Motor News

Kia has shared the first images of its upcoming electric vehicle, the EV6.
It’ll use Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP electric platform, which is shared with the recently unveiled Hyundai Ioniq 5 that uses a 77.4-kWh battery and offers either rear- or all-wheel drive.
The EV6 will be the first of 11 promised new electric vehicles from Kia by 2026, and it should go on sale this fall starting around $45,000.
Kia says it’ll have 11 new electric vehicles by 2026. Of those 11 new EVs, seven will be built on the Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP (electric vehicle platform) architecture, and this will be the first one to arrive. The Kia EV6, which we expect to be Kia’s version of the recently unveiled Hyundai Ioniq 5, will be fully shown by the end of the month and join the Soul EV and the Niro EV in the Korean automaker’s current electric lineup.

Kia

Kia says that its forthcoming electric vehicles will follow a simple, numbered naming scheme. Each car’s name will start with “EV” and be followed by a number. Hyundai is taking a similar approach by using the Ioniq subbrand for its electric vehicles and following it by a number. The Ioniq 5 will be on sale in the fall and the Ioniq 6 sedan and Ioniq 7 SUV are set for 2022 and 2024 arrivals.

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We expect that the EV6 will share a 77.4-kWh battery with the Ioniq 5 with an operating voltage of 800 volts. A single electric motor powering the rear wheels should be the standard option on the Kia. Similarly equipped Ioniq 5s make 215 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque in this configuration. A dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup should be optional, with 302 horsepower and 446 pound-feet of torque. The Hyundai is rated at up to 300 miles on the WLTP rating system, but EPA estimates are usually lower. We can expect similar numbers for the EV6.
The EV6 also looks to have daring styling, just like Hyundai’s new EV. It’s a mix between a hatchback and crossover with four doors and a futuristic look. The interesting-looking roofline flows back into a ducktail spoiler with slim taillights that jackknife down the quarter panel. You’ll have to get used to this look because Kia says it’s the “embodiment” of its new design language.

Kia

We’ll know more about Kia’s new electric vehicle by the end of the month, and it should go on sale alongside the 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 this fall starting around $45,000. Kia hopes that by 2030, EVs, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids will make up 40 percent of all its sales.
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Audi has released information about its upcoming 2022 Q4 e-tron compact electric SUV, wrapped in camouflage ahead of its full unveiling in April.
The Q4 e-tron offers an augmented-reality head-up display. cargo space behind the front seats nearly as large as that of the 2021 Audi Q5, and the choice of sustainable materials for the interior.
The 2022 Q4 e-tron will go into production by the end of this year and land in U.S. showrooms in early 2022.
Audi’s on a roll with the e-tron line. The 2022 Q4 e-tron is the fourth e-tron electric vehicle from the German automaker coming to the United States, and it’s entering the coveted compact-SUV space. Based on the Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform, the electric SUV boasts cargo space behind the front seats that’s nearly on par with the 2021 Audi Q5 and has a new augmented-reality HUD system with a flying arrow that assists with navigation.

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As is their modus operandi, the production version of the 2022 Q4 e-tron is initially being shown off covered in camouflage. But even with all the orange and white, it’s clear the exterior design of the vehicle is extremely close to the Q4 e-tron concept the automaker showed off in 2019. With a wheelbase of 108.7 inches and a length of 180.7 inches, the Q4 e-tron has nearly the same exterior dimensions as the 2021 Volkswagen ID.4, which also rides on the MEB platform, although the Audi is about one inch shorter.
But while VW is going for a more minimalist approach, Audi’s Q4 e-tron interior is reflective of the luxury brand. The Q4 e-tron has a 10.3-inch instrument cluster housing the all-digital “virtual cockpit” we’ve seen from the automaker for the past few years. In the dash, the latest version of the automaker’s MMI infotainment system is housed in either a standard 10.1-inch display or an optional 11.6-inch display. Fans of actual tangible buttons will be happy to know that the climate controls are operated via physical buttons directly below the infotainment screen while the gear shifter, drive mode, and media control buttons are housed in a floating center console with room underneath for storage.

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Audi

On the windshield, Audi is introducing an augmented-reality head-up display (HUD) similar to what Mercedes has added to the latest version of MBUX. In addition to the usual projected driving information, the Q4 e-tron will superimpose navigation elements onto the windshield. Information about upcoming intersectoins will be projected in addition to a dynamic floating arrow that appears ahead of route actions. For example, it will appear ahead of a turn at an intersection to help the driver stay on the correct route. It should be helpful particularly in roundabouts and at complex intersections with more than the typical four roads.
The interior will be available in the traditional leather/faux-leather mixture with the option of nappa leather throughout. As with nearly all EVs, there is a more sustainable interior solution, a mixture of faux eather and Dinamica microfiber, which is made from 45 percent recycled textiles and plastic bottles. Audi says the result is a material that looks and feels like suede.

