Every time a manufacturer promises a bargain EV, we usually end up with hollow plastic doors, anemic powertrains, and infotainment screens smaller than a retro handheld gaming console (Dacia Spring anyone?). But in China, the story seems to be completely different. BYD revealed the 2027 Seal 06, and it comes in twelve different configurations from plug-in hybrids to pure electric,… Read more…

Not that long ago, you could honestly class the affordable EVs as penal colony transport – appliances designed by bean-counters who thought fun was an unnecessary option. Then Kia changed the rules. After storming the stage with the slick EV6 and the family-hauling EV9, the South Korean brand turned its sights to democratizing electric power – the 2027 Kia EV3… Read more…

I used to have a soft spot for Jaguar. The XF especially was a proper West End theater – you pressed the start button, and after a brief pause, the gear selector rose out of the center console and the hidden climate vents rotated open as if they were stage props. As long as it all worked, it was pure… Read more…

Xiaomi’s latest accounting problem feels like the company is trying to sprint up the escalator that is going down – let me explain. After storming out of the gate with the SU7 and YU7, the Chinese electronics titan now finds itself staring at a scorecard that does not look good. Delivering 31,267 vehicles in July sounds impressive, but that’s only… Read more…

The unspoken rule among German automakers used to be simple: under-promise on paper, over-deliver in real life. In the gasoline era, it meant a twin-turbo V8 rated at 500 HP would be closer to 550 – perfect. We came to expect that from pretty much every new car. Unfortunately, in the wild west of EVs, official EPA and WLTP ratings… Read more…

Chinese EV makers hadn’t made incremental progress in the last few years – they had teleported into a completely different era. One of the first to realize that is Volkswagen. The German auto giant is realizing that engineering fine machinery in Wolfsburg and shipping it to buyers in the East is officially coming to an end. German newspaper Handelsblatt reported… Read more…

Detroit has been making cars long enough to learn that nothing tests a carmaker’s resolve quite like a sudden shift in consumer trends. A couple of years ago, you couldn’t pass an automotive press conference without hearing corporate executives preach the gospel of total electrification, backing up their sermon with eye-watering checks for mega-factories. The grand plan in New Carlisle,… Read more…

In case you were wondering about Tesla’s much-hyped, constantly delayed Roadster, the company’s Chief Designer, Franz von Holzhausen, has two words for you: “very soon”. Well, technically, the full quote is “Yes, very soon”. That’s it. Seriously. He went on Jay Leno’s Garage and, when asked about the Roadster, he said those three magic words: “Yes, very soon” (at around… Read more…

Mercedes revealed its 4-door AMG GT coupe back in May, which is the carmaker’s most powerful vehicle yet, outputting 1,169 hp in the GT 63 version. During the announcement, Mercedes hinted at an AMG SUV counterpart that will employ the same technologies as the 4-door coupe. Well, the German car manufacturer teased the new AMG SUV on Instagram, so the… Read more…

Japan’s kei car segment has long been an impenetrable automotive fortress. Suzuki, Daihatsu, Honda, and Nissan have guarded this hyper-regulated, quirky micro-universe like a Holy Grail. Foreign auto execs looked at Japan’s strict dimension rules, and walked away – it simply wasn’t worth the effort of building a specialized box to navigate Tokyo’s tightest back alleys. But BYD never saw… Read more…

Standing under the blazing Austin sun outside Gigafactory Texas, a gold-painted Tesla Cybercab caught my eye in a set of newly released photos, its butterfly door propped skyward beside the Lone Star flag. At first glance, it looks like a sleek, futuristically minimalist coupe – until you glance at the roof panel and notice a flat, low-profile Starlink antenna neatly… Read more…

Ever since electric cars stepped out of the golf-cart realm, we’ve been promised that the miracle battery was just around the corner. You know the pitch – the power pack that weighs next to nothing, charges before you can finish a sandwich, and never, ever catches fire. Solid-state tech has been promised for years – and somehow it always is… Read more…

When a company’s CEO personally hands over the keys to the 20,000th unit of an executive flagship SUV only 73 days after launching it, you know something unusual is happening. That is what William Li did in Fujian, delivering a fresh ES9 to tea tycoon Xiao Wenhua – with basketball icon Yao Ming having to wait over two months just… Read more…

The pace of the Chinese electric vehicle arms race is relentless. The moment a brand has settled into its rhythm, it pulls out the drafting paper and drops a fresh design directly onto the showroom floor. Case in point: Avatr. The joint effort between Changan Automobile, tech powerhouse Huawei, and battery titan CATL isn’t letting rival tech-darlings steal all the… Read more…

How times change in Wolfsburg and Shanghai. A decade ago, the idea that Volkswagen – pretty much the king of global automotive engineering – would turn to a young Chinese tech startup to co-develop its core electric vehicle architectures was unthinkable. Yet here we are staring at filings from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, admiring the newly revealed… Read more…

The Smart #2 was recently spotted undergoing testing ahead of its launch at the Paris Motor Show in October. In case you’re not aware, this is an EV that’s very much inspired by the original Smart ForTwo city car. It has a very similar shape and size, but of course it’s electric. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology… Read more…

There is something wonderfully absurd about a 3,009 kg wedge of cold-rolled stainless steel tearing up the black stuff with up to 845 ponies going wild. Yes, it does look like it was drawn on a napkin during a late-night sci-fi marathon and engineered by folks who take subtlety as a personal insult. But for all its angular bravado and… Read more…

Back in my day, car camping was all about pitching a soggy tent next to a rusty hatchback, eating cold beans, and praying a raccoon wouldn’t steal my boots or leave a nasty surprise in the said tent. And for a very long time, things haven’t changed much. But in China It turns out China has a completely different idea… Read more…

Smart used to mean one thing: a plastic-bodied, two-seat egg that you could park facing the curb just to prove a point. Those funky little city buggies were special in a weird, urban-chaos sort of way. Fast forward to today, and the union between Mercedes-Benz styling and Geely hardware has completely rewritten that playbook. The Smart #1 crossover arrived a… Read more…

Every time an automaker promises a holy grail technology that will magically vanish range anxiety, my cynical petrolhead instincts take the better of me. We have been hearing about solid-state batteries for what feels like a lifetime – hyped as the mythical energy density revolution that will give us 2,000 km road trips without making our cars weigh as much… Read more…