Innehållsförteckning för April 2020 från MotorTrend

There has not been a coup d’état. But if you happen to have noticed a change in the MotorTrend masthead, I am the new editor-in-chief. But I am not new to these pages, having served as executive editor for the past three-plus years and implementing our editorial mission shoulder to shoulder with Ed Loh. So where’s Ed? He’s still very much at the head of the ship, enjoying the executive fridge and the other perks that come with being promoted to head of editorial for the entirety of MotorTrend Group. All 22 titles under our corporate aegis now fall under Ed’s purview—from Automobile to Super Street and Hot Rod to FourWheeler. Rest assured, Ed will still be a presence here. He retains an editor-at-large title, and he will appear from…

MotorTrend was among a handful of foreign press invited to Seoul for the global debut of the Genesis GV80 midsize SUV, which went on sale immediately after in South Korea. It will arrive in North America in the fall, starting at about $48,000. Power comes from a modified version of the new Smartstream 2.5-liter turbo-four, adapted for the rear-wheel-drive vehicle. There’s also a new 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 that appears poised to replace the 3.3-liter turbo V-6 in Genesis’ lineup. In the GV80, they will mate to an eight-speed conventional automatic controlled via a rotary gear selector in the center console. Genesis has no plans to give the GV80 a dual-clutch unit. The new GV80 has an electronically controlled suspension with an integrated road preview function that uses forward-facing cameras and…

The 2020 Sentra rides on a new platform that’s 2 inches lower and wider, features a new multilink rear suspension in place of the old torsion beam, and has a new electric power steering rack engineered to improve ride quality and handling performance. There are now just three trim levels: S, SV, and SR, with the latter two available with premium packages. Prices creep up a hair, with the Sentra S starting at $20,015, the SV starting at $21,195, and the SR starting at $22,355. Fully loaded Sentras should top out around $25,000. Whereas the old Sentra wheezed, groaned, and floated down the road, the 2020 model feels solid, competent, and quite nice to drive. The biggest improvement is in ride quality and body control. The Sentra’s ride is compliant…

Rivian, an electric vehicle startup, already has more than 1,800 employees (with 1,000 being added this year) and has raised $3.5 billion to build the R1T electric pickup truck and R1S three-row electric SUV at a mothballed Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois. Rivian will also build an electric SUV for Ford and fulfill a contract for 100,000 electric commercial delivery vans for Amazon Prime. Rivian is led by CEO RJ Scaringe, who splits his time between operations in Michigan, California, and Illinois. When do you start production? End of this year, first truck then SUV. We will build pilots in Q3, but the first delivered pickup will be December, with the SUV about three months later. There are efforts to pull that forward, but we’re being realistic. How does the…

“Why are you making this so complicated?” my editor asked. “Remember how superior the Model 3 was over the Nissan Leaf Plus and Kia Niro EV during our Car of the Year testing? The Tesla will easily win this. It’s simple.” He’s right, it wins this. The Tesla is slam-dunk the best driver of these three. But there’s far more to this story than that one angle. In the real world, very little about electric cars is simple. Especially now that affordable ones with bigger batteries and fast charging rates—abetted by stories of a spreading web of Level 3 chargers—are naturally causing folks to rethink whether an EV should be their primary transport. For instance, consider the YouTube video taken by Steven Conroy at the Tesla Supercharger station outside the…

Electrified vehicles have evolved from the purview of Earth First tree-huggers to the surest way to break into the 2s in the 0–60 dash. With electric propulsion’s image going from wuss to wunderkind, suddenly it’s no longer absurd to imagine a strong, capable electric pickup truck. Have you seen the video of the electric F-150 prototype pulling a 625-ton train? Now there’s a rush on to introduce an electric pickup for every purse and purpose. Rivian made a splash with its sleek four-motor truck and SUV at the 2018 L.A. Auto Show. A year later Tesla made an even bigger splash with its wacky stainless steel, “bulletproof,” rolling-wedge Cybertruck. In the meantime, GM and Ford have announced full-size e-pickups of their own, and Bollinger is readying an electric heavy-duty pickup…

With the Detroit auto show bumped to June, CES 2020 might have been the most auto-heavy iteration of the consumer electronics–focused show in its history. We saw not only tons of automotive gadgets, innovations, and technologies—you can check out our coverage of those online—but also actual cars, and perhaps more of them than you might expect. Heavy hitters like Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Honda showed off fancy wheels, but the vehicles most grounded in reality came from lesser known names like Fisker, Byton, and Sony (yes, that Sony). For all the details, check out our rundown of the visionary CES cars you need to know about. Byton M-Byte Byton wants you to think of its new M-Byte electric crossover as “the world’s first smart device on wheels.” It’s a corny tagline…

The fifth generation of the Kia Optima is such a big leap forward in looks and tech that the automaker is considering changing the name to K5, used in all markets outside the U.S. The 2021 K5 is an inch wider, 2.0 inches longer, and 0.8 inch lower than its predecessor. This and its 112.2-inch wheelbase allow for ample room in both the front and rear seats. The new platform provides a stiffer body and chassis in a vehicle that has dropped some weight. It also now offers all-wheel drive. On our drive of early-build Korean-market cars, the chassis was extremely forgiving, as evidenced by the car’s ability to handle the country’s myriad speed bumps. The expectation is the suspension will be tightened up for the U.S., though heavy traffic…

