Autos For Us

Hyundai’s transition from internal combustion engine cars to battery-electric vehicles is already well underway, led by the flagship Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6.

The brand’s ‘N’ performance division is now set on injecting some fun factor into battery-powered vehicles.

Its high-powered, dual-motor Ioniq 5 N debut EV is therefore being designed find plenty of favour from the current crop of traditional petrolheads out there.  

“We want to get the petrolheads who still today say they will never drive an EV because this is no fun,” said Hyundai Executive Technical Advisor and all-round N brand guru Albert Biermann.

“So we want to have some of those guys sitting in an Ioniq 5 N and going on track days with the Ioniq 5 N and giving that traditional-thinking petrolhead a good lesson as to what is a fast lap around a race track.

“[It] could be fun to

As reported last week, another Chinese brand is preparing to hit the Australian market in 2023, with dual-cab utes on the launch menu – both diesel and (shortly after) electric.

The company is called JAC Motors (full name Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd), and is State-owned, based in Hefei, and trades on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Little-known here, it sold more than 500,000 vehicles last year and claims to have exported more than 700,000 cars to 130 countries and regions in its history.

As well as making EVs, cars, utes, vans, trucks and buses, it’s also a tier one supplier of chassis, drivetrains and axles. Moreover, the company claims that among its 5000-strong R&D team are a subset dedicated to vehicles for western markets.

JAC also operates a Chinese joint-venture with Volkswagen, and is contracted to produce premium electric vehicles for fast-growing startup Nio through another joint venture announced

Volkswagen expects to record close to zero Golf hatchback sales in the first quarter of 2023 due to a supply issue affecting a specific chip.

A spokesperson for the company told CarExpert that VFACTS figures for the first quarter will consist solely of the unaffected wagon and any leftover hatchback stock.

The missing chip powers the reversing camera, and Volkswagen Australia says it won’t import vehicles without this feature.

Volkswagen is adamant, however, that the Golf isn’t being pulled from the market like the Ford Focus and that this is merely a temporary obstacle.

Customers looking to purchase a Golf and who don’t want to wait will be directed to the T-Roc, which the company says will be in very good supply next year.

The spokesperson also told CarExpert that Volkswagen is no longer the “Golf company” and that even with this supply blackout, the brand is still

Former Holden chief designer, Australian Mike Simcoe, has continued his march into the uppermost levels of management at General Motors (GM).

Starting January 1, Mr Simcoe will move into the role of senior vice-president, Global Design, having previously served as vice-president without the ‘senior’ tag attached.

The new title for GM’s head designer “signifies continued emphasis on design as GM accelerates transformation to an all-electric future”, the company told shareholders.

Mr Simcoe has led GM Global Design since 2016, after his work across Australia and the Asia Pacific drew notice from the very top. Prior to this he was responsible for design in GM’s international markets.

He joined GM in 1983 as a designer at Holden in Australia, became director of GM Asia Pacific Design in 1995 and executive director in 2003, and then moved on to become executive director of GM North American Exterior Design the following year.

Under

A virtual dual-clutch gearbox (DCT) dubbed ‘N e-shift’ is among the most interesting of a suite of technologies being developed for Hyundai’s first high-performance electric vehicle (EV), the Ioniq 5 N.

In development onboard the N brand’s ‘rolling lab’ concept known as the RN22e, said N e-shift feature seeks to match the overall feel of a paddle-shift action of the DCT in a petrol-fuelled N model.

There’s also intended to be an accompanying sound that mirrors the engine revs right up to the bap, bap, bap of the rev limiter, via speakers. At least, that’s the part the engineers are working on now in readiness for sign-off in around April or May 2023.

“The idea is to come pretty close to the feel and sound of the DCT in the i30 N hatch,” said Hyundai Executive Technical Advisor and all-round N brand guru Albert Biermann.

“This is what we want