Wheels September 2021

“IN THE NEXT DECADE OR TWO, IN-CAR TECHNOLOGY IS GOING TO BE SMARTER, WILDER AND MORE MIND-BLOWING THAN EVER BEFORE” CALL ME A tech laggard, but I just bought my first ‘smart’ television. While it’s yet to tell me the meaning of life or solve the riddle of time travel or even advise where I left my damned keys, it’s been a bit of a game-changer in terms of my TV viewing habits. (Meaning in about two years I’ll need an enormous hole made in my living room wall and extraction by forklift, given also my pandemic eating habits.) As I’m sure you’re aware, with its connection to the internet, it’s TV, but as the Jetsons would watch it, scrolling through apps to watch whatever may take your viewing fancy. Using…

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BMW IS DEVELOPING a new rear-wheel-drive M2 performance coupe, as part of a future compact M car line-up that will include an all-wheel-drive M2 Gran Coupe and a 1 Series with around 300kW. The second-generation M2 coupe, which takes the internal codename G87, is scheduled to go on sale in Europe in 2022, making 2023 likely for Australia. It will bring with it a detuned version of BMW M’s latest six-cylinder petrol engine, sourced from the new M3 and M4. Despite the heavy camouflage of this newly spotted prototype, it looks as if the M2 will feature angular front-end styling influenced more by the Z4 and M8 than the controversially big-grilled M3 and M4. Flared arches, big wheels and a quad-exit exhaust will be the most obvious visual differentiators from the standard…

AS AUDI LOOKS ahead towards a future where electric vehicles reign, its designers have been busy taking their inspiration from models of old. Its next chapter will take influence from three new concept vehicles: the Sky Sphere (pictured), Grand Sphere, and Urban Sphere. The three ‘Spheres’ are an insight into Audi’s future design language and a preview of the technology the German manufacturer will explore moving into an ICE-free world: a sporting cabriolet, a grand tourer, and an SUV-styled concept respectively. At the prestigious Monterey Car Week at Pebble Beach golf course in California, Audi revealed the first of the electrified trio, the Sky Sphere. A radical two-door cabriolet with its rakish bonnet and low-slung, sculpted side profile. This is where that not-so-ancient-history kicks in. The Sky Sphere is influenced by the…

THE INTERNATIONAL Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) published, in late July, a report analysing the life cycle of emissions from Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) as opposed to ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles. But in Australia, there’s a perception to some that our reliance on fossil fuels is still high enough to offset any positive effect an EV might otherwise have. Time, then, for a localised fact check. Key findings from the ICCT’s research includes a claim that EVs can produce anywhere between 19 and 68 percent less emissions than a petrol car depending on where the car was built and driven. Specifically, cars in India and China form the less effective half of this, while Europe and the USA are the upper half. The report splits the average emissions produced for each…

TOYOTA MAY dominate the new-car sales charts but none of its vehicles features among the top 20 fastest sellers in Australia. We’ve used the latest VFACTS industry data to compile a list of the vehicles growing the fastest in the country. Our top 10 focuses only on passenger cars, SUVs and utes, and any model selected has a sales volume exceeding 250 units. We’ve also sifted out models which have big year-to-date percentage increases skewed for a certain reason – such as a new-generation version launching close to the middle of 2020. (See panel, upper right.) 01 MG ZS/ZST ▲ 434% MG’s compact SUV has stormed into the lead of an intensely competitive segment thanks to sales surging from 1704 in the first half of 2020 to 9093 for the same period this year. ZS…