Cuyama, California — What’s better than a Mazda in the compact SUV segment? Two Mazdas in the compact SUV segment.
Say hello to the CX-50, the more adventurous brother of the venerable CX-5.
The CX-5 has been my benchmark for the segment since the second-gen model hit it out of the park in 2017. Stylishly designed with the best handling this side of an Alfa Stelvio, CX-5 offered luxury appointments for the price of a Subaru. Its success as Mazda’s best-selling vehicle in the USA’s most-popular segment (over 3 million unit sales) opens the opportunity for CX-50 to explore the segment’s lifestyle-conscious overlander customer.
It’s a trail that Subaru blazed with its rugged all-wheel-drive, go-anywhere vibe and other brands (think Ford and its Bronco Sport, 2020 Detroit News Vehicle of the Year) are eager to follow. For CX-50, that means following fast.
The Maricopa Highway north of Santa Barbara boasts some of America’s most beautiful roads with glorious vistas and stunning destinations like the Carrizo Plains and Los Padres National Forest. Think the U.P. but with mountains.
So much fun is the CX-50 to drive that I was soon distracted from the view by Maricopa’s roller-coaster curves. Long sweepers, diving hairpins, writhing S turns. With little traffic, it’s a sports car haven.
Ahem, Payne, you’re driving an SUV.
That’s what Mazda has done to the ute. It’s taken the DNA of the Miata and Mazda3 performance cars and somehow translated it to high-riding SUVs — an SUV that rides 8.6 inches off the ground, for goodness’ sake. I must admit some skepticism when Mazda unveiled CX-50 last year tattooed with hip black fender cladding, wide stance and roof rails.
Such touches signal gravel road resilience — but often a softer ride tuned for off-road flexibility. Mazda has made its living as an asphalt fun machine, and I feared that might be compromised. Nope. As Mazda dynamics engineer and chief hot shoe Dave Coleman is quick to point out, you spend most of your time on road even if you’re escaping to the Outback. Cue CX-50’s slogan: “tough but powerful.” Zoom zoom.
CX-50’s meaty, weighted steering wheel immediately instills confidence. Despite a higher seating position than the Mazda 3, CX-50 shares the same sweet platform. With all-wheel drive and a mighty 310 pound-feet of torque at my disposal, the Premium Plus tester just ached to be flogged.
There’s no manual here like the Miata, but the 6-speed tranny is a model of smoothness. Jump on the accelerator out of a turn and the “tip-in” is buttery smooth — unlike many 9-speed gearboxes that hunt for the right gear. No bucking, no head twerking, just go.
Before long, my speedometer was registering Mazda3-like numbers as I floored the ute between corners. Grab the brakes and, with all-wheel-drive grip, the CX-50 rotated easily into apexes. Hey Coleman, thought of optioning Michelin Cup Sport tires?
Actually, an all-terrain tire will be optioned on high-profile 18-inch rims when the top-drawer Meridian trim debuts later this year. Gotta keep CX-50 on brand. That brand benefits from Mazda’s years of handling perfection. G-Vectoring Control (GVC to Mazda faithful) cleverly cuts engine torque to help handling — and Mazda’s elves have tweaked the formula for CX-50 with a unique OFF-ROAD mode.
Mimicking rally drivers who left-foot brake into corners to help transfer grip to the front wheels, GVC helped me keep CX-50 tidy as I smoked some off-road trails near Los Padres. Fun, but in more practical applications GVC will help the car settle when drivers misread a trail. That said, CX-50 can’t compete with Bronco Sport’s sensational dual rear clutch pack that makes the Ford a true off-road weapon.
Mazda figures if you’re that serious about off-roading, you’ll get a Bronco or Wrangler armored with skid plates, dual transfer case and plastic fenders so you don’t scratch the paint. CX-50 offers fore and aft cameras so you don’t drive off a cliff.
The latter comes in particularly handy if you want to trailer a dirt bike — or U-Haul a go-kart racer as I used to do with my kiddies. Three camera views are available, one of which keeps an eye on your trailer sides. The 2.5-liter turbo-4 will tow up to 3,500 pounds; the standard, 186-torque 4-banger can haul 2,000.
The latter is no stripper entry model.
Like CX-5, the base CX-50 is a bargain at $28,025. Standard everything that would cost thousands more on a luxe brand: all-wheel drive (Mazda SUVs are now standard AWD like Subies), blind-spot assist, adaptive cruise control, emergency braking, auto tranny, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
A word about the latter. I love wireless tech, but Android Auto drains phone battery. Miles from anywhere in Los Padres National Forest, my phone ran out of juice, leaving me direction-less. Lesson: use the cord on long trips to keep your phone charged while navigating.
The roomy console is dominated by a nifty remote controller to operate the infotainment screen, but — true to Mazda’s obsession with detail — the screen automatically turns to a touchscreen when Android Auto is activated so you can use it like your phone.
Want more obsession? The rear doors open wide to 90 degrees for easier car-seat access — and the roof to store bikes and gear.
Mazda fans have rightly argued their steeds are as good looking as Bimmers, but the CX-50’s nod to off-road culture is a radical departure for a brand that has prized sleek lines.
Lower and wider than CX-5, CX-50 looks aggressive but extra bodywork is everywhere from the wheel arches (though the cladding is not as intrusive as on the smaller CX-30) to the rocker panels to the expansive grille. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and the 50 blends into the SUV crowd more than the sculptured CX-5.
The interior, however, is premium goodness and now suitable for four, where the CX-5 has always been cramped in the rear seat. Credit a wheelbase stretched five inches, which adds generous cargo and rear seat room for big Americans.
Mazda seems to have figured us out with 322,756 sales last year — the most for the brand since ’94. Hungry for more, CX-50 is Made in ‘Bama on Mazda’s first U.S. line since the ol’ Ford joint venture days in Flat Rock.
Now it goes head-to-head with Ford’s Bronco Sport for my favorite compact SUV. Life is good in compact ute-land.
2023 Mazda CX-50
Vehicle type: Front-engine, all-wheel-drive, five-passenger SUV
Price: $ 28,025 base, including $1,225 destination ($41,170 Premium Plus as tested)
Power plant: 2.5-liter inline-4 cylinder; turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-4
Power: 187 horsepower, 186 pound-feet of torque (2.5L); 256 horsepower (227 on regular gas), 310 pound-feet of torque (turbo-4)
Mustang has the Shelby cobra snake. Now F-150 has the Rattler.
Ford introduced another weapon in Detroit’s Truck Wars on Tuesday with the all-new, 2023 F-150 Rattler. Appealing to customers’ insatiable appetite for all things outdoors, Rattler will be the entry-level, off-road model below the Tremor and the range-topping Raptor. The Rattler brings distinctive badging and standard four-wheel drive and all-terrain tires to conquer the dirt.
“Our new F-150 Rattler offers aspiring adventurers an off-road option with expressive looks and capability in one package,” said Ford truck marketing boss Todd Eckert. “This truck builds off the F-150 off-road legacy while allowing us to introduce new customers to the right blend of styling and value in the F-150 lineup.”
From Maverick to Ranger to Bronco to three F-150 off-road variants, Ford’s truck-based lineup spans a range from $21,000 to near-six figures.
Built off the XL series trim, the F-150 Rattler features the off-road FX4 package of skid plates, electronic rear-locking differential, hill descent control, and off-road shocks for traversing rough terrain.
Under the hood, the Rattler will option a buffet of Ford powertrains, including 2.7-liter V-6, 3.5-liter V-6, 5.0-liter V-8, and twin-turbo 3.5-liter turbo-V-6. Rugged all-terrain tires help put the power to the ground.
You’ll know the Rattler package by its dual-exhaust out back and unique Rattler sticker on the bed. The exterior is trimmed black with 18-inch aluminum wheels and a Rattler fender vent graphic. When the 2023 Rattler goes on sale this fall, it will come dressed in Agate Black, Antimatter Blue, Avalanche, Carbonized Gray, Iconic Silver, Oxford White, Rapid Red and Stone Gray.
Inside, there is more black, with Onyx cloth seats highlighted with bronze accents evoking a desert theme.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
In a nod to the uncertain road ahead for electric-vehicle adoption, Stellantis announced an all-new internal-combustion engine line Friday, even as the automaker targets 50% EV sales in the U.S. by 2030. Called Hurricane, the high-performance, 3.0-liter, twin-turbo, inline-6 cylinder will replace V-8 powerplants for the company’s rear-wheel-drive-based platforms on which the profitable Ram pickup, Jeep SUVs and Dodge sedan lines are based.
Governments are pushing automakers toward battery-powered drivetrains, but consumer adoption has struggled at 3% market share due to issues with range, charging infrastructure and affordability. The Hurricane drivetrain ensures Stellantis will be able to meet draconian EPA emissions rules beginning in 2026 while testing the market with new EVs and satisfying customer demand for high-horsepower truck and car gas engines.
“Internal combustion engines still matter,” said Stellantis propulsion system chief Micky Bly in introducing the Hurricane. “There are not a lot of people talking about new ICE engines these days, but we have a need.”
That need focuses on the automaker’s crown jewels: Ram and Jeep as well as its iconic Dodge performance brand. Their signature models are RWD truck and truck-based SUV applications (Ram pickup, Jeep Grand Wagoneer, Jeep Grand Wagoneer) and large unibody SUVs and sedans (Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger, Dodge Durango). They boast high-performance V-8 engines with popular trims like TRX, SRT and Scat Pack — as well as standard models powered by the workhorse, normally-aspirated Pentastar V-6.
The V-8s, however, are in the crosshairs of EPA carbon-dioxide rules that are due to ramp up in 2026 and punish gas-guzzlers.
Hurricane is an old family name dating back to 1950s Willys inline-4 cylinder performance engines found in Jeepsters and stations wagons. The new, forced-induction, aluminum-block engine follows in those footsteps with inherently smooth, inline-6 architecture that, Bly said, will produce class-leading performance. A Standard Output version is capable of more than 400 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque, while a High Output six is optimized for performance and will be capable of more than 500 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque.
Those are performance numbers to rival a twin-turbo BMW M3 inline-6. The SO and HO feature class-leading 133 and 166 horsepower per liter, respectively, while reducing CO2 emissions by about 15%.
“Internal combustion engines will play a key role in our portfolio for years to come,” said Bly. “Hurricane is a no-compromise engine that delivers an important reduction in greenhouse gases without asking our customers to give up performance.”
The move away from V-8s was telegraphed by former Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley, who told The Detroit News at the 2019 Detroit Auto Show: “The reality is those platforms and that technology we used does need to move on. They can’t exist as you get into the middle-2020s.”
The Hurricane promises more grunt than the 5.7-liter and 6.4-liter V-8s it will replace, but it will not use the signature “Hemi” cylinder construction that has been synonymous with Jeep-Ram-Dodge performance marketing.
Instead, Plasma Transfer Wire Arc — popularly known as “spray bore” — cylinder technology is the new buzzword for the I-6’s impressive numbers. The technology was pioneered by Ford in high-output Mustang GT350 and GT500 V-8 engines.
The Stellantis strategy echoes that of Ford’s 2.7-liter/3.0-liter, twin-turbo Ecoboost V-6 engines that debuted in 2015, as well as Toyota, which just replaced the Tundra pickup’s V-8 with a twin-turbo V-6. Ford’s twin-turbos now anchor the F-150 pickup lineup — replacing V8s while providing more power and efficiency.
“Ford has already been down this road,” said Autoweek Executive Editor Tom Murphy, who led Ward’s respected 10 Best Engines awards for years. “The Ecoboost V-6 has taken over the vast majority of F-150 sales. They’ve proved you don’t need a V-8.”
Still, Ford customers have bellyached about the lack of visceral V-8 appeal in the F-150 Raptor, and the brand is expected to put a V-8 into the forthcoming Raptor R.
While V-8s may still play a role in Stellantis’s future, Dodge is expected to focus on electrified muscle in the near future, beginning with a replacement for the outgoing, supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat V-8.
“I think that electrification will certainly be part of the formula that says what is American muscle in the future,” Manley said back in 2019. “What it isn’t going to be is a V-8, supercharged, 700-horsepower engine.”
Autoweek’s Murphy speculates the Hurricane’s rear-drive application could open up the front axle for an electric motor to make electrified, plug-in versions of future Stellantis models. Stellantis says the Hurricane will also be the primary internal combustion powerplant using future, electrified STLA Large and STLA Frame platforms.
