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The V-12 version of the latest Maybach S-class is here. It’s now called the S680.Like the previous S650, it has a twin-turbo 6.0-liter V-12 engine with 621 horsepower.The S680 will go on sale in 2022 and should cost over $200,000 to start.The auto industry’s epochs don’t shift like gears so much as blend like sump oil. Manufacturers are both burnishing their green credentials and laying out plans for the electric future while also rushing out some of the last and greatest products of the combustion era—such as this, the Mercedes-Maybach S680.Given the existence of the V-8–powered Maybach S580, it is fair to say that nobody truly needs the V-12–powered S680. But Mercedes obviously thinks there are enough ultra-rich buyers who actively want more cylinders, more power, and a bigger number on the trunklid; hence, the mighty engine has made the transition to the new W223 generation of the S-class. Bentley and Rolls-Royce both still offer V-12s in this space, so why shouldn’t Mercedes?

Mercedes-Maybach

The mighty twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter V-12 has been carried over directly from the previous-generation Maybach S650. Peak power and torque—621 horsepower and 738 pound-feet—are unchanged, but like its V-8 sibling the S680 now has standard 4Matic all-wheel drive to help deliver that to the road without drama (the last V-12 S-class was rear-drive-only). Unlike the S580, the S680 doesn’t have any 48-volt hybrid assistance, and although Mercedes’s official 4.4-second zero-to-60-mph claim is two-tenths quicker than the number the company claims for the S580, any attempt to verify that figure is likely to earn the driver a stern rebuke from the back seat, or a prod from a gold-tipped cane.Like the V-8 model, the S680 gets standard rear-wheel steering to improve agility and reduce the turning circle, with the rear axle able to add up to either 4.5 degrees or 10 degrees. (Having experienced the 10-degree system on a non-Maybach S-class in Germany, we can confirm it makes the car feel much smaller and more maneuverable at low speeds.)Buyers will be able to specify a two-tone paint finish to distinguish the S680 from the common S-class, with 10 contrasting color finishes available. Other distinctions include the unique grille and stainless steel trim covering the lower intake, side sills, and rear bumper. The overall effect seems designed to help billionaires make millionaires jealous.

Mercedes-Maybach

The cabin is correspondingly special. Ultra-soft nappa leather is found throughout, including for the dashboard, the headliner, and even the sun visors. The rear compartment owes more to private jets than regular sedans, with reclining seats with leg rests. Pretty much everything that can be moved is power operated, and the panoramic sliding sunroof and rear sunshades can be deployed by simply waving a hand in the right way. Any surface that can be heated, cooled, or used to give massages can also deliver those functions. Buyers with lazy chauffeurs can even specify electrically operated rear doors, which can be opened or closed from the driver’s seat. And yes to the most important question: it is possible to specify silver-plated champagne flutes and a fridge.The Mercedes-Maybach S680 will go on sale in the first half of 2022 and will almost certainly be the last new car launched by Mercedes to use a V-12 engine. We will have to wait to discover how much of a supplement it will carry over the S580, but we can safely presume the base price will be over $200,000.
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We can’t rely on gas taxes forever, but there’s no simple, obvious way to integrate electric vehicles and other alternative-fuel vehicles into the funding structure.Texas state senators are discussing a bill that would charge EV drivers between $200 and $250 for their car each year, plus another $190 or more if they drive over 9000 miles.Other states have looked at fees for EVs, as well as road usage charge programs, which would charge every vehicle owner a fee based on miles driven and the weight of their vehicle.America’s current system where roads and other vehicle infrastructure projects are paid for, in part, from gas taxes obviously can’t survive in a world where everyone drives an electric vehicle. There is no single, obviously best solution to modernize the situation, but in Texas the issue has resulted in some Republicans coming out in favor of tax hikes.The bill being discussed in the Texas state senate—Senate Bill 1728—would raise fees on electric vehicle (EV) owners as a way to make up for the gas tax they’re not paying. The legislation would require an annual EV fee of between $190 and $240, an additional fee of over $150 for anyone who drives their EV more than 9000 miles a year, and an annual surcharge of $10 to fund a charging infrastructure advisory council.The state, which couches the fees in “equalization for road use consumption for alternatively fueled vehicles” terminology, said these fees would apply to approximately 300,000 vehicles and raise around $37.8 million for the State Highway Fund (SHF) in fiscal year 2022, climbing to $135,594,000 in fiscal year 2026. If passed, the bill would take effect on September 1, 2021.

