Dom Tripolone

Jaguar’s ageing F-Pace SUV is getting a shiny new special edition to celebrate the brand’s 90th birthday. It is simply called the F-Pace 90th Anniversary Edition and the Indian owned British brand has applied the special edition treatment to the F-Pace R-Dynamic SE Variant.

Mazda’s take on the BMW X5 has landed in Australia. Dubbed the CX-70 the full-sized five-seat SUV joins its seven-seat twin, the CX-90, and the smaller five-seat CX-60 in the brand’s expanding line-up.

Volkswagen and American electric carmaker Rivian’s joint venture is now official. The German company has tipped in US$5.8b ($8.95b) into the fledgling US electric pick-up and SUV brand.

Chinese giant Geely has decided 10 separate car brands is too many. The automaker has decided to merge the Zeekr and Lynk & Co car brands, with Zeekr to take the lead.

The Australian new car landscape is changing rapidly with the onslaught of new Chinese brands landing on our shores in the past 12 months. Xpeng is one of the recent crop of new recruits, launching in the past few months with electric G6 mid-size SUV.

Ask Toyota — the world’s biggest carmaker — and two brands are enough. Yes, Toyota makes trucks under the Hino brand and also has the minnow Daihatsu in its stable, but it is essentially Toyota and Lexus and that’s it.

If you want a big beefy engine under the bonnet of your dual-cab, it might be now or never. The federal government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) has just come into effect and that’s bad news for buyers of burly utes.

Diesel is on the way out, but could this year be the one we finally say goodbye to the trusty fuel source of grunty dual-cab utes and rugged four-wheel drives? The government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard has kicked in, which penalises carmakers $100 for every gram of CO2 they emit over a certain threshold.

Genesis is gearing up for a high-performance assault on some of the best in the business. Global head of Genesis, Mike Song, said its Magma high performance models provide a huge opportunity for the brand.

A potent new electric car has broken cover in China. Details of the new BYD Han L electric sedan — which is named after the Han dynasty — have been revealed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).