In addition to its Ram workhorses, Jeep and Dodge have stuffed V-8s under the hood of everything from the Wrangler 392 to the Dodge Durango Hellcat. Look for Hurricane variants — including with electrification — to replace them.
Expect brand announcements in the coming months detailing Hurricane applications, with the engines focused on the North American market with its high truck sales and lower-cost fuel and regulation. Hurricane makes less sense in overseas markets like Europe where Stellantis expects to be 100% electric by 2030 in a brutal regulatory environment. Expect the workhorse Pentastar V-6 and turbocharged, 2.0-liter I-4 (a close relative of the Hurricane) to anchor Wrangler and Cherokee models stateside.
“I wonder about Ram pickup trucks going electric” in North America, Murphy said. “Towing with an EV can be disappointing, especially if you’re towing 7,000-10,000 pounds. Ram is going to need gas engines to manage the migration to electrification.”
Stellantis’s Bly said that the Hurricane engines are capable of hybridization. The I-6 is already under production in Saltillo, Mexico, alongside the Hemi V-8 line. The Hurricane models are not just more fuel efficient; they are more efficient to assemble with the SO and HO engines sharing most parts. HO versions benefit from bigger intercoolers and turbochargers.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Streets of Willow Springs Raceway, California — When I was a kid, my buddies and I used to imagine the dream basketball player.
Sports car fans have played the same game with Porsche. What if you put the high-revving, 4.0-liter flat-6 engine from the 911 GT3 track weapon into the nimble mid-engine chassis of the Cayman?
Best player ever.
Ladies and gentlemen, the dream has been fulfilled. I give you the 2022 Cayman GT4 RS stuffed with the 911 GT3 engine. It puts an exclamation point at the end of an era — beginning in 2025, Caymans will be battery-powered.
Storming into Willow’s tricky double-apex Bowl turn, I’m at full throttle in fourth gear — the flat-6 wound out at 9,000 RPM, its spine-tingling aria tickling my eardrums like a Wagner opera. I stomp on the brakes across the first apex, the big 16-inch brakes grabbing, the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires sticking. Dual-clutch transmission snaps off rapid-fire downshifts. Cayman drifts up the banking, then rotates left on a dime and I’m flat on the throttle again as the mid-engine chassis drifts beautifully across the apex and on to its next corner conquest.
Folks often ask: What is my favorite car? Were price no object, my stock answer is the $300,000 McLaren 720S. Its combination of beauty, mid-engine balance and twin-turbo V-8 is a visceral delight.
The Cayman checks all the same boxes for $143,000. Despite a lackluster design for its first-gen Cayman (and topless Cayman sibling), Porsche has evolved its entry-level, last-generation, gas-powered sports car into a pleasing shape to rival the 911 in timeless appeal.
I’ve been a mid-engine racer all my life, and the GT4 RS (rough German translation: RS stands for “racing fun”) fit me like a glove. Add an IMSA-like swan-neck wing and aggressive 19-inch wheels, and GT4 RS gets its sinister on.
The Detroit News was one of the first journalistic outlets to get behind the wheel of the GT4 RS (deliveries coming this summer). It was also my first taste of the Streets of Willow course.
So natural did the Cayman feel in my hands that within a lap I could give full attention to learning the course. The RS exhibited no excessive push, no rear grip issues, no transmission hiccups. I pointed it where I wanted to go and it followed. When I pushed too hard, the rear stepped out — and minimal steering pulled it back in. No drama, no gray hairs.
But like the McLaren 720S, it’s the engine that makes this car special. And makes purists nervous about the coming silent EV age.
I flogged the same mill last fall at Road Atlanta in the Porsche 911 GT3, its 500-horse 9,100 RPM redline an addictive drug. Porsche turns the engine around in the GT4 RS, adds different exhaust plumbing and extracts 493 horsepower.
I chased Patrick Long, Porsche hot shoe and one of the best sports car drivers in the world, in a 640-horsepower Turbo S. The S would squirt away under power, the GT4 hauling it back through the twisties. We turned ridiculous 1:20-minute laps — not far from the 911 GT3 track record. On the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife, the GT4 RS clocked a staggering 7:04-minute lap — just nine seconds slower than 911 GT3, and better than GT4 by 23.6 seconds.
You want to hear the engine’s siren song all day — it’s a reminder the flat-6 is the natural sound for the Cayman, unlike the much lamented turbo flat-4 that comes with the base Cayman. It makes a sound satisfying only to environmental agency nags.
Pity the flat-6 can’t be had until you lay out $100K for the GT4. The RS brings a $20K premium over the standard GT4.
I’ve been down the dream Porsche road before. Years ago, I bought Porsche’s entry-level 944 ($22,000 at the time, $55,000 in today’s dollars) — then stuffed it with the Porsche 968’s 3.0-liter, 237-horse mill, the most powerful 4-banger the Stuttgart brand made. Engine + conversion set me back 30 grand (in today’s dollars) for a total, inflation-adjusted cost of $85,000.
That’s a more accessible price, and — as it happens — is about the same cost as a new 495-horse V-8, mid-engine Corvette with track package at $85K — nearly half the GT3 RS price! Of course, Corvette’s 30,000 sales unit volume brings advantages over the Cayman’s 3,000-unit production.
That said, the 911 RS engine requires serious, expensive upgrades of the Cayman body. To feed the beast within, the rear windows have been remade as air intakes. The lower rocker panels are refashioned to let more air into the side intake. Front panels have been remade with carbon fiber, then punctured vents and airfoils to redirect air over the hood, through the wheel wells, to suck it to the ground.
It’s a barely disguised race car (in race livery it debuted with a dominating win at the Michelin Pilot Challenge GT4 race at Daytona in January), and its natural habitat is the track. Don’t buy it if you don’t track it. You’ll never know how good it is.
For those with $140K in their pocket, they may prefer the faster GT3 for $20K more. But for those seeking the dream of a 911 engine and Cayman handling, the GT4 RS is your athlete. It sets a high bar for the coming EV age.
2022 Porsche Cayman GT4 RS
Vehicle type: Mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, two-passenger sports car
Price: $143,050, including $1,350 destination fee ($162,600 Racing Yellow and $195,190 Arctic Gray with Weissach package as tested)
Powerplant: 4.0-liter flat-6 cylinder
Power: 493 horsepower, 331 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: 7-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph 3.2 sec. (mfr.); top speed, 196 mph
A housing contractor visited my house and immediately noted the 2022 Ford Maverick tester in the driveway. Area 51 Blue paint. Base model. Steely wheels.
“Wow. Is that the new little Ford pickup?!!”
My friend Scott loves Ford pickups. He’ll probably be buried in his F-150. He hopped in the Maverick and a smile grew across his face.
“I could use this around town. Save my F-150 for trips to the farm.”
He’ll have time to think about it — the Maverick is sold out until summer. Our 2021 Detroit News Vehicle of the Year, the compact pickup has been red-hot. When it was announced this summer, it attracted 100,000 reservations. It sold 4,140 units out of the gate in October. Fully 25% of buyers were millennials — twice the industry average for car models — the coveted entry-level demographic.
Which is encouraging since the Maverick is now Ford’s entry-level vehicle, taking over the spot the ubiquitous Focus and Fiesta used to fill — even as its current average monthly sales are below the Ecosport, Ford’s outgoing entry-level SUV. I spent a week with the Maverick this winter to dig deeper into what makes this compact so appealing, and to circle its shortcomings.
At $21K, the Maverick is still pricey for an entry-level car compared to the $17K Fiestas of yore, but it appears Ford has concluded that sub-$20,000 vehicles are money-losers in today’s highly regulated environment. Better to make margin on small SUVs (and pickups) and leave first-time buyers to the used market where they can find affordable pre-owned vehicles — then buy into factory warranties.
Maverick was easy on the eyes with each new day. The Area 51 Blue is attractive, as is the car’s trim (even the steel wheels, which have a retro charm). My pickup pals Scott and Jim were less impressed — they just saw cheap steelies.
They would likely jump to the XLT package for another $2,300 — gaining attractive 17-inch aluminum black wheels as well as cruise control, then adding blind-spot assist for another $540.
After which there is a $10,000 price gulf to, ahem, a Bronco Sport-like $34K to achieve the features Mrs. Payne finds essential in Michigan’s four seasons: all-wheel-drive, adaptive cruise control, heated seats. Such features only come with an upgrade to the more powerful 250-horse turbo-4 engine.
But if the base hybrid’s 42 mpg (50 mpg city!) and 580-mile range is what flips your switch, then the front-wheel-drive version it must be.
After an inch of snow, my base truck craaaaaaawled out of the driveway — automatic traction control is obsessive about controlling slip in front-wheel-drive configuration. Enough of that. I switched the nannies off and charged ahead, the FWD system doing its work with the engine weight over top of it (a base rear-wheel drive F-150, on the other hand, can be a little hairy with the unladen wheels in back).
When the roads are clear, Maverick is fun to ride. This is a tiny truck like the “good ol’ days” of wee Rangers (121-inch wheelbase vs. the 1990 Ranger’s 124 inches, though Maverick is 6 inches longer). But sitting on the same unibody chassis as the smooth-driving Escape (and Bronco Sport), it is on another plane in handling. You can really hustle Maverick through the corners.
That unibody also pays dividends inside with better interior headroom, front shoulder room and rear legroom than its bigger-boned 2021 Ranger midsize sibling. The interior puts the Ranger to shame with its modern tablet screen, molded plastic and sculpted door interiors that perfectly fit an upright Thermos (no rattling). My friend Jim marveled at the clever “winged” door arm rests.
The Maverick has made headlines with its DIY ethic (the bed features a QR code that links to a web page showing owners how to hack the wiring system, and you can hang your own 3D-printed device off its rear center console hook) and, sure enough, my truck buddies are Do-It-Yourselfers. They hope Ford follows through on littering its website with more DIY videos as the Maverick owner club grows.
Though lacking standard cruise control, the Maverick is equipped with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, giving it excellent navigation capability. Buy a $100 Carlinkit adapter online and your phone will connect wirelessly, like in luxury vehicles costing thousands of dollars more.
With 1,500 pounds of payload capability and easy seating for four, the Maverick is everything you need for an urban pickup. Honey, I shrunk the F-150.
2022 Ford Maverick
Vehicle type: Front engine, front- and all-wheel-drive, five-passenger compact pickup
Price: $21,490, including $1,495 destination fee ($21,490 FWD XL Hybrid as tested)
Powerplant: Hybrid 2.5-liter 4-cylinder mated to electric motor; 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder
The auto industry’s worst-kept secret is out: the Porsche 718 Cayman/Boxster is going all-electric.
At its annual conference Friday, the German brand confirmed that its entry-level sports cars will maintain their mid-engine proportions for its 2025 model, but with a battery pack in front of the electric-motor-driven rear axle like the Mission E concept shown at the 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show. Porsche’s major announcement was the latest indication that the push towards electrification is not just focused on new nameplates — but is disrupting the lineups of iconic gas models as well.
The Porsche joins halo cars like the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Subaru WRX STI, as The Detroit News reported this week, that are transforming to battery-power — appealing to a new generation of buyers while risking the alienation of a customer base that has prized the vehicles’ rowdy engine songs. The Cayman/Boxter’s signature, flat-6 engine lets out a spin-tingling shriek at 9,000 RPM in the GT4 RS model — a markedly different experience than the silent power of Porsche’s first electric nameplate, the Taycan sedan.
The disruption has prompted analysts like iSeeCars’ Karl Brauer to warn of a second “Dark Age” of performance like the 1970s, when government regulations and high gas prices forced automakers to retreat from high-performance designs. But even as new government edicts are compelling an end to internal-combustion engines, automakers assure customers that next-gen electric cars will be better than ever.
“Our industry is experiencing what is probably the greatest transformation in its history,” said Oliver Blume, chairman of Porsche’s executive board. “We are stepping up our electric offensive with another model: By the middle of the decade, we want to offer our mid-engine 718 sports car exclusively in an all-electric form.”
The Volkswagen luxury unit will also offer a gas-electric hybrid version of the iconic 911. The manufacturer, whose parent is preparing an initial public offering of the brand, expects electric models to be just as profitable as combustion engine vehicles in about two to three years, according to Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke, Bloomberg News reported.
“We already achieved double digit profitability now for the Taycan and we are working hard to reach the same profitability as we already have for our combustion engine cars,” Meschke said during a call with reporters. “I am convinced that we will achieve this in a period of two to three years.”
