Car News

A new car-sharing service for the owners of Melbourne apartments is aiming to drive electric vehicle adoption in Australia. Residents in Melbourne's EQ Tower will be able to borrow a pair of Hyundai Kona Electrics hourly, or for an entire day. Although pricing hasn't been finalised, the starting rate will be $15 per hour, with no extra charge for distance covered.

Ford of Europe is believed to be developing a new mid- to large-sized crossover to go head-to-head with the likes of the Subaru Outback and Volkswagen Passat Alltrack – according to coverage out of the UK. Autocar says the Blue Oval's European division will introduce the new vehicle around 2021, and will effectively replace the Mondeo (above), Galaxy and S-Max currently available in the region.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has secured a £500 million ($884 million) loan guarantee from the British Government, having last week announced plans to build its next-generation electric vehicles in the UK. The guarantee was made by the UK Export Finance agency, and is designed to give the struggling carmaker a leg-up in the race to develop electric vehicles, according to reporting by The Guardian.

BMW will launch the 3 Series Touring with a single engine in Australia, revealing pricing and specs for the 330i Touring ahead of its arrival in October. Where the sedan is available in four-cylinder diesel 320d guise (soon to be joined by plug-in hybrid and six-cylinder variants in September) the more practical (but lower-volume) wagon will only be offered with the most popular 3 Series engine.

Volkswagen has revealed its next-generation mainstream manual transmission, designed to be more efficient and more SUV-friendly than before. The MQ281 transmission will serve initially serve in the new Passat, although Volkswagen's updated rival to the Mazda 6 and Toyota Camry won't be offered with three pedals in Australia.