Kia takes on Tesla, Polestar and even Porcshe as the EV maker to watch
From Cadillac whoppers to tiny Fiats and the craziest electric vehicle to launch in Australia this year - here are 10 of the newest electric cars to arrive on our shores.
Remember when Roger Federer went on a seemingly unstoppable winning streak in the early 2000s to notch up an incredible 24 straight final wins? That’s Kia in Australia right now. No longer a brand known just for cheap and cheerful cars, and sponsoring the Australian Open, it’s quickly becoming a leader in the electric-car space with brilliantly engineered and strikingly designed models such as the swoopy EV6 and the boxy EV9 family SUV. But the EV5 is undoubtedly more important, because it will play in the volume selling mid-sized SUV segment.
Remember when Roger Federer went on a seemingly unstoppable winning streak in the early 2000s to notch up an incredible 24 straight final wins? That’s Kia in Australia right now. No longer a brand known just for cheap and cheerful cars, and sponsoring the Australian Open, it’s quickly becoming a leader in the electric-car space with brilliantly engineered and strikingly designed models such as the swoopy EV6 and the boxy EV9 family SUV. But the EV5 is undoubtedly more important, because it will play in the volume selling mid-sized SUV segment.
Set to be a rival for the popular Tesla Model Y and even the massively in demand Toyota RAV4, Kia is targeting a price point below $60,000 for the Kia EV5. That price will land you a distinctive, almost stormtrooper-like exterior design and a convincing mechanical package that offers two battery sizes (64kWh or 88kWh), the choice of front or all-wheel drive and a driving range in excess of 600km with the bigger battery.
This is an article from The List: 100 Top Energy Players 2024, which is announced in full on November 22.
There are some concessions to ensure the EV5’s price remains affordable, like adopting a more budget-friendly lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery and dropping from the 800-volt architecture of Kia’s other EVs to 400V, which means recharging times won’t be quite as fast. But even so, Kia is confident the EV5 will do so well it’s predicting sales of more than 5000 a year in Australia. If that eventuates, it seems Kia’s winning streak won’t be ending any time soon.
Cadillac Lyriq
If you’re familiar with the fable of the boy who cried wolf, then you’ll no doubt have some scepticism about Cadillac’s return to the Australian market. Over the years the iconic US luxury carmaker has had a number of false starts Down Under, the most spectacular and most embarrassing being in 2009 when, after officially announcing it would launch here less than 12 months earlier, it was forced to bail out at the last moment during the thick of the global financial crisis.
Things are different this time around, says Cadillac, not least because the world economy is in a better place, but also because it isn’t launching here with a range of ageing, V8-powered sedans but rather a cutting-edge, purpose-built electric SUV.
Pitched to take on established luxury players like BMW, Mercedes and even Porsche, the Cadillac Lyriq is a whopper of a vehicle. More like a limousine than a family SUV, it’s longer and lower than a Porsche Cayenne, rolling on an enormous 3094mm wheelbase. In fact, almost everything about the Lyriq is huge, including its 102kWh battery pack, colossal 2650kg kerb weight, healthy 388kW/610Nm performance outputs (for dual-motor versions), and 530km of claimed driving range.
Another big number is likely to be the price. An official figure is yet to be announced for the Lyriq – which is built in factory right-hand drive and is the first arrival in a planned multi-model line-up of electric SUVs in Australia – but Cadillac is planning to outdo its rivals for luxury rather than undercut them on price. That means you can expect to pay upwards of $150,000. Providing it actually makes it here, that is.
Tesla Model 3 Performance
Some people argue that performance electric vehicles are so insanely fast that they should be banned, or that it should require a special licence to drive one. Tesla’s latest and greatest, the Model 3 Performance, is perhaps the best example of this argument and after driving one it’s tempting to suggest that you shouldn’t be allowed to set out in one without some kind of spinal support, and a sick bag.
For fans of Star Trek style transportation – that feeling of being in one place and then two seconds later being a vast distance away from there – this Tesla is the ultimate in speed-of-light switch-like acceleration. Approaching anything like the Model 3 Performance’s 373kW, 740Nm and the ability to hit 100km/h in three seconds flat used to involve spending hundreds of thousands on an Italian supercar, which makes this EV’s $80,900 price tag one of the great bargains of all time. Or, depending how you look at it, makes that kind of speed frighteningly obtainable.
Tesla has been making cars that are stupidly rapid in a straight line for a while now, but the good news about this one is that it’s also a proper sports car, with steering and the ability to corner with aplomb as well. Vitally, it can also pull up from the huge speeds it can achieve with ease, although this takes some getting used to. The harder and faster you drive it, the more it feels like your eyeballs are going to be crushed and you can sometimes hear your spine crying out “enough”.
And trust us on the sick bag. If you don’t need it, your passengers will.