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Audi

Cargo-wise, with the rear seats down, the 2022 Q4 e-tron has 52.6 cubic feet of space, which is nearly on par with the larger 2021 Audi Q5’s 53.1 cubic feet of cargo space behind the front seats. With the rear seats up, the Q4 e-tron has 18.4 cubic feet of cargo space.
While pricing and range information haven’t been shared yet, the 2021 Volvo XC40 Recharge is likely the closest competitor to the Q4 e-tron in the luxury compact electric SUV space. The Audi is 6.5 inches longer and has 5.2 inches more total cargo space than the electric Volvo.
Audi didn’t share motor or battery specs. It’s likely saving that information for the reveal of the vehicle next month. Pricing information is also unavailable, but we predict that the 2022 Audi Q4 e-tron will start at around $55,000. Audi is expected to place the Q4 e-tron into production by the end of this year with vehicle deliveries expected to begin in early 2022.
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The new 2022 Hyundai Tucson starts at $26,135 for the base SE trim level.
The hybrid model starts at $30,235 and is a new addition to the lineup.
2022 Tucsons will start arriving at dealerships within the next few months.
The redesigned 2022 Hyundai Tucson appears to offer more than its predecessor, so it’s no surprise that pricing is up for the new model. It starts at $26,135, a $1250 increase from last year’s Tucson, and prices range up to above $38,000 for a loaded version of the new hybrid variant. A plug-in-hybrid version of the Tucson is also on its way, but Hyundai has not yet released pricing.

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All nonhybrid versions of the 2022 Tucson come with a 2.5-liter inline-four with 187 horsepower and an eight-speed automatic transmission. All-wheel drive is a $1400 option for all trims. In addition to the base SE ($26,135), options include include the SEL (starting at $27,685), N-Line (starting at $31,785), and Limited (starting at $35,885). Unlike the Sonata and Elantra N-Line models, the Tucson N-Line does not have any performance upgrades and instead amounts to an appearance package.
The Tucson hybrid comes standard with all-wheel drive and a gas-electric drivetrain that uses turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four gasoline engine and a six-speed automatic transmission. It’s more expensive than the nonhybrid, starting at $30,235 for the base Blue model. It also offers better-equipped SEL ($32,835) and Limited ($38,535) models. EPA fuel-economy estimates are not yet available, but we expect a combined rating of around 36 mpg.
Hyundai already began production of the 2022 Tucson in Alabama, which means that units should start arriving at dealerships soon. Reservations are now open on the Hyundai website.
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The 2022 Ford F-Series Super Duty pickups will be available with a new horizontally oriented 12.0-inch touchscreen first seen on the 2021 F-150.
Ford isn’t giving the Super Duty trucks any significant visual changes like the new F-150, though, just new color choices and appearance packages.
The 2022 F-250, F-350, and F-450 will be on sale this summer.
Ford is upping its screen game to compete with Ram’s vertically oriented touchscreens. The 2021 Ford F-150 got a slight overhaul with a new available horizontally oriented 12.0-inch screen (the same size as Ram’s), and now the Super Duty models, which get no other changes besides colors and appearance packages, will arrive for the 2022 model year with the bigger screens available, too. The 2021 F-150 is on sale now, and the 2022 Super Duty trucks will arrive this summer.

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Ford

To get the new 12.0-inch touchscreen you’ll have to select the Lariat model or above. They use Ford’s Sync 4 infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capability. However, the Super Duty trucks don’t get the available 12.0-inch digital gauge cluster from the F-150. F-Series Super Duty XL models come standard with a 4.2-inch screen while XLTs get the previous model year’s 8.0-inch screen with Sync 3. Chevy and GMC’s heavy-duty trucks only have up to 8.0-inch screens available.

