TV people.
While Top Gear had recovered some of its former glory, it was a lucky hit rather than clever management. The audience is still there for the televised car show. Even Amazon thinks so after Richard Hammond suggested last week that TGT may continue with new hosts. Stand by for that disaster.
YouTube hasn’t killed the car show – TV people killed it. And people very much like them tried to kill automotive YouTube too.
Next week, part 2 of this self-indulgent essay on how automotive YouTube’s torrid year could have left us without much to watch.
This week it’s another Porsche but not really because it’s a Singer, some Soviet Ladas in Finland, two Germans in French cars in Scotland and a V10 Nissan 240Z.
Chris Harris and Singer
Chris Harris, likely fresh from Joe Rogan’s podcast studio (give me strength) visits the Singer factory in Los Angeles. I’m not a Porsche guy but companies like Singer and Tuthill have been making restomod Porsches that make me really want an old Porsche 911. For a gazillion dollars.
And yes, that’s two videos about Porsches in two weeks. Sue me.
Ladas in Finland
There are two things I like in this following video. 1. Soviet-era machinery (although I’m more partial to the gorgeous aeroplanes of the 1960s) and 2. Finland. As you may (or may not) know, Finland and Russia share a long border and a fraught history.
Obviously at some point you could easily buy a Lada which the Soviet government would have quite liked for the lovely, lovely foreign currency.
Someone in the comments amusingly points out that in Finland you could have a Lada whenever you wanted but in Russia you had to wait years for one.
Sadly YouTube’s subtitles feature doesn’t give us the English but the vision is great.
205 GTIs in Scotland
Only A Roadtrip Away is one of the most chilled automotive YouTube channels. A German guy has built himself a workshop where he fixes up old cars. Then takes them out on a what he calls impractical road trips.
This video is the first in a series covering a road trip to Scotland in two Peugeot 205 GTIs. The real reason for including this video in the list is to introduce you to this wonderful channel because it is criminally underwatched. I don’t think he cares too much, but you’ll see what I mean.
The 205 GTI is a car incredibly close to my heart and thank you to regular Redline co-pilot Mark Dewar for putting me on to this channel.
BMW S85 + Nissan 240Z – B For Build
This is another oldie but a goodie. I am mildly obsessed with people building silly cars and this one is marvellously silly.
B is For Build is hardly a small channel at 1.6 million subscribers but the YouTube algorithm didn’t think to offer it to me until recently. This video starts an incredible series where a loud chap buys a Nissan 240Z in order to swap in the S85 V10 from the E60 BMW M5. Hold on tight, because this one is a proper rollercoaster.
Enjoy your weekend and marvel at the idea I got this out before the weekend actually started.
This week’s Links We Like includes a new Australian site called Retro Rides, a curious case of the shy EV maker, a rocket ship Ariel for sale, a couple of classics reborn (or at least sorted out in one case) and a fascinating glimpse into what an American website thinks are significant cars from the last twenty years.
Retro Rides is a new Australian website and what better way to introduce you than via a story about the Ford Barra Turbo. One of the greatest engines to ever grace any engine bay anywhere ever.
A little while back Dave McCowen at News Ltd tested a Tesla Model 3 Performance at Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek to most of us) and the brakes overheated. Because the most powerful regen wasn’t available to him and of course, Tesla hasn’t fitted a set of track-ready brakes because why would you. So that’s not great.
Then Paul Maric at CarExpert booked one but like Dave was told the car would be hobbled for the test.
Sometimes we wander through the classifieds around the traps and find some proper gold. An Ariel Atom is the modern-day Lotus 7 with a screaming Honda engine and a 570kg kerb weight. This 2013 Atom Cup is absolutely bonkers.
And finally Autoblog is turning 20 and they’ve put together the most significant cars in the last two decades. Luckily I wasn’t drinking anything while running through the list because there are some doozies in there. But hey, it’s always good to see how other folks from around the world see what’s important.
That’s it for this week! If you’re enjoying The Redline, do sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss a thing. Pretty soon there will be videos going up on the YouTube channel, so if you haven’t already, please subscribe there too and hit the bell button.
The VW Group’s first proper EV in Australia wasn’t – as expected – the ID.3 but the rather cooler Spanish off-shoot’s Cupra Born.
In a way, the Born is the ID.3, just not the one we were expecting. The Cupra brand was launching here and needed something to grab headlines next to the excellent Formentor range of petrols and hybrids.
A year after launch, I took a Cupra Born for its first drive in my hands to find out if the promise of its looks is delivered.
How much is the Cupra Born and what do I get?
$59,990 + ORC / $64,490 driveaway (NSW)
The Born arrived here in Australia 2023 and made a pretty immediate splash, selling out quickly. Cupra was happy with that and had to order more of them to satisfy demand.
