Cars – Page 5

Tesla Model Y door handles now under federal safety scrutiny

Cars, Tesla safety investigation / Paul Patrick / September 17, 2025

Break window to free child

NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation says it has received nine complaints from the owners of model year 2021 Tesla Model Y that have resulted in this investigation. The complaints detail owners’ experiences with a 12 V power failure and inoperable doors, trapping children or dogs in cars on hot days. In most cases, the car suffered a power failure after the parent had placed the child in the back seat, and in four instances, the only way to free the trapped occupants was by breaking a window.

NHTSA notes that while there are manual emergency door releases, “a child may not be able to access or operate the releases even if the vehicle’s driver is aware of them.” To make matters worse, NHTSA says that none of the reported complaints say they saw a low-voltage warning light before the 12 V battery failed. The agency also criticizes the complicated process required to start a Tesla with off-board 12 V power, which “requires applying 12 volts DC from a separate power source to two different points accessible from the vehicle’s exterior,” something that “may not be readily available to owners or well known.”

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How Nissan leveraged its driver assist to cut traffic jams

Cars, Nissan, partially automated driving, traffic congestion / Mike M. / September 16, 2025

Instead, CCM works by having a lead car, or “probe,” send information to following CCM-equipped cars, which are separated by non-CCM cars between them. The information from the probe car lets the following cars keep an appropriate distance from each other—between 30 and 60 seconds—and if there’s a slowdown ahead, the following cars will decelerate more gently over time, preventing the kind of concertina action that triggers traffic jams when human drivers see someone slowing down in front of them.

Jerry Chou, a senior researcher at Nissan’s Silicon Valley center, described CCM to me as “mixed autonomy—that means a mix of the controlled vehicles and other human driven vehicles in between.” Instead of DSRC, the cars use their embedded LTE modems to communicate via Nissan’s cloud.

As most people who have used adaptive cruise control know, if your following distance is too large, other drivers will often cut in, causing you to decelerate. “So we did spend some time to balance this phenomenon and the performance of our system. So there’s some parameters we continue to control to balance this,” Chou told me.

The view from inside a Nissan Ariya equipped with an experimental congestion management system. — Note the test equipment that’s fitted to the dash of this CCM-equipped Nissan Ariya test vehicle. Credit: Nissan

Next, I asked Chou what percentage of cars in traffic would need to be CCM-enabled to effect a reduction in congestion?

“So in our simulations we tried different penetration rates… and we saw that our benefits increase proportionally to penetration rates. But we already can see some good results at around 4–5 percent penetration,” Chou told me. “But you know, that’s actually one challenge of experimental. Since our experiment only has a few cars, we have been thinking about how to control just these few cars to see some results.”

Future refinements for the system include giving the humans some feedback on why their cars are slowing (in part so they don’t countermand the system and just accelerate manually). If that proves successful, we may even see CCM licensed to other automakers in the future, Chou said.

How Nissan leveraged its driver assist to cut traffic jams Read More »

When will Jaguar Land Rover restart production? “No one actually knows.”

Cars, Jaguar Land Rover, ransomware, syndication / Tim Belzer / September 16, 2025

Jaguar Land Rover’s dealers and suppliers fear the British carmaker’s operations will take another few months to normalize after a cyber attack that experts estimate could wipe more than £3.5 billion off its revenue.

JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, had been forced to shut down its systems and halt production across its UK factories since August 31, wreaking havoc across the country’s vast supply chain involving roughly 200,000 workers.

JLR on Tuesday said it would extend its production halt until at least next Wednesday as it continued its investigation. In a statement, the company also cautioned that “the controlled restart of our global operations… will take time.”

If JLR cannot produce vehicles until November, David Bailey, professor at University of Birmingham, estimated that the group would suffer a revenue hit of more than £3.5 billion while it would lose about £250 million in profits, or about £72 million in revenue and £5 million in profits on a daily basis.

With annual revenues of £29 billion in 2024, JLR will be able to absorb the financial costs but Bailey warned the consequences would be bigger for the smaller sized companies in its supply chain. JLR declined to comment.

The cyber attack comes at a crucial period for the UK carmaker when it is going through a controversial rebranding of its Jaguar brand and an expensive shift to all-electric vehicles by the end of the decade. Even before the latest incident, people briefed on the matter have said the company was facing delays with launching its new electric models.

