Cars – Page 6

Beyond technology? How Bentley is reacting to the 21st century.

bentley, Cars, Chinese EVs, Features, Monterey Car Week / Mike M. / September 3, 2025

Chinese manufacturers are embedding more digital bells and whistles that impact all segments of the market, and not just in China. “Just as in other segments, the Chinese OEMs are moving faster than anyone else on software, especially for infotainment, bringing big screens and digital assistants with homegrown software and lots of connectivity, but also on driving assist and automation,” Abuelsamid said. “These vehicles are being equipped with lidar, radar, cameras, and point-to-point driving assist, similar to Tesla navigation on Autopilot.”

The onslaught of features by Chinese competitors has luxury European automakers on their toes.

“Hongqi is probably the closest to a direct competitor in China and certainly has some offerings that might considered be in a similar class to Bentley,” Abuelsamid said. “There are numerous other brands that continue to move upscale and will likely eventually reach a similar level, even if they aren’t as hand-built as a Bentley, such as the BYD Yangwang U8 SUV.”

For example, the Maextro S800, a premium car born out of Huawei and JA joint venture, crab-walks a 16-degree angle to make tight parking easy, features hand-off “level 3” partially automated driving, and charges from 10 to 80 percent in just 10.5 minutes, according to Inside EVs.

“We see it drives demand for features and what people expect their cars to have,” Walliser said. “They say, ‘Hey, if my $50,000 car has self-driving capabilities, why don’t I have it in my $250,000 car?’ So this is the real rival. It’s a feature competition, and it raises expectations,” Walliser said.

EXP 15

Bentley’s latest concept, the EXP 15, hints at this next generation of predictive elements customers say they want. Clever UX design includes a rotating dashboard and illuminated forms on the dash, which are mixed with fine wools, leathers, and premium materials in the cabin. “I think we have to continue [to think] like that in self-driving capabilities. We do not have to be first in the market,” Walliser said. “We need to plan when we offer it. It comes also for infotainment, for app connection, for everything that makes life in the car convenient, such as self-parking capabilities.”

Dr. Matthias Rabe serves on Bentley’s board of management and oversees Research and Development. He thinks the right approach to technology for Bentley is for the car to serve as a sort of virtual butler. “What I would like to have, for example, is that the customer drives to the front of the house, pops out, and the car parks itself, charges itself, and probably gets cleaned by itself,” Rabe said.

Beyond technology? How Bentley is reacting to the 21st century. Read More »

Tesla has a new master plan—it just doesn’t have any specifics

AI, Cars / Rejus Almole / September 3, 2025

Tesla also disbanded the team building its “Dojo” supercomputer several weeks ago. Much touted by Musk in the past as the key to beating autonomous vehicle developers like Waymo (which has already deployed commercially in several cities), Tesla will no longer rely on this in-house resource and instead rely on external companies, according to Bloomberg.

“Shortages in resources can be remedied by improved technology, greater innovation and new ideas,” the plan continues.

Then plan veers into corporate buzzwords, with statements like “[o]ur desire to push beyond what is considered achievable will foster the growth needed for truly sustainable abundance.”

In keeping with Musk’s recent robot obsession, there’s very little mention of Tesla electric vehicles other than a brief mention of autonomous vehicles, but there is quite a lot of text devoted to the company’s humanoid robot. “Jobs and tasks that are particularly monotonous or dangerous can now be accomplished by other means,” it states, blithely eliding the fact that it makes very little sense to compromise an industrial robot with a bipedal humanoid body, as evinced by the non-humanoid form factors of just about every industrial robot working today. Robot arms mounted to the floor don’t need to worry about balance, nor do quadraped robots with wheels.

Tesla has a new master plan—it just doesn’t have any specifics Read More »

Chinese EV buyers are cooling on Tesla and BYD

BYD, Cars, Tesla / Kris Guyer / September 2, 2025

Meanwhile, BYD now accounts for 1.1 percent of all new cars sold in the European Union.

There is one bright spot for Tesla, however—it sold 8,370 cars in Turkey in August, making it that country’s second-most popular automaker.

Robots will save Tesla?

