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The week that was: New Kona EV and Subaru BRZ revealed, Victoria to tax EVs, and more

Become an armchair expert with this list of last week’s biggest or most interesting news stories.


The state of Victoria followed South Australia’s lead (pun intended) by coming up with a per-kilometre charge for electric cars in lieu of fuel excise, but they’re still at least 40 per cent cheaper to run than a petrol car. The Australian Automobile Association repeated its calls for a national approach. Heads-up: this is coming to all cars, it’s just starting with electric vehicles. Read all about it here.

NSW authorities will soon begin removing warning signs for mobile speed cameras. The mainstream media trotted out the government line that the move will save 45 lives (let’s check back in a year shall we?). The NSW opposition said the decision is more about revenue raising than reducing the road toll. For the record, no-one is condoning speeding, but there’s more to road safety than speed enforcement. Here’s the story. 

The first 1100 examples of the Toyota GR Yaris coming to Australia are sold out and more cars won’t be here until the second half of next year. Now Facebook is full of people trying to get rich and sell their place in the queue.

The price for the 250 Toyota GR Yaris Rallye editions is yet to be released, but is tipped to cost close to or in excess of $50,000. Heads up: the figure of $49,950 plus on-road costs in the Toyota system is wrong (well, was placed there by mistake). We should know by the end of this week what the real deal is.

The new-generation Subaru BRZ was unveiled in all its glory – without rear-wheel steering but with a 2.4-litre four-cylinder and no turbo. Sad face. Still, the fan boys (and girls) love the new look and 2.4 is better than 2.0. Can you tell I am the only one in the office a bit indifferent to the Subaru BRZ/Toyota 86 twins? Give them a turbo and then we’re talking. (The Toyota 86 is yet to be unveiled but if you’ve seen the Subaru that’s a pretty good guide).

Police in Italy have the best job in the world, and not just because of access to the world's best pizza and coffee (see below). 

Jeep will put a V8 in the Wrangler, but it’s not planned for Australia. Yet. Pretty please? With ice cream on top?

A week after the ACCC highlighted the final 90,000 cars with 110,000 potentially deadly airbags (out of 3 million cars and 3.9 million airbags) we unearthed some figures that showed there are 68,000 car owners who have ignored recall notices or refused to get their cars fixed. Fair dinkum. Getting a ride with someone who is not inclined to follow up life-and-death stuff like this? Check the rego on the IsMyAirbagSafe app to make sure it has had its Takata airbag replaced – or is not on the list of affected vehicles.

Toyota is bringing the next-generation Mirai hydrogen car to Australia next year; 20 examples will be leased to specialist fleets in Melbourne to stop grey importers bringing them in. Well, that’s our guess. Here’s hoping it’s a sign of things to come. Hyundai’s 20 Nexo hydrogen cars are in a shed in Canberra ready to roll once the refuelling station is up and running there.

 

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Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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