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SUV

Eventually, every carmaker adds a SUV to their range, a trend which started in the 1990s and reached the pinnacle of the car market in 2018 when even Rolls-Royce introduced a SUV it calls the Cullinan. Now Polestar, the company owned by Volvo (which is owned by the Geely Group), has finally come out with its SUV, the Polestar 3.

As Polestar produces only battery electric vehicles, the Polestar 3 is therefore powered only by electricity, no combustion engine or even hybrid option. And like other carmakers who make their SUVs in the USA because of the huge market for such vehicles, Polestar is also going to make its SUV there although production will be done in China during the first year and shift to America in 2024. Its other models are presently made in China and Sweden.

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The electrification journey for Lexus began in 2005 with the RX400h, the world’s first hybrid SUV, and since then the brand has continued to add more electrified models to its range. The latest model, introduced today in Japan, is the updated UX 300e which was the first Lexus production BEV (battery electric vehicle) model.

For this latest version of the company crossover SUV, the main improvement is in the electric powertrain (203 ps/300 Nm) which has a newly developed battery pack with capacity increased from 54.4 kWh to 72.8 kWh. This has extended the claimed range up to 450 kms, an improvement of 40%, with energy consumption reduced to 166.7 Wh/km.

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Authorised Toyota dealerships are now accepting bookings for an updated Toyota Harrier which will soon be launched in Malaysia by UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT). The current generation has been in the market since February 2021 and now gets an improved look and feel.

The new Harrier, with a Dynamic Force 2-litre engine, will be available in Luxury and Special Edition versions and a choice of 5 exterior colours – Slate Grey Metallic, Precious Black, Steel Blonde Metallic, Dark Blue Metallic and Platinum White Pearl – with the Special Edition having an exclusive Metallic Red finish. The on-the-road price without insurance will be from RM274,000.

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Honda has revealed the exterior and interior styling of its Prologue battery-electric vehicle (BEV) that will go on sale in North America in 2024. The model, with a SUV bodystyle, is one of the two BEVs which the Japanese carmaker will co-develop with GM.

GM will supply its flexible global BEV platform powered by its proprietary Ultium batteries, and also build the BEVs at its plants in North America. The second model is planned for launch in 2027, by which time the companies will be looking at the start of ‘global production of millions of BEVs.

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Bermaz Motor is accepting bookings for the latest Core variants of the Mazda CX-3 with a choice of two SKYACTIV-G petrol engines – 1.5 litres and 2.0 litres. The model is imported from the Auto Alliance factory in Rayong, Thailand, with the engines also being manufactured at the nearby Mazda Powertrain Manufacturing Thailand plant.

Prices (without Insurance) for the 2 versions are RM107,870 for the CX-3 1.5 and RM118,159 for the CX-3 2.0. Both SUVs have 6-speed SKYACTIV-Drive automatic transmissions. Only front-wheel drive is available.

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Since going on sale in 2018, the Lamborghini Urus has been a great successor for the Italian sportscar company. Up to June this year, over 20,000 units have been delivered worldwide, making it Lamborghini’s bestselling model in the shortest time ever.

The impressive high performance of the Urus inspired Lamborghini to coin the term ‘Super SUV’ for its model. And in the four years that the Urus has been around, other carmakers like Aston Martin, Audi and BMW M have also launched their Super SUVs.

So Lamborghini has decided it’s time to update its original Super SUV with enhanced performance. The new Urus S replaces the standard Urus and gets the same performance level as the Urus Performante which debuted in August. However, where the Performante is performance-focussed, the Urus S is more oriented towards luxury.

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When BMW decided to start offering SUVs, it first made sure that the new models would have the driving dynamics that made people buy their ‘ultimate driving machines’. Engineered to be true BMWs, their vehicles are instead called Sport Activity Vehicles or SAVs.

It’s the same for BMW M, the high-performance division, when it made the decision to electrify. For a company like BMW M, which has built up a reputation producing cars with superlative performance, going electric meant that they had also to be able to offer the same kind of performance.

The first BMW M automobile designed for purely electric mobility from the outset was the new iX M60, launched at the beginning of this year. But that was just a start and now the company has come out with another electrified model – the XM.

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The all-new Everest joins the Ford range in Malaysia, adding a SUV to the next-generation Ranger pick-up in Sime Darby Auto ConneXion’s offerings. This is the third generation of the SUV that was developed for ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific markets around the world and it’s no secret that the Everest (also known as the Endeavour in India) shares a lot with the latest Ranger.

Though the Everest is on the same platform as the Ranger, the shared approach was not considered when the Ranger was being developed in the 1990s as Ford’s ‘Asian Car’. However, with the growing popularity of SUVs, Ford knew it had to have a representative in that segment too. It had the Explorer, once the bestselling SUV in the world, but that was essentially a North American product not really suited for the rest of the world.

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PHS Automotive Malaysia (PHSAM)/Audi Malaysia, which took over the Audi distributorship in July this year, has added the Audi RS Q8 to its range of offerings. A fairly recent model in Audi’s SUV range, the Q8 made its global debut in 2018, with the performance-enhanced RS version coming the following year.

The Q8’s coupe SUV design was Audi’s response to the appearance of the new generation of coupe crossovers from BMW (X6) and Mercedes-Benz (GLE-Class) which had been enjoying good sales. It thus introduced new design language for the brand, created by Marc Lichte. The design also has some elements from the original Audi Quattro rallycar of the 1980s.

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At last, a new Mitsubishi ASX has officially been announced. The model has been around a rather long time, being freshened with cosmetic updates and special editions for the past 12 years. At one point, Mitsubishi Motors (MMC) even had plans to assemble it at Proton’s factory but when that did not materialize, Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia went ahead to have it assembled at the Tan Chong plant in Kuala Lumpur.

If this new second generation of the ASX looks somewhat familiar, you’re right. It’s similar to the Renault Captur sold by TC Euro Cars in Malaysia and has been adapted to become Mitsubishi model. Having joined the Renault-Nissan Alliance in 2017 (after Nissan acquired a controlling share in MMC), the carmaker had access to the products and technology of the Alliance. This helped it to freshen its model line-up which had stagnated due to its weak financial position.

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