But perhaps Tesla shareholders shouldn’t worry about cratering sales. On Monday night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk used his social media network to yet again prophesize that the company’s future is not cars. Despite the fact that selling cars brings in 75 percent of the revenue and is responsible for the carbon credits that keep the company in the black, EVs are but a mere distraction. Instead, Musk claims that 80 percent of Tesla’s value will come from selling humanoid robots.

Musk has been promoting Tesla’s humanoid robot for some years now, with flashy demos that, instead of actual robotics, were waldos in action, mindlessly copying the motions of human controllers who were operating them remotely.

Despite the very non-humanoid shape of industrial robots in car factories, Musk has said the Tesla robots will find their way onto the company’s production line to build cars, presumably to replace workers whom he would otherwise have to pay salaries and benefits. But the CEO has grander ambitions for his robots, claiming on an investor call last year that the company will sell billions of humanoid robots a year.

Chinese EV buyers are cooling on Tesla and BYD Read More »

Slate Auto’s sub-$30,000 EV pickup is due next year—here’s the factory

Cars, Slate Auto / Tim Belzer / September 2, 2025

WARSAW, Indiana—The Blank Slate pickup scratches a particular itch for some, fulfilling the desire for an EV powertrain without all the bells and whistles associated with a modern vehicle. Gone is the infotainment screen, the lane-keeping assistance, and, for those concerned about surveillance, a modem. Instead, it’s an unpainted modular pickup and can be configured post-production into nearly anything the owner wants. Oh, and it’s cheap.

This Old Factory

For decades, the RR Donnelley & Sons printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana, pumped out catalogs. Glossy shopping books from JCPenney, Sears, and—my personal favorite—Radio Shack left the plant and were shipped all over the country to eager shoppers looking for their next mail-order delight. Then the Internet broke all of that.

The last employees clocked out in 2023.

A room formerly used in the printing process is filled with locals, elected officials, and journalists. The plan is to use this room in the future as a customer center and potentially a delivery location. The company is toying with the idea of allowing customers to take delivery of their pickups at the factory. No word on whether that would eliminate the delivery fee.

A woman stands at a podium in front of an audience. To her right is a small pickup truck. — Slate Auto CEO Chris Barman addresses the attendees at the factory open day. Credit: Roberto Baldwin

For now, it’s a meeting place, a way for Slate to meet with an audience at its factory. A chance in a post-EV tax incentive world to remind people that its vehicle is coming to market in “the mid twenties,” which is likely in the upper portion of that spread. ($27,500 seems like a good guess.)

Slate CEO Chris Barman took the stage and reiterated the company’s plan to start production at the 1.4 million square-foot (130,000 m2) site beginning in the fourth quarter of 2026. Barman noted that, unlike traditional pickups built with up to 6,000 parts, the Slate will be assembled with just 600 parts. Also, there’s no need for a paint shop or large stamping. The size of the facility is relatively small for vehicle assembly, but it’s apparently perfect for Slate.

Slate Auto’s sub-$30,000 EV pickup is due next year—here’s the factory Read More »

Porsche’s next Cayenne is fully electric—we drove the prototype

Cars, new porsche cayenne, Porsche Cayenne Electric / Kris Guyer / September 2, 2025

The original Cayenne saved Porsche. How will the fourth-generation model do? Porsche

But I spent much of my time behind the wheel at more moderate velocities, winding around the narrow, blind roads that work their way around the Catalan region of Spain. Porsche hasn’t yet quoted a curb weight for any of the Cayenne Electric flavors, but however far it tips the scales, it still feels light and nimble. Steering is firm but sharp with decent feedback, and this big SUV dives into and screams out of corners with perfect poise.

It was only really over big, unsettling movements, speed bumps and the like, that I could feel how much mass was beneath me in the Cayenne Electric. When summiting asphalt imperfections like that, the curious shape of that central OLED really shone.

That display is bent at roughly a 45-degree angle, a profile that allows it to perfectly conform to both the angle of the dashboard and that of the center console. Porsche placed a padded wrist rest right beneath that and then designed the user interface to position the most important controls along the lower portion of the display, the part that’s in line with your hand.

The result is you can rest your wrist there comfortably, queue up your favorite playlist, and crank the ventilated seats, all without making any accidental taps on bumpy roads. And despite this car not entering production until next year, that software was snappy and responsive. It didn’t lock up on me once during a full day behind the wheel.

