Volkswagen rolled out its ID.GTI concept in Germany this past weekend.The electric car has not yet been confirmed as coming to the U.S., but VW Group of America CEO Pablo Di Si was decidedly bullish on the idea.One problem to iron out first: it’s unlikely the ID.GTI will get all-wheel drive, and customers in the States may find that a sticking point.When we told you about the Volkswagen ID.GTI concept on Sunday, September 3, fresh from its unveiling at the Munich IAA auto show in Germany, the official line was that there were no confirmed plans to bring it to the U.S. But now Car and Driver has spoken with Pablo Di Si, Volkswagen Group of America CEO, and can report that he is pushing hard to bring the electric hot hatch stateside.Take a Good Look”Everybody wants the car in the U.S.,” Di Si told journalists at the IAA. “It’s a concept car, but we’re working very closely with the team in Germany in terms of the design and the specs . . . I think it could be a great car for the U.S. We just need to make sure that the touch and feel is going to be what the American consumer wants, and you achieve that by working with engineering from the beginning of the project.”There seem few reasons that such a plan couldn’t come to fruition. The production ID.GTI, which is confirmed for Europe, will sit on the MEB Entry platform, a front-wheel-drive version of Volkswagen’s existing MEB EV platform. The ID.4, which sits on the regular rear-/all-wheel-drive MEB architecture, is already being produced at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. U.S. Needs an Entry-Level EV Di Si confirms that Volkswagen is committed to launching a less expensive EV in the U.S. below the ID.4, a role the production GTI would seem perfectly suited for. “We are the people’s brand, so we need an entry-level electric vehicle, no ifs, no buts,” Di Si said. “Whether it is going to be the ID.2 or the GTI—whatever you want to call it—we need to have one. I like the GTI particularly because it brings the heritage of the brand in a smaller package, and a hopefully smaller price.”Mike Duff|Car and DriverWhich can be taken as a ringing endorsement from the boss, especially as Di Si added that his personal opinion is that the basic ID.2, which will sit below the ID.3 in Europe, will be too small and basic for U.S. buyers. One potential sticking point, according to Volkswagen insiders, is the ID.GTI’s front-drive layout, with the key question being whether U.S. buyers would expect their junior performance EV to come with all-wheel drive. That’s something that would be very hard to deliver given the concept’s dinky dimensions and tight packaging. But we’re definitely hoping the issues get ironed out on this one. The U.S. has long been one of the biggest markets for Volkswagen’s GTI variants, and we really don’t want to be denied this one. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Senior European CorrespondentOur man on the other side of the pond, Mike Duff lives in Britain but reports from across Europe, sometimes beyond. He has previously held staff roles on UK titles including CAR, Autocar and evo, but his own automotive tastes tend towards the Germanic, owning both a troublesome 987-generation Porsche Cayman S and a Mercedes 190E 2.5-16. More

Acura has announced that its first electric vehicle will be named ZDX.It’s a joint venture with General Motors and powered by Ultium batteries.The Acura ZDX features styling cues from the Precision EV concept.Acura is on a revival kick as of late, resurrecting the cherished Integra title for its compact sedan after a 20-year hiatus. Now Acura is at it again as it dusts off an unlikely nameplate for its first electric model: the ZDX. Built from 2010 to 2013, the original ZDX was a delightful, impractical oddball that struggled to find an audience. While it rode on an SUV chassis, its cargo space was extremely compromised by its swoopy fastback proportions.

Cognizant of this legacy, Acura stressed that this new ZDX would provide versatility and utility that’s more in line with the current Acura RDX and MDX SUVs. Though no photos yet exist of the ZDX, its styling and proportions will borrow heavily from the Precision EV concept, an MDX-sized vehicle that features a spacious, upright greenhouse. The ZDX rides on a platform developed in conjunction with General Motors and powered by GM’s Ultium battery packs. This scalable EV platform offers multiple motor and battery configurations, and provides a range of up to 450 miles. Acura hasn’t provided any additional technical details, but we predict the launch edition Type S variant will feature a dual-motor AWD setup and larger battery, with FWD base models to follow. It’s highly unlikely that Acura will offer a RWD version. Acura says that the ZDX will arrive in calendar-year 2024. More

The next-gen model will ride on an Alfa Romeo platform and offer four-cylinder, V-6, V-8, and hybrid powertrains. Source: Motor – aranddriver.com More