Born comes in – effectively – three flavours as you can choose between the Interior package and the Performance Package. Four if you add both, but I’m not entirely sure you can do that.
Cupra Born
Without a ticked box, you get 19-inch Typhoon wheels, auto LED headlights, auto wipers, tyre pressure monitoring, 12-inch media screen, surround-view cameras, heated leather steering wheel, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, dual-zone climate control, wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto, DAB+ digital radio and a tyre repair kit.
You also get a 5.3-inch digital dashboard. I complained about a similarly-sized instrument pack in a BY Atto3 and I think this one is slightly too small as well. On the upside, the graphics package is way better and more readable, so it’s not all drama.
The Interior package adds Aurora Blue Alcantara-style heated front seats (Cupra calls the fabric Dinamica) with 12-way adjustment, a two-seat rear bench replacing the three-seater, heated washer jets and a Beats-branded nine-speaker 395-watt stereo.
That’s a $2900 addition.
The Performance Package adds 20-inch Firestorm alloy wheels 235/40 R20 Michelin Pilot Sport EV tyres, the same two-seat bench as the Interior package and adaptive damping.
That’s a better-spent $2600 option (if you were to ask me).
The car I had featured the Performance package which is exactly what we need for this site.
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How is the pricing compared to rivals?
The price compares well against EV competition and gives the Abarth 500e a smack around the chops. It’s a few grand under a Tesla Model 3 (at the time of writing, we know how that price swings around), a Polestar 2 and a “normally” priced Peugeot 2008.
A similarly-sized BYD Atto3 is significantly cheaper in the mid-$40k but isn’t anything like the Born apart from the size. Perfectly agreeable conveyance but not much else.
The MG4 X Power is a few more grand expensive and given it’s so much quicker worth looking at but falls short dynamically. You’d be better off comparing with MG4 Long Range 77 with the sweeter rear-wheel drive chassis and mid-$50k price point. I’d argue (already) the Born is a better bet for the interior alone.
A Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6, both of which are larger cars but with smaller batteries are a little higher again than the Tesla, Polestar or Peugeot. Neither of the Koreans has such a big battery at their lower price points.
Media and entertainment
VW Group’s much-maligned basic software ships with the Born. I think everyone is a little too hard on it, it’s not like you’re saving lives with it or anything. The soft buttons are the things that need to be sent into the sun via the means of a rocket or large trebuchet. They’re on the screen and the steering wheel and they’re absurdly irritating because they’re laggy and provide no feedback.
There’s nothing as irritating as, say, a Tiguan R’s steering wheel heating coming on if you hold the steering wheel like, say, a human, but gimme the old school mechanical buttons and I’ll be much happier.
How safe is the Cupra Born? 5 Stars (ANCAP 2023)
The Cupra arrives from Spain with a set of seven airbags (including a front centre airbag to prevent head clashes in a side impact), forward AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and driver attention monitoring.
The Born’s vehicle warranty matches the rest of the Cupra range at five years/unlimited kilometres which is in the middle, with most EVs at either five or seven years. The 500e is the obvious and irritating exception.
Servicing is when it should be, which is every year or 15,000km. You can buy a service pack for three years ($990) or five years ($1590), which feels a mite on the pricey side for an EV but I’m all for having the car looked at once a year no matter what. It’s two tons of glass, steel and in this case battery.
Speaking of the battery, you get an eight year/160,000km warranty which is about right across the industry however I can’t find anything which specifies where that warranty kicks in. Some companies warrant against a particular percentage of battery degradation (usually 20 or 30 percent) but Cupra is hedging its bets with the use of the word “excessive.”
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Look and Feel
I think the Cupra Born looks great, which is something because the ID.3 on which it is obviously based is so dreary. Everything is so much sharper looking on the Born, with some terrific Cupra copper detailing.
I really like the way it stands on the road, too, and it’s really clear a lot of thought has gone into this car.
The 20-inch Firestorm wheels are awesome and remind of the OZ Sparco rally wheels of the 1990s on cars like the superbly bonkers Ford Escort RS Cosworth.
I like the lighting, the full-width rear reflector, the blacked-out detailing, it all just works, even the side sills with the aero fence on it. Just superb.
It’s not the World’s Prettiest Car – we all know that’s a Nissan Pulsar sedan (this is an in-joke for an audience of two) but it has the right balance of elegance and drama without the dreariness of the donor car.
First two are mine, third is supplied because I forgot to take a photo of the rear seat. I’m a professional.
Inside the front seats look superb, again with some really lovely detailing in the Performance version. I’m sure the Interior package ones look great too. I don’t even mind the flat-bottomed steering wheel because it has that lovely, tactile Cupra logo in the centre.