Porsche plans for half of its sales to be battery-only or hybrid models by 2025, including a fully-electric version of the Macan SUV, before moving to 80% of sales that are exclusively powered by a battery by 2030. Keeping up profit margins at Porsche, VW’s most profitable brand next to Audi and Lamborghini, is key for the group to help finance the industry’s biggest shift to electric cars.
Volkswagen and its controlling shareholder, the billionaire Porsche-Piech family, are pushing ahead with a listing of Porsche even as global markets face major turmoil because of the war in Ukraine.
An IPO “could sharpen Porsche’s profile and boost its entrepreneurial options,” Meschke said in a statement. “At the same time, Volkswagen and Porsche will be able to benefit from joint synergies.”
The potential listing is estimated to value the sports car brand at as much as 85 billion euros ($96 billion), according to Bloomberg Intelligence. That compares with total market valuation of 96 billion euros of the entire Volkswagen group. The move would partly reverse a tumultuous takeover of Porsche more than a decade ago.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne. Monica Raymunt of Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
Auto brands have largely teased their electric ambitions with new halo nameplates — the Cadillac Lyriq, Ford Mustang Mach-E, BMW iX — aimed at niche, green customers. But other brands are taking big risks by converting gas-powered halo models to electrification. The latest bombshell came from Subaru last week when the automaker announced it will not make its highly-anticipated WRX STI performance icon on its current Global Platform — saying it has been delayed for a future, likely-electrified platform.
The news about the WRX STI, which has defined Subaru’s off-road rally spirit as an all-wheel-drive, high-wing, high-horsepower hellion, comes on top of news that Dodge and Porsche will be going all-electric with their next-generation Challenger and Cayman sports cars, respectively. The moves risk alienating loyal owner bases that have prized roaring, internal-combustion V-8 and flat-6 engines.
“Subaru is focused on how our future performance cars should evolve to meet the needs of the changing marketplace and the regulations and requirements for greenhouse gasses,” the company said in a brief statement. “As part of that effort, Subaru is exploring opportunities for the next generation WRX STI, including electrification. In the meantime, a next generation internal combustion engine WRX STI will not be produced.”
The news was met with a storm of protest from customers.
“Have no desire for an EV STI,” said “STIag,” a longtime owner, in a typical post on IW STI Forum, a popular website dedicated to Subaru enthusiasts. “The niche of the STI is the culture, the personalization, the love. Sad day. RIP STI.”
Subaru’s news comes in the wake of Dodge’s announcement at the November Los Angeles Auto Show that it is ending production next year of its legendary, V8-powered Hellcat Challenger and Charger amid a transition to electrified EV, hybrid and plug-in drivetrains. The supercharged, 700-plus horsepower muscle cars have defined the brand in recent years, driving a boom in Dodge sales as Hellcat V-8s are stuffed into everything from two-door coupes to three-row SUVs.
Porsche’s mid-engine Boxster convertible and Cayman sports cars are also going all-electric, according to enthusiast publication Car and Driver. While Porsche has refused comment on the report, the magazine writes that the Boxster/Cayman design “was previewed by the Mission R concept car at the 2021 Munich auto show.” Porsche has touted the battery-powered Mission R as a prototype for a coming race program.
Cayman/Boxster sales have declined in the U.S. since 2016, when Porsche last bowed to emissions regulations by replacing its screaming flat-6 with a less-emotional turbo-4 cylinder.
Other manufacturers have been less eager to alter icons. Nissan, for example, is bringing to market an all-new twin-turbo V-6 Nissan Z for 2023, and Corvette’s coming Z06 performance model will boast a record 670 horsepower for a normally-aspirated gas engine.
Brands are taking a fresh look at their lineups in the face of historic efforts by governments — including in the U.S. — to dictate which drivetrains automakers use. Automakers have in the past produced a variety of alternatives to mainstay gas engines to balance regulations and consumer demand: diesel, hybrid, ethanol. Governments are now demanding zero-emission vehicles, narrowing the choice to electric and hydrogen power.
“We have seen this game before about 50 years ago,” said veteran iSeeCars auto analyst Karl Brauer. “In the 1970s, cars got more powerful before forces outside the industry — government regulations, gas prices — forced a fast decline in performance from 1975-1980. It feels sadly familiar again today.”
Last remade in 2015, the Subaru WRX STI had been eagerly awaited by fans as it promised gains from the brand’s capable Global Platform. Owner “CT Boost” at the STI forum was disappointed: “The truth of the matter is nobody besides the Left wants electric sports cars. They want to control everything we drive.”
Industry executives like Dodge boss Tim Kuniskis promise that — unlike the ’70s — the electric future will bring more capable chariots.
“People are really nervous about (electrification),” Kuniskis told The News last fall. “(But) power isn’t going away. We’re going to show a concept of our all-electric muscle car. We’re going to . . . redefine American muscle.”
Subaru, too, assured that the next WRX STI will be a revelation: “The STI brand represent(s) the zenith of Subaru’s performance vehicles exemplifying Subaru’s unique DNA and rally heritage. As we look to the future, we also look forward to incorporating the essence of STI into our next generation of vehicles.”
Some members of the STI forum were encouraged by Subaru’s evolution. “I am excited to see what Subaru will put together. For those who say you can’t make an EV or hybrid sports car — have you heard of Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren?” wrote “Hordeolum.” “Subaru looking forward, not backward.”
The company has also acknowledged the difficulties of incorporating high-cost, low-range batteries into an affordable brand catering to long-distance adventure seekers. Subaru, like most non-Tesla brands, has had little demand for EVs — but faces escalating U.S. fines beginning in 2026 if it doesn’t sell zero-emission vehicles. Its first EV, the Solterra, arrives this year as a joint-venture with Toyota to save costs.
“If we designed (a new STI) now, it would have a very limited shelf life,” Subaru spokesman Dominick Infante told Road & Track. “The regulations are changing so quickly that it kind of wouldn’t make any sense.”
It makes sense, said analyst Brauer, for some automakers to reconsider their performance lineups given the uncertain regulatory and gas price future.
“The answer is that sales to enthusiast brand die-hards will take a hit,” said Brauer. “But that’s a smaller hit than they are facing from government emissions penalties.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
You date them for their good looks, but you stay with them for their character.
The Buick Enclave has always been a looker, from its boat-bow rear window to its big front kisser and winged mustache. And for 2022, it gets even better looking with a bigger smile, bigger mustache, and — ooooh, sexy new eyebrows. Enclave has led the brand’s transformation over the past decade from tired sedans to hip SUVs by attracting moms again — not just grandmoms.
It’s like the women say in the ad: “That’s a Buick?”
But when it came to living with Enclave day-to-day, well, it had its problems. Am I right, ladies? There was that annoying engine START-STOP tick in the 2018 model that you couldn’t turn off. Like him snoring at night — HUNGGHNK! HUNGGGHNK! HUNGGHNK! — it would just drive you craaaazy after awhile. And then the lack of standard features … seriously? On a premium automobile? Adaptive cruise control wasn’t available until the top-trim Avenir package?
The good news is that Buick listened to you (now, that’s an admirable quality in a relationship). So for its 2022 mid-cycle refresh, Enclave owners can turn off the snoring — er, auto START/STOP — with a button located prominently at the top of the center console next to the infotainment screen. Hallelujah!
And starting at $45,920 with all-wheel drive (a must for Michigan winter), you get a boatload of standard features: lane-keep assist, forward collision alert, rear cross traffic alert, auto high beams, blind-spot assist and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
That latter bit is satisfying — and not just for the convenience of getting into your car and having it wirelessly recognizing where you set your destination on your phone. Wireless smartphone apps also mean you don’t need to upcharge to a redundant car navigation system. For those who do prefer in-car systems, I’m happy to report the system in my loaded $60K Avenir top trim responded to my voice commands as accurately as a phone.
Adaptive cruise control is inexplicably still not standard on a road tripper like this — even with the $2,500 price hike over the ’21 model. But at least it’s available from the base $45K Essence trim. Mainstream competitors like the stylish AWD Kia Telluride and Mazda CX-9 offer it standard for less. Heck, even the Honda Civic comes standard with blind-spot assist and adaptive cruise for $23K.
I picked up my son up at the airport and he had no problem spotting the Enclave. This ute has presence. Expanding on its familiar good looks, Buick did some clever work for ‘22 with the wider, wing mustache and a smoldering “eyebrow” running light atop the grille.
That space used to be occupied by the headlights, but headlights have been moved, subtly, to the mid-fascia. The location is optimal for not annoying vehicles traveling in front of you with headlight glare — and it also echoes the Enclave’s attractive smaller sibling, the Envision.
Typical of the GM family of vehicles these days, Enclave’s chassis has spent quality time in the gym. The body is lean for its size — a couple hundred pounds lighter than a Lincoln Aviator — and the suspension well-tuned, with my Avenir model also benefiting from adaptive suspension. My son and I both drove it with verve through Oakland County’s lake country twisties, where the big bus was surprisingly nimble. It confidently hugged turns while the 310-horsepower V-6 roared happily under my cane.
Monostables can be difficult to learn (wait, which direction do I push it for REVERSE?), and the last-gen Enclave used a similar mechanism to the XT6. Once again, Buick apparently listened to customers who wanted something simpler — though, um, not everyone will be pleased by the replacement.
Buick has adopted a “trigger shifter” — common in Honda and Acura models — which saves console space like a monostable but requires learning (wait, which finger do I use to operate REVERSE?). My bet is folks would prefer a good ol’ column shifter if the idea is to save console space.
Save space the trigger does. There is room for a phone charger, cupholders and — underneath — a clever hideaway space for purses and other valuables. The console sits under one of the most elegantly designed dashes in the business. Tesla made big screens fashionable, and automakers are falling all over themselves to stuff jumbotrons into dashboards.
Enclave resists, integrating its modest eight-inch screen into the dash’s horizontal, wing-like theme. The design complements the cabin’s solitude and space. Enclave knows its customers prize interior room.
Marry the Buick and you get a big house sitting on an 204-inch-long foundation. Six-footers like my son and I could co-exist nicely in the second and third rows — if you can figure out how to get back there.
Seats are expensive, and Buick (along with its sibling Chevy Traverse) decided to save money by only enabling the right (curb-side) second-row seat with a “Smart Slide” option for easy third-row access. Tug on the captain’s chair side handle and the throne tumbles forward. It’s effortless, practical and doesn’t require removal of an anchored child car-seat.
That ease-of-entry was lacking on the ’18 model’s left side, however, and Buick decided to keep it that way for 2022. If you have a third-row ticket, you’ll need to flatten the second row seat, or crawl through the middle aisle, or climb through the back hatch if you’re really desperate.
Buick is betting that kids won’t mind. Especially since the third row is not only roomy, but offers two USB ports and dual square cupholders so you can store your fast-food drink — and French fries box.
With a panoramic roof overhead, the airy cabin made for easy, long drives around town — no matter which seat I occupied — on a busy weekend schedule. When the back two rows aren’t occupied, they can be stowed to open a cavernous 98 cubic feet of cargo space to transport furniture, Christmas trees and so on.
Enclave is a handsome beast of burden. And for 2022, it’s got a better disposition too.
2022 Buick Enclave
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front- and all-wheel-drive, seven-passenger SUV
Price: $43,920 base, including $1,195 destination ($60,540 Avenir AWD as tested)
Apocalypse Manufacturing looked at the four-wheel, off-road Ford Bronco beast and found it lacking.
Say hello to the Dark Horse, the world’s first six-wheel Bronco.
The Fort Lauderdale-based aftermarket shop announced production this week of the 6×6 beast, complete with pickup bed, 400 horsepower, 37-inch all-terrain tires and weather-resistant interior. Broncomania is in full swing after the Blue Oval introduced the production Bronco in 2021 and Dark Horse will square off against its natural enemy — the 6×6, Apocalypse-made, Jeep Gladiator-based Hellfire — as well as Jeep cyborgs like Hennessey’s 1,000-horsepower Gladiator stuffed with a Dodge Hellcat engine.
“This is such a nostalgic bring-back from Ford that as soon as we were able to get our hands on one, we knew exactly what we had to do and created the world’s first Bronco six-wheel drive truck,” said Apocalypse chief Joseph Ghattas, who notes the Dark Horse is a street-legal, everyday driver.
These aftermarket Frankensteins join a super-truck movement galvanized by Americans’ desire for everything SUV and truck. Not content to let aftermarket companies have all the fun, Detroit manufacturers have introduced their own super-freak models.
