New Cars, New Year.

Happy New Year to you all!  2023 sees some brand new cars coming into view, and we’re set to observe a considerable increase in the number of EVs sold on our shores.  Here’s a brief look at some of the exciting cars and SUVs you can get your hands on in the near future!

Alfa Romeo Tonale

Here’s the first of the Alfas that take the special brand into EV mode.  The Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid kicks it off with its hybrid engine offering the new 48-volt hybrid propulsion system.  You’d expect an Alfa to be sporty, and the nicely designed compact SUV delivers on this front.  Comfortable interiors and decent technology make this a good way of upgrading into 2023.

BMW iX1

The smallest X model from BMW comes in as the X1, and the iX1 is the EV model with a battery range up over 400 km.  Nicely laid out interiors, an athletic driving style (typical Beemer), and a good dollop of performance make this a great new compact SUV.

BYD Atto 3

The BYD Atto 3 is a new kid on the block for Australia.  Being an electric medium-sized SUV with a decent range makes this an efficient EV for the new year.  The Atto 3 also offers a comfy interior and plenty of the latest technology and safety features.

CUPRA Born

CUPRA cars are exciting.  They have plenty of performance and are generally a well-priced product with high-end features.  This new model called the CUPRA Born is an EV with a handsome range of beyond 500 km.  The CUPRA Born is an exciting car to look at, and it comes with advanced technology and great connectivity.

Ford E-Transit

Ford’s lovable Transit has a new ticker with the latest vans now offering electric power.  This is a brand new, full-size, pure-electric E-Transit that features a 68 kWh battery and a driving range of up to 317 km.  Ford say that it is possible to fast-charge the E-Transit from 15% to 80% in a bit over 30 minutes.

GWM Tank 300

One of the best vehicles to come out of 2023 will be the impressive looking GWM Tank 300.  Doesn’t it make a statement!  The Tank is powered by a 2.0-litre petrol-electric hybrid system, and the internal-combustion engine offers a juicy 180 kW.  Nappa leather, all the tech, and very handy off-road makes this a hugely appealing.

Lexus RX

Toyota has their luxury Lexus brand offering their latest RX.  If you’re wanting a new hybrid, these are some of the best ones out there.  Toyota make a great hybrid powertrain with smooth performance and impressive efficiency.  The RX interior sees an updated luxury interior design with ever-impressive build quality.  The RX is roomy too and very comfortable.

Maserati Grecale

Maserati is becoming ever more affordable.  That’s a great thing because they make great cars.  The new Maserati Grecale is a front-engine, medium-sized luxury SUV that comes with the promise of plenty of performance.  Three engines are available: two 2.0-litre petrol motors and a 3.0-litre V6 petrol.  Generous on the equipment levels, the Grecale will be rewarding to drive.

MG4

MG offers the new MG4 hatchback this year.  It is an affordable electric hatchback that has been packed full of innovation, style, technology, and an impressive 440 km driving range.

Nissan X-Trail E-Power Hybrid

Nice to look at, and equally at home off-road as it is on, the Nissan X-Trail E-Power Hybrid SUV is very comfortable and very well-equipped.  Rear cargo capacity in the 5 seat version of this awesome SUV is 575 litres (super handy for a family).  A 7-seat option is also available.  The entry point model is a mild hybrid version and uses a 1.5-litre petrol most of the time.  The other powerplant uses the same 1.5-liter ICE, but it doesn’t connect to the wheels directly.  Instead, it becomes the electrical generator of the system that works in unison with a small battery operating as a buffer.  The wheels are fed power via electric motors.

Renault Kangoo

Renault’s new Kangoo definitely can do, especially with its brand new E-Tech EV versions becoming available for the Australian market.  This will be Australia’s cheapest electric van.  The E-Tech has a 90 kW/245 Nm electric motor that drives the front wheels via a single-speed transmission.  You should easily run about town for well over 250 km before needing to recharge.

Keep your eyes open for these new models travelling our roads and on showroom floors across Australia.  Also keep your ears open via Private Fleet, where we’ll keep you up to date with what other new models are coming our way shortly.  All the best for 2023!

AMG One Nürburgring Record

Doesn’t this car look immense!  The AMG One has become the fastest road-legal production car to run around Germany’s famous track, the Nürburgring.  The track is just shy of 21 kilometres long and is full of challenging corners with some scintillatingly quick straights thrown in for good measure.

The AMG One’s two-seat cockpit is accessed via doors that open up on the diagonal – forwards and upwards. The car’s seats are moulded into the structure of the car to save weight and are made of a magma grey nappa leather and black Dinamica microfibre.  The backrest can be adjusted to two different angles.  Despite the minimalist design, the AMG One comes with features like climate control, electric windows, an infotainment system, and a rear-view camera.

It is quite a car!  The exterior looks stunning, with the exterior having an airbrush finish to it that features hundreds of little three-pointed stars – like on the current Mercedes Formula One cars.  The car’s front wheels boast 19-inch rims, and the rear rims are 20-inch.  The push-rod spring struts are aluminium and can be adapted to three settings: Comfort, Sport and Sport Plus.  Anti-lock brakes, a three-stage stability control system, and a nine-stage traction control system all work in unison to keep the AMG One firmly in control and well-planted.  Shod with the best Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R M01 tyres, there is a load of grip to be had.

The car’s ride height can be hydraulically dropped 37 mm at the front and 30 mm at the rear.  A Drag Reduction System has been implemented into the design for reducing downforce by around 20%.  The drag reduction works by closing the louvres over the front wheels and retracting the rear wing so that the car can accelerate to higher speeds more rapidly.  This feature, of course, is deactivated automatically when the driver hits the carbon ceramic brakes or takes on a corner.