“They are clearly in chaos,” said one industry executive who works closely with JLR, while another warned that “no one actually knows” when production would resume.

“If there is a major financial hit, the CEO will look for significant cost savings to try and recover some of that, so that could hit both the production base in the UK but also its product development,” said Bailey.

When will Jaguar Land Rover restart production? “No one actually knows.” Read More »

Parts shortage is the latest problem to hit General Motors production

Cars, General Motors, trump tariffs / Paul Patrick / September 15, 2025

General Motors will temporarily lay off workers at its Wentzville assembly plant in Missouri. According to a letter sent to employees by the head of the plant and the head of the local union, a shortage of parts is the culprit, and as a result, the factory will see “a temporary layoff from September 29–October 19.” The plant is about 45 minutes west of St. Louis and employs more than 4,000 people to assemble midsize pickup trucks for Chevrolet and GMC, as well as full-size vans.

Not every employee will be laid off—”skilled trades, stamping, body shop, final process and those groups that support these departments” may still have work.

Government policies

Earlier this month, GM revealed plans to reduce the number of electric vehicles it builds, despite having a bumper month in August that saw it sell very nearly twice as many EVs as Ford. In that case, it blamed weak demand for electric vehicles, no doubt forecasting what the end of the IRS clean vehicle tax credit will do to the market.

US President Donald Trump made no secret of his dislike for EVs during his campaign, and since taking office in January his administration has worked hard to remove incentives for private and commercial buyers, as well as attacking subsidies for manufacturing and, most recently, the mass arrest of hundreds of South Korean workers setting up a battery factory in Georgia, meant to supply Hyundai’s nearby Metaplant, which builds the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 EVs.

Parts shortage is the latest problem to hit General Motors production Read More »

Electric vehicle sales grew 25% worldwide but just 6% in North America

Cars, EV adoption / Rejus Almole / September 13, 2025

Here’s some good news for a Friday afternoon: For 2025 through August, global electric vehicle sales have grown by 25 percent compared to the same eight months in 2024, according to the analysts at Rho Motion. That amounts to 12.5 million EVs, although the data combines both battery EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs for the total.

However, that’s for global sales. In fact, EV adoption is moving even faster in Europe, which has grown by 31 percent so far this year (Rho says that BEV sales grew by 31 percent but PHEV sales by just 30 percent)—a total of 2.6 million plug-in vehicles. In some European countries, the increase has been even more impressive: up by 45 percent in Germany, 41 percent in Italy, and by 100 percent in Spain.

But despite a number of interesting new EVs from Renault and the various Stellantis-owned French automakers, EV sales in France are down by 6 percent so far, year on year.

Tesla has seen none of this sales growth in Europe, however—as we noted last month, this region’s Tesla sales collapsed by 40 percent in July.

China had bought an additional 7.6 million new EVs between January and August of this year, although this growth slowed in July and August, partially as a consequence of robust sales during those months in 2024 thanks to Chinese government policies. And as also noted last month, BYD recently saw a drop in profitability and has downgraded its sales target by 900,000 vehicles (down to 4.6 million) for this year.

Electric vehicle sales grew 25% worldwide but just 6% in North America Read More »

Small, affordable, efficient: A lot to like about the 2026 Nissan Leaf

car review, Cars, First drive, nissan leaf / Paul Patrick / September 12, 2025

Smaller on the outside, bigger on the inside, and it goes farther on a single charge.

The color is called Seabreeze Blue Pearl, and isn’t it great it’s not silver or grey? Credit: Nissan

SAN DIEGO—The original Nissan Leaf was a car with a mission. Long before Elon Musk set his sights on Tesla selling vast numbers of electric vehicles to the masses, then-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn wanted Nissan to shift half a million Leafs a year in the early 2010s. That didn’t quite come to pass, but by 2020, it had sold its 500,000th EV, which went from its factory in Sunderland, England, to a customer in Norway.

Pioneering though they were, both first- and second-generation Leafs were compromised. They were adapted from existing internal combustion engine platforms, with the electric powertrains shoehorned inside. The cars’ real handicaps were a lack of liquid cooling for the battery packs. Like an older Porsche 911, the Leaf was air-cooled, albeit with none of the collector value. That’s all changed for generation three.