Porsche Macan 4 Electric
Some car brands are shifting towards electrification faster than others, but only one is doing it at Porsche speed. It’s hard to overstate the enormity of Porsche’s decision to turn its best-selling model, the Macan mid-size SUV (it makes up 27 per cent of all Porsches sold globally, but a whopping 48 per cent in Australia), into an electric vehicle, because, from the outside at least, it seems like such a big risk.
While some markets will continue to sell petrol-powered Macan alongside the electric one, Porsche Australia is going for an immediate switch over. Production of the old variants for local buyers will end in September this year and the EV version goes on sale a month later (many people have already pre-ordered the new car).
This electric Porsche will be more expensive, with the entry-level Macan 4 costing $133,700, or around $40,000 more than the current petrol-powered base model. The even more powerful Porsche Macan Turbo, which boasts a supercar-like 470kW and can zap its way to 100km/h in 3.3 seconds, on its way to a 260km/h top speed, will set you back $180,100. The Macan 4 is no slouch either, delivering a combined 300kW and 650Nm and a 0-100km/h time of 5.2 seconds.
Despite the price jump and the fact that the many Australians who already own and love the Macan might not be best pleased with the move, Porsche is predicting that the EV will outsell the old combustion-engined variants. The 95kWh battery charges at Porsche speed, too, going from 10 to 80 per cent top-up within 21 minutes, while the claimed driving ranges are 613km for the Macan 4 and 591km for the Macan Turbo.
Polestar 5
The Polestar 5 makes absolutely no sense. Zero, zilch, nada. After all, the brand has made its bones in Australia with the staid and sensible Polestar 2, an affordable and easy-going rival to the mega-popular Tesla Model 3 EV. Then there’s the incoming Polestar 3, a family focused SUV, and the Polestar 4, a luxe coupe-style SUV. All of which make sense. Big target markets, popular vehicle segments, EVs for the people.
Until you get to the bonkers Polestar 5, which doesn’t just tear up the playbook, it sets it on fire. While every other Polestar model is based on a vehicle from one of its sister brands in Volvo or Geely, the 5 rides on a supercar-style bonded aluminium space-frame chassis designed in a skunkworks development centre in the UK.
It’s the kind of strong and light vehicle architecture used by brands like McLaren, which is no coincidence, given the Polestar 5 development team is staffed by former supercar engineers, as well as former F1 boffins, all of whom know a thing or two about minimising weight to maximise performance.
The result is a low-slung four-door coupe that delivers supercar-levels of punch (think 500kW from its dual-motor layout), a sprint to 100km/h that will shame most petrol-powered performance cars, and a 600km driving range between charges. It also doesn’t have a rear windscreen, but that feels less weird than it sounds when you sit in one.
A true wolf in sheep’s clothing – if sheep looked like slinky little coupes – the Polestar 5 should arrive in Australia in 2025 wearing a circa-$200,000 price tag.
MG Cyberster
You probably remember MG as the builder of cute, old-timey British sports cars, but today it’s owned by Chinese giant, SAIC, and mostly plies its trade by building good, but uninspiring, electric SUVs. That’s why the MG Cyberster is so intriguing. This eye-catching, two-seater roadster is about as un-boring as it’s possible to be.
Take the electrically operated scissor doors for example, which don’t open normally but rise, Lamborghini-like, into the air at the press of a button.
The exterior design is also one of the best we’ve yet seen from a Chinese brand, with its sleek appearance having a distinct European feel with hints of the rather handsome Jaguar F-Type in its long-bonnet and curvy haunches. Even the cabin is super-slick, with plenty of high-tech screens, soft leather seats, and a one-touch cloth roof that retracts to flood the cabin with the sights, sounds and smells of open-top motoring.
One thing you won’t hear, however, is the raucous noise of a zingy petrol engine. Like most of MG’s other products, the Cyberster is all electric. Overseas you can opt for a lighter and less powerful single motor version – the e-motor is placed on the back axle for classic rear-drive thrills – but in Australia we’re only getting the more powerful, all-wheel drive, dual-motor version with a WLTP-rated range of 444km.
Power is a colossal 375kW (a Porsche Boxster has a pitiful 220kW in comparison). Together with torque at 725Nm, it’s enough for zero to 100km/h in just 3.2 seconds. That’s supercar territory. And all for a relative bargain price – at least compared to a Lamborghini – given the Cyberster will cost between $100,000 and $130,000.
Zeekr 009
This might just be the craziest electric vehicle to launch in Australia this year. How else to describe a luxury-soaked electric people-mover that’s part cigar lounge, part IMAX theatre, and all kinds of madness? Australia’s latest Chinese EV brand, Zeekr is part of the giant Geely group, which is also responsible for Volvo, Lotus and Polestar. There’s a very sensible small electric SUV Zeekr, the X, arriving soon, but the 009 is the one that has really grabbed our attention.