Designed with a carbon-fibre monocoque structure, the platform helps to reduce the weight and enhance the car’s stiffness.  AMG has managed to keep the kerb weight of the AMG One down to below 1700 kg.  A lot of special work has been done in the aerodynamics department.  That’s why the AMG One has an active front splitter, a massive deployable rear wing, louvres that are visible over the top of each of the front wheels, and even a distinctive fin that runs down the backbone of the car.  All of these important components are there to enhance the flow of the air over and around the car.

The AMG One has four electric drive motors, and Mercedes say that the car has an all-electric range of 18.1 km.  Two of the electric motors (located at the front) also work a torque vectoring system across the front axle.  When the ICE engine is running at the same time as the electric motors, the car is in full AWD mode.  The ICE motor is a 1.6-litre turbocharged unit, derived from the 2015 Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s car.  This engine runs alongside the MGU-K hybrid system, giving the AMG One a combined power output of 782 kW.

The AMG One’s official performance stats include a 0-100 km/h time of 2.9 seconds, a 0-200 km/h sprint time of just 7.0 seconds, and a top speed of 352 km/h.

Maro Engel was the car’s driver for the record lap time, and he was able to run the AMG One around the Nürburgring in a record time of 6 min: 35.183 seconds.  This time is eight seconds faster than the previous record set last year by Lars Kern in a Porsche 911 GT2 RS MR.  Maro mentioned that the track conditions weren’t ideal at the time the record was set, suggesting that the AMG One could definitely run the lap faster still with better track conditions.

Remember this BMW?

Remember the Batmobile?  An absolute classic BMW that has been set in motoring history is the old BMW 3.0 CSL.  Known as the Batmobile, the quick and very unique 3.0 CSL BMW Coupe was first manufactured around 1973.  At that time, the car was raced in the European Touring Car Championship, which it won.  In fact, the car was so good that it won the Championship for four years on the trot.

As a celebration, 50 years on from the release of the original Batmobile and as a 50 year celebration of their M division vehicles, BMW are making a very limited line of these brand new BMW 3.0 CSL Coupes that house the most powerful 6-cylinder engine BMW has ever produced for a road-legal vehicle.  Only 50 of the cars will be made, making it an insanely rare vehicle on the road, while also ensuring that it won’t be purchased cheaply.

The new BMW 3.0 CSL comes with a six-speed manual gearbox, RWD, and 412 Nm of power.  The engine has been based on the sweet 3.0-litre twin-turbo engine that is used in the current BMW M4 CSL but with a lift in power.  The BMW M4 can run through the 0-100 km/h dash in a bit over four seconds, and the rare 3.0 CSL will likely better that.

The latest Batmobile, like the M4 CSL, comes with only the two front seats and no back seats.  The interior inside the BMW 3.0 CSL Coupe is similar to the M4 CSL’s in structure and flow, yet there are plenty of special logos, detailing and design features to hark it back to the original.  For instance, you’ll notice the logos on the headrests and some new horizontal stripes on the backrests match the looks of the old 3.0 CSL.

Out on the exterior is where you’ll find the design and bodywork really harking back to the original version, so the pair of round intakes on the sides of the bumper were inspired by the classic CSL’s design, so too were the vertical carbon fins that run down each side of the bonnet.  And check out that chunky hindquarter where the rear wheel arches are beautifully flared and full, and sitting on top of the boot lid is a nice square spoiler to complete the stunning picture.  The majority of the new car’s bodywork will have been constructed from carbon-fibre reinforced plastic with plenty of the parts having been made by hand.

A brand new BMW 3.0 CSL will be one of the rarest BMWs you can buy, and its also one of the most expensive.  Pretty special though!

How Does Autonomous Emergency Braking Work?

With Autonomous Emergency Braking, or AEB for short, now effectively in just about every new car, it’s become a benchmark requirement in much the same way that ABS and traction control did all those years ago. Obviously, its impact cannot be appreciated enough, reducing all sorts of accidents and saving lives. But how exactly does AEB work? Let’s take a look.

The Basics of AEB

There are three attributes that ultimately play a role in AEB systems.

Autonomous: the system acts independently of the driver to avoid or mitigate the accident.
Emergency: the system will intervene only in a critical situation.
Braking: the system tries to avoid the accident by applying the brakes.

What Does AEB Rely On?

Most AEB systems use radar, a pair of cameras, and/or lidar-based technology to identify potential collision risks ahead of the car.

This information is combined with what the car knows of its own travel speeds thanks to internal sensors and direction of travel. It determines whether or not a critical, or potentially dangerous situation, is developing.

If a potential collision is detected, AEB systems generally, though not exclusively, first try to avoid the impact by warning the driver that action is needed. This could be in the form of a visual warning, such as dashboard mounted flashing lights, or physical warnings.

If no action is taken, and a collision is still expected, the system will then apply the brakes. Some systems apply full braking force. Others may be more subtle in application. Either way, the intention is to reduce the car’s speed. Some systems deactivate as soon as they detect avoidance action being taken by the driver

How AEB Has Evolved?

Most early AEB systems were configured to warn of larger objects such as cars. Over time, these systems have been refined to incorporate features like pedestrian-detection, which is arguably just as much a risk on the roads.

Unlike the early days, where AEB was mostly reserved for passenger vehicles, today you will find it in just about any type of vehicle. Whether it be a sedan, wagon, city car, hatch, ute, or SUV – the technology is firmly embedded across the board. And that is thanks to its significant influence in improving on-road safety.

In 2015, ANCAP and Euro NCAP found that the inclusion of AEB led to a 38% reduction in rear-end crashes at low speed. This percentage will have only increased since then given the advancements that have been made. That firmly puts it in the category of being one of the most important safety attributes you’ll find in any car on the road.