Ford, for example, has introduced a rowdy Raptor version of its Bronco SUV and Ranger pickup to join its iconic F-150 Raptor desert-runner. Ram makes the 702-horse TRX pickup. GMC boasts the crab-walking Hummer EV.
But the aftermarket aims to be one step ahead with insane creations to feed deep-pocketed customers.
A specialist in six-wheel vehicles, Apocalypse says its beasts are meant to “survive the end of times.” Or at least a zombie invasion. The company manufactures the Ram TRX-based Warlord and Jeep-based Doomsday/Hellfire/Sinister 6 models. The vehicles get lots of attention making starring appearances alongside Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum in the current Hollywood film “The Lost City” — as well as two appearances on “Jay Leno’s Garage.”
The Dark Horse follows in their hoofprints. The ute arrives in the Apocalypse shop as a production, four-door, 4×4 Bronco powered by a 330-horse turbo V-6. The engine is pulled and given a steroid injection to 400 horsepower (or about the same grunt as Ford’s coming Bronco Raptor).
Then the Bronco chassis is put on the operating table. Its back is cut off, and the spine extended with steel and fiberglass to create a five-foot-long pickup bed. All told, the Bronco grows from 189 inches in length to 225. The beast is accessorized with 37-inch all-terrain rubber, 20-inch wheels, 4-inch lift, steel sidesteps and a removable, slant-back cover for the bed. Interestingly, there is only one spare tire on the tailgate, like a normal Bronc.
The real magic comes from the company’s patented middle tandem axle, delivering power to all six hooves. Special coil-over springs are added out back for on-road driving comfort when the vehicle is in rear, four-wheel-drive mode. When in its natural, off-road habitat — or on Mars — Dark Horse can be put into auto mode, which spins all six wheels with an onboard computer monitoring grip.
The interior gets a makeover too, with the seats wrapped in King Ranch-style, tan-and-black, marine-grade leather. Fortunately, the materials are weather resistant so you can strip Dark Horse of its doors and roof and enjoy the off-road rodeo.
Dark Horse joins more conventional, 4WD aftermarket Bronco kits like Roush’s Bronco R, which can be ordered through dealers, and adds more aggressive wheels and exhaust note. Or the Hennessey VelociRaptor 400 Bronco, which tattoos the bod with stripes while goosing the 2.7-liter V-6 engine with 411 horses and 603 pound-feet of torque.
Hennessey also builds Jeep aftermarket hellions like the Maximus Gladiator, which is stuffed with a 1,000-horse, supercharged Dodge Hellcat engine.
Build No. 1 for Dark Horse will go straight to Barrett Jackson for auction April 9. Auctions set the price for these specialty trucks. In an indication of where the 6×6 is headed (and Broncomania in general), a heavily-altered 4×4 Bronco from mod-shop SoFlo went for $220,000 earlier this year.
“The Dark Horse came out better then we could ever have dreamt,” said Ghattas. “In future builds, customers could expect to see a 700-plus horsepower from a supercharged V-8.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
And that’s a good thing, because the auto industry’s doormat wants you to know that things have changed. Recent Outlander and Outlander Sport models have been uninspired blue light specials, their interiors right out of a rental car catalogue, their tech and styling subpar.
The 2022 Outlander arrived in my driveway like a pinata at a birthday party. Head-turning outside, stuffed with treats inside. The grille was so outrageous I thought it might have been torn off a Chevy Silverado HD. Waterfall grille, mid-facia headlights, high-mounted running lights, more chrome than a Costco birthday cake has icing. The interior? Like no Mitsu I’d ever seen. Big leather accents, big digital screens, big three-row layout.
The Outlander is a compact-class SUV? Yes, but its attitude makes it seem a lot bigger.
Credit the Outlander’s transformation to Mitsubishi’s marriage to Nissan. I’m happy these two confused souls have found each other after some difficult years. Expect more of these unions as regulatory costs soar and governments force automakers to make expensive, small-volume EVs.
Outlander is the union’s first offspring and is loaded with Nissan DNA while retaining Mitsubishi’s more rouge-ish attitude. Speaking of Rogue, the Outlander is based on the same platform as Nissan’s own popular SUV. Just as the new architecture has infused Rogue with some delicious, caramel chocolate flavor, so has it produced the best Outlander yet.
The Outlander’s interior has been transformed with a tablet mounted high on the dash, bold horizontal lines, intuitive knob controls and generous console storage. Step up to my all-wheel-drive SEL Touring model and Cinderella really flaunts her new figure.
Quilted seats, head-up display, all-digital displays, automatic-sliding sunroof, standard three-row seating, seat memory, the works. Look more closely and Nissan Rogue-like touches are everywhere. Cool chiclet shifter. Large infotainment display, steering wheel-mounted controls, control knobs and more.
To set itself apart from its Nissan cousin, Outlander teases you with a combination of rugged attitude and homespun practicality. The latter is most obvious in Outlander’s claim as the only standard three-row SUV in its class.
My chicks have flown the nest, but parents know the value of a flexible interior. Arrive at the school pickup line and inevitably your kids will add more rugrats to the passenger list. The Outlander’s third-row seat room isn’t generous, but the chairs will do in a pinch. And they are easily accessed with a top-seat tab that collapses the second-row seats forward. My tall frame actually managed to fold in back there, so I know two kids will survive just fine. Carry just four passengers and I could easily sit behind myself in the second row.
The Outlander’s rugged attitude comes naturally for this rally-bred brand.
I come from the Pocket Rocket School of Mitsubishi when the company made snarling, all-wheel-drive, 300-horsepower Evo track assault vehicles. These bad boys spent their weekends hunting down Subaru STIs and Honda Civic Type Rs.
But Mitsu’s real claim to fame dates to the 1980s and its rugged, go-anywhere Pajero SUV.
The truck-frame Pajero won global fame for its record 12 wins at the brutal Mideast Dakar Rally (how brutal? One year it was canceled for fear of terrorism). Call it Mitsubishi’s Jeep Wrangler, though the model was curiously canceled in recent years.
In this Age of Ute, they’d be wise to bring it back as a brand halo. In a nod to its off-road history, Mitsu entered an Outlander in California’s Rebelle Rally last year to celebrate the 20th anniversary win of pioneering pilot Jutta Kleinschmidt’s at Dakar — the only woman to win the race. That’s a start.
Pajero’s spirit lives on in the production Outlander. And not just the aggressive exterior that looks like it wants to eat shrubbery for lunch.
All-wheel-drive optioned models like my tester come with unique off-road modes including NORMAL, ECO, TARMAC (Sport), GRAVEL and SNOW. This off-road personality is key to distinguishing Outlander from the crisp, volume-selling Rogue. Particularly when Outlander gets the same driver-assist systems (Rogue’s ProPilot Assist vs. MI-Pilot Assist in Outlander) as well as the same 181-horsepower, 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine.
My loaded SEL Touring model included goodies like all-wheel drive, wireless Apple CarPlay, hands-free power liftgate, adaptive cruise and panoramic sunroof for $38,590 — or, um, about the same price as a comparable Rogue Platinum model and the rockin’, corner-carvin’, best-in-class, 250-horsepower, $38,470, Soul Red Mazda CX-5.
Oh. That’s a tough sell for a value brand trying to get back in the game. But the good news, at least, is that Outlander’s got game.
2022 Mitsubishi Outlander
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front- and all-wheel-drive, seven-passenger compact SUV
Price: $27,290, including $1,245 destination fee ($38,590 SEL Touring as tested)
Powerplant: 2.5-liter 4 cylinder
Power: 181 horsepower, 181 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: continuously variable
Performance: 0-60 mph, 8.2 seconds (Car and Driver); Top speed, 120 mph
Phoenix — Preparing for a trip in the 2022 Lincoln Navigator is more like taking a cruise ship than an SUV.
This thing lives large.
My port of disembarkation: Phoenix, where I approached the Navigator with awe. Like a cruise-liner, my land yacht tester dominated the landscape with a huge, chromed bow, 22-inch turbine wheels and a running board that greeted me like a gangway. What, no anchor?
The ’22 refresh builds on the 2017 Navigator, which redefined Lincoln luxury and gave cruise patrons — er, mega-SUV fans — a serious competitor to the iconic Cadillac Escalade. Like Carnival Cruise lines vs. Royal Caribbean. Yeah, I know, Navigator invented the mega-ute segment nearly 25 years ago, and the current barge is the fourth-gen build.
But Cadillac Escalade had owned the segment since the early 2000s with its blingtastic Escalade. Navigator finally broke a champagne bottle in ’18 over a true Escalade fighter, rolling out the red carpet (literally) with its signature Lincoln Embrace welcome sequence, bold grille and a high-tech interior right out of a Wall Street board suite.
Necks snapped as it sailed by, buyers lined up with six-figure checks. Escalade responded with a dazzling remake of its own, and Jeep resurrected the lush Grand Wagoneer to get into the game. It’s a game the Detroit Three dominate.
Foreign automakers have translated their sedan success into unibody SUVs, but Detroit dominates the mega-ute segment. With a corner on the full-sized pickup market, Motown makers took their profitable filet-of-truck recipe and added lobster tail. Voila! — a land yacht that can tow your yacht.
Determined to stay on top, Lincoln took the ’22 Navigator back to dry dock for the latest state-of-the-art goodies.
The exterior has been upgraded with a bigger maw (it’s a law of nature, grilles must get bigger) and expressive rear taillights. Lincoln has led the pack in horizontal light signatures, and this one’s a beaut. Also fashionable these days are blacked-out packages, so naturally you can get your Navigator with black grille, wheels and roof.
But for my $115,410 luxury cruiser, I’m going all out with Chrome Caviar Dark Gray, Black Label trim with signature turbine wheels. I gave the bellman my bags and stepped into the luxe suite.
You can get a tan sitting in any of the three rows thanks to the standard Black Label panoramic roof. At 6’5” I sat comfortably in the third row (the seat collapsing forward with a pull of the seat tab). If there’s no one in the second row, the seat can be used as an ottoman.
Second-row passengers get heated/ventilated thrones with Amazon Fire-equipped video screens and seat massage — a segment first. I set my seat on “Lower Rolling” massage, then pushed the remote control to watch DreamWorks’ “Rio 2.” I’m just a big kid. Real kids will love it back here.
How’s the front row, you ask? Oh, you want to drive?
In a peek at the autonomous future, the Navigator Black Label features “Active Glide,” a semi-autonomous system available on select divided highways. Think Cadillac Super Cruise or Ford BlueCruise, which use similar hardware and highway mapping. Alas, Lincoln discourages using it from the back seat.
With a laser focused on your face in the driver’s seat to make sure you’re paying attention, you can drive hands-free. But once up front, I was hands-on. Unlike Escalade, which will soon unveil an asphalt-inhaling, supercharged V8-powered beast, Navigator has no ambitions to be an elephant in tennis shoes.
Adaptive shocks cushion shivers from the truck frame and the ocean liner cuts through the air with a 10-speed tranny mated to a 440-horse twin turbo V-6 in the engine room.
Cruise ships use tugboats to get them out of port, but Navigator is self-sufficient with Active Park Assist (pioneered by Ford years ago) that will self-drive you into — and out of — parking spots. Brilliant.
Still, Navigator was ungainly in Phoenix shopping plazas, where I generally parked on the perimeter to spare myself the headache of negotiating tight aisles.
Lincoln promises a battery-powered future by 2030, but that’s hard to square with its halo land yacht. Navigator is coveted as an Up North tow vehicle, or — if you’re in Arizona — an Out West tow vehicle to San Diego’s sandy beaches 350 miles away. It’ll tow up to 8,700 pounds for 470 miles, with gas stations everywhere should the tank run dry.
Enjoy the landscape outside — and the interior craftmanship inside.
If grilles must get bigger, so must interior screens. Navigator’s console touchscreen grows to 13.2 inches and features the latest SYNC 4 technology. That brings Amazon Alexa capability, but I preferred Google tech via a wireless Android Auto connection.
“Hey, Google” I barked, then instructed Google Maps as to my next port of call. Unlike other systems, Navigator also recognizes Google Maps in the digital instrument head-up and instrument displays so you can keep an eye on your route while using Lincoln’s native system to scroll through, for example, your favorite Sirius XM channels.
For new users, all this technology can be overwhelming — many buyers are not yet familiar with basic tech like adaptive cruise control. Let me recommend the Lincoln Showcase. True to a brand that aims to be a car concierge as much as a car builder (see Lincoln’s Hospitality service, which makes you a VIP at hotels and eateries), you can contact a rep to virtually walk you around the Navigator so you are as familiar with the land yacht as a cruise captain is with his vessel.