A prototype Porsche Cayenne Electric drifts in the dirt, throwing up a rooster tail. — You’ll need a low-grip surface if you want to go sliding around. Credit: Porsche

Yes, next year is a long time to wait for the Cayenne Electric to enter production. It’s hard to know what the American EV scene will look like in three months, never mind 12, but for now, at least, Porsche’s next SUV is shaping up extremely well. When it does hit the market, it will sit in dealerships alongside the existing Cayenne, which will continue to be available. Choice is good, and if you’re in the market but not in a hurry, I’d suggest waiting for this. If the price is right, it will be a clear-cut winner.

Porsche’s next Cayenne is fully electric—we drove the prototype Read More »

Tesla denied having fatal crash data until a hacker found it

Cars, Tesla lawsuit / Rejus Almole / August 30, 2025

Tesla only acknowledged that it had received the data once the police took the Tesla’s damaged infotainment system and autopilot control unit to a Tesla technician to diagnose, but at that time the local collision snapshot was considered unrecoverable.

That’s where the hacker, only identified as @greentheonly, his username on X, came in. Greentheonly told The Washington Post that, “for any reasonable person, it was obvious the data was there.”

During the trial, Tesla told the court that it hadn’t hidden the data, but lost it. The company’s lawyer told the Post that Tesla’s data handling practices were “clumsy” and that another search turned up the data, after acknowledging that @greentheonly had retrieved the snapshot locally from the car.

“We didn’t think we had it, and we found out we did… And, thankfully, we did because this is an amazingly helpful piece of information,” said Tesla’s lawyer, Joel Smith.

Tesla denied having fatal crash data until a hacker found it Read More »

As GM prepares to switch its EVs to NACS, it has some new adapters

Cars, CCS1, EV charging, GM Energy, NACS / Paul Patrick / August 28, 2025

The first adapter that GM released, which cost $225, allowed CCS1-equipped EVs to connect to a NACS charger. But now, GM will have a range of adapters so that any of its EV customers can charge anywhere, as long as they have the right dongle.

For existing GM EVs with CCS1, there is a GM NACS DC adapter, just for fast charging. And for level 2 (AC) charging, there’s a GM NACS level 2 adapter.

For the NACS-equipped GM EVs (which, again, have yet to hit the showrooms), there’s a GM CCS1 DC adapter that will let those EVs use existing non-Tesla DC charging infrastructure, like Electrify America’s 350 kW chargers. There is also a GM J1772 AC adapter, which will let a GM NACS EV slow-charge from the ubiquitous J1772 port. And a pair of adapters will be compatible with GM’s Energy Powershift home charger, which lets an EV use its battery to power the house if necessary, also known as vehicle-to-home or V2H.

Although we don’t have exact prices for each adapter, GM told Ars the range costs between $67 and $195.

As GM prepares to switch its EVs to NACS, it has some new adapters Read More »

Porsche adds digital keys, in-car gaming to 2026 Macan Electric

Cars, infotainment, porsche macan / Rejus Almole / August 28, 2025

There’s also a trained parking feature, which lets you record up to five parking routines. Once the car recognizes it’s in a parking environment that it knows, it will offer to take over the job of putting your car away for you, although only with the driver in the car—this does not appear to be a remote parking feature that you control by phone.

And there’s a new reversing assist. This can remember up to 160 feet (49 m) of a route that it has just traveled forward, so that it can automatically reverse back the way it came, which Porsche says should be “ideal for narrow access roads or winding parking garages.”

The AirConsole in-car gaming platform that we started seeing in other German luxury cars of late has been added to the infotainment. This lets you pair your phone as a controller or use Bluetooth game controllers, and the App Store contains a bunch of games, including a passable Mario Kart clone, last I checked. Porsche says it has also beefed up the in-car voice assistant with better AI, created a better charging planner app that lets you prioritize individual charging stations, and increased the towing capacity from 4,400 lbs to 5,500 lbs (1,995–2,495 kg).

