Motor News

It’s been difficult to escape the news regarding Tesla CEO Elon Musk these days. Ever since he purchased Twitter two months ago, the news hasn’t stopped—and it hasn’t stopped Tesla’s share price from taking a massive tumble. It’s down 45 percent since Musk bought Twitter and around 70 percent since the start of the year.Amid rumors of softening demand, Tesla has started offering incentives to new buyers. Some current owners are getting a 30-day trial of some Enhanced Autopilot features, which are usually a paid upgrade.Tesla is also offering various discounts around the world, including $7500 for Model 3 and Model Y buyers in December, along with 10,000 miles of free Supercharging.Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s long, strange trip to purchase the social media site Twitter continues to get longer and stranger. As the auto industry watches what’s happening to the microblogging site under the world’s most-famous automaker CEO, Tesla shareholders aren’t exactly enjoying the ride. The price of one TSLA share price would cost you just under $200 at the start of 2022. Today, the price is just over $123.More CommentaryThere are a number of reasons for that almost 70-percent drop, but the most obvious recent impact has come from Musk’s public display on Twitter. Since Musk bought Twitter two months ago, the stock has fallen 45 percent. The fact that Musk sold $3.6 billion of Tesla stock last week—and almost $40 billion since late 2021—hasn’t helped. Musk has since promised not to sell any more Tesla stock for two years, but he has contradicted himself in the past.Of course, Tesla is impacted by non-Musk-related factors, and tech stocks have been in an overall decline this year. Still, ABC News notes that the tech-heavy Nasdaq only fell around half as much as Tesla has since January 1, 2022.Specs and Details for the ShopperAnother factor impacting Tesla’s stock price is lowered demand for its all-electric vehicles. In response, Tesla has lowered prices on some models and has started offering some current owners of its EVs free trials of the company’s Enhanced Autopilot, an advanced driver-assistance version of its Autopilot, for 30 days. Enhanced Autopilot features include navigation with Autopilot, automatic lane changes and automatic parking and summoning. These features are usually paid upgrades and require specific sensors to be installed. As Electrek notes, Tesla is shifting away from installing ultrasonic sensors in every vehicle but hasn’t updated its software to operate some of these Enhanced Autopilot features (Autopark, Summon and Smart Summon) in Tesla vehicles that only have camera sensors.As for price changes on Tesla, the automaker started offering a $3750 discount to U.S. customers on two models, the Model 3 and the Model Y, at the beginning of December. This amount doubled, to $7500, last week for customers taking delivery this month. Tesla also added another incentive—10,000 miles worth of free energy at Tesla Supercharging stations—for EVs delivered in December. Tesla buyers in other countries are also being offered various discounts, Reuters notes, including $5000 in Canada and around $850 in China.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.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. More

We don’t know much about the Mugen customized Honda Civic Type R just yet—gotta save something for the upcoming Tokyo Auto Salon—but images of the Honda-specialist tuning firm’s ZR-V have been released.The photos depict what’s basically a hybrid HR-V with some black accents and spoilers, a quad exhaust, and a modified fascia.Mugen will also display race vehicles and technologies from the All Japan Super Formula Championship series.Honda fans who want a little more decoration on their subcompact crossover will want to check out the two modified vehicles that Japanese tuner Mugen will bring to the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon next month.We don’t know the details of the gussied-up Honda Civic Type R that Mugen will bring to Tokyo just yet, since that reveal is being saved for the show. But Mugen has been showing images of the customized ZR-V (similar to the HR-V in North America) that will be at the SEMA-like show in Japan.MugenThe Mugen ZR-V is called the “ZR-V e:HEV Mugen Custom Concept,” and it has been updated with a modified front fascia, larger side skirts, and an unusual tailgate-mounted spoiler that sits next to the Honda badge. Mugen also added black design decals around the bottom of the crossover, black side mirror caps, small pieces of black cladding at the rear bottom corners, and custom wheels. These changes are supposed to represent what Mugen calls “Emotional Urban Sports” (according to Google Translate).Details and Specs on the Type R a bit sillySince Mugen’s theme for the Tokyo Auto Salon is “Mugen Power 