Hello and welcome to Overdrive, a program about the wonderful world of motoring and transport.
The times each story appears in the program are noted (mm:ss)
News
- Car sales grow in a topsy turvy market (1:30)
- It costs a lot just to have your car sitting in the driveway (2:28)
- Australia’s Warrego hydrogen ute claims big pre-orders (3:31)
- An Australian council approves trial of kerbside EV charging (4:33)
- Electric Mustang claims Guinness records (5:30)
Feature Interview
- Subaru is teasing us about the facts and features of the newest BRZ sports car. We talk to their managing director. (6:39)
Motoring Minute
- Genesis QV80 (16:29)
Road test
- Toyota has launched a new big Landcruiser. Alan Zurvas gives us the latest (17:34)
Motoring Minute
- Kia Niro PHEV (22:47)
Quirky News
- Brian Smith and I discuss how a quest for more parking led to the Florida apartment catastrophe (23:50)
Car sales grow in a topsy turvy market
Cars sales figures for August showed good growth compared to the troubled 2020 figure.
Toyota has a great month and in second place, Mazda, have year-to-date sales well above the industry average.
Hyundai, Ford and Kia are in a very close fight for third spot.
The volatility with lockdowns and difficulties in supply is typified by sports car sales. There are 47 different sports cars listed in the Vfacts figures, although a few are on the way out.
The Ford Mustang is the big winner with 28% of sales and 52% of the segment below $80,000 year to date.
The Mercedes C-Class and the BMW 4 Series coupes and convertibles hold the next two positions.
Subaru is building up to launch their BRZ starting at $40,000 plus on-road costs. New model releases add a further element of fluctuation to the figures.
It costs a lot just to have your car sitting in the driveway
Victoria’s motoring club, the RACV have published their Annual Vehicle Operating Costs Survey based on vehicles traveling 15,000km a year.
The cheapest car they analysed was the MG3 Core which cost about $630 a month,
The most expensive was the Nissan Patrol V8 at over $2,300 a month.
In terms of daily costs, the Kia Picanto – very similar to the MG3 costs nearly $22.00 a day while the Toyota Land Cruiser 70 Series the second most expensive car tested costs over $67.00 a day.
But the real story is the split between fixed costs (depreciation, loan interest, rego, and servicing) versus the operating costs (fuel and tyres).
A base model Corolla for example costs $3.65 a day to operate but the fixed cost just to have it sitting in the driveway is over $24.00 a day.
Australia’s Warrego hydrogen ute claims big pre-orders
A number of major companies have continued to research and develop powering electric vehicles by a hydrogen fuel cell.
An Australian startup H2X, is banking on hydrogen as a significant source of power for transport.
The Warrego ute is their first vehicle with a view to having a fleet including more light cars through to agricultural vehicles.
The Warrego will come in three option levels and has a 500km driving range and a quick refuelling time of 3-5 minutes.
The company says it has 200 orders worth $50 million on the Warrego which have come from “several significant energy companies and a number of private buyers in Australia and abroad, including the Netherlands, Germany, and Malaysia.
To isolate hydrogen typically from, water molecules takes a lot of energy that could come from renewable sources and does not produce the toxic impacts currently associated with manufacturing batteries.
Australian council approves trial of kerbside EV charging
One of the significant stumbling blocks for some people to take up electric vehicles is a lack of off-street parking you home location where you can secure the charging apparatus.
Now a Melbourne company KerbCharge has a patent pending on an individualised kerbside EV charging outlet that is supplied from a home’s electricity supply.
According to a report in The Driven Newsletter, a dedicated charging cable runs under the footpath in a conduit from a pop-up charging outlet back to the house where the Electric Vehicle supply equipment sits.
The lead inside the Kerb Charge is only electrically live when the car is charging. The Kerb Charge box is also designed to be flood-proof.
Port Phillip Council in inner Melbourne is said to have approved trials of the unit.
Kerb Charge is only for personal use by the residents of the house.
Electric Mustang claims Guinness records
The newest electric car from Ford, the Mustang Mach-E, has become a triple Guinness World Records holder, adding records for shortest charging time and fewest charge stops to its existing record for lowest energy consumption.
Despite using the Mustang nameplate this is not an electric version of the world-renowned two-door sport car.
The Mustang-E is a five-door cross-over SUV. It first appeared in November 2019 and went on the market in the US in December 2020. The car won the North American SUV of the Year Award.
The record breaking journey was from the northern-most point of Scotland to the southern tip of England. The trip of over 1,300 kms required two main charging stops.
While the result was 30% better than its official range, Ford is striving to break the image that the public thinks a typical electric car has a range of about 240 km.
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Originally broadcast 11 September 2021
