Automotive News NZ

Swapping K for T: ‘Voltswagen’ an April 1 prank all along

March 31 | Comments Off
How Subaru’s AWD system saved woman from ruthless thugs

March 29 | Comments Off
Portable wind turbine gives campers a free-living boost

March 12 | Comments Off
Gone in 60 seconds … thieves cash in on precious exhaust metals

March 10 | Comments Off
Aussie company develops world’s first domestic hydrogen battery

March 2 | Comments Off
Cherokee Indian nation wants Jeep to drop ‘Cherokee’ name

February 27 | Comments Off
EVs are on the move, but where are their batteries going?

February 23 | Comments Off
Tesla fans and foes spar over new-look steering wheel

January 29 | Comments Off
Apple EV project sparks talk of manufacturing deal with Ford

January 11 | Comments Off
Aston Martin at centre of rubbish report about emissions from EVs

January 10 | Comments Off

The shooting brake Porsche Taycan …
Volvo crash tests – from the air …
Solar cells in ute cover for work and play...
Meet Luca, the EV built from recycled trash
Lister’s go-faster Jaguar F-Pace …
The story of performance house RUF …
1932 – the invention of the Ford V8 engine
Giving new Land Rover Defender the once-over

The shooting brake Porsche Taycan …

February 24, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Less than a year after going into production, and with over 20,000 units sold worldwide, the next version of Porsche’s Taycan EV is getting close to production. It is the Taycan Cross Turismo, a four-door with a shooting brake-style body, increased ride height, and revamped suspension and driving modes. In this video, Taycan model...

Volvo crash tests – from the air …

November 16, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Volvo Cars has dropped several new models from a height of 30m in a crash test first designed to help rescue services save lives. Volvo says the test helps to simulate forces that erupt in the most extreme crashes, beyond what can be simulated with traditional crash tests in controlled environments. Watch it here …...

Solar cells in ute cover for work and play …

November 2, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Canadian company Worksport has developed a folding tonneau cover for pick-up trucks that contains a cutting-edge solar charging and storage system...

Meet Luca, the EV built from recycled trash

October 20, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

It took 18 months to build and has a range of 220km …...

Lister’s go-faster Jaguar F-Pace …

August 28, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Former Fifth Gear motoring show host and Formula One driver Tiff Needell gets behind the wheel of the Stealth, Lister’s limited-edition version of the Jaguar F-Pace &#...

The story of performance house RUF …

May 1, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

This film tells the story of performance house RUF, how, over the past 80-odd years, it’s gone from a small local repair shop in Pfaffenhausen, Germany, to continued building cars for one sole purpose – the love of the automobile...

1932 – the invention of the Ford V8 engine

April 16, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

This video deals with the development of Ford’s early line of V8 engines...

Giving new Land Rover Defender the once-over

September 11, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The 2020 Land Rover Defender has been unveiled and British motoring writer Paul Hudson takes us through a first look at the new 4&#...

Swapping K for T: ‘Voltswagen’ an April 1 prank...
How Subaru’s AWD system saved woman from ruthless thugs
Portable wind turbine gives campers a free-living boost
Gone in 60 seconds … thieves cash in on...
Aussie company develops world’s first domestic hydrogen battery
Cherokee Indian nation wants Jeep to drop ‘Cherokee’ name
EVs are on the move, but where are their...
Tesla fans and foes spar over new-look steering wheel

Swapping K for T: ‘Voltswagen’ an April 1 prank all along

March 31, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

No, it’s not an April Fools Day prank – yes, it was an April Fools Day prank, as the global motoring industry suspected all along. Volkswagen had issued a news release and tweet publicly announcing it had a new name for its electric vehicle (EV) division in the United States: Voltswagen of America. The company [&hellip...

How Subaru’s AWD system saved woman from ruthless thugs

March 29, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

It’s not something that will get people butting heads, but there is a difference between grip and traction. A friend who was ambushed by thugs will tell you so. So will those who study the physics of grip/traction. I mention this only because Subaru has an advertisement on an Auckland dealer’s wall saying its all-wheel-drive [&hellip...

KiteX-Wind-Catcher-Mobile-Turbine-0-Hero

Portable wind turbine gives campers a free-living boost

March 12, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Danish company KiteX is using a Kickstarter campaign to sell its Wind Catcher, an adventure-friendly portable wind turbine that can be set up in 15 minutes and used pretty much anywhere. It offers freedom campers, for instance, a whole new independence. Paired with a compatible 3.5kW portable generator (Jackery, Goal Zero, Bluetti and so...

Gone in 60 seconds … thieves cash in on precious exhaust metals

March 10, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

It’s a practice that has been going on in New Zealand for decades – sawing off the catalytic converters in the exhaust system of cars to boost the power of the engine, if only marginally. But now the process has brought in the cops, including America’s FBI and global agency Interpol. Why? Because international criminals [&hellip...