To give you some idea of where Zeekr is positioning what it calls the Rolls-Royce of people-movers, anyone in Hong Kong or China who talks five of their friends into buying the flagship 009 model will be rewarded with 12 months of free private jet travel across Asia. Don’t expect the same deal to be offered in Australia, but the brand here says it is looking for its own inventive ways to reward its best customers.
An electric six- or seven-seat people mover, the 009 should arrive fitted with a 116kWh battery with a driving range of about 580km. But the real magic here is in the cabin. Folding a big screen down from the roof transforms the back seats into a cinema, complete with a fridge for your drinks and nibbles. A James Bond-style active sound deadening system uses the seat speakers to create a cone of silence around back-seat passengers, so the driver can’t overhear important conversations.
International pricing points to a kick off locally of somewhere between $120,000 and $150,000, making the 009 very much a premium play for the Zeekr brand.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N
Electric vehicles infamously make very little noise, but their existence does produce strained, low groaning sounds from a certain kind of car enthusiast, who will happily explain for several hours how a proper performance machine is nothing without a bit of shouty popping, revving and banging. Those same enthusiasts also detest the fact that EVs have no gears, because people who truly love driving prefer manual gearboxes and the riotous rush of snappy upshifts as they accelerate.
Happily there is, so far, exactly one electric vehicle that seems to have been designed purely to make these people cacklingly happy – Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N. This truly game-changing sports car features N Active Sound, which allows you to pump a variety of old-school revving and screaming sounds into the cabin, and out into the world, via speakers on the outside of the car.
Better yet, though, it also has N e-Shift, which is basically a synthetic eight-speed gearbox. There are no actual gears, but this Hyundai uses software, and shift paddles, to make it feel like there are, so you get the sensation of revving all the way to 8000rpm and then the kick in the back and the power lurch of going up another gear. It sounds crazy, but it really does work, and if you get sick of it, you can turn
it off and the Ioniq 5 N goes back to being a whisper-quiet EV like the rest of them.
Staggeringly fast and hugely powerful, it has 478kW and 770Nm – more than a V10-engined Lamborghini Huracan – and a zero to 100km/h time of 3.4 seconds. This revelatory machine can be yours for $111,000, a lot less than a Lamborghini.
Volvo EX30
Of all the incredible brand transformations in the motoring world, Volvo’s is easily one of the most spectacular. Once the maker of incredibly safe, incredibly boxy and incredibly uncool cars, the Swedish carmaker has risen, phoenix-like, to become one of the hippest brands in town. And while all of its new models have more style than a chic Scandinavian furniture shop – we especially love the Thor’s Hammer LED light signature that features across the model range – the new EX30 is easily the cutest.
Part of that is down to its softer and more rounded, yet still handsome, exterior styling but mostly it’s down to its size. The smallest electric Volvo yet is also, quite remarkably, the fastest accelerating. In dual-motor guise (a cheaper, less-powerful single-motor version is also available), the EX30 packs 315kW/543Nm and rockets to 100km/h in a scorching 3.6 seconds. Good luck achieving that in your Pop’s old boxy wagon. Range from the relatively large 69kWh battery is a respectable 445km.
There’s another superlative the EX30 can lay claim to: this is the kindest Volvo ever to the environment. Volvo says the lifetime emissions of the EX30, which includes the greenhouse-gas-heavy process of building the car and battery, are the lowest of any car it has ever made, and that 25 per cent of the aluminium used, and 17 per cent each of the steel and plastics, are recycled. You can even choose carpets made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. Of course, the Swedish brand’s unwavering focus on safety remains, as do the (heavily updated) boxy proportions, but who ever thought a Volvo could look this good? Or go so fast.
Fiat 500e Abarth
For some brands, green power is an existential threat to their petrol-chewing, performance-focused business models. For others, the shift to batteries and electric motors is arguably the best thing that’s ever happened to them.
Take Fiat. Since 1957, the Italian brand has been pumping out the Cinquecento – the perfect urban car, provided you didn’t have to actually drive one.
Its iconic looks were sadly combined with a buzzy engine and the worst automatic gearbox ever conceived, which so comprehensively ruined the experience that you’d rather get out and walk. But the battery-powered Fiat 500e and 500e Abarth? Bellissimo.
Swapping out the oily bits for a front-mounted electric motor and a single-speed EV gearbox hasn’t just made this still-cute city car a treat to drive, it has created the best example of the 500 in the model’s near-125-year history.
There are two models on offer – the more sedate 500e, and the bonkers Abarth 500e, with the latter nabbing far more power, and a neighbour-annoying Abarth Sound Generator, which makes the otherwise silent EV roar like it has a rumbling petrol engine every time you stand on the accelerator.
A single front-mounted electric motor provides a total of 113.7kW and 235Nm – enough to push the 500e from 0-100km/h in 7.0 seconds. Not lightning fast, but you’ll enjoy every one of those seconds. It’s yours for $60,500, which is silly money for a car this small. But this is a vehicle you buy with your heart, not your head.
