Prestige & Luxury Cars

BMW's X3 is one of the German manufacturer's most successful models in terms of sales volume. So, does the premium offering in the latest G45 generation hit another sweet-spot for families wanting sporty practicality?

Audi is hoping more power is the key to unlocking more sales for its e-tron GT electric sports sedan.

Porsche is adding some filling to its 911 line-up.

For the lucky few that will own it, the Aston Martin Vanquish is the ultimate expression of luxury. But is it a good car? It may be big, bold and powerful, but the flagship of the range offers a lot more than just a thundering V12 engine. We review the British machine that drives like an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove.

Ooft, Ferrari has done it again. The Prancing Horse has taken the covers off its new Amalfi coupe, which replaces the Roma in its line-up.

It’s utter rubbish that a space saver saves enough weight to warrant it. My full size spare weighs 7kg more than the space saver. I threw out the saver wheel and carry the full size spare in my Audi A5 Sportback. I weigh 79 kg, plenty of drivers weigh 7kg more.

Mercedes-Benz is bolstering its electric car range with a couple of special editions.Dubbed the EQA 250+ City Edition and EQB 250+ City Edition, the duo pair some flashy exterior styling with a more curated equipment list.Both are priced to sit underneath the luxury car tax threshold, which opens the door to them being exempt from the fringe benefits tax when they are acquired on a novated lease.The EQA compact electric SUV starts at $80,700 (before on-road costs) and the EQB compact seven-seat electric SUV kicks off at $85,400.Both ride on 19-inch alloy wheels and have the AMG Line exterior styling pack included as standard. Dark tined glass, LED headlights and a wide range of driver safety tech.Inside there are synthetic leather and cloth wrapped seats with power adjustment for the front seat passengers. This is paired with a Nappa leather steering wheel.There is a panoramic sunroof, heated front seats, wireless device charging, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and ambient lighting.Both include augmented reality navigation and a finger print reader to access individual driver settings.The variants are powered by a single electric motor that makes 140kW and 385Nm and drives the front wheels.A 70.5kWh battery delivers a driving range of up to 578km in the EQA and 564km in the EQB. Both ranges are calculated on the more lenient NEDC test cycle rather than the benchmark WLTP test regime.Both models come with one year of free charging at Chargefox public stations.

American giant GM, which is in the midst of launching Cadillac as an EV-only brand in Australia, is determined to take on China, and win, when it comes to battery technology, announcing a new way of “layering” its batteries, which can reduce the number of cells by as much as 75 per cent, reducing both weight and cost.

The hardest, fastest M4 that has ever been has arrived in the shape of the M4 CS, which sheds weight, increases power and activates just about every performance add-on you can think of. In less happy news, it also ups the price significantly. So is the BMW M4 CS the best pound-for-pound performance car around? We put it to the test to find out.

Mercedes-Benz has entered the EV power wars.The German brand is the latest carmaker to show off a tri-motor monster in the form of its Concept GT XX, which previews its future zero-emissions flagship.It is claimed the GT XX will replace the Mercedes-AMG GT-4 Door Coupe and be the most powerful AMG yet.This puts it on a collision course with new Chinese rivals such as the Xiaomi SU7 and Denza Z9.It uses three electric motors — which are coolly called axial-flux motors — to make a whopping 1000kW-plus. Mercedes claims these motors are about three times as powerful as conventional electric motors.Mercedes-AMG boss, Michael Schiebe, said the new performance battery delivers a previously unimagined level of performance and endurance.“We’re bringing groundbreaking technology that redefines high performance. And the best thing is that this car is a true AMG with every fibre of its being,” said Schiebe.“With our high-tech axial flux motor, we’re delivering a revolutionary new drive that is unparalleled in terms of power density, weight and packaging.”Its 114kWh battery can accept up to 850kW of charge. That charging rate is outrageously fast and could effectively charge the battery to full in less than 10 minutes or add about 400km of driving range in five minutes. No such charging infrastructure exists anywhere in the world to deliver that much juice.It’s not the speediest charging claim out there, though.BYD claims its Super e-Platform can facilitate charging speeds of up to 1000kW, which the brand says will deliver 400kms range in just five minutes.The battery chemistry is NCMA (Nickel-Cobalt-Manganese-Aluminium), which is an evolution of the high-capacity NMC batteries found in many long-legged EVs. Mercedes-Benz claims this cell composition delivers an energy density of 300Wh per kilogram. This makes it superior to current batteries but below the 400Wh/kg to 500Wh/kg target for solid-state batteries.It is also extremely aerodynamic with a drag coefficient of about 0.2, which makes it one of the slipperiest vehicles out there.Mercedes-Benz is planning on undertaking various record attempts in the next year with a prototype vehicle before the production version launches in 2026.No word on price, but expect it to be mega and production to be limited.