The new Leaf is built on a dedicated EV platform shared with Nissan’s alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi, and which we have previously seen used to good effect in the Nissan Ariya. The benefits of using a platform purpose-designed for electric propulsion are obvious from the space efficiency. The new car is 3 inches (75 mm) shorter from the outside, but offers nearly 9 inches (221 mm) more rear leg room (yes, really), making it a much more suitable place to put adults.

Is it a sedan? Is it a crossover? Nissan

Although the new Leaf is 0.8 inches (20 mm) wider, it’s a few mm shorter and has a lower drag coefficient (Cd 0.26), so the overall effect is a more efficient shape. The nose bears a family resemblance to the Ariya, and the body style is sort of a crossover, sort of a fastback sedan, depending on your frame of reference.

Here and there, you’ll notice iconography that calls out the automaker’s name: two vertical stripes (ni in Japanese), then three horizontal ones (san in Japanese). I’m told that if you look, there are some ginkgo leaves as Easter eggs hidden in the design, but I did not find them during our hours with the car.

For now, there’s one powertrain option: a 214 hp (160 kW), 262 lb-ft (355 Nm) motor (packaged together with its inventor and reducer), powered by a 75 kWh (net) lithium-ion battery pack. The battery pack is integrated into the car’s thermal management system, which also loops in the chiller, the motor, and the HVAC system. It can fast-charge at up to 150 kW via the NACS port built into its left side (or using a CCS1 adapter here) and should charge from 10–80 percent in 35 minutes. On the driver’s side is a J1772 port for AC charging that can also work bidirectionally to send up to 1.5 kW of AC power to an external device via an adapter.

Nissan said it kept the J1772 port because it expects to sell the new Leaf to a lot of legacy customers who already have their own home charger, and it wanted to minimize the number of adapters necessary.

Let’s talk trim levels

How far it goes on a single charge depends on which trim level you’re in. Nissan brought some preproduction Leaf Platinum+ models to the first drive. These are very highly equipped, with an electrochromic dimming roof, the LED head- and taillights you see in the images, a couple of AC outlets inside the car (with the ability to power up to 3.4 kW across two outlets), and a better sound system. But it also comes on 19-inch alloy wheels, and as we all know, bigger wheels mean smaller range. Indeed, the Leaf Platinum+ has a range of 259 miles (417 km) on a single charge.

The $34,230 SV+ loses the panoramic roof and the interior V2L outlets, and you’ll have to manually open and close the tailgate at the back. And the alloy wheels are an inch smaller, which increases the range to 288 miles (464 km).

But it keeps the heated front seats and the twin 14.3-inch displays (one for your instruments, one for infotainment) with Google built in. For the Platinum+ and SV+, that means onboard Google Maps with a route planner that will take into account your state of charge and which can precondition the battery if it knows your destination is a fast charger.

19-inch Nissan Leaf wheel — Big wheels have their drawbacks. Credit: Nissan

Nissan is only including the Google connected services for the first year, though—after that, owners will have to pay a monthly fee, although Nissan wasn’t able to tell us how much that is. Conveniently, both wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are included and will continue to work after the year’s trial. And you can manually precondition the battery for charging, but automatic preconditioning via the infotainment system will not work without an active subscription.

The SV+ and Platinum can also be optioned with a heat pump ($300).

But the $29,990 S+ cannot. And it lacks the twin displays of the car you see in the images, which means no automatic battery preconditioning, although like the more expensive trims it does still have wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You also get 18-inch steel wheels with aero hubcaps, and a range of 303 miles (487 km) on a single charge. See what I mean about wheel size and range?

How does it drive?

A Nissan Leaf — Turning over a new leaf. Credit: Nissan

I’d very much like to spend some time in an S+ and an SV+, if only to see what difference a larger tire sidewall makes to the ride comfort. On 19-inch wheels, the ride was firm and translated bumps and divots through the suspension and into the cabin. There wasn’t much body roll, but your progress will be limited by the grip available to the low rolling-resistance tires—push too hard and the result is plenty of understeer.

But this is not a “push too hard” kind of EV. With just 214 hp, it accelerates quickly enough to get out of its own way, but it’s telling that Nissan did not share a 0–60 mph time during the briefing. (If I had to guess, I’d say between 5–6 seconds, which used to be considered very rapid.)