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The only visual tweaks for the 2022 Super Duty pickups include a new Atlas Blue exterior color, a Baja interior color for the Lariat, Navy Pier and Light Slate interiors for the Limited models, and some appearance packages for the F-250 and F-350. The new Lariat sport appearance package matches the Lariat model’s bumpers, mirrors, and grille with the exterior color and equips chrome exhaust tips and black running boards. Meanwhile, the black appearance package, previously only on the Lariat, is now available on the XLT. It includes black 20-inch wheels, body-colored bumpers and grille, running boards, and blacked-out Ford badges.
The Ford Super Duty comes standard with a 6.2-liter V-8 that produces 385 horsepower and 430 lb-ft of torque, though a 430-hp 7.3-liter V-8 and 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel V-8 with 475 horsepower and 1050 lb-ft of torque are both available. Either rear- or four-wheel drive is available, as is a six- or 10-speed automatic transmission. Super Duty trucks can tow up to 24,200 pounds, but reach 37,000 pounds with a fifth-wheel and gooseneck hitch.
The 2022 Ford F-Series Super Duty trucks will be on sale this summer. Ford declined to comment on when they’ll receive a refresh with the new Pro Power Onboard generators available on the 2021 F-150.

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The SUV version of the GMC Hummer EV will debut April 3.
We already got an idea of what it will look like from a GM EV presentation.
The debut will occur online and during the NCAA Final Four broadcast at 5 p.m. on April 3.
The Hummer electric pickup’s SUV stablemate will be shown to the world soon, as GMC has announced that it will make its debut April 3. The reveal will happen at 5 p.m. Eastern time both online and during the NCAA Final Four basketball game broadcast.

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We’ve already gotten glimpses of the SUV version’s overall shape thanks to a GM presentation about future electric models, where this new bodystyle was clearly visible behind one of the presenters. It has the same face as the Hummer EV pickup, and we also expect it to share its platform, powertrain, and basic specs with the truck. That means it should offer the same three-motor EV3X and two-motor EV2X and EV2 models.
The same removable roof panels seen on the truck will likely be found on the SUV so that it can compete with models such as the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco. The key differences between the truck and the SUV will be found inside, where the Hummer SUV may offer a third row of seats. The SUV also looks to have a spare tire mounted on the tailgate according to a teaser silhouette GMC released.

GMC

We expect the Hummer SUV to follow the pickup truck’s arrival by at least a year. With production of the loaded First Edition models scheduled to start this fall, the SUV likely won’t go on sale until late 2022 or early 2023. GMC says it will have more information to share later on about the Hummer SUV’s specs and on-sale date.
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A Pennsylvania state law has gone into effect giving delivery drones the right to operate on city sidewalks, and it also classified them as pedestrians.
This makes Pennsylvania the latest in a string of states, plus Washington, D.C., to let these delivery robots maneuver around towns.
Not everyone is a fan of these changes, including the National Association of City Transportation Officials, which is calling for a “comprehensive overhaul” of city streets to make automation work.
The legal rights of robots have expanded, at least in Pennsylvania. There, autonomous delivery drones will be allowed to maneuver on sidewalks and paths as well as roadways and will now technically be considered “pedestrians.” It’s the latest change in the evolving relationship between autonomous vehicles and humans.

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In Pennsylvania, the legal limits for autonomous delivery robots mean a maximum top speed of 12 mph in a pedestrian area, 25 mph on a roadway, and a load limit of 550 pounds. The Pennsylvania law was sponsored by state senator Ryan Aument and went into effect in January. Aument did not respond to Car and Driver’s request for comment.
Counting Pennsylvania, there are now a dozen states, including Virginia, Idaho, Florida, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., according to Axios, where it is legal for personal delivery robots to share the streets with people.

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The benefits of autonomous delivery robots include a reduction in the need for large, potentially emission-heavy trucks to move in crowded cities and a reduction in the number of delivery drivers required to get the stuff people order online to them quickly. Of course, that last item is one reason groups like the Teamsters have come out against delivery robots. The National Association of City Transportation Officials has also issued a Blueprint for Autonomous Urbanism that calls for more thought about adding self-driving robots to our streets. “Automation without a comprehensive overhaul of how our streets are designed, allocated, and shared will not result in substantive safety, sustainability, or equity gains,” the report said. Tech-friendly San Francisco even banned most sidewalk robots back in 2017.
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It takes a lot of artificial intelligence to get robots to safely navigate s crowded street. The Tamura Lab at Tohoku University in Japan has collected a list of factors autonomous vehicles should consider when interacting with pedestrians. That means avoiding “smartphone zombies,” or people who are walking while looking at a device instead of where they’re going, as well as using something called the “social force model” to try to understand a human’s intention about when they might change direction. In 2017, engineers at MIT created an autonomous robot that used socially aware navigation, to teach the AV to basically follow “the same rules as everyone else” regarding personal space and expectations about where to walk, one of the researchers said in a statement at the time. It’s not going to be easy to keep these knee-high robots moving alongside human pedestrians.
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The massive winter storm that hit Texas in February caused widespread damage to water and electric infrastructure, and it also shut down oil refineries in the state.
That meant fewer refinery byproducts were produced, which meant there was less polyurethane foam produced, which meant no foam for car seats—and now automakers might have to stop or slow production in March until replacement supplies can be found.
One anonymous auto executive told Automotive News that this is going to be a bigger problem than the microchip shortage the industry is already dealing with.
The Texas-size electric grid shutdown that made headlines last month continues to have an impact on people living in the state, but it may also now affect production of new automobiles. That’s because the state’s failure to prepare for the dramatic winter storm and the resulting power outages stopped local petrochemical plants from operating, which is having a domino effect on the foam required to make new vehicle seats.