Texas is not the first state to look at charging electric vehicle drivers a fee as a replacement for gas taxes, but its numbers appear out of line with the gas tax most people pay. Electric-vehicle advocacy group Plug In America noted in a white paper published in August 2020 that the national average in annual gas taxes for a light-duty vehicle is $73. PIA also found 20 states that have some sort of EV registration fee, with prices ranging from $50 to $200. In other words, in many cases, EV drivers would be asked to pay more to support vehicle infrastructure than drivers of fossil-fuel vehicles. The group’s stance is that “Policymakers need to realize that until EVs reach a certain threshold of all light-duty vehicles on the road in a state, they shouldn’t be incentivized on the one hand and punished on the other.” The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality did have an incentive program for people to buy or lease clean-air vehicles (including EVs, hydrogen, and CNG/LPG), but that program has ended. During the 16 months between September 2019 and January 2021, the state gave out incentives for 1371 EVs and 10 CNG/LPG vehicles. Some local incentives remain available, including an EV charging program in Austin. Tesla, of course, is building a large factory near Austin called Gigafactory Texas that is scheduled to start operating by the end of 2021. Local Tesla and EV fans in the state are decrying the fees that SB 1728 would introduce and have sent out a call to action asking people to ask their state senators to vote no on SB 1728 as a way to vote “FOR thriving jobs and clean trucks and cars made in Texas!”Instead of annual EV fees, which don’t take actual road usage into account, Plug In America and other EV advocates support what are called road usage charge programs, or ways to charge people for the actual miles they drive each year, often factoring in the weight of the vehicle. Seven states are conducting road usage charge tests with help from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Another group, called Road Use Charge West, is made up of 17 western states that have either enacted RUC policy, have pilot programs in place, or are researching if an RUC will work for them.
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Chevy has released pricing for the 2022 Equinox, which features visual updates.The base price is up $2000 to $26,995, as there’s no longer a base L version.The 2022 Equinox will go on sale in the third quarter of 2021.The Chevy Equinox is dropping its low-cost L model for 2022, meaning the base price is up by $2000, but most trim levels are cheaper than last year. Chevy originally unveiled the facelifted version of the compact crossover for the 2021 model year but delayed it until 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic; it will finally reach dealerships in the third quarter of this year.

The 2022 Equinox’s higher starting price is now $26,995 for the LS model, which is actually $600 less than the equivalent 2021 Equinox LS. The better-equipped LT starts at $28,095, a $700 decrease from last year, and the loaded Premier starts at $32,195, a $500 decrease. Replacing the L in the lineup is the Equinox RS, which includes an sporty-ish appearance package and starts at $31,295.All 2022 Equinox models come with a turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-four with 170 horsepower; the more powerful turbo 2.0-liter four, which we preferred, was dropped for 2021. All versions come standard with front-wheel drive and offer all-wheel drive as a $1600 option.
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Kia’s flagship sedan, the K9, has been updated with a new design.The K9 was sold as the K900 in the U.S. until Kia recently canceled it for our market.We don’t expect the K9 to return to our shores anytime soon.Although it was recently dropped from Kia’s U.S. lineup, the K900 luxury sedan continues on in Kia’s home market of Korea. Called the K9 there, it’s now the beneficiary of a comprehensive update that brings a new look and presumably an upgraded interior.Kia has only shared photos of the exterior so far, and the new K9 has a classier look that’s somewhat reminiscent of the related G90 sedan from Hyundai’s Genesis luxury brand. The new front grille is imposing, and the updates at the rear include an interesting new taillight treatment with a full-width light bar that goes across the trunklid.

Kia

The K900 offered a single powertrain in the U.S., a twin-turbo 3.3-liter V-6 with an eight-speed automatic and all-wheel drive. Other engines are available globally, including a 5.0-liter V-8 and a naturally aspirated version of the V-6, but Kia has yet to release detailed specs for the updated version.