2023,” it will also bring two race vehicles from the All Japan Super Formula Championship. Mugen will also be displaying the telemetry system it uses for these races, which enable “a new way to watch motorsports,” the company said. The images Mugen has released of its customized ZR-V show a blue Honda badge and the company’s e:HEV logo, which means that the tuner did its work on a ZR-V with a hybrid powertrain. Despite that, Mugen decided that a quad exhaust system was appropriate. Whether changes like this actually make an HR-V look more appealing is a matter of some debate. When Mugen tricked out an HR-V in 2021, Top Gear wondered if the “disparity between bark and bite [was].”The Tokyo Auto Salon takes place between January 13 and 15 at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, near Tokyo.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.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. More

January: Car Dealers Are Still ScroungingEzra Dyer|Car and DriverOkay, I’m veering off the theme here on the very first month, because I’d rather post a photo of a sweet Camaro than of the Subaru Outback Wilderness fruitlessly trying to connect to its Subaru cloud server to diagnose its electronic maladies, but failing to do so because I’d gotten it stuck Out Back in the Wilderness where there was no cell service whatsoever. Plus, I’m writing this in International Waters, where rules don’t apply. (That’s capitalized because International Waters is the name of my local bar.)Anyway, in January the used-car market was so wacky that when I went to my local Jeep dealer to stalk Gladiators, they had a 1990s Camaro on the lot. This is normally the type of trade-in that goes straight to the dealer auction for eventual sale at Lenny’s Used Kars and Small Engine Repair 10 miles out of town out on Route 57, but in January the car supply was still so tight that new-car dealers would take whatever they could get. Including Camaros built in an entirely different millennium. Not that I’m judging. It was a wicked Camaro. It sold quick.February: Raptor on 37s, the Unobtainium TruckEzra Dyer|Car and DriverSometimes, we write reviews of limited-edition cars that are already sold out, because they’re interesting and maybe you, the reader, might take a crack at buying one used in a few years. But lately we’ve had to deal with the challenge of covering vehicles that are constrained by supply-chain problems.Car and DriverFor instance, my friend Steve ordered a Ford F-150 Raptor with the 37-inch tire package right around the time I drove one in early February. Then he waited. And waited. Ford sent him a series of letters saying that they’d really like to build him a Raptor with 37s but couldn’t. (The notice here was sent in late October.) If he wanted 35-inch tires, though, no problem! So he eventually just went with the 35s. Unfortunately for Ford, they were bolted to a Ram TRX.March: I Discover That the Kia EV6 Has a Poor Self-Image Ezra Dyer|Car and DriverSome cars go to great lengths to accurately depict themselves on their in-vehicle displays, sometimes even representing the correct paint color on the actual car. Not the Kia EV6! When you summon the battery state-of-charge display on the EV6, the Kia depicts itself as something that looks like a joint venture between Daewoo and the Chinese government circa 2002. Somewhere at Kia, there is a memo buried deep under a stack of papers that reads, “Remember to make that blobby hatchback thing with the solid featureless wheels and six-inch-wide tires look like the actual car before production.” April: Mazda Is Honest about Premium FuelEzra Dyer|Car and DriverAll turbocharged engines love premium fuel, whether they demand it or not (an accidental tank of regular unleaded turned an EcoBoost Mustang to a total mope at Lightning Lap back in 2015). But Mazda is one of the outliers that actually provides separate horsepower ratings according to octane. In the CX-50 Turbo, filling it with 87 octane gets you 227 horsepower. Running 93 octane, it’s rated at 256 hp. Torque improves, too, from 310 lb-ft to 320 lb-ft. That’s a difference you can feel. So if someone asks you whether premium fuel really matters, your first response should be, “You got a Mazda?”May: The Kona N Only Knows Five Tracks Ezra Dyer|Car and DriverDuring some downtime with the Kona N on the Cherohala Skyway, I fiddled around with the sub-menus on the infotainment’s performance pages. There I discovered that the N offers track maps of various road courses, which I’d think would add some VBox flavor to your lapping sessions, assuming you don’t have an actual VBox. However, the Kona only knows five tracks: Atlanta Motorsports Park, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Lime Rock, Road America, and Watkins Glen. It’s a cool feature—if you live near one of those tracks. On a sort-of-related