Many automakers have mistaken the opportunity to introduce smartphone-like features as a moment to eliminate hard-button controls. Not Lincoln. Navigator is intuitive to use with VOLUME, TUNE, MASSAGE and DRIVE MODE buttons nearby.
All of this is wrapped in lovely etched Khaya wood that stretches from A-pillar to A-pillar and up the center aisle. Cruising Arizona Route 202, I relaxed in the 30-way leather chairs. With adaptive cruise control set on 78 mph, I took my feet off the pedals and stretched my legs. Switching lanes, I eyed the blind-spot indicator in the side mirror without craning my neck. “Hey, Google,” I said. “Play ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ by U2.”
The sun warmed my skin. I took a sip of my iced tea. Ah, I do love an ocean cruise.
2022 Lincoln Navigator
Vehicle type: Front-engine rear- or all-wheel-drive, seven-or-eight-passenger mega-SUV
Price: $78,405 base including $1,695 destination fee ($115,410 AWD, short-wheelbase Black Label as tested)
Powerplant: 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6
Power: 440 horsepower, 510 pound-feet torque
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Weight: 5,855 pounds (as tested)
Performance: 0-60 mph, 5.2 sec. (Car and Driver est.); 8,00-pound towing capacity (8,300 AWD as tested)
Volkswagen on Wednesday introduced the long-awaited successor to its iconic 1960s Microbus. Dubbed the ID.Buzz under the brand’s ID electric sub-brand, the V-dub promises to be the first all-electric minivan. VW showed the two-row European version of the Buzz, which will go on sale in the third quarter of this year, with a long-wheelbase, three-row model to follow stateside in 2024.
Aping the original, the 2024 VW Microbus will be hard to miss with its huge front VW logo, boxy shape, two-tone color scheme, sliding door, and short wheel overhangs. True to its hippie roots, it will be aimed at tree-huggers with an interior full of sustainable materials like non-animal leather and organic paint. Make that deep-pocketed tree-huggers, as the ID.Buzz is expected to sticker here at $45,000-$65,000 — or $10k over a comparable Chrysler Pacifica minivan.
The Buzz is the production realization of the ID.Buzz concept that turned heads at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show.
“The (Microbus) represents freedom and the democratization of mobility. With the ID.Buzz, we are transferring (that) DNA to the present day and thus into the era of electric mobility and sustainability,” said VW design boss Jozef Kaban.
ID.Buzz will join the ID.4 in the U.S. market — the vehicles are based on the same Modular Electric Drive battery platform, but the Buzz will be considerably bigger than the compact ID.4 SUV with a standard wheelbase of 117.6 inches — which is longer than the VW Atlas, the largest vehicle VW sells in the U.S.
The U.S.-bound, long-wheelbase model will stretch to 127.5 inches, which dwarfs a Pacifica and is even longer than a full-size Chevy Tahoe mega-ute. Cargo area also beats Tahoe at a whopping 138 cubic feet. The stretched wheelbase will also allow room for an optional, longer-range 111kWh battery.
ID.Buzz is also as tall as a Tahoe at 6’3” — or the height of Detroit Pistons starting guard Cory Joseph. But with its short overhangs, the V-dub’s total length is comparable to the compact VW Tiguan at 185 inches. Minivan rival Pacifica is 204 inches long.
The ID.4 EV, touted by Volkswagen as the most important car it has made since the Beetle as it transitions to an all-electric lineup, has been met by lukewarm media reviews and sales in the U.S.
Though likely to sell in smaller numbers than ID.4 given its lower-volume minivan segment, the groovy Buzz may be just the conversation starter VW needs to compete with Tesla, which has dominated the small EV sector. Microbus sold in the U.S. from 1950-1967 and became an icon of the counter-culture movement.
Drivers of the original sat on top of the front axle with their noses pressed to a windshield flush with the front bumper. To accommodate modern safety standards, that suicidal position has been moved back, but the Buzz still maintains the original cab-forward design.
The Microbus’s familiar, V-shaped “hood” graphic cups the VW logo. With its tiny gas engine hanging out the back, the Microbus boasted a cavernous interior (thus the bus moniker) and the ID.Buzz follows suit since its battery will be under the floorboards.
The standard 82 kWh battery promises 250 miles of range, the bigger 111 a healthy 357 miles.
Like ID.4 (and the ’60s Microbus), Buzz will be rear-wheel-drive with a 201-horse electric motor driving the rear axle and putting out 229 pound-feet of torque. Top speed? 90 mph compared the original’s 72.
While the petrol-powered original could fuel up in five minutes on a tank of gas, the ID.Buzz claims it can charge from 5%-to-80% on a DC fast charger in 30 minutes.
Inside the Buzz’s right-sliding side door (a second, left-side slider is optional), buyers will find a flexible interior. The three rows of seats can be removed to expand cargo room. The two-tiered front console offers storage — and can be moved between the second row seats when configured as captain’s chairs.
Buzz will come in 11 color options and four two-tone options featuring Lime Yellow, Starlight Blue, Energetic Orange or Bay Leaf Green below the character line and Candy White common on top.
The front cabin will be familiar to ID.4 consumers with a 10-inch tablet screen (12-incher optioned) running the latest VW infotainment system. Touch sliders — controversial on the ID.4 — control temperature and volume. Less controversial will be wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, coveted by smartphone users. A steering-mounted stalk shifter with NEUTRAL, DRIVE and REVERSE positions controls the drivetrain.
True to its mission as a family hauler, the Buzz bristles with up to nine USB-C charging ports.
Complementing its exterior, two-tone flash, there will be four two-tone interior options as well. Candy White decorates the instrument panel and outer seatbacks while X-Blue, Orange, Yellow and Green color the dashboard, seats and upper door inserts.
An array of safety features come standard, including front brake assist, lane assist, and road sign display. Optional systems include adaptive cruise control, park assist and a surround camera view.
The ID.Buzz will be manufactured in Hanover, Germany. More details on price, performance, and options (like the California camper package, complete with tent, sink and stove) are expected closer to the 2024 sales date.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Ford continues to expand its off-road performance lineup in the United States, with a Raptor version of the Ranger pickup coming in 2023 to go with the Bronco Raptor. Like Papa F-150 Raptor and sibling Bronco, Ranger Raptor will be powered by a ferocious, twin-turbo V-6 sitting on an armored chassis and Fox shocks — while the interior gains Ford’s state-of-the-art SYNC 4 technology so owners can wirelessly navigate to the outback on Apple CarPay or Android Auto.
Ranger Raptor has been sold overseas since 2019 with a less capable, 2.0-liter turbo-diesel engine. In a Tweet, Ford CEO and chief motorhead Jim Farley confirmed the long-rumored “Ranger & Ranger Raptor are both coming to the U.S. next year” after the truck made its European debut late last month.
In addition to its meatier mill, the ’23 Ranger Raptor will sit on a new Ranger architecture with upgraded tech. The Raptor tops the Ranger Tremor as Ford’s most-capable off-road midsize truck. While the Tremor competes against the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro and Chevy Colorado ZR2, the Ranger Raptor will be aimed at the Jeep Gladiator Mojave, though the Raptor promises peerless power in segment.
Since its introduction as the first super truck in the full-size segment, the F-150 Raptor has been joined by the Ram 1500 TRX and GMC Hummer EV super trucks.
Ford had previously resisted bringing the Ranger Raptor to the U.S. market for fear of cannibalizing sales of the hugely popular F-150 Raptor, but with Ford’s transition to an all-SUV and truck brand (save the Mustang coupe and convertible), the gloves have come off with the Raptor sub-brand now gracing both the Bronco and Ranger models.
You’ll know it by Raptor’s signature “F-O-R-D” letters branded across the front grille, amber highlights, flared fenders, and twin tow hooks front and rear.
While Ford won’t have all the details sorted — pricing, tires, fuel economy, etc. — until closer to the Ranger Raptor’s launch next year, its specs are formidable. The numbers provided here are for the European models (first to arrive late this summer), but are likely similar to what we’ll see on this side of the pond.
The 3.0-liter, twin-turbo V-6 spits out 392 horsepower and 430 pound-feet feet of torque. To reduce turbo lag, the elves at Ford Performance developed a a race-bred anti-lag system (first developed on the twin-turbo V6-powered Ford GT supercar) that keeps the turbochargers spinning up after the driver backs off the throttle — enabling quicker acceleration.
The engine is mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission and will feature four exhaust modes: Quiet, Normal, Sport and — for those wide-open runs across Holly Oaks ORV Park — Baja.
“The 3.0-liter engine brings a different dynamic to the Ranger Raptor that will satisfy even the most hardcore performance enthusiast,” said chief performance engineer Dave Burn. “The acceleration and raw performance of the new powertrain leave you grinning from ear-to-ear.”
High speed, off-road runs are assisted by a hardened chassis, four-wheel-drive, refined suspension, and live-valve Fox shocks. The suspension offers seven selectable drive modes: Normal, Sport, Slippery, Rock crawl, Sand, Mud/Ruts and Baja.
The latter optimizes the Baby Raptor’s system for all-terrain attacks utilizing everything in its toolbox from transmission calibration to brake sensitivity to traction control.
“While Ranger Raptor was inspired by desert racers, it’s also a supremely capable overlanding vehicle,” Burn said.
For extreme rock crawling, Ranger Raptor gains locking differentials front and rear (the Ranger Tremor only has a rear locker) and Trail Control — a sort of low-speed, foot-free cruise control up to 20 mph.
The beast is armored with three bash plates underneath to protect the front radiator, steering arms, engine and 4WD transfer case from off-road abuse.
Muscular fender flares cover 17-inch wheels wrapped in big all‑terrain tires. While Ford does not specify tire make yet, European photos indicate 33-inch BFGoodrich K02 all-terrain knobbies. The body ripples with functional air vents to feed the beast under the hood. Out back, the bed is tattooed with the “Raptor” logo.
The current-gen Ranger was sped to the U.S. market in 2019 to take advantage of a surge in interest for midsize trucks. The vehicles was panned by critics for its dated interior and the new Ranger and Baby Raptor promise significant upgrades. Chief among them is Raptor’s 12-inch console screen and wireless smartphone connectivity — mirroring Papa F-150 and Bronco.
Raptor also gets a 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster and upgraded dash design. Raptor-exclusive Code Orange accents decorate the instrument panel and seat trim. A leather-heated steering wheel and paddle shifters complete the sporty look.
“We knew that customers would expect improved performance with the next-gen Ranger Raptor, but I’m not sure they’re really expecting the enormous leap we’ve made. It’s a seriously fun truck to drive and I think the raw performance is going to blow them away,” Burn said.
Ranger Raptor is due to arrive in Europe in late summer with U.S. sales sometime in 2023.
Detroit — The world’s most outrageous, chopped, channeled, dumped and decked hot rods are back.
Sidelined last year due to the pandemic, the 69th annual Meguiar’s Detroit Autorama returns to Huntington Place this weekend, Friday through Sunday. Headlining the 800 custom cars on display will be 30 competing for the prestigious Ridler Award as well as a 50th anniversary tribute to Chuck Miller’s Zingers creations and 20 race cars celebrating the reopening of Milan Raceway, Michigan’s only NHRA-sanctioned drag strip.
“It was heartbreaking to have to cancel the event last year,” said Autorama president Peter Toundas, whose Championship Auto Shows produces the event. “We are delighted to bring this Motor City tradition back. Detroit Autorama is the most revered hot rod custom car show in the country, and spotlights the important, historic role Detroit has played in the world of custom cars and hot rodding.”
With the relocation of the North American International Auto Show to September, Autorama is now the premier winter auto show in downtown Detroit. It roars back at a time when downtown is picking itself back up after pandemic restrictions. Autorama’s family-focused crowds may bring welcome appetites to struggling restaurants and retail stores around Campus Martius near the convention center.
The Ridler, sponsored by Meguiar’s, is the most coveted custom car award in the country. The bauble has been presented for 59 years to the most notable new custom car — shown for the first time anywhere. Competitors often spend millions to capture the prestigious $10,000 prize.
In 2020, the award went to a heavily modified black, 509-cubic inch V-8, 1963 Chevy two-door station wagon created by Minnesota’s Show Cars Automotive. Its slammed chassis was built in Washington state, its wheels crafted in California, and its interior screwed together in Alabama.
