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EVs and environment: renewable electricity makes all the difference

September 21 | Comments Off
New 2022 Subaru WRX: it’s the same but very different

September 12 | Comments Off
Under brakes at 190km/h – where Nigel Mansell is doing 300km/h

September 10 | Comments Off
Reworked classic cars designed for whatever floats your boat

September 4 | Comments Off
Ex-Ferrari designers pen hydrogen-powered catamaran

August 25 | Comments Off
Tesla Model 3 judged the most efficient electric car

August 19 | Comments Off
New Audi RS3 heads to NZ with ‘quantum leap’ in agility

August 7 | Comments Off
Latest police recruit from Skoda likely to end up with office job

August 4 | Comments Off
Gov’t emissions penalty – NZ best seller hit with $4660 tax

July 16 | Comments Off
Talk about collectables: here’s the last petrol car from Lotus

July 9 | Comments Off

NZ$7000 deposit for flying car with four seats …
Study into battery-electric ferries …
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 …

NZ$7000 deposit for flying car with four seats …

May 6, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

A startup company in California is planning to build limited-edition models of a four-seater flying car, each one costing around NZ$1.1million, including pilot training...

Study into battery-electric ferries …

April 28, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

A computer-generated study in Germany imagines a time when commuters on the country’s Kiel Fjord waterway will be carried by zero-emissions ferries...

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...

EVs and environment: renewable electricity makes all the difference
New 2022 Subaru WRX: it’s the same but very...
Under brakes at 190km/h – where Nigel Mansell is...
Reworked classic cars designed for whatever floats your boat
Ex-Ferrari designers pen hydrogen-powered catamaran
Tesla Model 3 judged the most efficient electric car
New Audi RS3 heads to NZ with ‘quantum leap’...
Latest police recruit from Skoda likely to end up...

EVs and environment: renewable electricity makes all the difference

September 21, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The CO2 carbon footprint of a battery-electric vehicle (BEV) running on power generated by fossil fuels only – coal, oil, gas – is roughly the same over its lifetime as a car with an internal combustion engine (ICE). But run a BEV on electricity from a mix of fossil fuels and renewables – coal and [&hellip...

New 2022 Subaru WRX: it’s the same but very different

September 12, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Power from the bigger 2.4-litre engine in the 2022 Subaru WRX is pretty much the same as the outgoing 2.0-litre unit, although the new car gets to grips with maximum torque earlier in the rev range. The Japanese carmaker has released details of the fifth-generation WRX, which will be launched in New Zealand next year. [&hellip...

Under brakes at 190km/h – where Nigel Mansell is doing 300km/h

September 10, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Lotus has talked for years about setting up in New Zealand with strong local support. Now it has finally done something about it. The Giltrap Group will open a Lotus outlet in Auckland next year, most likely with the last of the carmaker’s petrol models, Elise and Exige, before the EVs arrive. The following story [&hellip...

Floating-Motors-Classic-Water-Cars-0-Hero

Reworked classic cars designed for whatever floats your boat

September 4, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

No, the Jaguar E-Type boat above isn’t a scale model – but it is a plaything of sorts. It and the others pictured here are products of Italian designer Pierpaolo Lazzarini. He and his Floating Motors company are building watercraft based on some of the most iconic classic cars. The car/boats vary in size and [&hellip...

Ex-Ferrari designers pen hydrogen-powered catamaran

August 25, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Two former Ferrari designers borrowed the evocative look of one of Alfa Romeo’s most revered cars to pen a 55 metre-long catamaran concept powered by electricity from hydrogen fuel cells. The computer-generated twin-hull is named Migma, Greek for ‘mixture.’ It’s a product of Spanish studio Ruma, whose co-founders Mario Fuentes...

Tesla Model 3 judged the most efficient electric car

August 19, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The Tesla Model 3 has been judged the most efficient electric vehicle in a test conducted by UK magazine What Car? The Model 3 sedan rated best in terms of energy efficiency but lost out to a juiced-up Ford Mustang E-Mach on distance travelled. Monthly publication What Car? got together 10 of the best or [&hellip...

New Audi RS3 heads to NZ with ‘quantum leap’ in agility

August 7, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Expect Audi New Zealand boss Dean Sheed to highlight a technical triumph for the brand when the new RS3 sedan arrives in New Zealand next year. It’s a development of a Haldex differential that uses multiple disc clutches on each rear axle shaft to distribute the amount of torque sent to each wheel. It helped [&hellip...

Latest police recruit from Skoda likely to end up with office job

August 4, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The latest Skoda Superb being trialled by the New Zealand Police will most likely end up with an office job rather than a Prime One role in the front line. Not because it’s a tenderfoot, more that the Superb iV is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) that – like all PHEVs – does what [&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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