Aussie company develops world’s first domestic hydrogen battery

March 2, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

It’s being called the world’s first commercially available energy system that uses new or existing rooftop solar panels to create and store hydrogen power in a battery about the size of a large refrigerator. Weighing 324kg, it sits outside the house or business and connects to a solar inverter and the mains water through a [&hellip...

Cherokee Indian nation wants Jeep to drop ‘Cherokee’ name

February 27, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The chief of the Cherokee Nation in the USA wants Jeep to stop using the tribe’s name on its vehicles. “I’m sure this comes from a place that is well-intended, but it does not honor us by having our name plastered on the side of a car,” Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee [&hellip...

EVs are on the move, but where are their batteries going?

February 23, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The car, over the next 10 years or so, will become a consumer electronics product full of micro-processors. “It will have 80 to 100 software controllers – in the end it will work like a smartphone,” Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess has said. But the switch to battery-electric propulsion from the internal combustion engine will...

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Tesla fans and foes spar over new-look steering wheel

January 29, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Fans and foes of electric vehicle maker Tesla are bombarding online sites with opinions on what’s right or wrong about its new steering wheel, a ‘yoke’ design for refreshed versions of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV. Some claimed the aviation-type helm was a masterful design; others said it was too futuristic. Tesla’s [&hellip...

Ultimate boys’ toy – submarine about as big as...
Car of the year? Has to be the Toyota...
Numbers game: the real story behind record 2017 sales...
HSV lines up flash Colorado ute, Chev Camaro, Silverado...
Land Rover responds to clean air critic that ‘diesel...
Kia and Isuzu the go-getters in 2013-2017 sales figures
At the wheel: an open and shut case in...
Holden Astra – European flavour blended with a ‘taste...

Ultimate boys’ toy – submarine about as big as two jet skis

April 23, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The jet ski might indeed be one of the best watersport toys going round, but it has nothing on the lightweight Nemo submersible from U-Boat Worx, a specialist company in The Netherlands. Both craft do have one thing in common, however – they can be towed by the family station wagon or SUV, although Nemo [&hellip...

Car of the year? Has to be the Toyota ZR Hybrid Corolla

January 2, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The new Toyota Corolla didn’t make the cut in mainstream 2018 car of the year awards in New Zealand, mainly because it arrived late in the year and didn’t meet judging deadlines. But I spent enough time behind the wheel of both the 2.0-litre petrol and 1.8-litre petrol-electric Corollas to choose the ZR Hybrid Corolla [&hellip...

Numbers game: the real story behind record 2017 sales year

January 18, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

If you believe the public relations guff, every distributor in New Zealand last year sold record numbers of new vehicles. But that wasn’t the case. Okay, it was an overall record year, with 159,871 new vehicle registrations. But quite a few brands didn’t do as well as the PR people claim. Press releases saying this [&hellip...

HSV lines up flash Colorado ute, Chev Camaro, Silverado truck

December 8, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The Chevrolet badge returns to New Zealand next year on the bonnet of the all-American Camaro sports car and Silverado pick-up truck. Both vehicles will be converted to right-hand drive by Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) at its new 28,000 square-metre plant in Melbourne. It’s where HSV will also prepare two versions of the Holden...

Land Rover responds to clean air critic that ‘diesel is the devil’

September 13, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Jaguar Land Rover has defended its diesel engine technology after criticism of the fuel from the founder and director of Clean Air London, Simon Birkett. “Diesel is the devil, and we do need to ban it,” Birkett told a panel of automotive experts at the inaugural Jaguar Land Rover Tech Fest, a three-day event in [&hellip...

Kia and Isuzu the go-getters in 2013-2017 sales figures

September 6, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Registrations of traditional passenger sedans and hatchbacks have tumbled over the past five years, as New Zealanders move towards SUVs and utes. In August 2013, for instance, the Holden Commodore sat at No. 5 on the top 15 list. Last month it was No. 10. A month earlier it was No. 11. Five years ago [&hellip...

At the wheel: an open and shut case in top-down Merc

May 29, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Hard-charging Kiwi motorcycle great Graeme Crosby tells the story of racing in the Isle of Man TT for the first time in 1979. He sort of ‘smelled’ his way round the 48km circuit. “It’s such a long way that it’s hard sometimes to remember exactly where your are,” he once told me. “There is one [&hellip...

Holden New Zealand - Astra RSV 2017, 15 February 2017

Holden Astra – European flavour blended with a ‘taste of Kiwi’

March 3, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Holden has tasked its award-winning advertising agency, Special Group, to change how Holden is perceived in New Zealand. It wants the agency to help transform the brand, give it a taste of Kiwi, point it more towards premium space. It’s not that Holden has gone away; just that, over time, the brand has lost its [&hellip...

September 26, 2015 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

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