Marking the Ridler’s return will be its most prolific recipient, Chip Foose. Foose has won a record four Ridlers and turned his fame into a gig with the Motor Trend network’s “Overhaulin’” show. He will sign autographs from noon-6 p.m. Friday.
Another hot rod legend in the house will be Chuck Miller. Miller’s Fire Truck won the Ridler in 1968 and the New Boston resident went on to create such custom icons as the Red Baron, Bugs Buggy, and Sonic Cuda.
For the ’22 Autorama, Miller will be showing off his Zinger cars — grown-up version of the playful, 1/32-scale model toys sold by MPC in the 1970s. All six super-sized Zingers will be on display: VW Bug, Dune Buggy, Dragster, Dodge van, Corvette and semi-trailer.
“It’s the first time all six of them have been together in 35 years,” Miller said.
The models are essentially half-scale cars (1/5 scale in the case of the semi) stuffed with full-size, hot-rod engines. The result is, for example, the yellow VW Bug with a massive engine and headers sticking out of its roof. The engines were hollowed out for light-weighting so the hot rod caricatures were never driven (a human couldn’t fit in their half-scale cockpits anyway).
Miller also organizes the Cavalcade of Customs display at Autorama, featuring 10 of the wildest custom cars ever built. The favorite of all his children?
“I’m really proud of the Red Baron,” a smiling Miller said of his famed, “t-bucket” hot rod with its spiked German military helmet roof, side-mounted machine guns and swept exhaust. “It came about same as the Zingers. (Autorama founder) Bob Larivee came to me with (Revel’s) toy model and said: Can you build this for the 1969 Autorama? I said, sure, you don’t want to say no to Bob.”
Harold Bullock, who bought Milan Dragway with partner Perry Merlo after its bankruptcy last year, also will be on hand this weekend, keen to spread the word among the Autorama faithful.
“We have a big display of 20 race cars including motorcycles — we even have a dragster snowmobile,” Bullock said.
Racers from the TV show “Street Outlaws” will be there. Johnny “Quick” Kramer is bringing his orange Mustang and Brian “Chucky” Davis will feature his ferocious ’69 Camaro. In addition to fire-breathing V-8s, Milan expects more electric vehicles as Tesla has sparked interest with its 0-60 mph ability.
“EVs are coming. The Tesla Plaid will definitely catch people off guard because it’s just as fast as a Dodge Demon,” said Bullock. “Part of our plan is we’re going to have some EV races out there, too.”
As for the raceway’s opening this year, he said: “We hope to be going by May at Milan. We’re paving about half the racetrack and will have a smooth, hard surface for everyone to come back and make some record times.”
Autorama has often opened with a demonstration drag race down Jefferson Avenue. Not this year, though Bullock would have loved the opportunity. “I bet all 20 of (our guys) would volunteer for that,” he exclaimed.
There will be more celebrity cars and stars all weekend. This year’s Preservation Award Recipient is the 1984 Ridler winner: the Khrome Shop Special ’34 Ford Coupe. Ford fans will also enjoy the 90th Anniversary of the ’32 Ford Tribute Exhibit, featuring 12 significant models.
On Saturday, WWE Hall of Famer Sting and “Toymakerz” star David Ankin will sign autographs. Danny Koker and Kevin Mack from Counts Kustoms will be on hand for autographs Sunday.
But wait, there’s more. Lurking in the basement will be Autorama Extreme, displaying more than 200 traditional rods, customs and bikes inspired by the 1950s. A show within a show, it will include Rockabilly Bands plus the Miss Autorama Retro Pin Up Girl Contest Saturday.
Autorama schedule
For more information, go to www.autorama.com or call (248) 373-1700.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Carmel, California – This tourist town’s Ocean Avenue main street is lightly trafficked on a Monday morning despite 65-degree weather and bslue skies. COVID rules daily life here. A few, masked pedestrians walked the streets, home of some of northern Californian’s most beautiful beaches. Shops are plastered with signs requiring masks to enter. Store attendants bark at patrons to pull their masks over their noses. Store traffic is light.
A continent away in Naples, Florida and the central, 3rd Street shopping area is bustling with people. Pedestrians browse shops, jam restaurants, and masks are rarely seen. Despite similar weather and demographics, the two sunshine states are a world apart – one living in fear, the other free.
I have traveled extensively across the US in recent months and it’s a tale of two countries, red and blue, often living within miles of one another. Democratic policies – not the virus – have reshaped parts of America. Here are some examples of our State of dis-Union:
Oakland County, Michigan – Public schools like Conant Elementary are in session in Oakland County north of Detroit. Education is a ticket out of poverty, but due to Democratic Party COVID policies, the poor have gotten poorer.
Cross into Detroit and public schools like Edmonson Elementary School were shuttered for the month of January (including charter schools) for fear of COVID-19’s Omicron variant. Remote learning has been the COVID normal in Detroit.
Omicron’s symptoms are mild, say doctors, and the COVID-19 virus is of little mortal threat to children. Yet, the district consistently defaulted to remote learning in a district where some 80 percent of households are run by a single parent. The exception is Detroit private schools. University of Detroit private secondary school, for example, maintained in-class learning since the beginning of the epidemic.
Detroit – The Motor City is a ghost town on weekdays.
Despite the lack of state COVID mandates, Detroit is a Democratic bastion with local government and corporate mask mandates. A small crowd of 50 people attended the North American Car of the Year awards January 11th in the palatial Huntington Place Convention Center were forced to wear masks.
Corporations have mandated masks and encouraged employees to work from home, emptying out a downtown that was abuzz before the pandemic hit in 2020 with new bars and restaurants. Multiple eateries shuttered as their clientele disappeared. Parking garages are empty. Streets vacant.
Just 300 miles east in of Indianapolis, 68,000 partisans descended on Lucas Oil Arena in downtown Indianapolis on January 10 to cheer their respective Alabama and Georgia football teams in the national championship. Regardless of their differences, they enjoyed a mask-less indoor environment in the free state of Indiana. Crowds congregated in Indianapolis bars and restaurants after the game, enjoying the moment.
Toledo, Ohio – The Biden Administration is forcing an electric-vehicle overhaul of the American auto industry in the name of fighting what it calls the “climate crisis.” This despite lukewarm consumer demand. EVs make up just three percent of US sales – 80 percent of them Teslas.
I am one of those Tesla owners.
The Model 3 is quick, high-tech, ambitious. On a trip from Detroit to Charleston, West Virginia, the Tesla’s cutting-edge Autopilot system drove itself for large portions of I-75. But I also had to stop in Toledo to recharge for 30 minutes in a Meijer parking lot. All told, my 12-hour round trip took an extra 2 hours 20 minutes due to recharging stops. Compare that to a comparable, gas-powered car which could make the trip with two, 5-minute refuelings.
No wonder the only other EVs (despite over a dozen models on the market) I saw across three states were Teslas at superchargers. Yet, major automakers echo Democratic Party rhetoric that the planet is in crisis, that their autos are the cause, and that they must go all-electric. “Our pursuit of sustainability and climate equity remain. . . vital,” said General Motors CEO Mary Barra, introducing an electric Chevy pickup at this January’s Consumer Electronics Show.
Automakers concede that selling EVs is a challenge, but they are counting on governments to ban gas cars over the next decade and build a refueling infrastructure to rival gas stations.
Phoenix, Arizona – While America’s establishment media has always leaned left, the pandemic solidified its transition as a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and government power. At the heart of this is the Associated Press which has morphed from a neutral journalistic institution to the US equivalent of TASS news agency.
Whether in the Arizona Republic or USA Today, AP is America’s ubiquitous national news source. As government propaganda, it shapes the news to favor Party narratives. AP’s coverage of the Black Lives Matter and Freedom Convoy protests exemplify how differently the wire service treated two civil liberties movements. AP heaped respect on the often-violent BLM movement as launching a “national reckoning on race” to further The Party narrative of “systemic racism.”
By contrast, AP in February, 2022 marginalized the peaceful, working-class Freedom Convoy as a vessel for “disinformation in Canada and simmering populist and right-wing anger.” AP downplayed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s disturbing declaration of martial law while casting the Convoy in its January 6th Party narrative as a divisive movement fueled by “Fox News personalities and conservatives like Trump.”
AP is not alone. Establishment outlets like Harvard’s Nieman Foundation, which claims a commitment to “elevating the standards of journalism,” aim to enforce Party doctrine through Big Tech social media platforms. Niemen on February 23 advocated for Facebook censorship of news contrary to The Party line on climate change.
“A ‘Toxic Ten’ of 10 websites — including Breitbart, Newsmax, and the Daily Wire — was responsible for nearly 70% of engagement on Facebook with climate denial content,” said Niemen, scolding Facebook for “failing to label many posts . . . most likely to publish climate change misinformation.”
The Democratic Party and its media allies have used the pandemic to expand government power. That control will not easily disappear.
Payne is The Detroit News auto columnist, 910 AM Car Radio Show host, a syndicated cartoonist with Andrews McMeel, and Townhall contributor.
Detroit — The Ford F-150 Tremor is at home off-road in mud. Or on-road in a blizzard.
Snow quickly overwhelmed Metro Detroit Feb. 17, canceling events, closing businesses and huddling families at home around their big-screen TVs. Not me. I couldn’t wait to hit the streets. My die-hard pals were determined to hold a long-planned dinner downtown — and happily, I had Tremor to get there.
The last time I was in the Ford was at Holly Oaks ORV park — the big rig’s natural habitat with muddy trails, sandy pits and steep hills. A competitor to the Chevy Silverado ZR2, Ram Rebel and Toyota Tundra TRD, Ford’s $51,200 off-roader was pleased as a pig in slop with 33-inch General Grabber A/TX off-road tires, 11-inch ground clearance, 400 horsepower and all-wheel drive. Turns out blizzards offer a similar playpen.
I kissed Mrs. Payne goodbye and headed into the gloaming at 6:30 p.m. Destination: a Detroit waterfront establishment. With the wind howling, snow blowing and cold biting, Tremor lit up as I approached it like a sci-fi craft in a Tatooine sandstorm.
At 6’6”, the beast is as tall as a Pistons forward. I got out my Super Extender Snowbroom and cleared the windshield, windows and body panels. Covered up, Tremor looks like any other full-sized truck (well, OK, those knobby 33s are giveaway), but as the flakes fell away, the truck’s signature features emerged: Tremor bed decal, orange grille accent, powder-coated running boards, silver bumper bash plate, vented hood.
The latter feeds the caged animal under the hood: a 400-horsepower, twin-turbo V-6 — the same mill as in the ferocious F-150 Raptor supertruck. Though 50 horses shy of Big Brother, Tremor’s six-holer has Raptor-like characteristics with 500 pound-feet of low-end torque and a 0-60 mph time of 5.3 seconds (just 0.1 second shy of Raptor, thanks to the Tremor’s 385-pound-lighter figure).
Combined with the Grabber tires and near-foot of ground clearance (my purpose-built Lola race car has an inch of ground clearance and gets stuck in tall grass), the engine gives the truck a feeling of invincibility. I jabbed the 4-HIGH button for all-the-time four-wheel drive. Oakland County secondary roads were abandoned, unplowed. Like a kid in a sandbox, I slewed Tremor this way and that, the four Grabbers grabbing, the fronts pulling the rears out of lurid slides, the V-6 roaring like a T-Rex at mealtime.
This being the digital age, Tremor is more than a mechanical bull.
Just as the Ford had detected my key upon approach, Ford’s SYNC 4 infotainment system recognized my phone on entry. It automatically hooked up Android Auto, my phone’s navigation system taking over the horizontal 12-inch console screen. I held down the steering-wheel-mounted voice command button and barked my destination. I assumed road blockages, and trusted Google to navigate me around them.
SYNC 4’s radio menu is also one of the best in autodom, and I had already configured my favorite radio stations. Tonight, I would be glued to WWJ-AM (950) weather reports as a complement to Google’s guidance.
The deep powder was a bit like Holly Oaks’ sandbox, and Tremor took to it like a whale to water. But with a vehicle this capable, the concern is less the environment than the threat my behemoth poses to other vehicles. I kept a perimeter around me lest the nearly three-ton truck become a runaway bowling ball on a roadway full of pins.
During Metro Detroit’s last blizzard a few weeks back (ahem, more global warming, please), I piloted a similarly-sized Toyota Sequoia (a Tundra pickup with an SUV body on top). The 6,000-pounder had the stopping distance of an ocean liner. I maintained a big cocoon and regularly brake-checked the SUV for distance when I changed roads.
