Sam Parkinson
Sam Parkinson connects hands-on electric vehicle testing with the broader transition in transport and energy, focusing on how new EVs drive real-world value for everyday drivers and fleets. His coverage at The Driven centres on affordable electric cars, SUVs and light trucks, with a consistent emphasis on pricing, consumption, charging performance and how these vehicles fit into emerging grid and policy settings.
Sam is Chief Operating Officer for Renew Economy and EV Media and has worked with Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid since 2014, and with The Driven since its inception in 2017. He hosts The Driven Podcast, where he leads discussions on EV technology, policy and market trends alongside regular guests. He contributes occasionally to Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid, with a particular interest in electric vehicles and social policy, which informs the way he frames EVs within wider transport and energy debates.
Jaecoo J5 EV review
Sam’s repeated coverage of the Jaecoo J5 EV shows his approach to value-focused electric SUV reporting.
In his full review of the Jaecoo J5 EV, he sets out detailed specifications including a launch price of $36,990 driveaway, a 58.9 kWh LFP battery, 402 km WLTP range, a single front-wheel-drive motor and DC fast charging up to 130 kW, supported by eight-year vehicle and battery warranties. Across a launch feature and subsequent review, he highlights consumption figures around 13.2 kWh/100 km and real-world range closer to 370–400 km, translating lab numbers into usable expectations for family buyers.
He situates the J5 as a “head-turning electric SUV” in the sub-$40k segment and evaluates whether its aggressive pricing, warranty terms and charging performance genuinely shift the market for budget-conscious EV shoppers.
This Jaecoo coverage is structured for readers weighing a purchase rather than merely browsing EV news.
Sam combines table-driven spec breakdowns with narrative impressions over a week of mixed driving, keeping the focus on how the car behaves and what its pricing and running costs mean in practice. He treats warranty length, capped-price servicing and total driveaway cost as central elements of the story, which distinguishes his work from more impressionistic automotive pieces that give less weight to ownership economics.
Video: Hyundai Elexio review – Fighting China with China?
Sam extends his EV review work into video, using the Hyundai Elexio review titled “Fighting China with China?” to explore competitive dynamics between established brands and aggressive Chinese entrants. In this video format he tests a small EV in detail, drawing attention to how pricing, features and build quality stack up against the latest Chinese-made offerings targeting value-sensitive buyers. He pairs this with other video reviews such as the GAC AION V, asking whether models launched earlier in the transition remain “worth considering in 2026,” which shows an ongoing interest in longevity and residual relevance rather than just new releases.
These video reviews carry over the same data-led style seen in his written work, but with a more conversational and comparative framing. Sam uses on-road footage and walk-arounds to illustrate interior space, packaging and charging behaviour, then ties those observations back to headline pricing and segment competition. The recurring link between Chinese EVs, Korean responses and buyer expectations positions him as a reporter who looks at the EV market as an evolving contest, not only as a stream of isolated product launches.
The Driven Podcast: Plug in or cash out? EVs, V2G and Tesla’s $4.20 robotaxi
On The Driven Podcast, Sam broadens out from car-by-car reviews to system-level questions such as vehicle-to-grid integration and new business models. In the episode “Plug in or cash out? EVs, V2G and Tesla’s $4.20 robotaxi,” he and his co-hosts unpack Europe’s latest EV trends, BYD’s V2G bundle and Tesla’s robotaxi ambitions, and discuss how car-share EVs might drive the next major shift in the electricity grid.
This format shows him treating EVs as grid assets and components of new transport services, rather than just private consumer products.
Other podcast episodes reinforce this focus on the intersection of vehicles, policy and markets. He leads conversations on themes such as how close V2G is in Australia, whether small EVs can answer a fuel crisis, how an electric truck “moment” is changing freight, and how new vehicle efficiency standards affect the pace of the EV transition. Episodes on Tesla’s rebound, Hyundai’s latest small EV and China’s continuing push into global markets indicate a consistent interest in sales data, regulatory milestones and competitive positioning, with EV adoption treated as a live economic story.