Porsche adds digital keys, in-car gaming to 2026 Macan Electric Read More »

2025 VW Jetta GLI: Save the manuals, but not like this

car review, Cars, Volkswagen Jetta GLI / Paul Patrick / August 27, 2025

the American sedan take on a GTI

Specs mean nothing if you get the feel and execution wrong.

Built in Mexico, the Volkswagen Jetta is a North American sedan take on the Golf hatchback. Credit: Jim Resnick

Manual transmissions have gone the way of the dodo, but you can still find a few out there. Bless Volkswagen for keeping the helical gears turning, both literally and figuratively. The 2025 Jetta GLI, Volkswagen’s sporty sedan, still offers a gear lever with actual gears attached at the other end, and a third pedal hanging down from under the dash. Meanwhile, Golf GTI fans are still sobbing in their beer because 2024 was the last model year you could row your own in the hot hatch—now it’s paddles only.

Volkswagen updated the 2025 Jetta GLI with a new grille, LED headlights, and light bars that connect across both the front grille and rear taillights. There’s a red accent stripe that runs across the lower front fascia and turns up at the front corners, somewhat like The Joker’s lipstick, but way less menacing. It’s less distinctive than the Golf GTI, though, and the design even reminds me of the 2017-era Honda Accord a bit. So, yes, in a face-off, the Golf GTI wins.

The test GLI’s wheels get black paint with the Black Package (blackened wheels and side mirror caps). The Monument Gray color option pairs with a black roof, which must seem like a good idea to people who don’t live in the Southwest, where cars overheat before they’re even started.

A black Jetta wheel — Our test car had the black package. Credit: Jim Resnick

Performance: Punch without poetry

VW’s long-running EA888 2.0 L engine, which debuted back in 2007 in the Audi A3, resides under the hood. Now in its fourth turbocharged generation, it develops a healthy 228 hp (170 kW) and 258 lb-ft (350 Nm) of torque, entirely respectable numbers from modest displacement and compact external dimensions.

Mated to this particular 6-speed manual, the engine has its work cut out for itself. On my very first drive, before examining the technical data on gearbox ratios, I could tell that the manual 6-speed had massive gaps between first, second, and third gears.

Diving further into the gearing matter, the ratio spread between first and third gears is vastly wider in the 6-speed manual transmission than in the 7-speed DSG semi-automatic gearbox. This means that as you upshift the manual, the engine is faced with a huge drop in engine revs when you let out the clutch, placing the engine well below the rev range it would prefer to operate within to provide maximum power.

VW Jetta engine bay — EA888 in the house. Credit: Jim Resnick

Let’s look at the ratios, and remember that a lower numerical value means a “taller” or “higher” ratio, just like on multi-speed bicycles. The manual’s first gear is 3.77:1, where the DSG’s is 3.40:1. Upshift to the 2.09:1 second gear in the manual, and you select a gear that’s a whopping 55 percent taller than first gear. Conversely, the same 1-2 shift in the DSG (from 3.40:1 up to 2.75:1) results in a 19 percent taller gear ratio—a far narrower gap.

Third gear tells a similar story. The 6-speed manual’s third ratio (1.47:1) is 17 percent higher than the 1.77:1 ratio in the DSG (again, this “taller” gear giving 17 percent less mechanical advantage). Advantage: automatic.

Closer ratios mean better, faster engine torque recovery and better continued acceleration, because the engine will be spinning in the happier part of its power band—engines being happiest when revving at their torque peak and beyond.

Now, you might well argue that the manual’s third gear gives a higher top speed in-gear than the DSG automatic’s. And that’s 100 percent true. But it’s also irrelevant when you have three (or four!) more gears left to go in the transmission.

And then there’s the action of the shifter itself, with very long throws from forward to aft gates.

A white VW Jetta in profile

It’s quite handsome from some angles. Credit: Jim Resnick

But wait. I began this diatribe by complimenting the Jetta GLI for still offering a choice of manual or automatic gearbox. Indeed, if the manual gearbox had the DSG automatic’s ratios, the paragraphs above would have a very different tenor. The lesson here is that not all manuals are created equal.

We can also look objectively at the stopwatch. Using others’ published figures (don’t take our word for it), 0–60 mph figures tell the tale, as well. Car and Driver cites a time of 6.0 seconds to 60 mph for the manual GLI, where they achieved 5.6 seconds for the dash in the DSG automatic, a big gap.