It has four drive modes—Eco, Normal, Sport, and Personal—with three different throttle maps and two steering weights to choose from. And there are now four levels of lift-off regenerative braking, which you toggle on with the left steering wheel paddle and off with the right paddle. You can’t turn regen completely off, so like General Motors’ family of EVs, the Leaf will not really coast and loses a few mph even on downhill stretches, as it converts some kinetic energy to electrical energy.

There’s also an e-Step button on the dash, which turns on maximum regen braking and may add some friction braking to the mix. Unlike using the paddles, this setting should remain on the next time you start the car. But neither of the full regen settings is able to bring the car to a complete stop—we were told that the feature is viewed with suspicion in some markets, including Japan, and like pop-out door handles, it appears that China is in the process of banning one-pedal driving entirely.

There are plenty of real buttons and switches in here. Nissan

Both e-Step and max-regen work very well in traffic or on a twisty road, where they simulate engine braking. But given the choice, I would use the paddles to control regen braking. That’s because, like the Mercedes EQ family of EVs, in this mode the brake pedal moves toward the firewall as the car slows. The engineer’s excuse for this is that the pedal moves by the same distance it would have moved had the driver used it to slow the car by the amount it has just slowed. But my rebuttal is that the brake pedal should always be where I expect to find it in an emergency, and if that’s an inch farther away, that’s not cool.

That’s really a minor gripe, though; no one says you have to push the e-Step switch on the dash. Slightly more annoying—but only slightly—is the wind noise from the sideview mirrors, which is noticeable even at 45 mph (72 km/h), although easily drowned out if you’re listening to something on the audio system.

For a daily driver, the third-generation Leaf is rather compelling, especially the S+, although the lack of heated front seats in that model might be too much of a deal-breaker, considering how important seat heaters are to EV efficiency in winter. (Because it’s more efficient to heat the driver than warm all the air in the car.)

The SV+ is more likely to be the sweet spot—this trim level can have the Seabreeze paint you see here or a white pearl, which are alternatives to the four shades available to the S+. The Hyundai Kona EV and Kia Niro EV are probably the Leaf’s two closest rivals, both of which are compelling cars. And the forthcoming Kia EV3 will probably also be cross-shopped. All of which is good news if you’re looking for a smaller, affordable electric car.

Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica’s automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC.

Small, affordable, efficient: A lot to like about the 2026 Nissan Leaf Read More »

Flush door handles are the car industry’s latest safety problem

Cars / Paul Patrick / September 10, 2025

China to the rescue?

In fact, the styling feature might be on borrowed time. It seems that Chinese authorities have been concerned about retractable door handles for some time now and are reportedly close to banning them from 2027. Flush-fit door handles fail far more often during side impacts than regular handles, delaying egress or rescue time after a crash. During heavy rain, flush-fit door handles have short-circuited, trapping people in their cars. Chinese consumers have even reported an increase in finger injuries as they get trapped or pinched.

That’s plenty of safety risk, but what about the benefit to vehicle efficiency? As it turns out, it doesn’t actually help that much. Adding flush door handles cuts the drag coefficient (Cd) by around 0.01. You really need to know a car’s frontal area as well as its Cd, but this equates to perhaps a little more than a mile of EPA range, perhaps two under Europe’s Worldwide Harmonised Light vehicles Test Procedure.

If automakers were that serious about drag reduction, we’d see many more EVs riding on smaller wheels. The rotation of the wheels and tires is one of the greatest contributors to drag, yet the stylists’ love of huge wheels means most EVs you’ll find on the front lot of a dealership will struggle to match their official efficiency numbers (not to mention suffering from a worse ride).

China’s importance to the global EV market means that, if it follows through on this ban, we can expect to see many fewer cars arrive with flush door handles in the future.

Flush door handles are the car industry’s latest safety problem Read More »

F1 in Italy: Look what happens when the downforce comes off

Cars, Formula 1, sportscar racing / Tim Belzer / September 8, 2025

That was enough to allow Piastri past. However, the team instructed the championship leader to slow down and relinquish the position to Norris. It was a team mistake, not a driver mistake, and McLaren is doing everything in its power to ensure the eventual champion gets there because of their driving and not some external factor. Piastri didn’t sound exactly happy on the radio. But F1 is a team sport, and racing drivers are employees—when your boss gives you an order, it’s wise to do what they ask and argue about it after the fact, if continued employment is one of your goals.