Elroq lands, Firefly sparks, and EV speed records shattered
Sam also uses podcast episodes like “Elroq lands, Firefly sparks, and EV speed records shattered” to track the high-performance and innovation end of the EV market.
In this strand of coverage he looks at new models, concept cars and record-setting vehicles as signals of where technology and branding are going, linking them back to broader questions of market evolution and social impact. His interest in social policy, noted in his contributor role, comes through in the way these discussions weigh equity, access and public responses to rapid change.
Across written reviews, video tests and podcast discussions, Sam’s work consistently treats electric vehicles as both personal transport and pieces of a larger system. Price, real-world efficiency and warranty terms are always core to his car stories, while charging speeds, grid interaction and regulatory shifts anchor his audio and video formats.
This combination makes his coverage distinct on the EV beat: product detail tied directly to the economics and infrastructure of the transition, rather than isolated specs or lifestyle impressions.
4 more automobile journalists.
Aditya Nadkarni
Aditya Nadkarni turns new model launches and first drive reviews into clear, buyer-facing information, with a strong focus on detail and incremental updates. He is principal correspondent at CarWale, where he covers passenger vehicles with an emphasis on launch news, facelifts and road-test impressions for mainstream and premium cars. His core news work tracks new introductions and lifecycle updates, explaining what changes, when the car goes on sale, and how each variant is configured. He writes “variants explained” pieces and structured first drive reviews that link driving impressions to a model’s place in the market and its recent update or launch. His reporting is factual, methodical and model-specific, avoiding broad commentary and treating even minor tweaks and new features as news. His bylines also appear at Mobility Outlook and CarTrade, with the same detail-first style.
Alexis Hooi
Alexis Hooi reports on how China’s partnerships in electric vehicles, green technology, tourism and agriculture reshape markets and communities, with a focus on Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific. He writes for China Daily, drawing on experience as a national news page editor, columnist and long-form reporter, and earlier work in other media and organizations. His beat covers Chinese EVs in Australia, green transition projects, innovation hubs, wine, geothermal energy and agricultural cooperation, treating each sector as a lens on China–Oceania economic ties and sustainable growth. He follows concrete outcomes like shifts in car choices, visitor numbers, exports and investment, and reports through project-focused stories and personality-driven features. He also covers culture and identity, diaspora roots, tourism flows, animal attractions and commentary on perception and language, grounding China–Australia relations in everyday experiences.
Antonina Joson
Antonina Joson covers how Southeast Asia’s car markets and fleet decisions respond to new technologies, environmental pressures, and policy shifts. She writes for AfMA, focusing on the automobile sector and its implications for fleets and mobility services, and works as a communications officer with a background in writing, digital marketing, and content creation. Her reporting tracks month‑to‑month changes in car sales in Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore, linking sales data, segment performance, and national policy to corporate strategy. She reports on electric vehicles as strategic assets tied to air quality, energy policy, and industrial ambitions, and follows regional moves such as XPENG’s entry into Indonesia and calls for Toyota to shift production. She also covers safety campaigns, mobility platforms, online marketplaces, book recommendations for fleet professionals, and contributes to FleetDrive advertising and content planning, bringing a commercial, cross‑industry perspective to fleet‑focused coverage.
Aranya Mondal
Aranya Mondal is a business and technical writer who edits and writes analytical coverage of the global aluminium industry for AL Circle, with a through-line of connecting trade patterns and supply risks to aluminium competitiveness. She focuses on aluminium trade flows, bauxite diplomacy, tariffs, scrap imports and strategic materials adjacent to aluminium such as gallium. Her beat spans scrap, recycling and the shift from linear to circular aluminium markets, alumina and aluminium production trends, regional vulnerabilities and project developments, as well as automotive and mobility uses of aluminium including product launches like the Anytec A28-T boat. She works mainly on long-form explainers and recurring formats such as weekly sustainability recaps, using clear language, trade data and value-chain context to unpack production, policy and energy trends for an industry audience.