Car News

The wraps have come off the Ford Police Interceptor Utility, giving the world its camouflage-free look at the 2020 Ford Explorer. Thanks to the car's black paint job, as well as its police livery, lighting and bull bar, a lot of Explorer's styling details are obscured from view.

Mark Reuss, who was once the managing director of Holden, has been appointed as the president of General Motors, effectively immediately. He replaces Dan Ammann, who has been president since 2014. Ammann has stepped down to take control of Cruise, the company's autonomous driving division. Although he now occupies the president's chair, Reuss will keep his existing roles as the head of the Global Product Group, Global Quality and Cadillac.

Toyota Australia (TMCA) is aiming for one-in-five of all vehicles it sells to be fuel-saving petrol-electric hybrid cars, within a time frame of just two years. Based on current sales volumes, this equates to about 42,000 sales of Toyota hybrid cars in 2020, figures that seemed scarcely plausible even a few years ago given Australia’s slow take-up of environmentally friendly cars.

Holden and Ford have wound back the clock more than half a century, posting their lowest sales since 1961 and 1966 respectively, according to official figures for 2018 released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. Holden sold 60,751 vehicles in 2018 compared to 58,710 in 1961, while Ford sold 69,081 vehicles last year versus 68,520 in 1966, according to historical figures from Australian Automotive Intelligence which has archived Bureau of Statistics data.

Details about the powertrain of the next-generation Mercedes-AMG A45 have been published by a German online insurance website. The details are available now to anyone trying to obtain an insurance quote from HUK24. According to the insurer, the A45 will be available in both standard and S forms. The base AMG A45 will have a turbocharged 2.0-litre — 1991 cubic centimetres to be exact — engine cranking out 285kW.