Articles by Stephen Ottley

The list of all-electric SUV options for a reasonable price has grown with the arrival of the all-new GAC Aion V Luxury.

The GAC Aion V Premium is the latest mid-size electric SUV to enter the market. The Chinese brand is going head-to-head with the likes of the Geely EX5 and BYD Atto 3 with this small SUV.

Genesis wants to build a better Porsche 911. Or, at least, its own 911.

GAC, otherwise known as the Guangzhou Automobile Group, is the latest in a seemingly endless armada of new car brands arriving in Australia from China. So what will make it stand out from the crowd? We drive its new Aion V electric SUV to see if it can make an impact on the Australian market, or will it just be another new arrival quickly forgotten.

Just because SUVs dominate the current car market doesn’t mean you have to like them.

Hyundai is confident its newest model will score a five-star ANCAP safety rating.

It’s not breaking news that Chinese car makers are putting the more established brands to the test in almost every segment of the new car market… but there is an exception.

Genesis seems like an unlikely brand to offer a ute, but the South Korean luxury firm has revealed it considered a dual-cab.The Hyundai-Kia Group has been relatively slow in entering the ute contest, with the Kia Tasman only launching in 2025 and Hyundai still several years away from its first dual-cab, despite joining forces with General Motors to speed up the process. Speaking at the recent launch of the new Genesis Magma performance line-up, Genesis Chief Creative Officer Luc Donkerwolke was asked if the brand would consider a dual-cab ute as part of its expansion. His answer was a surprise, revealing that not only has the brand considered it, it has created a design study on a potential ute model.“ Well if you wait until the January issue of Auto & Design you will see the pickup study we did a couple of years ago,” Donkerwolke said. “We do a lot of things that we don't show, but in this Auto & Design, I have decided to show some unseen projects, and we did consider pickup as well.”Despite undertaking this preliminary consideration, the Genesis team ultimately decided it wasn’t the right fit for a brand that is trying to grow in the luxury car space amid competition from far more-established brands. Crucially, he didn’t rule it out in the future, and also revealed he has a personal soft-spot for ‘pickups’.“We have decided it was not the right time yet,” Donkerwolke said. “We have some homework to do. We still have to take care of the core business, the core segments. And who knows, maybe why not? I mean, I can only tell you as a car fanatic, I have a lot of sports cars in my barn. I have also a very wide pickup as well.“So even if I'm considered as a very suspicious marginal in Europe for having a pickup with more than 600-horsepower. It just tells you that all horizons and especially mine would not limit itself for the normal segments. But this said, one thing at a time. We first do the homework, the main, and then we will look into what all the satellites we can plug in onto the brand.”But while it’s no ute for Genesis right now, given Kia already has the Tasman and Hyundai is working on several ute/pickups both independently and with General Motors for several different markets, there is potential for the luxury brand to revisit its ute in the not-to-distant future.

Car companies typically focus on selling vehicles customers want to buy. But Volkswagen openly admits its newest model is unlikely to be a big seller.

Volkswagen has dropped plans to build an electric version of its Amarok ute.