2022 has been an intense battle for recovery in an industry that’s still rebuilding from being rocked by supply shortages. Sure, there are still plenty of lingering waitlists and delays, but it’s been an impressive 21 months since the world has gotten a 1300-foot boat stuck up its Suez Canal. Go, Team Boats!It’s also been the year of tangible products where some dreamy press releases finally came true. The Rivian R1T, GMC Hummer EV, and Ford F-150 Lightning all showed up. On the other hand, many of the big promises from the many EV startups out there are looking at bit like conspiracy theories. Sorry, Tesla Cybertruck pre-orderers from 2019, better luck next year. A Look Back At our Older Photos:So 2022 was really what we’d all been holding our breath for, and it turned out to be a great year for great car debuts. Toyota delivered on enthusiasts’ pleas for a manual Supra, and followed it up with the launch of a 300-hp GR Corolla hatchback. We were also visited by some old flames. The Nissan Z returned with 400 horsepower, and the 315-hp Civic Type R was caught setting track records before Honda had even peeled back its camouflage. And 2022 also marked the first year an EV reached a 520-mile driving range estimate from the EPA: that was the Lucid Air. As we celebrate another lap around the sun, here’s a look back at 2022 as illustrated by our art department:Baby Got Batt: There are electric vehicles for people who grocery-shop at Whole Foods, but there’s one choice in particular suited for those who hunt for their bacon with a machine gun from the side of a helicopter. This 9640-pound GMC Hummer EV is nothing short of outrageous. Despite being the heaviest pickup we’ve tested, cranking this hog to 60 mph only takes 3.3 seconds. Virginia Is for Lap Times: Known around the office as the best time of the year, our annual Lightning Lap event pits performance cars from mild to wild on America’s toughest track. Grouped into five price segments, the 21 cars lapped this year broke some records and, naturally, some hearts. Speaking of, here comes nearly 8000 horsepower at the top of the Climbing Esses. Zeus-Oh-Six: The ultimate Corvette is 8500 rpm of shrieking bald eagle. The mufflers responsible for the 670-hp V-8’s clap and piping should’ve been nominated at the American Music Awards. Even the God of Thunder couldn’t help but spy on our track day with a Z06.A Star Is Hatched: The moment we’ve all been waiting for: that stubborn Toyota Corolla has finally moved out of the left lane. This time it enters the racetrack as an actual blast-to-drive 300-hp hatchback with rally-car DNA. The GR Corolla isn’t just great; it’s one of the best, earning a spot on our 10Best list the year it debuted. READ MOREPhotography by John Roe and illustration by Alexander Wells|Car and DriverSweet Sixteen: The Volkswagen GTI is no stranger to 10Best trophies, having won 16 of them since its first appearance in 1983. Its superhero strength is its blend of practicality, performance, and, until recently, affordability. The Porsche 718 is a longtime favorite too, and its special ability is how quickly it can turn a normal road into an exciting one. Neither of these cars are absolutists with the most horsepower or the quickest quarter-mile times, yet they’re able to deliver a driving experience as grand as far more expensive and powerful sports cars. X Marks the Spot: Dealerships cashed in heavily during the COVID-19 pandemic. A blight of inventory exploded into a blessing for salespeople. Customers were determined to get off waitlists and into cars, so they thought up a genius way to fight exorbitant markups: just pay them. This behavior pushed the average new-car price to $48,301, up 10.8 percent from the year prior. Just saying, dealerships couldn’t get away with it if consumers didn’t feed the furnace.Kidney Bean: Pour one out for the nearly three and a half feet of Michelin Pilot 4S tire under the 503-hp BMW X4M Competition. Our testers saddled this 4548-pound porker through Hog Pen at Virginia International Raceway to the tune of 3:02.9 seconds. It didn’t set a new SUV record, but getting it around that fast required plenty of ridiculous two-wheel antics. Alternative Truck: Longtime Car and Driver contributor John Phillips is a literary treasure. To get his take on the realest Tesla Cybertruck available to consumers, we asked him to unbox the secrets behind Elon Musk’s stainless-steel fetish. Phillips did not disappoint. What’s New Is Old: The new Nissan Z borrows its powertrain from the Infiniti Q50 Red Sport and has more in common with its sixth-generation 370Z predecessor than what we had originally hoped, but a 400-hp twin-turbo V-6 base engine with an available six-speed manual transmission is always welcome.Frunk-y Truck: Ford sells more F-series pickups annually than politicians make promises, so the success of its all-electric F-150 Lightning isn’t a complete shock. Unlike your favorite lawmaker, the Lightning’s success isn’t all that polarizing. It’s a lot like the popular gas-powered F-150, only much quieter with a rather extreme battery. Friends with Benefits: Toyota’s stake in Subaru has wrought some of our favorite cars in recent memory. The love story began in 2005 and would lead to a Crosstrek Hybrid in 2018, the 10Best-winning pair of Subaru BRZ and Toyota GR86, and the Subaru Solterra and Toyota bZ4X electric crossover duo.Dacia Delivery: Contributor Jonathon Ramsey delivered medicine and supplies to Ukrainian refugees in a Dacia Jogger minivan. When asked to help a friend’s nonprofit group get donations to some of the more than two two million refugees in Poland, Ramsey didn’t blink.Storage Wars: Pickups versus cars isn’t a fight that usually goes very well for partisans of the sedan, and affordable compact trucks such as the Ford Maverick spells even worse news for the shrinking compact-car segment. The Maverick’s competitively low price and impressive fuel economy already make a strong argument for the toy truck, but is it big enough to supplant economy cars like the Honda Civic? We put a bunch of our junk in the trunk to find out. Smoke ’em If You Got ’em: Back when the average car was fastened to thick channels of steel, the body-on-frame Buick Roadmaster wagon was there to haul families. Contributing photographer and respected family man James Lipman owns one, but it’s got additional muscle. Under the hood is a GM E-Rod 6.2-liter V-8 crate engine. Now it’s a family barbecue. The One: The Polestar 1 was a product of Volvo’s owner, Geely. Unlike the fully electric Polestar 2 and upcoming SUVs, the 1 is a 619-hp plug-in hybrid that is as beautiful as it is expensive. Only 500 were made per year. The Polestar 1 is already out of production while the company dedicates its efforts to expanding an EV-only lineup. Covered: The story behind the cover for our December 2022 issue isn’t as clinical as it appeared in print. Staff photographer Michael Simari shot the Honda Civic Type R inside a paddock garage minutes after an entire National Auto Sport Association weekend started to move in. What could normally take hours of prep work with an entire studio of lighting equipment took Simari less than 60 minutes to capture with help from fellow staff photographer Marc Urbano. We thank the patient team of dudes that waited by their car haulers and gave us the extra time we needed. Besides, it’s rare that the staff of a car magazine shows up to leaf-blow your reserved garage space for a track weekend. Heartbeat of America: There aren’t enough illustrations of cars from the 1980s on the internet, so here’s an illustration of a kick-ass Chevy Camaro IROC-Z in jpeg form for all you dot-coms. Under the Influencers: One person’s salvaged Tesla is another person’s off-road campsite. YouTubers Ethan Schlussler and Edwin Olding build creative mechanical projects for a living. This Tesla Model 3 is a product of that. Here it is entering a mud bath along the 147-mile Mojave Road. Moon, Man: The Rivian R1T is the quickest pickup we’ve ever tested. Its otherworldly acceleration to 60 mph in just 3.0 seconds from a 7173-pound pickup sounds like automotive sci-fi, but there’s no conspiracy about this EV truck’s unfettered performance. Paint Me Like One of Your Toyota Girls: 10Best is a lot like mixed media. In the collection of the greatest cars of the year, the palette of excellence comes in all different mediums. Artistry is what gives opposites like the Honda Accord and Toyota Supra a shared greatness. Designed to Dazzle: Engineers and designers shave clay, sweat bullets, and calculate the tiniest tolerances most folks may never notice to appreciate. The fog lights on our long-term Volkswagen GTI are a more obvious example of small stuff made crafty. This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