We don’t think the K9 will make its return to the U.S. market, as sales were slow here and the Genesis division has taken over as Hyundai-Kia’s luxury marque of record. But we can still admire Kia’s large-sedan lineup from afar, as both the K9 and the slightly smaller K8 are introducing some interesting designs to the lineup that may eventually propagate to other Kia models that will be sold on our shores.
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Tesla has bought and sold a lot of the cryptocurrency bitcoin, and was also taking it in payment for EVs but suddenly stopped earlier this month.CEO Elon Musk’s cited reason was that mining bitcoin is too hard on the environment; he said Tesla would not accept it for EV purchases until the production of the coin becomes more environmentally friendly.Musk claimed he wouldn’t be selling off the company’s own bitcoin, and it’s likely at least some form of cryptocurrency will be accepted again to buy a Tesla eventually. Meanwhile, there are dealerships around the country that are accepting bitcoin now for other brands.UPDATE 5/16/2021, 9:30 p.m.: Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, has hinted that he may sell off the company’s bitcoin holdings—in classic Musk fashion, via a Twitter response to a post by @CryptoWhale, as Bloomberg reported this evening. The tease caused a sharp drop in the value of the cryptocurrency.
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Like most activity in the modern stock market, Elon Musk’s sudden reversal to stop accepting bitcoin as payment for Tesla has little basis in reality—except for speculators in cryptocurrencies and Tesla stock.It was a short-term bet that paid off handsomely for Tesla: buy $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin at the close of 2020 when it sold for under $20,000; sell off 10 percent of it during the first quarter of 2021 as bitcoin neared $50,000; reap a $101 million profit. That profit accounted for almost a quarter of Tesla’s $438 million net income that quarter. At the end of March, either before or after the sale, Tesla began accepting bitcoin on its website for crypto customers who could fire off a digital deposit or an entire car’s worth of coin. Then, on May 12, Tesla yanked it.”Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment,” Musk said that day in a formalized statement on Twitter. “Tesla will not be selling any bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.”Bitcoin’s price, which had crested to nearly $60,000 in the days before Musk’s tweet, was already dropping heavily all day before it sank below $48,000 in the hours that followed. Thousands of people and bot accounts replied to Musk, as they usually do, but this time offering lesser-known cryptocurrencies hoping that a tweet from Musk—an endorsement, by any measure—would send their bank accounts soaring.”Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising,” Musk tweeted the next day. That was days after he was on Saturday Night Live on May 8 and said, “Yeah, it’s a hustle” when asked about dogecoin, the joke that turned into serious cryptocurrency after Musk popularized it with tweets in April. As expected, his comments on the TV show sent dogecoin on a downward slope—more than 35 percent, according to Coindesk. Lo and behold, after Musk’s tweet on May 13, it’s going back up. Tesla’s stock also dipped sharply to below $600—one of the lowest dips of this year—and already in after-hours trading this weekend, it’s trending upward.Tesla’s experiment with bitcoin didn’t help customers, who were warned they could overpay for their cars if the currency’s exchange rate changed and that Tesla couldn’t pay them back if it did, that hackers could steal currency, that bitcoins could be “lost or destroyed,” and that if they entered the wrong wallet code, the bitcoin might go anywhere other than Tesla. Not problems that ever happen to people using real currency. Although you won’t be able to buy a Tesla (for now) using bitcoin, there are dealers around the country that have already started to accept the cryptocurrency. Two examples, located by Reuters and CNBC, are the Houston luxury-car dealership Post Oak—which displays a shiny bitcoin on its homepage—and the Alabama and Georgia Kia dealer Carriage Auto Group. Post Oak’s owner told CNBC earlier this year that the dealership has already sold 17 cars using bitcoin. Carriage will take it only if buyers can pay the entire cost of the vehicle purchase with the currency. So as long as you realize it’s still an unregulated, complex marketplace, and arguably still a bit shady, it’s still possible to purchase a vehicle in some places using bitcoin. As for Tesla, it’s to be expected that cryptocurrency will become a medium of exchange there again sooner or later.
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BMW has released details of the new 2022 2-series coupe, along with photos of a camouflaged prototype.It will be available in 230i and M240i forms, both with either rear- or all-wheel drive.The new model will start production this summer, with the RWD 230i and AWD M240i xDrive arriving first and the AWD 230i xDrive and RWD M240i to follow.One of our favorite BMW models is entering a new generation soon. Even as new front-wheel-drive sedan variants crop up around it, the new 2022 2-series will continue to offer a rear-wheel-drive coupe model with either an inline-four or an inline-six engine. BMW has confirmed that the M240i model will offer a more powerful turbo 3.0-liter inline-six with 382 horsepower, while we expect the 230i to continue with a turbo 2.0-liter inline-four with around 250 hp.

