THE first Chinese-made sports utility vehicle to land in Australia has gone on sale for a drive-away price of $23,990.
Imported by Great Wall Motors, the X240 is powered by a 2.4-litre petrol engine driving through a five-speed manual gearbox with high and low range.
Fuel use on the combined cycle is 10.4 litres/100km and acceleration to 100km/h takes about 20-seconds, reflecting the engine size and a kerb weight of 1830kg.
Equipment includes dual airbags, anti-lock brakes, airconditioning, leather seats, alloy wheels, a powered driver's seat, central locking and an eight speaker CD-MP3 audio system.
A sunroof is a $1000 option.
The X240 follows the launch in June of the GWM V240 and SA220 twin cab utes.
New hybrid electric vehicles
A TRIAL of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles or PHEVs takes to the road this month.
Staff from Victorian electricity distributor SP AusNet will use the PHEVs for work and for leisure as part of the CSIRO and SP AusNet trial.
CSIRO engineers have modified the PHEVs to carry a 30Ah NiMH battery which is capable of holding a 6kw charge and battery charger to allow the cars to plug into and charge with electricity from the grid or from on-site sources.
For details visit www.csiro.au/news/electric-vehicle-revolution.html