Regardless of which transmission is used, a limited-slip differential tries to put the power down evenly, and adaptive suspension with multiple driving modes serves up a responsive connectedness to, or relative isolation from, the road surface. Compared to the standard GTI (not the Golf R), the Jetta GLI still rides with a greater accent on ride comfort, and that’s not always a bad thing, especially given the Jetta’s greater rear seat accommodations, which offer 2.4 inches (61 mm) more rear legroom than the GTI. Real adults can live back there for hours at a time without fidgeting, whereas you likely tickle that threshold in a GTI after a little over an hour.

Interior & tech

Inside, the GLI features perforated leather heated and cooled seats, a leather-wrapped and flat-bottom steering wheel that is still saddled with capacitive multifunction controls, a digital instrument cluster that can be configured with traditional dials or a compartmentalized digital-looking display, plus an 8-inch infotainment screen. While the latter may seem small compared to other cars that sport TV-size tablets perched on the dash, it at least comes fully equipped with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There’s a slow creep elsewhere in the industry to make this functionality either optional or simply unavailable, which is unforgivable in an era where we can hardly survive without our smartphones.

While much of the controls sit within the infotainment touchscreen, major climate controls reside just below, using capacitive sliders. These sliders are not anywhere near as intuitive as switches and knobs, but at least you don’t need to hunt and peck through endless menus to find them while driving.

The Jetta isn’t as modern as the 8th-generation Golf inside, but it’s had a bit of a tech upgrade. Jim Resnick

The GLI comes standard with active driver assists, including blind-spot warning, forward collision warning, emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, and emergency assist.

Volkswagen managed to incorporate some pragmatic features and comforts. A 15 W wireless and cooled charging pad sits up front, and the trunk sports 14.1 cubic feet (400 L) of space with an actual spare tire under the trunk floor (although it’s a compact spare with limited mileage range).

The premium Beats Audio system in the Jetta GLI pumps 400 W through nine speakers, including a subwoofer. With all those speakers and electrons going for it, I expected way more than it delivered. It creates muddy bass frequencies that are simply inescapable, either by attenuating the bass or by lowering subwoofer gain.

Despite the preponderance of directionless bass, the system produces very little body to the music played, whether it’s jazz from Bill Evans or punk from Bad Religion. Midrange and high-end reproduction is no better. Shrill treble joins the errant bass, making everything sound muddy and indistinct. Delicate acoustic piano passages have little clarity, and Joni Mitchell hides behind a giant curtain of Saran Wrap. Poor Joni.

Driving the GLI is sometimes joyful, as the engine responds eagerly across all RPMs. The chassis and suspension prove willing, though a bit soft for a sports sedan. VW’s steering feels communicative, but not among the best of the modern electrically boosted lot.

VW equips this GLI with all-season Hankook Energy GT tires, sized 225/40R18. I specifically cite these tires because they underperform for the GLI. They don’t produce grip adequate for a sporty sedan, and they come up short underpinning the GLI. So, on a scale of 1 to 10, if the GLI’s engine is a 9, if the gearbox is a 5, and the interior is an 8.5, the GLI’s Hankook tires are a 6.

The GLI’s brakes are a version of the tire story. Despite borrowing front rotors and calipers from the lovely Golf R, they proved grabby, overboosted, and touchy in the GLI. Like the gearbox and tires, specs can tell you nothing in terms of feel and execution.

The GLI’s fuel economy lands at a decent 26/36/30 city/highway/combined mpg (9/6.5/7.8 L/100 km). In thoroughly mixed driving, I achieved an average of 29.1 mpg (8 L/100 km) over my approximately 400 miles (644 km).

The overall truth

The 2025 Jetta GLI certainly possesses sporty aspirations, but a few things hold it back from being the complete package that its Golf GTI stablemate is. Although the Golf GTI no longer offers a manual, the GLI’s 6-speed transmission disappoints both in feel and performance, with huge gaps between cogs. Of course, this malady could be overcome by ordering a DSG automatic GLI, but then any fun gleaned by rowing your gears is also lost.