note, the Genesis G90 can make its sound system emulate the acoustics of any concert hall in the world, as long as it’s Boston Symphony Hall.June: The Lucid Air Makes You Sign a Disclaimer to Unlock All the PowerEzra Dyer|Car and DriverMy first, and so far only, encounter with the Lucid Air was at our EV of the Year testing last summer. This was the 819-hp Grand Touring rather than the 1111-hp Dream Edition Performance, but it was still violently quick, hitting 60 mph in 3.0 seconds. However, I think the disclaimer screen to unlock Sprint mode was a little much. It was the EV equivalent of a carnie making you sign a waiver before heading over to ride the Matterhorn. Settle down, Lucid Air. You’re one second quicker to 60 than that F-150 over there. I did, however, appreciate the implication that I am a “skilled, advanced driver.”July: The BMW iX Leads Me to Meet Drifter DaveEzra Dyer|Car and DriverUnder the long list of things that might happen at gas pumps, I’d put “making a new friend” at number 10,534, right after “get squeegee water in your eyes somehow” but before “have your gas paid for by a friendly Sasquatch.” But that can happen at EV chargers, where everybody has more time to kill and at least one thing in common. And that’s how I met Drifter Dave, as he’s now labeled in my contacts. I stopped for a charge in the BMW iX and there was a Ford Mach-E at the adjacent charger. Dave was there with his wife (it was her car), and we started talking about the BMW. Then he told me about how he was into drifting and showed me photos of his E36 drift car. A month or two later, I gave him a call when I was at Charlotte Motor Speedway to drive the Mach-E 1400, and we ended up riding around in the Eluminator concept truck and getting hellrides with Vaughn Gittin Jr. Vandalism by squirrel.Ezra Dyer|Car and DriverWhich, again, is the kind of thing that I’ve never had happen at gas pumps. Although I did once meet a former Ford engineer named George who worked on the original Thunderbird, and I let him drive a Bentley across the parking lot to prank his wife. But I don’t have George’s number. That’s how charge stations are different. Anyway, a few days after I met Dave, a squirrel hucked a big, sappy pine cone out of a tree and broke the BMW’s windshield. So I guess July is a two-parter, but I told you I play by nobody’s rules but my own.August: The Genesis G90 Has Delightfully Elaborate Window ShadesAmong the G90’s bargeload of motorized and luxed-out features (remote parking, power doors, an interior fragrance dispenser), I was especially impressed by the motorized side window shades. Lots of cars have window shades, most of them manual affairs that pull up and latch on the hook. Really fancy rides have motorized shades. But the G90 has two shades per side. In addition to the main window shade that deploys vertically, they hid a horizontal shade in the pillar for the small rear quarter-window. That’s attention to detail. Sorry, paps. I will not be seen unless I deign to allow it. September: The Acura MDX Type-S Does Not Want Your Cold-Air IntakeEzra Dyer|Car and DriverI like to peek under the hoods of test cars, particularly ones with new engines, like the Acura MDX Type S and its 355-hp turbocharged V-6. And the Acura V-6 intake plumbing drove home the point that car companies do a whole lot of work to arrive the finish line in any particular area of development—just look at this intake plumbing. Air is pulled from up under the edge of the hood down into this device that looks like a Dr. Seuss musical instrument, complete with some kind of appendix-like resonator, before it even gets to the airbox. You hear some turbo intake whoosh but can presumably splash your way through some serious water without fear of drowning the thing. If you wanted to bolt on a big K&N cone filter and call it a day, be my guest, but I imagine doing so would cause a certain number of Acura engineers to come TP your house, and not even on Halloween.October: The C8 Is Still a Corvette When It Comes to Panel GapsEzra Dyer|Car and DriverAs I’ve chronicled more than once, the C8 Corvette takes Chevy’s supercar to new levels of sophistication and performance. But check out the panel alignment on this one. Pretty sure your fender isn’t supposed to cast a shadow on your door. Somewhere, a C3 owner is nodding knowingly.November: Infiniti QX60 Says You Should Expect Massage Seats NowEzra Dyer|Car and DriverWhen my 12-year-old kid climbed into the Infiniti QX60 Autograph, he immediately declared, “This seems like the sort of car that would have massage seats.” A moment later, he’d found the button and confirmed his suspicion. And while I know that the top-of-the-line QX60 is a not inexpensive machine, with a base price above $60,000, it still kind of surprised me that it had massage seats. This marked the moment for me when I realized that