These photos of a camouflaged prototype don’t show much but do hint that the 230i and M240i will avoid the polarizing kidney grille treatment seen on the 4-series coupe. Earlier leaked photos showed the new model’s rear end, which has modern-looking taillights. We’ve heard that the convertible won’t return for this generation, but the even higher-performance M2 will.
So far BMW has only shared details about the M240i’s eight-speed automatic transmission, which has us worried that the more powerful 2er might drop its manual-transmission option. We sincerely hope that a six-speed manual will still be offered at least on the 230i. Both engine choices will be offered with either rear- or all-wheel drive.More information is coming in late July or early August and the 2-series should arrive at U.S. dealerships by this fall. The rear-drive 230i and M240i xDrive will go on sale first, with the 230i xDrive and rear-drive M240i arriving later, possibly for the 2023 model year.
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SWSD stands for shift work sleep disorder, a chronic condition related to the hours workers keep. People with this condition need to be extra careful when sleepy if they need to drive.Researchers at the University of Missouri looked through real-world data and discovered that people with SWSD are 300 percent more likely to be in a crash (or a “near crash”). Others with sleep troubles, like people with sleep apnea or insomnia, have a 30 percent greater risk.One of the study authors told Car and Driver that, if possible, it’s best to rest after work before getting behind the wheel or to rely on other drivers, like with public transportation or a taxi.For centuries, people have been working through the night. But in the 21st century, people who work the “graveyard” shift—or any overnight job—may have to contend with an impact that people in the long-ago past did not: a much, much higher chance of crashing their car. Much higher.Pretty much by definition, shift work sleep disorder (SWSD) commonly affects people who don’t work a traditional nine-to-five job and have to work through the night. According to the Cleveland Clinic, around 20 percent of the full-time workforce in the U.S. is required to do some sort of shift work, and of those people, 10 to 40 percent may suffer from the sleep disorder. On the low end, that means at least 2.5 million people are potentially affected with SWSD. The disorder “causes difficulties adjusting to a different sleep/wake schedule, which results in significant issues with falling asleep, staying asleep, and sleeping when desired,” the Clinic said on its website.Researchers at the University of Missouri wanted to understand what happens to people’s ability to drive when their internal body clocks get turned around by SWSD. U of M Civil and environmental engineering professors Praveen Edara and Carlos Sun looked at data collected in a real-world driving study that was part of the second Strategic Highway Research Program, which was established by Congress and ran from 2006 to 2015. Their findings, in short, are that people with SWSD are three times more likely to crash (or be in a near crash) than people without this condition. Other sleeping problems, specifically sleep apnea or insomnia, resulted in a 30 percent greater chance of crashing (or nearly crashing).”The magnitude of the crash risk increase for drowsy drivers is concerning, both to them and other motorists on the road,” Edara told Car and Driver. As the report noted, in 2017 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recorded 91,000 “police-reported crashes” involving drowsy drivers, involving 50,000 injuries and close to 800 deaths. It is still unclear exactly why SWSD was found to have a larger impact on safety than other sleep disruptions, he said, but there are some strategies night shift workers can take to minimize their risk of a crash. Unsurprisingly, these involve getting some rest or avoiding getting behind the wheel.

“Due to the heightened safety risk experienced by drivers with SWSD, late-shift workers are encouraged to use non-driving transportation modes, such as taxi, transportation network companies, and public transit, when available,” Edara said. “Resting before driving back to home after completing their shift is another option to mitigate the risk. This is consistent with the Hours of Service guidelines established for long-haul commercial drivers by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that include rest periods to increase driver alertness.”The National Transportation Safety Board releases a list of its top 10 most wanted safety improvements each year. While the 2020–2021 list doesn’t include any mention of drowsy drivers, their 2019–2020 list includes “screening and treating obstructive sleep apnea” as well as “reduce fatigue-related accidents.”Now that a link has been established between SWSD and an increased chance of crashing, Edara said in a statement that the next move should be to work with medical professionals to figure out exactly why the risk is higher in people with SWSD. Seems like there is an obvious answer here, but Edara said a better understand will help them “develop and test to improve the overall safety of these drivers and the other motorists around them.”The study’s name is “Sleep Disorders and Risk of Traffic Crashes: A Naturalistic Driving Study Analysis,” and it was published in Safety Science.
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When Aston Martin revealed the manual Vantage AMR back in 2019, the company promised it would be the last manufacturer to sell manual sports cars. That commitment to the purist market has gone out the window, however, courtesy of newly appointed CEO Tobias Moers.

Moers confirmed to Road & Track during a recent interview that Aston Martin plans to abandon the manual transmission altogether. The CEO, who previously headed Mercedes-AMG, also told Australian media the gearbox will be phased out of the Vantage lineup for the model’s 2022 refresh. This contradicts the manufacturer’s previous plans, which called for the manual to be a stand-alone option for the Vantage going forward. “We did a few assessments about [the manual car]—you don’t need it anymore,” Moers said to Australian press during a roundtable event, as reported by Motoring.com.au. “And you have to maintain it with the new regulations, year by year with the emissions because it’s a bespoke powertrain. It makes no sense.”While we were overjoyed to see Aston Martin offering a manual in the new Vantage, Road & Track reported they weren’t especially enamored with the AMR’s price during a review. They recommended buyers wait until the standard manual Vantage reached U.S. shores to get the most bang for their buck. Aston Martin confirmed the 2021 Vantage will still have the manual option, thankfully. While we’re sad to see yet another manual die, we aren’t exactly surprised. Moers says that Aston buyers “overwhelmingly” prefer automatics, so spending the money to keep the manual around isn’t exactly logical, especially considering the company’s current financial situation.It’s a sad day for the manual transmission. Chris Perkins contributed to this report.

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