It’s not as appealing as the exterior but it’s really nice to be in.
Those front seats are as comfortable as they look and carried us very comfortably to the Blue Mountains and back. Between the front seats is a roll-top covered pair of cupholders and further back an armrest over an open bin which houses the wireless charging pad.
In the back you get nicely-shaped chairs and in the Performance and Interior package-equipped cars, the middle seat goes in favour of a padded and lined tray arrangement but, weirdly, you don’t lose the armrest with its pair of standard issue VW cupholders.
The boot is an impressive 385 litres and very easy to access.
Battery and Charging
82kWh (77kWh usable) WLTP range: 511km AC charging: 11kW DC charging: 170kW
The Born ships with a whopping 82kWh battery pack which is the kind of size you see in expensive Euro sedans and SUVs or expensive-for-Chinese-brands machines. European Cupra customers have a choice of a smaller and obviously cheaper 58kWh pack but we’re still on the high end, which makes sense to me.
Annoyingly, that smaller battery pack makes the Born quicker to 100km/h, but we’ll get to that later.
WLTP figures for the Born with the 82kWh battery are a healthy 511km. In my week with the Born I averaged 18.2kWh/100km which translates to a range of 423km from 77kWh.
That doesn’t sound amazing but the reality is, it’s quite good. Picking on the Abarth 500e, it has a battery that’s about two-thirds the size of the Born’s but can only squeak out about 210km on a single charge. The Fiat 500e isn’t remarkably better on the same pack.
On top of that, a huge chunk of my Born figure came from highway running, so with more city running you’d easily see 460km or even 480km if you were careful. I’d also bet a modest sum of money that the 19-inch wheeled Born was how Cupra got its WLTP number, making this Performance version’s number even better.
You’ll find the CCS2 charge port on the right rear quarter panel.
I charged once on an Evie 50kW charger and it held 49Kw for the most of the session delivering 32.39kW in 41 minutes. Obviously it slowed after about 80 percent, but I’m happy with that speed. You’re unlikely to find a working 150kW or above charger, so this gives you good idea that a shopping trip is ample time to charge half the usable capacity.
Drivetrain
Under the stubby bonnet you can see some of the gear but it’s neither the battery pack nor the motor. You’ll find the motor between the rear wheels which is absolutely superb.
That motor kicks out 170kW and 310Nm for a 0-100km/h sprint of seven seconds flat.
Chassis
Two things are really important here. The Performance Pack adds wider 235/40 Michelin Pilot Sport EVs (I think they’re Pilot Sport 4 based, let me know if I’m wrong). As well as those tasty wheels and tyres, the chassis scores adaptive damping.
The un-packaged car has 19s, narrower tyres and static suspension. I haven’t driven one so equipped but I’m ever more curious as I write this to try it out.
The base car does feature progressive steering, though, which is nice, so that carries on to the packages. And, to repeat myself, it’s rear-wheel drive.
Suspension is pretty conventional, with MacPherson struts up front and multi-link at the rear. The Performance Pack adds, I cannot stress this enough, adaptive damping that is probably worth the price of admission alone if you’re keen on a bit of fun.
Having said that, I don’t know what a non-adaptive car drives like, so when I find out, I’ll let you know.
Given the car’s weight, it’s unsurprising that the front brakes are big at 340mm. Also unsurprising is the fact that the rear brakes are drums. That’s where all the regen braking happens and in most cars the rears are just along for the ride.
I’ve mentioned more than once that this is based on the ID.3 but more accurately it is built on the VW Group’s MEB (Modularer E-Antriebs Baukasten or modular electric-drive toolkit). That platform has spawned a startling array of new cars, including the Audi Q4 e-tron, the Skoda Enyaq iV, ID.4 through ID.7 and the awesome-looking ID.Buzz Kombi replacement.
And, surprisingly, the Europe-only Ford Explorer and the controversially-named Ford Capri EV pairing.
Driving
I really, really liked this car. It does everything.
Sometimes I’ll have a car for a day and think, “I could totally have one of these.” While the Born was initially impressive, it kept impressing me. The minor quibbles were around the slightly but not fatally annoying quirks of the media system, the small dashboard and not much else, basically.
Things are just where they’re supposed to be. There are drive mode selectors on the steering wheel, everything is within easy reach and, once again, the electric motor is at the back.
So straight away the steering feels good – yes, it’s light like just about all steering now (I have a palate-cleansing hydraulic-assisted BMW and by modern standards it feels so heavy), but there’s no torque steer.
Even on a run to the shops, that makes a difference because having the torque at zero rpm causes shenanigans. But not here. So the Michelins can get on with the job of turning and stopping and going without any fuss.