This car could be better than it is. Credit: Jim Resnick

Closer to the road, mediocre tires generate modest grip. Compared to the Golf, the Jetta gains in rear seat legroom but loses in feel, performance, and tenacity. If it’s performance with practicality you’re after, the $35,045 price of this GLI as tested will get you what you need. But you’ll want something a bit spicier.

A veteran of journalism, product planning and communications in the automotive and music space, Jim reports, critiques and lectures on autos, music and culture.

2025 VW Jetta GLI: Save the manuals, but not like this Read More »

Americans’ junk-filled garages are hurting EV adoption, study says

Cars, charging, EV adoption / Rejus Almole / August 22, 2025

Creating garage space would increase the number of homes capable of EV charging from 31 million to more than 50 million. And when we include houses where the owner thinks it’s feasible to add wiring, that grows to more than 72 million homes. And that’s far more than Telemetry’s most optimistic estimate of US EV penetration for 2035, which ranges from 33 million to 57 million EVs on the road 10 years from now.

I thought an EV would save me money?

Just because 90 percent of houses could add a 240 V outlet near where they park, it doesn’t mean that 90 percent of homes have a 240 V outlet near where they park. According to that same NREL study, almost 34 million of those homes will require extensive electrical work to upgrade their wiring and panels to cope with the added demands of a level 2 charger (at least 30 A), and that can cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

All of a sudden, EV cost of ownership becomes much closer to, or possibly even exceeds, that of a vehicle with an internal combustion engine.

Multifamily remains an unsolved problem

Twenty-three percent of Americans live in multifamily dwellings, including apartments, condos, and townhomes. Here, the barriers to charging where you park are much greater. Individual drivers will rarely be able to decide for themselves to add a charger—the management company, landlord, co-op board, or whoever else is in charge of the development has to grant permission.

If the cost of new wiring for a single family home is enough to be a dealbreaker for some, adding EV charging capabilities to a parking lot or parking garage makes those costs pale in comparison. Using my 1960s-era co-op as an example, after getting board approval to add a pair of shared level 2 chargers in 2019, we were told by the power company that nothing could happen until the co-op upgraded its electrical panel—a capital improvement project that runs into seven figures, and work that is still not entirely complete as I type this.

Americans’ junk-filled garages are hurting EV adoption, study says Read More »

At the top of the market, EV hypercars are a disappearing breed

bugatti, Cars, Czinger, electric hypercar, Hypercar, lamborghini, Monterey Car Week, Pininfarina Battista / Tim Belzer / August 21, 2025

Seven-figure EV hypercars are struggling to make an emotional connection with buyers.

Monterey Car Week is an annual celebration of automotive culture at the extremes: extreme performance, extreme rarity, and extreme value. Cars offering more than 1,000 hp (746 kW) are de rigueur, “unique” models are everywhere you look, and machines costing well into seven figures are entry-level.

A few years ago, many of the new cars debuting during Car Week focused on outright speed and performance above all else, relying on electric powertrains to deliver physics-defying acceleration and ballistic speed. Lately, there’s been a shift back toward the fundamentals of driver engagement, emotional design, and purity of feel.

Internal combustion is again at the fore. One of the main reasons is a renewed interest in what was old—so long as that old thing is actually new.

They’re called restomods, classic cars brought up to date with modern drivability but keeping the original feel. LA-based Singer Vehicle Design is the Porsche-based poster child for this movement, but San Marino-based Eccentrica earned plenty of attention in Monterey for its reimagining of one of the ultimate icons of the ’90s, the Lamborghini Diablo.

This is Eccentrica’s restomod of the Lamborghini Diablo. Tim Stevens

The company’s latest creation, Titano, promises “Raw ’90s soul meet[ing] purposeful modern craft.”

Maurizio Reggiani, former Lamborghini CTO and now advisor to Eccentrica, told me that feel is far more important than outright performance in this segment. “We want the people sitting in Eccentrica to really perceive the street, perceive the acceleration, perceive the braking, perceive the steering,” he said.

Commoditization

“The power to have 1,000 hp is easy. I don’t want to say it is a commodity, but more or less,” Reggiani continued.

