Aurelia Butler

We know that prices for renting a car have gone up—way up—during the pandemic, but even with the numbers declining a bit in September, most analysts think they will go back up for the holidays.Some experts think things will calm down in 2022, but others don’t see prices getting back to normal until 2023. “By February and March next year, all bets are off,” one expert told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.There are many problems causing the higher prices, including a lack of new-vehicle production (chip shortage) and a large vehicle sell-off early in the pandemic. Solutions that rental-car companies are taking include keeping their fleet for longer than they used to and trying to move cars around the country so they are available where people want to rent them.Anyone who’s tried to rent a car in the last year or so likely discovered that prices were not what they once were, reaching many hundreds of dollars a day in some areas. Earlier this year, some tourists in Hawaii discovered the joy of saving money by renting a U-Haul truck instead of a standard rental car, for example. As travel starts to pick up again despite COVID’s reach, more people might have to figure out similar alternative rental methods until at least next year.While the costs to rent a car today aren’t quite as high as they were earlier in the year, experts are offering different predictions for when the rental scene in the U.S. will get back to something more normal. Some say it will be at least 2022 before prices come down. Others predict a new spike coming this holiday season, including a spokesperson for Enterprise Holdings, according to the Washington Post. And one told the paper that he doesn’t see things really getting back to normal until 2023. “We’re kind of in a shoulder season with people going back to school and work after Labor Day, but prices are going to spike back up again in Florida as Thanksgiving and Christmas approaches,” the CEO of rental-car price tracker AutoSlash.com, Jonathan Weinberg, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “By February and March next year, all bets are off.”The problem, unsurprisingly, is a lack of rental cars. As we’ve written before, rental-car agencies sold off their excess vehicles during the early days of the pandemic and were caught off guard when demand returned sooner than expected. Now, with the chip shortage and other supply chain issues hampering production of new vehicles, these rental companies are unable to beef up their fleets. Instead, rental companies are changing their policies to keep their cars longer before they cycle them out of the system. Vehicles are being moved away from locations that used to cater to business travel—which is returning, but still not as high as before the pandemic—and into southern vacation hot spots. Also, instead of a 25,000- or 50,000-mile cutoff, some are letting the cars they have reach 90,000 miles on the odometer. Some are also buying used cars at auction to make up for the new vehicles they can’t buy. The Post reports that U.S. car rental companies only purchased around 800,000 new cars in 2020, compared to more than double that amount in 2019. Which all comes together to suggest that rental-car prices will continue to be higher than expected for a while. We may not know exactly for how long, but Yahoo News, citing the online rental company Kayak, said searches for rental cars for the upcoming holiday season are up 230 percent compared to 2019.
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McLaren has submitted trademark applications for three new names with the U.K’s Intellectual Property Office, as first reported by Carbuzz.The three names are Solus, Aeron, and Aonic, and all have been filed in the Motor Vehicles category.These new names could end up being used for the successor to the 720S and McLaren’s future electrified supercars.Since McLaren Automotive started building road cars in 2011, most of its supercars have been given complex alphanumeric names. The first modern McLaren Automotive supercar was the MP4-12C, with that mouthful shortened to 12C after a year. The 12C was followed by a slew of supercars with hard-to-remember monikers, such as the 650S, 570GT, 765LT, and 620R. But recently McLaren has started using real names such as Senna, Elva, Speedtail, and Artura. Now it appears that McLaren is ditching the alphabet-soup names for good, with the British supercar firm submitting trademark applications for three new names with the United Kingdom’s Intellectual Property Office, as first reported by Carbuzz.

The three names McLaren is seeking to protect are Solus, Aeron, and Aonic. All three trademark applications have been filed under Class 12, which is for “motor land vehicles and parts and fittings therefor.” There are no other details in the applications to indicate what sort of vehicles these names might belong to, but they are likely to be for all-new models unrelated to McLaren’s current offerings, although they could be used on a special edition like the Senna-based Sabre. McLaren has said in the past that it will not enter the lucrative super-SUV segment as Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and Ferrari have done, and any other four-door body style is also likely out of the question. The 720S has been on sale since 2017 and could be due for a replacement soon, and at least one of these nameplates could end up on a hybrid or fully electric supercar. Solus, a term often used in stage directions, comes from Latin and means alone or by oneself, and it could perhaps end up on a hard-core single-seater in the same vein as the Ferrari Monza SP1.
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At the annual Tesla shareholder meeting on Thursday, October 7, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla will move its headquarters to Austin, becoming the latest Silicon Valley company to make the switch to Texas.Musk did not reveal when the move would happen and emphasized that Tesla will not be abandoning California, with production at the Fremont factory set to increase by 50 percent.Musk pointed to the Bay Area’s high cost of living to justify the move, arguing that many employees struggled to afford houses and ended up with lengthy commutes.UPDATE 10/8/21, 4:10 p.m.: At the same shareholder conference, Tesla provided revised launch dates for upcoming models. The Cybertruck was supposed to start production this year but it has been pushed back to 2022 with volume production taking off in 2023. The Semi, originally planned to launch in 2020, has been delayed to 2023, as has the Roadster that was first unveiled in 2017. Yesterday, at Tesla’s 2021 shareholder meeting, CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla will officially move it headquarters to Austin, Texas. Tesla joins a number of Silicon Valley tech firms, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Oracle, that are shifting their main bases to Texas, enticed by the state’s low tax rates and business-friendly policies. Musk did not specify when the move would occur or where in Austin the new headquarters would be, although it is safe to assume that it will be based near the Gigafactory site that is set to be the main factory for the upcoming Cybertruck and Tesla Semi.