The Born isn’t a rocket but it’s a lovey car in which you can get a flow on. I went for a fun thrash down through a road I know well, with terrible concrete panels that are misaligned after years of heavy vehicle use and tree roots.
You can hear the tyres working and that’s a good thing because the limit is telegraphed well ahead of time so you can build confidence, leaning on the rubber harder and harder.
The adaptive damping is never too firm even in Cupra mode, which is a tremendous achievement because it’s not sloppy either. In Range and Comfort modes, it’s just easygoing and soaks up the bumps really nicely. But Cupra mode is so good, it doesn’t matter.
Cupra mode mostly sharpens up the throttle and the steering and once again, it’s finely-judged and adds to the fun.
It is a two-ton car with me on board and yet it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like a well-sorted hatchback – dare I say it, a Golf – and that’s a good thing, right down to the warm hatch performance.
The thing about it is that it does everything really well. The realistic 460-480km range means you’re not forever charging it, its rolling performance is far better than its dash to the ton suggests making it a weapon in traffic. On our traditional run up to the Blue Mountains it was super-quiet, handled the crappy weather and didn’t flatten the battery.
As an EV, it’s great. As a warm hatch it’s great. As an EV warm hatch it’s…well…obviously great.
Anything else I need to know about the Cupra Born?
Nothing dramatic. We have heard that the Cupra Born VZ is on the way, which is a 240kW/545Nm hot hatch with a 0-100km/h time of 5.7 seconds. Which doesn’t seem like an incredible use of 70 more kilowatts or 235Nm, but here we are. The range is apparently unaffected but I don’t believe that for a second.
The front seats look amazing, though. No pricing that I’m aware of for Australia but it is out in Europe for around €52,000-plus. That’s a lot, putting it in the probable mid-$70k range.
There are low mileage 2023 Borns kicking around for about $47,000 which I think is extraordinary value given that’s less than what a BYD Atto3 Extended Range costs. I know what I’d rather have. There’s even a Performance Pack one for $49,000 with 5700km on the clock.
Redline Recommendation
The Born is probably a ripper of a car in its basic spec and I reckon is probably 80 percent of the fun this car is. The extra $2600 for the Performance pack is likely money well spent and that’s what I’d do if buying new or searching for a used one.
But given the might of the VW Group behind this machine, the proven MEB platform and the fun of the Cupra chassis magic, the only reason our roads aren’t infested with this thing is the EV starting price.
So yeah, if you’re thinking about it, this is genuinely great car to drive and I reckon it would be great to own.
September 9 is World EV Day so I thought I’d write something that’s been on my mind for while.
Over the past few months, a narrative has developed in the media that electric car sales are slowing. As a regular on ABC Radio Sydney, talkback callers take every chance they can to tell me they saw a thing on Facebook where there are fields full of unsold electric cars in China.
Well, there probably are. They’re probably waiting to be shipped somewhere to be actually sold. A huge number of EVs are made in China and by brands you probably don’t expect – Volvo, Polestar, BMW and Tesla are just four literally off the top of my head.
The reality is, I can unearth photos of unsold cars of all types if the time is right. I tell people not to believe everything they see on Facebook.
I don’t really see myself as much of a journalist, more of a consumer advice person who likes to pepper his copy with jokes. Whether you find me a. funny or b. informative is entirely up to you but I hope I’m both.
Anyway, I don’t normally take much notice of this kind of silliness but I figured it’s worth digging in to see what’s going on and whether things really are tailing off in a manner so substantial it has the loons dancing around oil wells.
China
From a global perspective, the International Energy Agency expects an increase of 3 million over 2023’s 13.7 million EV sales, with most of the growth coming from China. That country has been an EV powerhouse over the past few years, with 5.4 million sales in 2023, up by more than a third in 2022.
EV market share was around 25 percent.
2023 also saw the national New Energy Vehicle subsidy on EV purchases removed, however tax breaks remain, mirroring Germany’s partial reversal on EV inducements.
PWC says that in Q2 China’s EV sales were up 13 percent and overall the Chinese domestic EV market is looking to outpace 2023’s record number. According to Reuters, the 2024 increase is looking like 31 percent over 2023, which means a total EV sales figure of around seven million, picking up the slack in Europe and, according to Reuters and others, fuelling global EV growth.
Tesla is all over the place in 2024 but recorded a big number in August (63,456) fuelled by a five year interest-free program. BYD had a massive month, selling over 148,000 battery electric cars. That company is continuing strong overall growth in its all-electrified line (BYD only sells hybrids, PHEVs and BEVs), with BEVs making up almost half of its 2.3 million sales so far this year.
European Union – EV sales are down in 2024 (so far).
