Car News

Order books for the hotly-anticipated Honda E city electric vehicle have opened in the UK, Germany, Norway and France, ahead of the car's production debut in the second quarter of 2020. A dedicated online platform has been launched, allowing keen customers to reserve their place in the production queue with a refundable deposit. In the UK, that's £800 ($1490).

Toyota has revealed the all-new Granvia people mover, which will arrive in Australia before the end of the year to replace the ageing Tarago. Pitched as a "luxury eight-seater wagon aimed at hospitality, corporate and family buyers", the Granvia is to the HiAce what the Volkswagen Multivan is to the Transporter.

Ford has revealed a revisedversion of the car that could have been the new Falcon. The Chinese-market Ford Taurus has had its first facelift since going on sale in 2015. Despite being exclusive to China, the Ford Taurus produced for the Middle Kingdom received significant input from Ford Australia during the design and development process, based on the local arm's know-how from nearly six decades of Falcon production.

BMW has announced running changes for the 5 Series range this week, headlined by a new V8 engine for the M550i xDrive M Performance model. From July 2019, the M550i xDrive will get a new-generation engine seen in the M850i xDrive, a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 making a healthy 390kW of power and 750Nm of torque – not that far off the M5 Competition's 460kW and 750Nm outputs.

Safety isn't really a sexy thing. But it's something we take for granted, despite the fact safety features have led to a progressive reduction in road fatalities over previous decades (although, some think it has more to do with speed cameras).