Whereas most automakers’ EVs are part of a larger powertrain portfolio, Tesla only makes electrics. That concentration pushed its engineers into understanding that EVs need to be thought of as a system, not merely as just another car in the lineup. With the charging infrastructure still in its nascent stages, allow me to tell you about the “systems” out there and what you might experience. The smart way to charge is during the day at work, when renewables are often being wasted, said our charging and infrastructure expert Alec Brooks. He noted that in one recent lunchtime hour, 74,000 EVs could have been charged from California’s available but idled solar production. But not everyone has that luxury. Some people need to get around. And I wanted to see where things…

In Finland, local Napue gin has long been the go-to for a proper gin and tonic. With some cranberries for color and a sprig of rosemary, it’s kind of like Christmas in a glass. But then Finnish berry grower and winemaker Arctic Blue expanded into distilling, giving Napue new competition in a fledgling local industry that’s been taking off. Porsche is a storied brand, but when it comes to electric sports cars, the Taycan is the new entry—like Arctic Blue gin—that wants to change the minds of those who previously would have ordered Napue or bought a Tesla Model S. So it’s fitting that we head to Levi, Finland, 110 miles north of the arctic circle, to see how the new Taycan luxury electric sports car performs in the cold,…

Wait a minute—that’s no Accord. Unless you’ve done your research, you probably haven’t heard of this Accord lookalike (albeit one with a funkier rear end). It’s the Clarity, which Honda offers with three powertrains. There’s a lease-only hydrogen fuel cell version that requires the use of our nation’s very limited hydrogen infrastructure, as well as an EV with a mere 89 miles of range. That’s why we’re most interested in the practical plug-in hybrid variant, which can travel 47 miles on pure electricity and hundreds more when the gas engine comes alive. Plus, if you drive solo to work, the Clarity PHEV still gains you access to California’s carpool lanes. Most plug-in hybrids can’t compete with the Clarity’s all-electric range, with the exception of the now-departed Chevrolet Volt. GM killed…

Once known as the Consumer Electronics Show but now exclusively referred to as CES, the huge annual technology showcase in Las Vegas is increasingly becoming the home of concept cars and automotive tech coming to your future vehicle sooner than you think. The Smart Sun Visor Invented in 1924, the traditional sun visor still blocks more view than it does sun. Bosch’s Virtual Visor reimagines the concept by using an occupant-monitoring camera to locate the eyes and identify shadows on the face. Then artificial intelligence directs segments of an LCD screen to darken, shading only the area around the driver’s eyes and tracking their position as the head or vehicle move relative to the sun. Visibility through the visor is thereby improved by some 90 percent while the rest of…

With the rest of this issue focused on the auto industry’s small but significant next steps toward reducing the transportation sector’s carbon footprint, I figured I’d zoom out for a big-picture view of the end game: zero-carbon transportation. The concept may sound like the lunatic ravings of a bearded Vermonter in a Rabbit diesel trailing french fry fumes, but it’s a long-term planetary imperative that wise and wealthy visionary venture capitalists are investing heavily in right now. Light/Personal Vehicles Battery-electric drive will handle the lightest-duty ground-vehicle and short-distance air-taxi service. Engineering advances underway will greatly increase the volumetric and gravimetric energy density and the inherent safety of the batteries themselves while reducing the time required to recharge them until users find them as convenient to live with as today’s combustion…

I blame the Prius. I know—the word “hybrid” is enough to make your eyes glaze over. You’re probably even second-guessing your decision to read this article. You’re thinking these will be compromise cars, like getting tofu sausage and a kale shake with your pancakes. But hybrids don’t have to suck. When engineers flip the switch from green to mean, from fuel economy to performance, pairing an electric motor—or three—with a gas engine is a recipe for more power, more torque, and more efficiency. What’s not to love? Hybrid race cars have even won the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans. As the industry makes the inevitable transition to electric cars, hybrids—especially performance hybrids—are the automotive equivalent of breakfast for dinner. They may be more complicated and heavier than gas-only sports…

To the average American, electric cars aren’t an option. They don’t work as the main household transportation, and too many folks can’t plug in at home. Forget about long trips; the charging network sucks, and it takes forever to recharge. And aren’t they prohibitively expensive for a car that has so many limitations? Those arguments, however, are falling apart fast. Even ignoring Tesla’s (expensive) cars and (expansive) Supercharger network, EVs increasingly offer longer ranges and fast charger compatibility. Have we reached the point that an electric car can work as a family’s only vehicle? And more important, which offers a better driving experience? Until now, there was no way to perform a direct comparison. Thanks to the Hyundai Kona, though, we can finally make this evaluation happen. For now, it’s…

Porsche is betting big on the Taycan. Make no mistake, Taycan is more than just greenwash, more than just a hastily improvised mea culpa for the Volkswagen Group’s dieselgate. Porsche is spending more than a billion dollars to bring its first electric sports car to market, almost $800 million of that on a dedicated new factory. The Taycan factory has been wedged in and among various existing buildings at Porsche’s manufacturing site in Zuffenhausen, Germany. Clearing the site alone cost more than $50 million, making it a more expensive option than simply expanding the newer production facility at Leipzig where the Macan and Panamera are built. Taycan production specialist David Thor Tryggvason points out the site is the symbolic heart of Porsche, where the iconic 911 has long been made.…