2023 was a great year for EV sales in the EU, with just over 1,840,000 battery electric vehicles sold. The Tesla Model Y had a massive year, followed by the Model 3. Sales across the board tanked very suddenly in December 2023 as incentives for EVs fell away in Germany.
Up until about this time last year, German EV buyers enjoyed a €4500 credit (A$7300) until the government suddenly killed the measure as part of a cuts program to sort out ailing government finances.
Even with that sudden drop in the single biggest European market, BEVs accounted for 16 percent of all new cars sold in Europe.
2024 has been a little slower, but not massively so. 2023’s king, the Model Y is losing ground as the year progresses. Sales are still very strong, but the mix is beginning to change. Volvo’s new compact SUV, the EX30 has had a good start, too, but that’s likely to be short-lived as China-built cars suffer a 30 percent tariff hit.
Those tarriffs will affect all Volvo, Polestar and BMW EVs made in China while VW’s refreshed ID.3 is enjoying a bit of a comeback and the Audi Q4 e-tron continues to sell well. Tesla supply is increasing from its Berlin plant so that should avoid the tariff problem.
BYD is looking to build a factory in Hungary and is considering a second EU factory to follow.
Sales to July (the most recent data I could find) showed a year-to-date figure of 815,399 EVs sold in Europe, meaning that the market is lagging slightly on the 2023 number.
BMW’s EV range continues to grow in stature and popularity. In July – perhaps a sign of things to come – the German giant toppled Tesla for the first time as the company that sold more EVs than anyone else, with i4 and iX1 leading the way. Tesla has only two models in Europe, so I’m expecting VW’s growing ID range to start troubling the US maker as well.
Interestingly, as Germany’s EV incentives have fallen away, the Netherlands, Belgium and France all saw year-on-year increases, although the French number was just a single percentage point.
In August, the German government responded to the fall in EV sales by saying new tax breaks were on the way for electric company cars, so that might stem the losses and get the country back on track for its 2030 and 2035 targets.
The petrol car market is down 7 percent for the year in Europe, so it will be interesting to see the wash-up at year’s end. As with most developed countries, high interest rates and a general global economic slowdown are affecting car markets.
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United States
Tesla Model Y. Nobody really does this.
In the US, total electric car registrations amounted to 1.4 million. The Federal government continues to support electric cars with subsidies through the Clean Vehicle Tax Credit and Tesla famously cut prices. Several times.
In 2024, EV sales remain strong. The second quarter saw 330,000-plus EV sales, 11.3 percent more than the same period in 2023 and 23 percent higher than the first quarter of 2024.
Cox Automotive says that the Q2 result was due to better availability and some new models. Tesla sales fell below 50 percent market share for the first time while GM’s EV sales were up a whopping 40 percent.
The slightly soft first quarter result was also partially attributed to higher interest rates, which is also affecting the broader car market.
Consulting firm JD Power expects EV market share to reach 9 percent in the US in 2024, missing the company’s own forecast of 12 percent. Reuters reported that the firm still believes EV market share will reach 36 percent of market share in 2030 and nearly 60 percent by 2035.
Chinese makers are basically nowhere in the US, with a hefty 100 percent tariff on every car imported from there. BYD is looking to avoid tariffs in the US by building a factory in Mexico. Recent media reports suggest that this may be on hold until after the results of the US election.
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Australia
And then there’s little old us. In 2023, EV sales nearly reached 100,000, ending up at 98,436 and contributing to more than half the total EV fleet on the roads at the start of 2024.
That number equates to a market share of 8.45 percent, more than doubling from 3.8 percent in 2023. These numbers were driven by Tesla price cuts, the arrival of BYD’s Atto3 and Seal and the MG4.
By the end of August, 63,191 EVs had been sold, 27000 of those either Tesla Model 3 or Model Y. Despite that impressive number, Tesla is slowly receding in market share as new models arrive and prices are cut. The US maker’s market share was nearly 60 percent in 2023 but down to 45 in 2024, at least so far.
Overall, the EV market share is off by just half a percent, which is impressive given the end of the incentives on offer in NSW and Victoria at this time last year. Federal incentives remain, largely to do with Fringe Benefits Tax exemption on cars that slip under the Luxury Car Tax limit which explains the BMW i4 eDrive 35’s strong performance (1177 deliveries to July!).
One thing to note is the lack of Tesla and Polestar figures in the VFACTs reports. Both companies bailed out of the scheme citing the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries lack of genuine support for electric vehicle transition. The FCAI had made what Tesla called misleading claims about the impact of the New Vehicle Emissions Scheme to bully the government into watering it down.
It should be noted Tesla had to be dragged into reporting its sales kicking and screaming and lasted two years.