Tremor, on the other hand, was more confident. Credit those General Grabber off-road tires, which gripped the snow like claws compared to the Sequoia’s slippy all-seasons. Like arming a sports car with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R gummies for the track, off-road treads are on another level from standard street rubber.
Sure enough, as I approached main four-lane arteries, things got dicier.
On Telegraph Road, three cars had spun out trying to avoid one another. A tow truck was at their rescue. Other cars had slid off the road at lurid angles. Along the six-lane Lodge freeway headed downtown, cars tended to clump together behind tentative slowpokes inching along in the middle of the road.
I tentatively picked my way through these packs. Once clear, Tremor plowed merrily along to the next pack, a whale swimming from one krill swarm to the next.
The Tremor has off-road peers like the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, Ford Bronco Sasquatch, Toyota 4Runner TRD, Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 and so on. But this night, I saw only Wranglers — and the odd Subaru Outback — moving along with similar confidence, no doubt with experience off-road.
I made it downtown in an hour — about 30 minutes longer than usual. Parking a full-size truck in the city can be a nightmare, but on this night, there were plenty of curb spots. When I re-emerged after dinner at 11 p.m. to a buried truck, I repeated my snow-removal ritual and made it home in 45 minutes — the streets sparse with cars, if not snow.
Off-road tires, of course, are noisy on bare asphalt and concrete surfaces once the snow melts. But they still come in handy given the deteriorating state of Detroit roads in the winter months.
Two days later I took 5’5” Mrs. Payne to the airport — she needed a ladder to get into the right seat — where the Grabbers came in handy along the cleared, pocked roads. Potholes the size of Cass Lake had opened up on Merriman, and the 33s giant sidewalls on 18-inch rims gave me confidence for the ones I couldn’t avoid.
My all-wheel-drive Tesla Model 3 on all-seasons ain’t bad in snow with its precise electric motors — but unseen potholes lurk to swallow up its low-profile 19-inch wheels.
At $68,005, my Tremor Swiss Army knife doesn’t come cheap and is loaded with goodies beyond its snow-eating capacities: roomy SuperCrew cab, 10,900-pound towing capability, fold-down console workspace, 5.5-foot bed, enormous back seats.
Maybe the next blizzard, I’ll load up my pals, throw their gear ‘n’ coolers in the bed, tow a snowmobile, and head Up North for a relaxing weekend.
Tempe, Arizona — I secure my seatbelt in the back seat, press the START RIDE button, and my Waymo One Chrysler Pacifica enters traffic on Warner Road, the steering wheel spinning right — then left — into the center lane before slowing for a stoplight.
There is no one in the car but me.
Four years after an autonomous Uber car killed a cyclist here, fully autonomous Waymo ride-sharing is on the streets ferrying drivers to their destinations. Like Uber or Lyft, they are open to the public. Unlike those familiar services, there are no drivers on board.
I took multiple trips over three days across the southeast Phoenix service area. The rides were smooth, efficient, stress-free and on time.
Since October 2020, Waymo One has serviced 50 square miles through the adjacent communities of Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler — the first Level 4 autonomous cars on offer to the public, 24/7, rain-or-shine, via a downloadable smartphone app.
(The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defines automated vehicle systems as follows: Level 1, Driver Assistance, some driver-assist features may be included; Level 2, Partial Automation, combined automated functions such as steering and acceleration, with a driver maintaining control; Level 3, Conditional Automation, driver must be ready to take control of the vehicle at all times; Level 4, High Automation, the vehicle can perform all driving functions under certain conditions; Level 5, Full Automation, the vehicle can perform all driving functions under all conditions.)
I wait for 18 minutes at the Tempe Public Library at a quiet, urban intersection. The white Chrysler Pacifica — a big “W” printed on its doors — is recognizable from afar with its blue LIDAR “bubble-gum machine” on the roof.
A passerby exclaims at the sci-fi bot and reaches it before I do — “Wow! A driverless car!” — snapping pics with his phone. Generally, though, I’m struck by how accepted Waymos seem to be. With 300-400 robots on the road, locals mostly pass them by without a second look.
Like Detroit, Phoenix is a sprawling metropolitan area where personal transport is king. Like other ride-share companies, robotaxis see an opportunity to service people without vehicles, including the elderly or those with health issues. The Epilepsy Foundation of Arizona and Foundation for Senior Living are Waymo partners. I focused my rides on meeting daily necessities.
I hailed robots to Freddy’s Custard and Steak (a popular local burger chain similar to Shake Shack), Walmart, Starbucks and CVS Pharmacy. Pickup times were generally comparable to Lyft at 4-7 minutes. My ride from the Tempe Library to Freddy’s cost $10 — competitive with a $14 Lyft ride.
There is no mistaking my ride for someone else’s Waymo. My initials — HP — are displayed in bright blue on the dash. The Waymo is plastered with instructions. Upon approach, a sign on the front door beckons me in (“Please take a back seat to access controls and display”). I open the sliding door and a voice welcomes me (“Good afternoon, Henry”).
As in a New York taxi, I am separated from the (empty) front seat by plexiglass. A touchscreen hangs from the seatback confirming my destination. Once underway, the screen displays a car eye’s view of the driving environment: vehicles, pedestrians, buildings, stoplights. Every two seconds, the LIDAR sweep displays even more detail with ghostlike shapes of bushes, trees, lamp posts, etc.
A camera watches me from above. The remote voice of a Waymo Rider Support agent intervenes. “Is your seatbelt on?” she asks from Waymo’s Chandler service center. “I can’t tell since it’s similar to the color of your shirt.”
I confirm that I’m buckled in — and learn I can push the HELP button (next to the camera) anytime to ask questions. I can also press PULL OVER if I want to stop the minivan.
A member of the Alphabet Inc. family with Google, Waymo uses the Pacifica Plug-in model (with 32 miles of battery range before the gas engine kicks in), which is a nice evolution from its Lexus 450h hybrid predecessor that featured a prominent “popcorn box” LIDAR on top and only a second-row of seats for passengers. With their flexible, three-row interiors, minivans have long made excellent ride-share vehicles.
Pacifica’s modern, bullet-like shape dovetails with the “Waymo Driver” suite of sci-fi equipment: a long-range, mid-range and four short-range LIDARs. Additional hardware includes 19 cameras, six radar units and multiple microphones. It’s a Best Buy shopper’s dream ride.
One day, I bring my suitcase and briefcase along. But unlike the Lyft Nissan Quest minivan that delivered me to Tempe, I can’t access the Pacifica’s hatchback.
“Sorry, but you’ll have to put your bags in the seat next to you,” responds the Rider Support agent. Seems all that LIDAR hardware requires a lot of computer hardware in the boot to run. Just like the ol’ Lexus. Still, the minivan proves its worth — it can swallow two passengers and their luggage. Or a lot of groceries.
With its favorable regulatory environment, high-tech workforce and diverse population of seniors and college students, Phoenix has ideal demographics to attract autonomous experiments. The Tempe service area is home to Intel’s sprawling semiconductor manufacturing facilities, Mesa Community College and neighboring bedroom communities. In addition to Waymo, GM’s Cruise is testing autonomous grocery deliveries here with Walmart.
Naturally, the gridded streets and mild weather help. Snow and cold weather (looking at you, Michigan) are hell on robotaxis. It didn’t rain during my time in Phoenix, but Waymo confirmed a technician will ride along when storms loom. For the first time in my eight years of riding robotaxis, I rode alone. In Pittsburgh in 2017, two Uber technicians occupied the front seats.
I was determined to put Waymo to the test and I took rides during morning and evening rush hours when the light was low.
Contrary to human drivers, robotaxis prefer night travel so cameras aren’t confused by sun glare. Autopilot in my Tesla struggles at dusk when the low sun can blind its cameras. Despite a bright southwest sun, my Waymo rides never wobbled.
My previous robotaxis have been overly conservative: always in the right lane, always deferring to other cars. Not this time. While displaying impeccable manners (turn signals, obeying speed limits, easy turns), the Waymo’s priority is getting me to my destination on time.
Driving to CVS, we switch lanes to pass slower cars, then stay left on a six-lane road to make time. Crossing three lanes to get me to a secondary street near the pharmacy, the Chrysler inched into the oncoming lanes just like I would have done — anticipating approaching cars, then shooting the gap between them.
Waymo operates a huge service center in Chandler so its robotaxis can come to roost, refuel, get serviced. In addition to its high-tech hardware, Waymo technicians have mapped the service area for cars to follow.
Since opening Waymo One to the public in October 2020, the company says it has logged 6 million miles of travel with 47 recorded “contact events, nearly all of which involved human error on the part of other drivers or road users involved.”
Turning left into a six-lane road, the Waymo properly merges into the far left lane. But a human driver to our right isn’t so precise, swerving left in front of the Waymo as we merge. We slow, giving the car room.
Further along, a pedestrian crosses the six-lane from the left, then stops at the painted median. The Waymo sees him, slows, then accelerates away.
Tesla’s secret sauce is that it has tens of thousands of guinea pigs like me self-driving their cars every day — with all that data being fed back to headquarters to help with machine learning. Cool, but stressful. I have to know what Autopilot can’t see, and override the system when it gets confused. The Model 3, for example, habitually slows for every traffic light, whether green or red.
Waiting for Waymo, I follow the vehicle’s progress on the app. Unlike a Lyft driver, the robotaxi prefers quiet pickup spots on side roads or shopping plazas — requiring me to walk 2-3 minutes to meet it. Confident in the vehicle’s abilities, I use my rides to catch up on email and texts.
Leaving a main artery, Waymo takes a short cut through a suburban neighborhood to get me to Walmart. But the neighborhood includes multiple speed bumps. Hmmm. If I were in the Tesla, I’d have to take over. But the Waymo sees them, slows, then moves on to the next.
Not bad for a driverless car.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Naples, Florida — The annual Cars on 5th auto show weekend on Naples’ swank 5th Avenue main thoroughfare is a feast for the eyes. Car owners roll through the streets showing off their fancy Aston Martins, Mercedes, Audis and Lamborghinis.
My $20,995 Hyundai Elantra doesn’t look out of place.
Bold black fascia with integrated, swept headlights like a Merc EQS. Swept tail like an Audi A7. Slashed body stampings like a Lambo Aventador. If Lamborghini made compact cars, they would be called Elantra. At a time when Detroit automakers are exiting the fun, affordable car space (I mourn the passing of the Ford Focus and Chevy Spark), their foreign peers have stepped up with a Whitman’s Sampler candy assortment of delicious morsels. Check out the techy Honda Civic, roomy VW Jetta, salacious Mazda3.
With its daring styling and generous suite of standard features, the 2022 Elantra is a bone standard compact that owners can proudly parade through any American neighborhood.
My vacation tester wore a hip premium wardrobe: black grille, black window trim, black wheels set against a dark gray body. Dude, is that the Batmobile? My former Detroit News colleague Pam Shermeyer was always on the lookout for cool base wheel covers in a sea of dreadful, silver plastic designs. Pam, you’d like these.
The Elantra’s standard black, 17-inch rims match its body stampings — triangular shards rotating around the five-wheel lugs. Walking down 5th Avenue, I found myself stopping and circling mid-engine Corvettes littered along the curbs, marveling at the way designers integrated its multiple surfaces.
I found myself doing the same with the Elantra. With more sharp edges than a drawer-full of knives, its surfaces somehow work in harmony. I pulled up next to an Audi RS5, sporting a huge black grille and 20-inch shard-spoked wheels. But next to Elantra, the RS5 seemed tame. Check out the minute detail on the Elantra’s grille, each segment a triangle. Or the lower spoiler, the Hyundai a plateful of triangular quesadilla slices.
The Elantra is not a hatchback like the RS5 — hatches are expensive to do — but it looks like one. The roofline meets the C-pillar in a long arc that tapers to an elegant swan’s tail.
The exterior hints at the attention to detail within. I marvel these days at the democratization of autos — with luxury chariots boasting of electronic gizmos now routine in mainstream cars like Elantra costing tens of thousands less. My $21,000 had everything I needed.
Walking up to the Hyundai, it recognized the key in my pocket with NFC (Near Field Communication) — Elantra comes standard with key fob and push-button start — lighting up the door handle so I could find it even in the dark. I compressed the wee door-handle button and the door unlocked.