Eccentrica’s Titano makes 550 hp (410 kW). The machine Bugatti unveiled, the new Brouillard, nearly tripled that number, offering 1,578 hp (1,177 kW) from an 8.3-liter W16 engine paired with a hybrid system. It’s a one-off, a completely bespoke design created at the request of one very lucky, very well-heeled buyer, part of the company’s new Programme Solitaire.

That’s an impressive figure, but Frank Heyl, Bugatti’s director of design, told me the real focus is on creating something timeless. Bugatti has been making cars for 101 years, and today’s astonishing power figures won’t matter in 2126. Instead, Heyl said to focus on the interior. “If you look at the Tourbillon instrument cluster, it’s a titanium housing with real sapphire glass. The bearings are made from ruby stones with aluminum needles,” he said. “People will have a fascination with that in 100 years’ time. I’m sure about that.”

This is the Bugatti Solitaire. Bugatti

For its part, modern Lamborghini seems much happier to focus on the best of the modern era, taking advantage of EV-derived technology paired with an internal combustion engine tasked with providing both power and adrenaline.

Lamborghini unveiled the Fenomeno, a “few-off” version of the Revuelto offered to just 29 buyers. Lamborghini’s current CTO, Rouven Mohr, told me this wasn’t just a reskinning. The company’s engineers re-did the car’s tech stack, including its battery pack, adopting lessons learned from the latest EVs. “Completely new battery hardware. New cell chemistry, new cell type,” he said. “So we double the energy content in the same space.”

It’s similar to what’s in the Temerario, which features a hybrid system paired with a high-strung V8. “This huge effort that we did to have a 10,000-rpm engine is, at the end of the day, engineering overkill,” he said. “It’s a pure investment in the emotional side.”

Lamborghini designer Mitja Borkert said this kind of hybrid tech can actually make the cars more likeable. “Our cars are polarizing; they are creating reactions,” he said, admitting those reactions are sometimes negative. “But if you drive a Revuelto in electric mode, the people can enjoy the design better because it’s unexpected that this spaceship is coming around the corner.”

When it comes to exterior design, Karma is one brand that has always stood out. But its cars, extended-range EVs with onboard generators, have historically struggled to perfect the needed mix of emotionality and electrification. A fix is on the way, CEO Marques McCammon told me. The company’s Amaris coupe, coming next year for roughly $200,000, generates 708 hp (528 kW) from a pair of electric motors, plus a new onboard engine designed to thrill, not just recharge a battery.

“I’ve got side exhaust. It’s real. There’s no synthetic sound. When you hit the throttle, you’re gonna hear a blow-off valve on the turbo, and you’re gonna hear exhaust coming out of the side pipes that we’ve tuned,” he said. “You can have it all.”

You need to hear it

For many, authentic sound is key to the experience. Eccentrica’s Reggiani told me that the synthesized noises emitted by cars like Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N are not a solution. Reggiani said an EV can never provide a truly emotional experience with sound “because you need to do something fake.”

But Iliya and Nikita Bridan, who run Oilstainlab, might have devised a solution with their $1.8-million-dollar HF-11: a cooling fan for the electric motor run through a ducted exhaust.

That fan exhaust is being tuned and tweaked to create an evocative sound, a process that Nikita Bridan says is no less authentic than tuning the exhaust of a car with an internal combustion engine. Indeed, with many modern sports cars featuring digitally generated pops and crackles in Sport mode, the HF-11’s acoustic affect might be even more authentic.

That’s just part of what Bridan says should be a compelling package, even for anti-EV zealots. “What we’re promising is basically a 2,000 pound, six-speed manual EV with an exhaust. I think that’s interesting enough for people to maybe abandon combustion,” he said.

And the HF-11 has another trick up its sleeve: an air-cooled, flat-six engine (àla classic Porsches), which owners can swap in if they’re feeling old-school. It’s a unique solution to the challenges of shifting consumer demand. So far, about 30 percent of the buyers of the HF-11 are exclusively interested in the electric powertrain. Thirty percent want only internal combustion, while the rest want both.

The Czinger 21C doesn’t have a swappable powertrain, but it mixes electric and internal combustion to deliver outright performance. Very extreme performance, as it were, with the 1,250-hp (932-kW), $2 million (and up) hybrid hypercar taking an extended, 1,000-mile road trip on the way to Monterey, setting five separate track records along the way.