The point of me telling you this (thanks to a reminder from an Instagram friend) is that without those two brands in VFACTs, folks in the media looking to mislead have an easy time of it without looking at either the EV Council numbers or the self-reporting numbers of both brands.
So is it true? Are EV sales falling away?
Globally? No. That’s the easy answer. It’s more nuanced, obviously.
European EV sales have dipped, mostly in Germany. The UK, which I haven’t covered here (and that’s the Brexit you voted for, Nigel) is still showing strong demand for EVs as is the US. As I’ve already said, the broader European market has slowed by 7 percent and with the EV drop of around the same number, it’s hardly cause for alarm or rejoicing depending on where you stand.
You may, however, be sensing a theme here. Tesla’s sales have been in a gentle decline for the last 18 months. It’s hard to tell what’s going on in China but because of the brand’s incredible stranglehold on the EV market and mindset, media reporting is basically, “Tesla down, all down.”
Legacy car makers and Chinese challengers are finally making a dent in Tesla’s dominance, which was always going to be the way whether Musk was a monk or the loon he actually is.
As Tesla is distracted by Musk’s insistence it’s now an AI and robotics company now, there’s no new product apart from the dire Cybertruck (on which they’re probably making no money), its (in)famous high margins are taking a hit as the company cuts prices to clear overproduction and overcome economic slowdown.
As EV competition slowly increases and European makers start getting out cars like the Renault 5 and begin making inroads into the light hatchback segment, I’d expect the growth to resume at a modest pace once interest rates fall.
That will be supported by the emergence of the global economy from its recent slowdown and a year full of elections in key industrialised countries like France, Britain and the US. And with the US Federal Reserve looking to rapidly cut interest rates after leaving them too high for too long, there’s a general bounce on the horizon.
So, no, the end of electric vehicles is not near. Nice try, Rupert.
Hopefully the weekend is a good time to sit back and catch up with what you’ve missed over the week. Here’s a selection of some great videos, or at least videos I like.
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Dave Zalstein – 1977 Porsche 911
Dave spends time with Hugh Feggans and his restomodded 1977 Porsche 911. It’s a great video where both Dave and Hugh geek out over the work done to this gorgeous old machine.
Dave is a tremendous bloke who has a had a pretty rough couple of years but it hasn’t stopped him from getting out and having a crack at his own channel. If you ask me, I want more of this and I’m a bit jealous he thought of this format first.
What’s even better is that watching this video means that all proceeds go to mental health charities.
ReDriven – Used Euros We’d Actually Buy
ReDriven is a fantastic used car review and advice channel that has grown rapidly over the past couple of years.
This is a great video where ReDriven host Adam and resident mechanic Jim go through the European used cars they’d actually buy. ReDriven – like The Redline – is completely independent and does not rely on advertising from car companies to support them, so the opinions are unvarnished truth.
It also helps that the first car is one of my all-time favourites, the Ford Fiesta ST.
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Addicted to Sliding – Ioniq 5 N Ultimate Street Car Challenge
Scotty Newman – legend of MOTOR Magazine and more recently Carsales – has a YouTube channel called Addicted to Sliding (as well as an Instagram channel of the same name).
Some doofus upstairs at Carsales decided he was surplus to requirements (along with other excellent folks) so I think the only reasonable thing to do is make sure his YouTube channel pops (he is also part of the Friday Drive team at Lorbek).
Here we see Scott have a whale of a time at the Ultimate Street Car Challenge at Calder Park in the hugely fun (and powerful) Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.
Ruairidh MacVeigh – The Car That Nearly Killed BMW
Despite Ruairidh’s enthusiastic use of the passive voice, his stuff is fascinating. This is an oldie but a goodie, detailing BMW’s travails producing the beautiful 507.
(just quietly, look at the size of the damn grille)
The EX90 is based on the same platform as the Polestar 3 and when I saw it in Gothenburg during January 2022 I was blown away by how cool this car will be.
In Australia it’s a seven-seater only, I guess to keep the Polestar 3 on its own.
Subaru BRZ tS review
Drive.com.au asked me to review the Subaru BRZ tS and who was I say to say no?
The V8 is gone, sadly, because it was delightfully silly. Having said that you’ve still got at least 12 months to get your hands on one. Here’s CarExpert’s Paul Maric on the new Patrol and it’s turbocharged V6 engine.
Smart returns to Australia
Smart is now a joint-venture between Geely (owner of Volvo, Lotus and a host of others) and Mercedes-Benz. The brand is returning to Australia with a new distributor after Mercedes Australia abandoned the over-priced weirdo machines a few years ago.
Gonna be a while before it reaches Australia but it looks incredible.
Where will I be?
Redline Editor Peter Anderson will be on ABC 702 Sydney with James Valentine at 1pm AEST. Tune in, stream, ask yourself a census question to upset somebody.