I slipped into comfortable cloth seats that never chafed despite a week of constant driving. It’s comfort that can be enjoyed by four passengers as Elantra features generous backseat space. I easily sat behind myself with my lanky 6’5” frame. Farther back, the truck swallowed two bags, a tennis bag, briefcase and a beach chair with room to spare.
Like those plastic wheel covers, the standard interior is full of premium touches. Instrument and console displays are integrated, Mercedes-like, into one panel across the dash. The console takes a page from Corvette with a flying buttress separating driver from passenger — doubling as an Oh, Crap! handle for Mrs. Payne if needed.
My wife is used to my sudden Hyde-like transformations when I see twisty roads, and she’ll instinctively grab for a handle. Like its front-wheel-drive compact class brethren, fun comes standard in the Elantra with its low center of gravity and short wheelbase. Though lacking the Civic’s razor-sharp dynamics, it is fun to drive fast.
Which, as in southeast Michigan, isn’t often in Naples with its flat landscape and gridded roads. The standard features most drivers will find useful are electronic.
Push the start button and Elantra comes to life. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, so I never had to remove my phone from my pocket. The system does require patience to boot up — the eight-inch screen slowly recognizing “Henry’s Smartphone G70” and then Android Auto for navigation, Spotify, etc.
Smartphone apps are way ahead of even the best luxury navi systems. Lounging on the beach, my wife and I had searched destinations from restaurants to retail stores. When we transitioned to the car, they instantly came up on Android Auto. I selected a nearby “Haagen-Dazs” and we were off. When I needed to add a destination mid-trip, I simply barked at Android Auto — its voice recognition better than any luxe vehicle at Cars on 5th — and it changed my route.
Cruising Tamiami Trail, my Elantra bristled with safety features to keep my distance from the six-figure chariots around me. Forward collision-avoidance assist with pedestrian detection is standard, as is auto braking when in reverse. Backing out of a parking spot, the Hyundai detected a passing car — WUNK! — the car instantly applied brakes to prevent contact.
Manufacturers differ on whether blind-spot-assist or adaptive cruise control is the more important safety feature. Hyundai offers BLIS standard — Honda and Toyota ACC. I missed the ability of ACC to navigate Naples traffic, but BLIS not only makes lane changes safe, it also saved my having to crane my neck to check blindspots (which my chronically stiff neck appreciated).
Only at Naples stoplights did the Elantra betray its, um, lower-price status. While luxe chariots around me were powered by boosted, turbocharged-or-supercharged mega-mills, my Hyundai had a mere 147-horsepower four-banger powered by a continuously variable transmission.
Oh, it was painful.
Rolling out of a stoplight next to a BMW 3 Series, I flattened the throttle and the engine screamed — hamsters peddling the hamster wheel for all they were worth. To no avail. The 255-horse Bimmer disappeared into the distance. Sigh. Elantra drivers can take solace that their hamsters sip gas at 37 mpg, making it easy in the wallet, if not the ego.
Save their pennies, and Elantra buyers can trade up for the $32,945, turbo-goosed N model to go BMW hunting with 267 horsepower, limited-slip differential, 19-inch wheels and proper engine growl — still for $12K less than a comparable Bimmer.
And like the base Elantra, it will give up nothing to the German in wireless tech, interior screen size and exterior cool when you cruise down 5th Avenue.
2022 Hyundai Elantra
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front-wheel-drive, five-passenger compact sedan
Price: $20,995, including $1,045 destination fee (base SE as tested)
The electric vehicle revolution has brought a fleet of new brands into the market — Bollinger, Lordstown, Lucid, Rivian, Tesla.
Add DeLorean to the list.
Forty years after the gull-winged, stainless-steel, scandal-plagued car wowed the world, DeLorean Motor Company is going back to the future as an EV brand. Based in San Antonio under new ownership and a new name, DeLorean teased its new car on its website with gull-wing doors, electric power and styling by the same Italdesign firm that penned the 1981 original.
“We are making an all-new, fully-electric, gull-winged, two-door sports car,” said Stephen Wynne, CEO of DeLorean Motor Company, in an interview. “More details to come.”
While the nascent electric vehicle market offers opportunities for fresh faces, it has also offered a fresh start for old brands like GMC’s Hummer, Cadillac and Jaguar as they go all-EV. The idea of a cutting-edge EV would seem to fit DeLorean, whose original purpose in the ’80s was the create a stylish American coupe that would never rust.
“The original DeLorean has stood the test of time,” said Byron Cancelmo, president of the DeLorean Motor City Club, who owns two original DeLoreans and has been in touch with Wynne about the new car. “They are holding tight for now on details but it will definitely have gull-wing doors.”
Launched by jet-setting GM executive John DeLorean, the brand was plagued by financing problems and ultimately was the focus of a government drug sting operation. The company only produced 9,000 units of its DMC-12 model from 1981 to 1983 before going bankrupt. Founder DeLorean was acquitted of drug trafficking charges in 1984 and died in 2005.
His car has lived on as an American icon, however, thanks largely to its co-starring role in the 1985 hit movie “Back to the Future” with Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. DeLorean also captured public attention in 2019 with the release of the acclaimed documentary “Framing John DeLorean,” with Alec Baldwin in the title role as the company’s swashbuckling founder.
“Elon Musk hates being compared to DeLorean,” Ardon, a DeLorean owner himself, said at the movie’s 2019 Detroit premiere. “But he wants to make an ethical car just like John did. They both started with sports cars. Elon has exceeded what John accomplished.”
Wynne, who originally hails from Liverpool, England, bought the rights to DeLorean Motor Company several years ago and moved it to Humble, Texas, as a service and restoration shop for the 6,500 DeLoreans still on the road. The company has a stock of original factory parts to maintain the cult classics, and has satellite locations in Florida, California and Illinois to service customers.
Under the provisions of the federal Low Volume Vehicle Manufacturers Act, which allows small outfits to make historic replica vehicles without having to meet costly safety regulations, DMC hoped to build replicas of the original DMC-12 but has been frustrated by government red tape.
“So we’re going all in on an all-new electric chassis,” chuckled Wynne.
To build the new electric vehicle, he has created a sister company called DeLorean Motors Reimagined and hired Joost de Vries as CEO. De Vries’ automotive resume includes stints at Tesla and Karma Automotive.
The company will be headquartered in San Antonio with a manufacturing facility yet to be announced. Torina-based Italdesign is penning the new car and posted an announcement on their website celebrating DeLorean’s return.
“We are grateful for the tremendous support we’ve received from the community,” said de Vries in a statement about the new HQ. “San Antonio boasts a growing component and vehicle manufacturing sector as well as a wide array of global advanced manufacturing operations.”
DeLorean’s new marketing tagline is: “The Future Was Never Promised.”
While the success of Tesla has inspired new ventures like the DeLorean EV, the original DeLorean has inspired Tesla. The much-anticipated Cybertruck pickup is also made from rust-free stainless steel. The Cybertruck will be built in Austin, Texas.
“I’ve had a love affair with the DeLorean since my father first bought one when I was 12 years old,” said West Bloomfield owner Cancelmo who, when he’s not driving his DeLorean, fronts the Byron Legacy Show, a tribute band to Vegas legends like Tom Jones. “I can’t wait for the new car.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
Auto racing doesn’t appear to be speeding into an electric future anytime soon.
Cadillac and Porsche teased their all-new, world endurance sports cars in the past month and they are powered by good ol’ V-8 engines. Global sports-car sanctioning bodies are touting the “electrification” of their powertrains, but the new so-called hybrid prototypes that will roll out at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2023 are a long way from the battery-powered future touted by their manufacturers.
The gas-powered engines at the core of the mild hybrid systems are at odds with the batteries that luxury brands say will power their mass-market cars by decade’s end. The jarring disconnect is an indication of the challenges electric powertrains face in stressful conditions and in the race-to-street technology transfer that automakers have long relied on to advance production engineering.
“The mild hybrid systems give automakers that electrification cred,” said veteran racing expert Stephen Cole Smith of Autoweek. “But we’re not hearing anything about electric racing in the IMSA paddock.”
U.S.-based IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) and Europe-based WEC (World Endurance Championship) have joined forces beginning next year to offer international automakers a common technology platform to race the world’s fastest sports cars from Daytona to Le Mans to Fuji, Japan.
Racing’s gas-fired future echoes the prediction of Bloomfield Hills-based IMSA and IndyCar team owner Roger Penske last year, when he told media at the Detroit Grand Prix that “I don’t think you’re going to see the world go all-electric. I think you’ll see hybrid solutions in all kinds of transportation sectors.” Penske’s prediction dovetails with consumer sentiment, where EVs make up a sliver of auto sales, but runs contrary to government regulations that are forcing automakers to go electric.
Penske is at the heart of race-to-street technology transfer as owner of multiple Porsche dealerships that are selling Porsche’s first EVs, the Taycan and Taycan Cross Turismo.
But the much-anticipated Porsche GTP race car, sharing a common hybrid-electric motor with other competitors, that Team Penske will bring to Daytona next year will be powered by a twin-turbo V-8 engine more familiar to Porsche’s gas model customers.
Porsche showed camouflaged pictures on Jan. 27 of the wicked-looking winged racer as it began its intensive test program.
“In selecting the combustion engine to complement the standard hybrid elements, Porsche opted for a large-capacity twin-turbo V8 unit,” said Porsche in a press release. “In the race, the system output of the hybrid drive reaches around 670 horsepower.”
Manufacturers traditionally use production engines in their race cars as a marketing tool — and as a means for engineers to test drivetrains to the limits of performance in grueling, endurance racing environments. Porsche races a similar flat-6 cylinder gas engine in its IMSA GT-class car as it sells in its Porsche 911 street car. The twin-turbo V-8 appears to be similar to the engine in the Panamera sedan and Cayenne SUV.
The electric Taycan’s electric drivetrain is nowhere in sight.
“We decided on the V8-biturbo, which we feel offers the best combination of performance characteristics, weight and costs,” explained Thomas Laudenbach, vice president for Porsche Motorsport.
Cadillac will also enter a GTP car to compete against Team Penske’s Porsche — as well as entries from Acura, Audi and BMW (with Lamborghini expected to join the fray in 2024).
Like Porsche, GM’s lux brand will have a V-8 at its core, likely a similar block to that used in the brand’s ferocious CT5-V Blackwing performance sedan and Escalade V SUV. Cadillac will share more details this summer.
“While the new race car will take into account IMSA and (WEC) regulations, Cadillac’s brand characteristics will be instantly recognizable, many of which are seen on our V-Series vehicles today,” said Chris Mikalauskas, Caddy’s lead designer, as the brand teased its prototype in a video Feb. 9 with an unmistakable V-8 soundtrack. In addition to its 2023 Daytona debut, the Cadillac GTP will mark the brand’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time in 21 years.
Ironically, Cadillac parent GM pioneered mild hybrid technology (which provides limited electric assist to the gas engine) but abandoned hybrids entirely in recent years to focus on its Ultium battery platform for all-electric vehicles.
“There is a disconnect here from what GM is touting as its future,” said Autoweek’s Cole Smith. “There is no technology-to-street transfer with their hybrid race car. Electric cars aren’t ready for a 24-hour race. That technology is at least a generation away.”
The stresses of auto racing magnify the advantages of gas-powered engines. At 116,090 BTUs per gallon, gasoline is an energy-dense power source ideal for quick pit-stop refueling. At 88,258 BTU/gallon, E85 ethanol is also used in series like IndyCar. Batteries hold much less energy and therefore add considerable weight to race cars. When they run out of juice, they require a long time — and lots of electric power — to recharge.
Liquid alternatives like E85 and diesel have been easier for racing series to adopt. After European governments pushed the transformation to diesel engines at the turn of the 21st century, manufacturers including Audi and Peugeot fielded Le Mans-winning, diesel-powered race cars.
Due to their inherent weight and range challenges, Cole Smith says electric racing applications will likely be for shorter, sprint racing like Rallycross and Formula E. Despite millions in manufacturer investments, the latter has struggled to gain fans with BMW and Audi both pulling out to concentrate on gas-powered series like IMSA/WEC prototypes.
“Formula E hasn’t gotten any money out of their investment,” Penske said last year. “The manufacturers are focused on what motorsports they want to be in. You need to have something in your brand that shows you can win.”
For now, winning on track and in the showroom means fielding gas engines. This Sunday, NASCAR will introduce its V8-powered car of the future.
“I can’t imagine NASCAR going electric anytime soon,” said Cole Smith. “People don’t want to go to the Daytona 500 and see 42 cars come around the high bankings making no sound at all.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
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