massaging front seats are to be expected in a certain class of vehicle, even ones that are luxury versions of mainstream crossovers. I think the signifier is quilted leather, of which the Autograph has plenty. If I see quilted leather, it better come with some massage seats. Even if they’re the ones that just feel like you’re being kneed in the kidneys by the cretin sitting behind you on a redeye home from Vegas. Which is not what the QX60’s feel like. Its system makes it feel more like your seat is alive and trying to squirm away and explore the world outside the car. Actually, now that I mention it, that’s what they all feel like. But they’re everywhere now, so get used to it!December: GM Doesn’t Make a Big Deal of It When It Gives Super Cruise New AbilitiesEzra Dyer|Car and DriverI was driving on a back road in the 2023 GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate when I went to engage cruise control and noticed the gray steering-wheel icon displayed in the instrument cluster—the Yukon’s way of saying that Super Cruise hands-free driving was available, if I wanted it. Super Cruise on a road with oncoming traffic? I didn’t think that would work, but when I pressed the button, the top of the steering wheel lit up green and the truck calmly centered itself in the lane and assumed (supervised) control. To which my reaction was: HUH? Since when has it been able to do this? I’d driven a Sierra with Super Cruise earlier in the year, and while it was able to negotiate a highway interchange, it never offered Super Cruise on back roads. Was this Yukon some kind of a sneaky beta-test vehicle? Maybe I stumbled upon some code I wasn’t supposed to find. So I e-mailed GM to ask and they said yeah, they put out a press release about that. No big secret. And while that was true, it’s not like they made a big deal about it. They didn’t produce any ads touting this new ability, which seems an order of magnitude harder to execute than divided-highway driving. And it makes Super Cruise that much more useful. On one two-hour trip in the Yukon, more than half of it was on Super Cruise roads. So, did you know about this? Well, now you do. So the only thing you might still be wondering is what was going on with that photo up top with the monster truck and the Bronco Raptor. And you’ll find out. But not this year.He’s Got IdeasThis 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

• The Chevrolet SSR convertible V-8 pickup truck is one of the highlights from an era obsessed with retro styling.• In typical GM fashion at the time, the first SSR looked good but had tepid performance. This later version has a 6.0-liter LS2 V-8 pumping out 390 horsepower and a six-speed Tremec manual to stir up those horses.• With four days to go, bidding for the online auction sits at just $16,000.When automotive archaeologists pen the chapter on the early 2000s, they’ll wonder if there was some kind of rift in the space-time continuum. All of a sudden, the roads were full of pseudo-1930s, ’40s, and ’50s machinery, from the Chrysler PT Cruiser to the Ford Thunderbird to the Plymouth Prowler. Few of these throwbacks were actually good, but they were at least fun. And when it came to reimagining a 1950s hot-rod pickup for the 2000s, General Motors (eventually) got it right. Today’s pick from the Bring a Trailer auction site—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is this low-mileage Chevrolet SSR, in the ideal specification. More on the SSRChevrolet first showed the SSR as a concept at the Detroit auto show in 2000. It was styled by GM’s Andre Hudson and the go-ahead to build a working prototype was given by Ed Welburn, later GM’s global head of design. SSR stood for Super Sport Roadster, and the vehicle brought some much-needed excitement to the show. At the time, the Camaro was just two model years from a long pause, and bow-tie enthusiasts wondered what would replace it.Bring a TrailerThe SSR wouldn’t, but it was fun nonetheless, and the public clamored for a production version. Inspired by the 1947–1955 “Advance Design” pickup trucks, it was a street rod available at your local dealership, ready to line up at the dragstrip and . . . disappoint. The 2003 SSR looked and sounded the part but, like the Plymouth Prowler, was more show than go. The 5.3-liter Vortec V-8 made 300 horsepower, but with its Chevy Trailblazer underpinnings and power-folding hardtop, the SSR clocked in at a portly 4700 pounds. Imagine putting a grand piano in the trunk of a Corvette. Quarter-mile times were nearly sixteen seconds. But hold your boos, because GM took the criticism to heart and heated up their factory hot rod with the 6.0-liter V-8 the original concept had promised. When Car and Driver tested this improved version in 2005, we came away feeling a wrong had been righted.The combination of this engine and the six-speed tranny