Audi’s first proper EV in Australia was just called e-tron when it first launched a few years back. But Audi’s ever-evolving naming scheme – and growing EV range – has seen the addition of the Q8 badge.
It’s an interesting play given that there is a whole range of Q8s that aren’t the same car as this one. The “other” Q8s – some of which are reviewed here, one or two of them rather gleefully – feature diesel and petrol V6s and V8s.
Still, it stops the numbering system getting completely out of whack and one assumes the next generation will be all of a piece.
How much is the 2024 Audi Q8 e-tron 55 and what do I get?
Swoopy back! That’s the Sportback difference
There are two Q8 e-trons on offer and thankfully there isn’t a plethora of powertrains to explain. Basically, there’s the SUV which is a more sensible shoes straight-up-and down SUV body with a good-sized boot. That one is $153,900 before on-roads.
For that you get 20-inch alloys, adaptive air suspension, auto LED headlights, auto wipers heated and folding rear vision mirrors, power tailgate with gesture control (foot waving), interior ambient lighting package, dual-zone climate control, heated front seats, head-up display, 12.3-inch digital dashboard, Audi connect plus, in-built sat nav, DAB digital radio, 10-speaker sound, around-view cameras and a storage package.
That seems like a fair bit. However…
…and annoyingly, Matrix LEDs are not part of the package, and Audi isn’t too shy to charge you a further $3300. Less annoyingly, the camera-based rear vision mirrors aren’t standard and probably not worth $3500. I know where I’d rather spend that kind of cash and it’s on an incredible set of headlights.
Then there’s the inevitable Sportback variant with the swoopy rear end and therefore a smaller boot for $165,900. Added to the SUV you get the S-Line styling package, 21-inch alloys, Valcona leather on the front seats, four-zone climate control and storage and luggage package.
Useful additions but they’re all cosmetic or convenience, presumably to make up for the smaller boot. I think it looks pretty good apart from that chintzy, buck-toothed silver grille that should be blacked-out at your earliest convenience please and thank you.
The test car included the 22kW charging package, a B&O branded 3D sound system and metallic paint (Plasma Blue), taking the before on-roads total to $176,850.
Entertainment and Connectivity
The optional B&O 16-speaker system is hooked up to Audi’s excellent MMI system which features DAB digital radio, some basic stats for your EV data brain and Audi Connect Plus.
The sound is quite rich in the big cabin, so it seems like a decent system. As ever, I add the disclaimer that I am not an audiophile, so your mileage there will obviously vary.
Connect Plus uses an on-board SIM card to talk turkey to the navigation system, to bring you all sorts of information such as charging stations, servos, toilets and even restaurants. It’s all pretty clever and was a long time coming to Australia. It doesn’t need data for the sat nav to work, but the other stuff does, so you won’t be stranded if you’ve strayed too far from coverage.
You can also control the car from an app on your phone. You can turn on the climate control, lock and unlock as well as find out where it is if you’ve lent it to someone or you’ve forgotten where you parked as well as send sat nav instructions.
Android Auto is via USB and Apple CarPlay is wireless. The latter looks fantastic splashed across the big screen so one imagines Android Auto is similarly lovely.
The wireless charging pad is quite clever – it has a little sprung lever to hold the phone against the Qi pad. My only complaint is that a phone in a cover gets pretty hot.
Safety
The Q8 e-tron ships with eight airbags, forward AEB, reverse AEB, lane guidance, blind-spot monitoring, exit warning, front and rear parking sensors, around-view cameras, collision avoidance and reverse-cross traffic alert.
The e-tron as it was known then scored five ANCAP stars in 2019 but it’s unlikely to hold on to that score without a front centre airbag.
The forward AEB works at up to 250km/h, has pedestrian and cyclist detection up to 85km/h and will try and stop you turning across oncoming traffic it thinks you will hit.
All the systems behaved pretty well and as with most German-engineered cars, the lane-keep wasn’t pushy or overbearing.
Battery and Charging
Battery size: 114kWh (gross) Max charging speed: 170kW AC charging speed: 7.2kW Fastest 10-80% charge: 31 minutes @ 170kWh
The left-hand side AC-onlt charger.
A fair bit happened between e-tron becoming Q8 e-tron. The battery went from 95kW to 114kW, which is a hefty jump. Faster charging is now available too, stepping up from 150kW to 170kW on the CCS2 DC charger on the right-hand side of the car.
Interestingly – and cleverly – the Q8 e-tron has a second AC-only charger on the left-hand side of the car, which makes it a bit easier to charge in tight garages. I’m not sure the weird electrically-operated flap cover is necessary but it’s fun to use.