That car’s hallmark is the intricate 3D-printed structure beneath the skin, but despite the space-age tech, CEO Lukas Czinger told me that emotionality is key.

A green Czinger C21 — The Czinger C21 features tandem seating. Credit: Czinger

Buyer motivation

“Why would you buy a $3 million car? Well, you’re buying it because you appreciate the brand and the engineering level, and there’s new technology in it, right?” Czinger said. “But the product ultimately needs to be thrilling to drive.”

Czinger said the combination of a hybrid system and an 11,000 RPM twin-turbo V8 offers “the best of both worlds” and that an eventual 21C successor will “definitely have a combustion engine.”

For Automobili Pininfarina, an all-electric powertrain was not a concern for its first car, the $2.5-million, 1,900-hp (1,417-kW) Battista. That’s despite some initial skepticism that, CEO Paolo Dellachà said, evaporates as soon as a potential buyer gets behind the wheel.

But most didn’t need convincing. “All our or our clients do have eight-cylinder, 12-cylinder, or even 16-cylinder engines,” he said. “This is just something additional to their collection. So it’s not one or the other to them. Eventually, it’s both.”

The Automobil Pininfarina Battista. — All-electric hypercars like the Battista are a hard sell in 2025. Credit: Automobil Pininfarina

Residuals matter

It’s easy to think that the buyers of these cars simply have bottomless discretionary funds, and many do. But unproven long-term value is a key reason why these battery-powered projectiles seem a little less common than they used to be.

“At the moment, no one has proven yet that the electric super sports car is holding the financial index,” Lamborghini CTO Mohr said. “And the people who are usually investing in this, buying this kind of car, usually they have the money because they are quite financially oriented. They don’t want to destroy their investment.”

In other words, it’s all fun and games until someone loses money. If electric hypercars can’t prove their value in the long run, they don’t have a chance.

This is something that Automobili Pininfarina CEO Dellachà is certainly watching, but he doesn’t seem concerned. “It’s very difficult to say right now because none of our clients yet have sold their car,” he said. “And this is something that, by the way, makes us very proud, because they love the car, they love driving it, or they love keeping in their collection.”

That said, he’s not yet committing to an EV drivetrain for an eventual Battista successor. “Maybe next time we might combine electrification with a combustion engine. We will see. It will be an interesting time to come.”

At the top of the market, EV hypercars are a disappearing breed Read More »

Humans intervened every 9 minutes in AAA test of driver assists

AAA, ADAS, Cars, road traffic / Paul Patrick / August 21, 2025

As most people who have used adaptive cruise control in traffic can no doubt appreciate, the most common event that required intervention was a car ahead cutting into the driver’s lane. These occurred about once every 8.6 miles, or 24.4 minutes, with 90 percent requiring intervention by the driver.

Inadequate lane centering was the next most common event, occurring once every 11.3 miles or 32.2 minutes. Seventy-two percent of those events also required intervention. Not resuming after coming to a halt happened 71 times, each of which required the driver to act. On 57 occasions, the lane keeping or adaptive cruise control deactivated, and there were 43 instances of a test car failing to adequately slow down, of which 70 percent required the driver to hit the brakes.

Hands-on versus hands-off

AAA found that the less-advanced systems that required a driver to keep their hands on the steering wheel experienced notable events at three times the frequency of hands-free systems. Hands-off systems only required intervention every 7.2 miles or 20.1 minutes, whereas the less advanced systems required intervention on average every 2.3 miles or 6.7 minutes. AAA also noted that the hands-off systems told the driver to put their hands back on the wheel every 5.5 miles (or 15.3 minutes) on average.

AAA has some recommendations based on its findings, which could also be categorized under common sense. When you’re behind the wheel of a vehicle, you should always remain alert, and AAA cautions that ADAS is “never a substitute for an engaged driver.” Don’t be distracted, especially by your smartphone. Read the car’s user manual and understand how, when, and where its systems can be expected to work. And set an appropriate following distance to the car ahead, even if it means more cut-ins.

The organization says it will encourage automakers to improve ADAS performance, especially cut-in response and lane-centering.

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