Oscar Piastri (L) and Lando Norris (R) have a very 21st century relationship. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

For many, a slow pit stop is just one of those things bestowed by the racing gods, and even Verstappen pointed that out when informed by his engineer of the change in positions behind him. After the race, Norris seemed a little embarrassed to have been given the place back, but the emerging consensus from former drivers was that, since Norris had been asked about pit stop priority, and had been undercut anyway, that was sufficient to excuse the request.

McLaren’s approach to handling its drivers is markedly different from the all-out war we saw when Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso raced for it in 2007. Then, neither went home with the big trophy at the end of the year—their infighting allowed Kimi Raikkonen to take the title for Ferrari instead.

That won’t happen this year; either Norris or Piastri will be crowned at the end of the year, with the other having to wait at least another year. The pair have even been asked how they want the team to celebrate in the event the other driver wins—a sensitivity that feels refreshingly new for Formula 1.

Formula 1 heads to Azerbaijan in two weeks for another low-downforce race. Can we expect another Verstappen victory?

F1 in Italy: Look what happens when the downforce comes off Read More »

Porsche’s insanely clever hybrid engine comes to the 911 Turbo S

Cars, Porsche 911 Carrera GTS T-Hybrid, Porsche 911 Turbo S / Mike M. / September 7, 2025

Today, Porsche debuted a new 911 variant at the IAA Mobility show in Munich, Germany. It’s the most powerful 911 to date, excluding some limited-run models, and may well be the quickest to 60 mph from a standing start, dispatching that dash in just 2.4 seconds. And it’s all thanks to one of the most interesting hybrid powertrains on sale today.

Rather than just bolting an electric motor to an existing 911, Porsche designed an entirely new 3.6 L flat-six engine, taking the opportunity to ditch the belt drive and move some of the ancillaries, which can instead be powered by the car’s 400 V traction battery.

The system debuted in the 911 GTS T-Hybrid, which Ars recently reviewed. For that car, Porsche added a single electric turbocharger, which works like the MGU-H in a Formula 1 car. It spins up almost instantly to 120,000 rpm to eliminate throttle lag, but also recaptures excess energy from the spinning turbine and sends that to the 1.9 kWh battery pack.

The result is a turbocharged engine that has a remarkable throttle response that’s more like an EV, with no perceptible lag between initial tip-in and power being delivered to the wheels.

For the 2026 911 Turbo S, there are a pair of these electric turbochargers. And like the GTS, you’ll find a 53 hp (40 kW), 110 lb-ft (150 Nm) permanent synchronous motor inside the eight-speed dual clutch transmission. Total output is a heady 701 hp (523 kW) and 590 lb-ft (800 Nm), which is sufficient to cut the 0–60 mph (0–98 km/h) time to 2.4 seconds. 124 mph (200 km/h) takes just 8.4 seconds, half a second less than the 2025 Turbo S.

Porsche’s insanely clever hybrid engine comes to the 911 Turbo S Read More »

BMW debuts 6th-generation EV powertrain in the all-electric iX3

BMW iX3, BMW Neue Klasse, Cars / Paul Patrick / September 5, 2025

Class-leading efficiency and computer-controlled driving dynamics combine.

The new iX3 marks the start of a new design language for BMW SUVs. Credit: BMW

BMW has an all-electric replacement for its X3 crossover on the way. When it arrives in mid-2026, it will have the lowest carbon footprint of any BMW yet, thanks to an obsessive approach to sustainability during the design process. But we knew that already; what we couldn’t tell you then, but can now, is everything else we know about the first of the so-called Neue Klasse electric vehicles.

“The Neue Klasse is our biggest future-focused project and marks a huge leap forward in terms of technologies, driving experience, and design,” said BMW chairman Oliver Zipse. “Practically everything about it is new, yet it is also more BMW than ever. Our whole product range will benefit from the innovations brought by the Neue Klasse—whichever drive system technology is employed. What started as a bold vision has now become reality: the BMW iX3 is the first Neue Klasse model to go into series production, kicking off a new era for BMW.”