Audi supplies a six-year Chargefox subscription with each Q8 e-tron, which is might fine if you live or work near a Chargefox site and even better if you, you know, it’s a working site.
I’m not bitter.
AC charging works at up to 7.2kW so an overnight charge at home is going to be close to 30 hours from dead. A wallbox will halve that and Audi will cheerfully flog you one of those to step you up to 11kW charging.
A 22kW charger will get you down to closer to six hours as long as you have the 22kW package.
At 170kW you’ll be in good shape to do a more sensible 10-80 percent charge in about 35-40 minutes, if you can extract that performance from the charger. It’s not the fastest gun in the west but honestly, you’ll struggle to find a working 150kW charger anyway.
Consumption on test: 21.5kWh/100km Mileage on test: 372km Possible range: 460km
I didn’t end up needing to charge, which is nice but it meant I didn’t get to test the charge performance. Over the week I had the Q8 e-tron I covered 372km using 80 percent of the 114kWh battery’s charge. That translates to a much better than expected overall usage of 21.5kW/100km.
This included a 250km round trip from home to Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains. That means 70-odd km on the M4 at around 100km/h, lots of time at 80km/h in tunnels and arterial roads and the long climb to Katoomba.
Of course that means the drive home means a lot of recharging going down the mountains, but does demonstrate the effectiveness of the energy regeneration and the possibly pessimistic claimed consumption figure.
It’s still, high, though, with most machines landing under the 20kWh/100km figure which I think you could equate roughly to 10L/100km in a petrol car. At a conceptual level, at least. I think the only car at this level not to get under 20kWh/100km reliably is the poor, under-loved Jaguar I-Pace.
If you’re charging at the going 50kWh rate (60c/kW), 21.5kWh/100km means you’re paying $12.90 to cover that distance.
A V6 petrol-engined Q8 would cost about double that. If you got closer to the claimed Q8 e-tron consumption figure, you’re still saving money at $15.36 to cover 100km. With free charging, well, there you are. It’s free even if the time spent at the charging station is not.
Ownership
Warranty: Five years/unlimited km Battery warranty: eight years/160,000km Roadside assist: six years
Audi offers a five year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which is substantially better than what was on offer when the Q8 first launched as the e-tron. Servicing is also free for the first three services which are every two years or 30,000km.
Two years is too long between services in my humble opinion, that’s a lot of glass and metal (over 2500kg) going unchecked. But from a cost perspective, the servicing is free, so no arguments there, even if the car isn’t the cheapest.
Like its compatriot BMW, Audi offers a free unlimited Chargefox subscription but goes longer at six years. So as I said before, if you’re near a (working) Chargefox point, you’re in great shape.
You don’t get any incentives in any state for a car at this price point.
Driving
Gosh this is a lovely thing to get around in. You always know it’s a chunky boi, but it’s just so comfortable. The credit for that goes first to the adaptive air suspension.
Even riding on 21-inch alloys, the air suspension smooths out most of everything unless you’re in Dynamic mode, and even then, you’re still in good shape. It also drops ride height at speed as well as stiffening up in Dynamic and there are various settings, including towing, to make full use of the bags controlling the body.
The driving position is really very nice indeed, and I am an absurdly huge fan of the shifter.
It doesn’t actually move like a traditional shifter – yes I know this is hardy revolutionary – but you select by thumbing the silver section on the end forward or backward.
When you’re being lazy and cruising, you can rest your hand comfortably on the leather pad. And pretend you’re throttling up a fighter jet or something.
Powertrain
Motors: 150kW/330Nm front and rear Total power: 300kW Total torque: 660Nm 0-100km/h: 5.6 sec (claimed)
Which, if I’m honest, it feels like when you floor the throttle. There’s a boost mode which I worked out after shooting the video (coming soon) where you shift into Sport mode on the transmission and you get a little more kick.
Honestly, it’s not a lot more and it really is quite quick enough without it. The massive torque means easy overtaking. The all-wheel drive means you can punch out into fast-moving traffic with ease and not have to worry about turbo lag or a transmission catching up with your intentions.
It’s a lovely thing to drive.
Redline Recommendation
I really liked the e-tron when I first drove it and I really like the Q8 e-tron.
It’s a lot of money – that’s a bit of a problem. It is a bit hard on the juice – less of a problem if you bash around town, more of a problem if you’re out on the open road.
The crux of the issue is that the Q8 e-tron is based on the MLB platform meaning it’s not a ground-up EV platform. That means it’s heavier than a car like this needs to be and there just aren’t enough ways around having to load it up with a big heavy battery.
But as I keep saying, it’s lovely. It’s punchy, supremely comfortable and perfectly nice to get along with. There are other cars at this price point, but few so elegant (silver schnozz excepted).
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