This official announcement was not the first time Musk had suggested a move to Texas. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the CEO threatened to leave California after the state’s strict pandemic restrictions made it difficult to restart production. Tesla then began contraction on the Austin Gigafactory, and soon afterward Musk himself moved to the Lone Star State. Now Tesla’s central office will follow suit, but Musk made it clear that Tesla would not fully abandon California. At the shareholder meeting, Musk said that Tesla would expand in California, aiming to boost production at the Fremont plant by 50 percent. Unlike when he threatened to leave last year, Musk did not cite any political or pandemic-related disagreements with California when he announced the move to Texas. Instead, he pointed to the cost of living in the Bay Area, arguing, “It’s tough for people to afford houses, and a lot of people have to come from far away.” Musk believes that the business and living conditions in Texas will allow the company to become more productive. The new headquarters will include an “ecological paradise,” with the Gigafactory built alongside the Colorado River and Musk planning to create a boardwalk and hiking trail that will be open to the public.
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Mercedes-Benz’s battery powered EQS450+ (above) and EQS580 have an EPA range of 350 or 340 miles of range, besting their German competition by more than 100 miles.Tesla and Lucid easily beat the new Benz’s range with the Model S Long Range coming in at 405 miles and the Lucid Air Dream R AWD covering 520 miles per charge. The EQS450+ boasts the lowest drag coefficient (Cd) or any car for sale and will start at $103,360. The premium-electric-car segment is mostly about two numbers: horsepower and range. Earlier this year, Mercedes-Benz announced that its new dual-motor EQS580 would have 516 horsepower and that the single-motor EQS450+ would come in at 329 horsepower, but now we’ve learned the official EPA-rated range. According to the EPA, the 107.8-kWh-equipped 580 will travel 340 miles while the single-motor 450+ with the same battery will make it 350 miles on a charge.

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes credits its aggressive regeneration strategy, large battery, and the EQS’s incredibly low 0.20 drag coefficient for the range number. But while the EV Benz’s range compares favorably with the German competition, it falls behind the range of startups like Tesla and Lucid. The best a Porsche Taycan can do is 227 miles—Taycan 4S Performance Battery Plus—and the farthest an Audi e-tron GT can go on a charge is 238 miles. Yet the Benz can’t touch the Tesla Model S Long Range’s impressive 405-mile number; nor can it come close to the Lucid Air Dream R AWD’s 520 miles of EPA range.

Mercedes-Benz EQS580.
Mercedes-Benz

An important element of any car, electric or otherwise, is the price. The EQS450+ will start at $103,360, moving up to the Exclusive Level costs $3400, and the appropriately named Pinnacle Level comes in at $109,560. Pricing for the more powerful EQS580 opens at $120,160, requires an additional $3400 for the Exclusive trim, and, for those who want it all, the Pinnacle will wear a $126,360 window sticker.
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Lexus will reveal the new LX luxury SUV on Wednesday, October 13, at 12:30 p.m. ET.It’s the more upscale version of the new 300-series Land Cruiser, which won’t be sold in the U.S. Lexus has confirmed to Car and Driver that the LX600 will be sold here.The new LX is expected to use the same 409-hp twin-turbocharged 3.4-liter V-6 that powers the global Land Cruiser. Toyota won’t sell the new 300-series Land Cruiser in the United States, likely because previous versions didn’t sell well here. However, we will be getting the new model in the form of a more luxurious Lexus, the luxury brand has confirmed to Car and Driver. The LX600 will be revealed on Wednesday, October 13, at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Lexus

It’s likely that the LX600 will replace the current LX570 model’s 5.7-liter V-8 engine with the new twin-turbocharged 3.4-liter V-6 that’s found in the global version of the Land Cruiser and the new Toyota Tundra full-size pickup. In the Land Cruiser it makes 409 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque, and a hybrid version could arrive later. It will use a 10-speed automatic transmission and have standard four-wheel drive.

A teaser image from earlier this year (above) revealed similar L-shaped headlights and the famous Lexus spindle grille, but this new image shows the SUV will have a similar boxy shape as the Land Cruiser—at least in the rear. Unlike the Toyota, however, its taillights are connected by a light bar, and the rear window is slightly more canted forward. Check back here for all the details on the 2022 Lexus LX600 next week. We’ll update this post with a link to the live reveal when one becomes available. The new LX should go on sale early next year starting at around $90,000.
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