Car News

US car giant Jeep says it has no plans to walk away from right-hand-drive markets – even though its rival General Motors will retreat from Australia, Thailand and New Zealand by the end of 2021 after getting out of the UK, South Africa and India over the past three years. The man in charge of Jeep in Australia, Kevin Flynn, said he has been advised by parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles that it is committed to right-hand-drive production.

Cupra, the performance division of Spanish marque SEAT – a brand not seen in Australia for decades – has revealed its 2020 Formentor crossover coupe-style SUV. The Formentor marks the first exclusive model under the Cupra banner. As with the wider Seat and Cupra lines, it won't be offered in Australia. Available with a full-petrol or high performance plug-in hybrid powertrain, the Formentor looks to blend the practicality of an SUV with the performance Cupra is known for.

New vehicle sales in Australia fell double digits yet again in February, to 79,940 units (a reduction of 10.3 per cent over the same month in 2019). It’s now been 23 successive months of fewer sales than the corresponding month in the previous year, and sales are now the lowest they’ve been since 2011 when the Global Financial Crisis was intimately shaping purchasing behaviour.

French company EP Tender has revealed a novel way of extending the range of an electric vehicle (EV), with a tiny trailer filled with batteries. The range-extending trailer houses 60kWh batteries that can add 350 miles (563 kilometres) of range and be charged while driving.

British brand Bentley has returned to its coach-building roots by creating a limited edition two-seat open-top car that will cost in excess of $3 million – £1.5 million plus taxes. Just 12 examples of the Bentley Mulliner Bacalar will be built and each one is already spoken for despite the epic price tag, which is approximately seven times the £200,000 cost (including taxes) of the UK of the Bentley Continental GT on which it is based.