Hello there, Electrification, road safety, recruitment and training, and market strategy are the key themes of Autotalk this month. The road to zero emissions and zero road deaths is both a threat and an opportunity for the automotive sector to grapple with.
Toyota New Zealand is celebrating 35 years as the dominant car brand in New Zealand’s automotive market and has reported strong growth in both Toyota and Lexus new vehicle sales and sustainability developments in 2022.
To champion its message of connection by uniting the LGBTQIA+ community in one ‘Big Love Story’, Mini has partnered with Sydney WorldPride 2023 on a global campaign.
In this issue, Polestar opened its first retail space in Melbourne at the Chadstone Shopping Centre just in time for Christmas.
An Australian solar-powered electric car, designed and built by university students, has claimed a provisional Guinness World Record by going 1000km on a single charge in under 12 hours. Representing UNSW Sydney, the Sunswift 7 posted a time of 11 hours 53.32 minutes for the distance at the Australian Automotive Research Centre (AARC) in Wensleydale, Victoria. That equates to an average speed of nearly 85km/h and unofficially secured the Sunswift Racing team the record for the ‘Fastest EV over 1000km on a single charge’. The official honour – and Guinness World Record certificate – will be conferred once timing information and car telemetry data has been analysed and confirmed by a team of experts. Sunswift team manager and UNSW mechanical engineering student Andrea Holden says she was delighted with the car’s performance and ecstatic to be part of a world record attempt. “It feels very weird to think that we’ve helped to make something that’s the best in the entire world,” Holden says. “Two years ago, when we started to build this car, everything was going into lockdown and there were a lot of difficult moments. “But it’s been so rewarding to see the whole team come together and make so much progress and get us to this point.
The Lexus brand is initiating a safety recall for more than 14,301 vehicles in Australia and 1064 vehicles in New Zealand due to an assembly issue with the fuel tank vent tube. The safety recall concerns GS, GS F, IS, RC and RC F vehicles produced between January 2012 and August 2018, inclusive.
Hello there, In this issue the recently opened BMW Melbourne and Mini Garage Melbourne became the brand’s first dealership premises in Australasia to present its new global corporate identity. Carsales says its media arm is heading in a new strategic direction.
Following a week on display at the Paris Motor Show, a production version of the zero-emission HYVIA Renault Master Van H2-Tech will make its debut in Brussels at the Hydrogen Europe Show from October 24 to 28.