gives the SSR some rabid bite to go along with an already hairy bark . . . GM should have put a bigger, more powerful engine and a manual transmission in the SSR right from the start. Now with 390 horsepower at 5400 rpm and peak torque of 405 pound-feet at 4400 rpm, the SSR romped to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and through the traps in 14.1 seconds at 100 mph. That’s more like it.Even better, whereas the SSR initially was a four-speed automatic only, there was now an optional six-speed manual gearbox. Never was $815 better spent than equipping GM’s concept-come-to-life with a meaty shift action as satisfying as wielding a steak knife.This SSR is one of these later versions and has just 2900 miles on the odometer. That’s not so low that you can’t enjoy it as a weekend cruiser in the summer, a use for which the SSR’s limited practicality would be well paired. There’s a small ding to be attended to, but the silver exterior and black interior otherwise present well.As a quirky machine from an oddly backward-looking time, the SSR is certainly a conversation starter. Fitted with the best possible powertrain, this one’s got the driving experience to match its looks. Don’t let it get away—rifts in the space-time continuum only come along every so often.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

Rivian’s biggest battery pack promises over 400 miles of range, but now it can no longer be paired with the quad-motor configuration. The automaker says the change is necessary to simplify production for its scaling business model. EPA has revised estimates for R1T and R1S models equipped with the quad-motor setup and second-largest battery pack.Domestic EV automaker Rivian has announced that it’s canceling one of the battery and drive motor configurations for the R1T pickup and R1S SUV. For the 2023 model year, buyers were finally going to have the option to spec their factory order with both the gutsy quad-motor setup and the biggest battery option: a 180.0-kWh unit dubbed the “Max” pack. The combination was certainly enticing, as the former was able to rocket us to 60 miles per hour in 3.0 seconds—the quickest pickup we’ve ever tested—and the latter promises more than 400 miles of range. Unfortunately, Riv has axed plans to produce such a combo, leaving quad-motor models to soldier on with the “Large” 135.0-kWh battery pack.RivianNotably, the Max battery pack has already been delayed, so this cancellation is another blow to potential customers who want the most Rivian has to offer. According to a report by InsideEVs, the young company sent an e-mail to customers who already reserved such a build, stating that such a change “supports our continued focus on simplifying the production process as we scale.” As a reminder, Rivian is still relatively new in the marketplace; the R1T was launched in 2021 and the R1S was launched just this year. Range ChangesIn addition to the loss of the aforementioned powertrain and drivetrain pairing, Rivian’s duo also gets new EPA ratings. R1T models equipped with the quad-motor setup, Large battery pack, and 21-inch wheels saw its EPA estimated range climb from 314 to 328 miles. Meanwhile, R1S models in the same spec are up from 316 to 321 miles. RivianWhile the increased battery size and extra 80 or so miles of range would surely be appreciated, we were still thoroughly impressed by the quad-motor acceleration and all-terrain capability provided by both the R1T and the R1S. We’re interested to see how a model equipped with a dual motor and the Max battery pack compare, and if the increased range offsets the decrease in performance and versatility.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

This content is imported from youTube. 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.This is Car and Driver celebrating the wonderfulness that is itself. The first issue, then branded as Sports Car Illustrated, was published in 1955. In 1961, then-editor Karl Ludvigsen brilliantly rebranded the monthly magazine as Car and Driver. Then, in the January 1983 issue, the editorial mission bloomed with incandescent purpose with the introduction of the annual 10Best list. It’s been nothing but brilliant choices ever since. A full 40 years of brilliance.Okay, the Renault Alliance was on the first list. That was a mistake. Only that one screw-up. A great record.So Window Shop, the Zoom-based show of competitive used-car shopping beloved by several, undertakes the challenge of finding a great example of a car that appeared on the 10Best list during the first decade of the 10Best era. That’s between 1983 and 1992. The price cap was set at $50,000 – and none of the choices even came close to that.More 10BestOh look, the Dodge Daytona was on the 1984 list. That’s two mistakes. Only two.Wait, the Fiero 2M4 with the Iron Duke four was also on the list that