Jay K. McNally McNally Multi Media

Nissan announced today that its 2023 Leaf will get some minor changes, some of which are not easy to spot.The Leaf lineup has been cut from five models to two: a 147-hp base model and a 214-hp SV Plus.Reassuringly in today’s inflationary conditions, the 2023 Leaf’s price is unchanged from the current model.Suddenly, EVs are having their moment, yet the electric car that’s been around since 2010, the Nissan Leaf, seems lost in the shuffle. For 2023, even as Nissan prepares to launch its new, bigger, flashier, and pricier Ariya electric, the automaker is also giving the Leaf a little love. But just a little.

Jay K. McNally/Nissan

Up front, the grille, headlights, and bumper have been changed, but even looking at pictures side by side, the differences aren’t easy to spot. Nissan says various body elements also have been reshaped for improved aerodynamics. The standout new design element is the Leaf’s funky new multispoke wheels. Oh, and the Nissan badge is illuminated, because that’s now a thing.

The 2022 lineup of five models has been trimmed to just two, the base S and the mid-grade SV Plus. As before, the base car has a 147-horsepower electric motor fed by a 40.0-kWh battery pack—both numbers that are looking pretty small in the new competitive landscape. The SV Plus returns with its more respectable 214-hp motor and 62.0-kWh battery. Both models have front-wheel drive. EPA range estimates aren’t expected to stray far (if at all) from the current 149 miles for the S and 215 miles for the SV Plus. We got 180 miles out of the SV Plus in our 75-mph highway test. Note that the Leaf continues to use a CHAdeMO charging connection, while the new Ariya adopts the more popular CCS connection used by most other automakers.

Jay K. McNally/Nissan

One thing that’s also unchanged is the pricing, which in today’s environment is noteworthy. The 2023 Leaf S will start at $28,425 and the SV Plus at $36,425 when the models arrive this summer.
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