A new face

The iX3 also debuts a new corporate face for BMW’s SUVs: From now on, these will have tall, narrow kidney grilles like the one you see here, as opposed to the short, wide grille seen on the front of the Neue Klasse sedan (which is almost certainly the next 3 Series). LEDs replace chrome, and there’s a new take on BMW’s usual four headlights, although the illuminated kidney grill is an option, not mandatory. Despite the two-box shape, the iX3 manages a drag coefficient of just 0.24.

Sixth-generation

As befitting a company called the Bavarian Motor Works, BMW has been in the business of designing and building its own electric powertrains for quite some time, in contrast to some rivals that have been buying EV tech from suppliers. In addition to the class-leading manufacturing efficiency, the sixth-generation electric powertrain should be extremely efficient—around 4 miles/kWh (15.5 kWh/100 km) from an SUV-shape, which is 20–25 percent better than current SUV EVs.

The first variant will be the iX3 50 xDrive, which boasts a combined 463 hp (345 kW) and 475 lb-ft (645 Nm) from its pair of motors. The front axle uses an asynchronous motor, with an electrically excited synchronous motor at the rear axle providing most of the power.

There’s 40 percent more regenerative braking than BMW’s current powertrains. We weren’t given an exact threshold where the friction brakes take over, but it should be around 0.5–0.6 G. That means that the iX3 will regeneratively brake for the overwhelming majority of the time—just 5–10 percent of braking events should require the friction brakes, we’re told. And the regen should be smoother and more precise, as well as quieter than before. There’s even some regenerative braking should the ABS trigger.

A BMW iX3 is parked, charging — NACS port comes standard, with a CCS1 adapter. Credit: BMW

For the Neue Klasse, BMW has moved to a new 800 V battery, using cylindrical cells rather than the prismatic cells you’d find in an iX or i4. Energy density is 20 percent greater than the current cells, and the pack has a usable capacity of 108 kWh. That means you can expect a range of up to 400 miles, although the official EPA rating will only arrive next year.

The new pack charges a lot faster, too. It can accept up to 400 kW, should you find a charger capable of such power. If so, the 10–80 percent charge should take 21 minutes. (BMW also says it will add 230 miles in 10 minutes.) The iX3 is capable of acting as a mobile power bank (V2L) as well as powering a home or even the grid (this requires a V2H-capable wall box), and North American iX3s will sport NACS charging ports.

Software-defined

The Neue Klasse is a clean-sheet design, and BMW has used this as an opportunity to clear out the legacy cruft that has accumulated over the years. Instead of hundreds of discrete black boxes, each with a single electric control unit (ECU) performing a single job, the iX3 uses four high-performance computers, each in charge of a different domain. Among the benefits of this approach? Almost 2,000 feet (600 m) less wiring and a weight saving of about 30 percent compared to a conventional wiring loom with all its ECUs. Taking single-function controllers out of the loop and replacing them with a domain computer also cuts latency.

The Heart of Joy is the domain controller responsible for driving dynamics and the powertrain, and can cope with up to four electric motors, something we should see in electric M-badged Neue Klasse models in the future. But good driving dynamics require more than just a fancy computer brain. The iX3 is extremely stiff, with the front and rear axles mounted to the battery pack. Weight distribution is a near-perfect 49: 51.

BMW iX3 inteiror — The interior is quite faithful to the concept we saw last year. The black strip at the base of the windshield is the panoramic display. Credit: BMW

A different domain controller is in charge of the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). This water-cooled computer is 20 times faster than the processors that control the ADAS in a current BMW, and was developed in-house by BMW. The automaker says the focus is always on the driver’s needs in a way that is smart, symbiotic, and safe. There are AI/ML algorithms for perception and planning, but safety-proven rule-based algorithms always have the final say in the decision-making process.

There’s a hands-free, partially automated driving system that works at up to 85 mph (136 km/h) on premapped divided-lane highways, and an interesting new feature is the cooperative braking and steering during active assistance. Unlike just about every car on the road currently, using the brake will not immediately kill the cruise control, and if you intentionally cross the median or a lane marker and are looking where you’re going, the eye-tracking driver monitoring system sees you and won’t try to correct. (But if you veer across the lane and aren’t looking, the car will steer you back.)