year? Crap!This episode’s participants are editor-in-chief Tony Quiroga, whose Machiavellian machinations have served him so well during his career. He just can’t turn off the scheming for one fun hour on YouTube. He found something-or-other. Oh, a . . . Sentra. Sheesh.Executive Editor K.C. Colwell used his keen insights to find an S-Class Mercedes. Senior Editor Joey Capparella did a fine job seeking out a nugget of C/D history. Road & Track senior editor John Pearley Huffman, who keeps showing up for these things despite not working here, uncovered a glorious Acura. So sweet.But it’s C/D’s current favorite freelancer Jonathon Ramsey that nailed this challenge like plywood. Go watch and appreciate the glory of his choice.Here’s a history of the 10Best stories to guide your own speculations. Remember, this episode of Window Shopping was limited to the lists generated between 1983 and 1992. More Window ShoppingThis content is imported from youTube. 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

Every car brand has an origin story, although some are more glamorous than others. Until recently, Hyundai seemed to have little regard for its early history. The company preferred, understandably, to concentrate on the growing success of its present and future. That’s some success: Hyundai Motor Group was the world’s fourth biggest automaker by volume last year, producing more vehicles than Stellantis or General Motors.But now Hyundai is taking more pride in its humble origins. Design boss Sangyup Lee cited the company’s first car, the 1974 Pony, as the inspiration for many of the themes of the Ioniq 5 EV. He has also acknowledged the similar debt that the spectacular fuel-cell ‘technology demonstrator’ N Vision 74 owes to the concept version of the the same Pony that Giorgetto Giugiaro, then working for Italdesign, created in 1974.Hyundai Retro DesignsBut beyond photographs, almost nothing of the original Pony Coupe concept survived. The original show car is lost and presumed long scrapped, there weren’t any detailed engineering drawings to be found in the archive. If Hyundai wanted a Pony Coupe concept it would have to build one. HyundaiNow, that is exactly what is happening. Giugiaro, now 84 years old but still working hard, will supervise the creation of an exact recreation, as close as possible to the mislaid original. We will see it next year.Hyundai Motor Company was founded in 1968, but started out making somebody else’s car. Its first product was a Korean version of the Ford Cortina, a compact sedan from the British market. The larger and slightly grander German-market Ford 20M was later added to the portfolio, and Hyundai continued to build Fords under license into the 1980s.But Hyundai was determined to become an automaker in its own right. In 1973 it recruited George Turnbull, a former British Leyland executive, to lead a team that would create an all-new car. He brought a group of engineers from the U.K. to help create both a new factory and the model for it to build. The prospect of generous tax-free salaries meant there was no shortage of talented applicants, and this team included well-known race car designer John Crossthwaite.At this point the official story diverges from the one from period reports. Hyundai is keen to highlight the newness of the rear-wheel-drive Pony, including its exterior design that had been contracted to Giugiaro’s Italdesign in Turin. The reality of South Korea’s fledgling supply infrastructure meant much of the Pony actually came from elsewhere. Underneath it was closely related to the contemporary Mitsubishi Lancer, sharing its engine, gearbox, and rear axle. Many other components, including the brakes, the instrument cluster, and the steering rack, came from Britain.Hyundai wanted a traditional design for its first car, which Giugiaro duly delivered. The boxy Pony had a utilitarian honesty and the modest excitement of a fastback rear. But no part of it could be called radical or exciting, which is why Hyundai soon decided it wanted a more glamourous model to display next to the four-door at auto shows to help raise interest.HyundaiFortunately, Italdesign had already used the Pony floorpan as the basis for an elegant coupe that Giugiaro had created to highlight both his and his company’s talents. This was called the Asso Di Fiori—meaning Ace of Clubs in Italian—and was set to be shown on the Italdesign stand at the 1974 Turin Auto Show. At the last moment Hyundai decided to officially adopt it and call it the Pony Coupe. (Italdesign then recycled the Asso Di Fiori name for a later coupe concept which became the Isuzu Impulse.)Beneath its hastily applied Hyundai branding, the Pony Coupe was sleek and stylish but bore few obvious similarities to its four-door sibling. The mid-1970s were Giugiaro’s busiest and most productive years, and the coupe was part of a run of spectacular two-doors that included the Maserati Merak and Boomerang concept, Lotus Esprit, Volkswagen Scirocco and the Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV. Elements from all of those are seen in the Hyundai, but it also featured plenty of innovation including a glazed top-hinged trunk lid which technically made it a hatchback. The cabin also featured the zany combination of a single spoke steering wheel, up-and-down linear instruments—with red markers moving against fixed scales—and a small, raised gear shifter.HyundaiHyundaiWhile the Pony Coupe concept looked great, it was clearly some way from production reality—especially for a company that had only just started building its first model. Sangyup Lee, who has spent time tracing Hyundai’s early history through the corporate archives, said that the company soon realized, as he delicately put it, that “the Pony engine and chassis would struggle to give a credible level of performance.” The Coupe concept appeared at various auto shows and gained different wheels and a partial repaint over time. Then it disappeared, likely scrapped but possibly still sitting lost in a storage facility somewhere in Korea.Yet Hyundai was obviously keen to turn it into a purchasable car. While researching the history of the concept, Hyundai discovered a single image of a different car sitting on a storage pallet. This seemed to be a production version of the Coupe that combined a similar roofline and side graphic with a more conventional quad-headlight front end. Beyond flatter sides, and the lack of gullwing doors, it beared an unmistakeable similarity to another of Italdesign’s more famous designs from slightly later, the DeLorean DMC-12. Like an efficient craftsman, Giugiaro would clearly recycle good ideas rather than risk losing them.HyundaiNearly 50 years after his first visit to what was then Hyundai’s brand new plant in Ulsan, Giorgetto Giugiaro returns for the official announcement of the new Coupe concept. This will be built by the GFG Style company in Turin that Giugiaro owns with his son, Fabrizio. Work has already begun, despite the lack of original documentation, and we can expect to see the finished car next year. It represents a considerable amount of both cost and effort to recreate a car that only automotive historians remember, but one the company clearly thinks is important. “Giugiaro was Hyundai’s first designer,” Hyundai President Luc Donckerwolke told C/D at the announcement ceremony in Korea. “That is a connection to be celebrated. But [the Coupe concept] also proves that Hyundai was always thinking about making more interesting and more desirable cars.”Donckerwolke is a hugely experienced car designer himself, formerly Hyundai’s chief creative officer, who worked closely with Giugiaro during his time at Lamborghini. He also admitted that future collaborations remain possible, especially as some of the other Giugiaro-designed Hyundai models from the 1970s and 80s may well serve as inspiration for other future products and concepts.HyundaiGiugiaro himself is clearly happy that one of his lesser known pieces of work is being reborn, but is also keen to emphasize that the Pony Coupe wasn’t just a precursor to the more famous DeLorean.“It does have a lot of similarities with the DMC-12,” he told C/D, speaking through an interpreter, “but just because it has similarities does not make it the same—what was important was to strike a balance.”“Making proportions in a well-balanced manner is always important, so some aspects might be repetitive,” he said, “but even if we have similar faces when we create a product, there are lots of differences and similarity isn’t the same thing as being equal.”Perhaps it is inevitable that with as many highlights in his portfolio, the Maestro himself will always prefer to talk about distinctions rather than likenesses.He did reveal another fascinating detail from the period, that Volkswagen was planning to use the Pony name for the hatchback that he was styling for them at the same time he was working on Hyundai’s first car. But the Korean model made it to market first, and stole the name, so the Volkswagen had to rapidly be rechristened as the Golf. 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