Shy tech

The iX3’s interior is near-identical to the concept we saw last March. BMW calls this approach shy tech, where controls or displays are invisible when inactive. There’s a new multifunction steering wheel—that will surely be divisive—which puts the ADAS controls on its left side, and media controls on the right. The iDrive rotary controller is no more, but there are plenty of physical buttons (not capacitive ones) for things like windows and mirrors.

BMW says the rotary controller wouldn’t have worked well with the new iDrive UI for the trapezoidal touchscreen. (Additionally, it told us that in some regions, drivers never used the rotary controller at all.) The screen is closer to the driver than in current BMWs, and the trapezoidal shape rather effectively means the left side of the screen—which has persistent, common functions—is always close to your right hand. After playing with the system for a while, I think the UI is a lot easier to navigate than the current BMW infotainment system, good though that is.

The multifunction steering wheel looks unconventional. BMW

I’ve often been complimentary about voice recognition in BMWs, and the iX3 has an upgrade here. The natural language processing is now based on Alexa, not Cerence’s tech, and there’s a cartoon visualization for the personal assistant that looks a bit like a ninja, or perhaps an alien. This will make eye contact with the person giving voice commands, so it can discern between driver and passenger.

At the base of the windshield is the new panoramic display. This presents information in zones—you can personalize what shows up in the center and right zones, but the one in front of the driver will always be the critical stuff like your speed and any warnings or alerts. There’s also an optional heads-up display.

BMW says we can expect the iX3 50 eDrive to arrive in the US next summer, starting at around $60,000.

BMW debuts 6th-generation EV powertrain in the all-electric iX3 Read More »

Honda combines Type-R handling with hybrid efficiency for 2026 Prelude

Cars, Honda Prelude / Kris Guyer / September 4, 2025

The chassis benefits from parts from a different Civic—the Type-R hot hatch. Ars has sadly yet to sample the current-generation Type-R, but everyone I know who has driven one has come away smiling. Type-R parts include the front suspension’s dual-axis struts and the Brembo brakes, which are there for when regen braking via the hybrid system is no longer sufficient.

Adaptive dampers control the Prelude’s ride, and there are four different drive modes. The powertrain simulates a manual transmission with something called S+ Shift, which “delivers quick simulated gearshift responses through seamless coordination between the engine and high-power motor, including downshift blips, rev matching, and gear holding.”

The shape is dictated by airflow. Honda

If the end result is as good as Hyundai’s N E-shift, it should be fun to play with. And if it isn’t, you can just leave the car in automatic mode.

Beyond that, expect all the latest Honda advanced driver assistance systems (also known as Honda Sensing), and an Android Automotive-based infotainment system with Google built in and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

We’ll have to wait until sooner to the car’s arrival to get pricing, but expect the Prelude to start somewhere between $38,000 and $40,000.

Honda combines Type-R handling with hybrid efficiency for 2026 Prelude Read More »

Audi design finds its minimalist groove again with Concept C

Audi Concept C, Audi TT, Cars, concept car / Rejus Almole / September 3, 2025

Fans of the TT rejoice—there’s a new Audi two-seater on the way. The German automaker just unveiled Concept C, a stylish and minimalist sports car that marks the start of a new styling philosophy and, hopefully, a return to the bold designs that brought it so much success.

There are design cues and links back through Audi’s history, but this is no pastiche of a retro design as we might have seen from J Mays. Rather, Audi’s design team under Chief Creative Officer Massimo Frascella says that the design influences include one of the pre-war Silver Arrows racing cars, the 1936 Auto Union Type C—Audi being one of the four brands that combined to form Auto Union.

The design is deceptively large—bigger than a TT or even an R8. Aud

The slats that cover the Concept C’s rear bring to mind the cooling louvres at the rear of the Type C, necessary to let the heat generated by its monstrous V16 engine to escape the rear engine bay. But I also see some of the streamlined Rennlimousine in the Concept C’s slab sides.

It’s a much simpler design than the TT concept from 1995, which manages to look almost fussy in its details compared to the Concept C. But the way the air intakes are formed underneath the headlights reminds me a lot of the Bentley Hunaudieres, a mid-engined concept from 1999.

Audi design finds its minimalist groove again with Concept C Read More »