Making a later update to a car from a previous model year may be unusual, but Porsche has done it, offering a replacement for the factory-installed onboard charger to a more powerful one.The newer 19.2-kW AC charging unit will let owners of the 2020 Taycan charge their vehicle several hours faster.Owners of newer Taycans can get the upgrade as well, but the real benefit is to 2020 models that will become as up-to-date as new models when it comes to charging speed. Software updates to add new or uprated features to electric cars are no longer a new and novel idea. Tesla’s been doing them for a decade; its first over-the-air update for the Model S was in October 2012. Other makers have followed, with software reflashes done at dealerships (which predated Tesla, but were almost always for safety recalls) and now, increasingly, over the air.Full Details and SpecsBut updating hardware—actual physical components of the car—is a different and far rarer offer. So a recent announcement by Porsche is an admirable outlier: The company will offer owners of 2020 Taycan electric sports sedans the ability to replace the 9.6-kilowatt onboard AC charger fitted at the factory with a more powerful 19.2-kW unit, launched in 2021 as a $1680 option. The upgrade can shave several hours off an overnight recharge.Owners of 2021 and later models who want faster AC charging benefit as well: The upgrade is offered for any Taycan. But it’s particularly important for the first-year models, bringing them up to the same charging ability as the highest-spec Taycans sold new in dealerships today.John Voelcker|Car and DriverThe 19.2-kW charger lets the car charge faster on a Level 2 (240-volt) AC garage charging station, if that station can deliver the higher power and is wired on a circuit that can supply it. The difference in charge times is substantial: the Taycan’s 71.0-kilowatt-hour Performance Battery can recharge from zero to 100 percent in 4.8 hours, against 9.5 hours using the original charger. For more powerful Taycans with the 83.7-kWh Performance Battery Plus, the same charge will take 5.3 hours versus a previous 10.5 hours. The replacement isn’t a minor operation, since the charger is located behind the front trunk and requires a new section of wiring harness. The full parts kit (number 9J1.044.900.31) carries a retail price of $1850.15. Porsche estimates 12 hours of labor will be required for the full retrofit. At dealership rates that can reach $200 per hour or more, the total tab for charging twice as fast could run owners $4500 or so.PorscheBonus: Plug & ChargeThere’s an additional benefit, though. The software upgrade for the new onboard charger also gives 2020 Taycan owners a new and desirable capability: the Plug & Charge protocol that lets them plug into an Electrify America DC fast-charging station and then walk away, with all verification and billing handled on the back end. Just like a Tesla using the company’s Supercharger fast-charging network, in fact. (Note that the upgraded AC charger has nothing to do with DC fast charging via Electrify America; the Plug & Charge ability comes as a bonus in the software upgrade that allows the new charger to work.)But why is the new charger such a unicorn? Essentially because hardware updates are extremely uncommon among carmakers. The car that rolls out the factory door is the one that a final owner will drive a decade or more later. Any changes to the factory spec are almost certainly due to safety recalls, and these days they’re far more likely to be tweaks to the car’s powertrain control or software for advanced driver-assistance systems than they are hardware.Software Is Easy; Hardware Isn’tThere are some notable exceptions. In October 2009, Toyota began a recall that included sawing off a portion of the accelerator pedals on 3.8 million vehicles to avert floor-mat fouling after the questionable “sudden acceleration” concern. In general, though, makers change vehicle hardware only with great reluctance—and almost never design vehicles to allow hardware upgrades.Anecdote 1: Many vehicles early in the past decade that were fitted with GM’s Onstar communications feature accessed it via 3G cellular service. (Yes, Virginia, there was once such a thing.) This month, cellular carriers will finally shut down that network. Has GM offered a retrofit to allow owners of the 2015 and earlier cars to use newer cellular networks? Nope. A Change.org petition to demand that hasn’t even made its goal of 2500 names.Anecdote 2: In 2015, Ford unveiled Sync 3, an entirely new version of its connectivity software that superseded the much reviled MyFordTouch system, which had subpar (to be kind) voice recognition. At a launch event, I asked the Ford exec in charge, “So the Fusion sedan with Sync 3 looks just like the one with MyFordTouch you sold until a few weeks ago. If I had bought one of those, how would I upgrade to the new feature?” He looked at me blankly. Finally, the answer emerged: “The upgrade path is the purchase of a new vehicle.” And he walked away.Porsche hasn’t commented on whether the Taycan was designed to permit replacement of the onboard charger from the start. But it’s worth underscoring how rare this capability is—and highlighting it as an example for other makers. Whether they’d be willing to spend time and effort to allow owners to upgrade vehicles they’ve already sold, of course, remains an open question.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