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When the state’s processing plants had to shut down, they put a pause on refining oil, which meant that the oil refinery byproducts that eventually get used in seats (specifically the propylene oxide that’s needed for polyurethane foam) were also not being produced for a while. And that lack is now becoming evident to the automotive industry to the degree that, according to Automotive News, which broke the news, the looming foam shortage could alter automobile production starting next week, perhaps even Monday. Other sources said the impact might not be felt until later in March. But everyone seems to agree that finding alternative sources for seat foam is a priority right now.

Melissa Vaeth/GM

“Everyone is scrambling,” one unnamed auto-industry executive told Crain’s Detroit Business. “This problem is bigger and closer than the semiconductor issue.”General Motors, Stellantis, Toyota, BMW, Hyundai, and Kia all told Automotive News that they’re monitoring the situation but do not have any production stoppages to announce just yet.
The devastating winter storm that hit Texas in mid-February was caused by a blast of cold Arctic air moving further south than usual. It wasn’t like the state didn’t have any warning, with a senior meteorologist working for the state’s unusual electric grid operator, ERCOT, writing in the days before the worst of the storm hit, “This period will go down in Texas weather history as one of the most extreme events to ever impact the state. Temperatures early next week will set widespread daily records that are likely to be the coldest experienced since the 1980s.”
A possible foam shortage is not the only supply chain issue that automakers have faced recently. Late last year, the industry was not able to source enough microchips for new cars, which forced at least eight automakers in North America and more around the world to adjust schedules at production plants. That shortage was driven by auto plant shutdowns that happened in early 2020 when the coronavirus started spreading across the globe. At the time, automakers lowered their orders for more chips, thinking they would not need them if the virus dramatically lowered demand for new cars. But demand bounced back sooner than expected and automakers quickly learned chip suppliers had by then promised their products to companies making consumer electronics.

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The reborn Land Rover Defender has been popular on both sides of the Atlantic in its two-door (90) and four-door (110, pictured above) sizes, so it’s not surprising that a three-row Defender 130 is coming.
The Defender 130 is expected to seat seven in a body about 201 inches long, about the same overall length as the Cadillac Escalade and GMC Yukon.
The bigger Defender is targeted at North America as well as China and the Middle East, according to a Jaguar Land Rover executive.
While rumors of a larger version of the Land Rover Defender have been circulating since the stylish SUV was first announced—with a leaked document seemingly confirming its existence in 2019—the British company has now confirmed that the new three-row Defender 130 exists and is being readied for market.

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This news is no great surprise; buyers of rugged SUVs like the extra practicality of three-row versions. But it does confirm the importance of the Defender for Jaguar Land Rover’s bottom line, with the growing clan a sign of where demand is strongest. Defender sales have been accelerating strongly since it was launched last year, and despite the disruption of the global COVID-19 pandemic, it made up 16 percent of the company’s total production in the last quarter of 2020 with that proportion set to grow dramatically this year.
The original Defender had model numbers referring to its wheelbase in inches and included commercial and pickup 130s, but never a three-row SUV like this. The new Defender has broken this naming convention with the 110 sitting on a 119-inch wheelbase that the 130 will share, but with overall length increased to around 201 inches, according to the leaked document, and could seat as many as eight.
Land Rover has confirmed the Defender 130 was discussed during a call between investors and JLR chief financial officer Adrian Mardell in February. Automotive News Europe quotes Mardell as saying, “The Defender 130 will hit a sweet spot in North America, China, and the Middle East, which we’re not yet touching.”
We don’t know which powerplants the 130 will get, but we would not be surprised if the entry-level P300 four-cylinder engine wasn’t adjudged worthy of such a gargantuan range topper. The recently announced supercharged V-8 version is a much more likely option, one that would come with a price comfortably over $100,000. Diesels will be available in other parts of the world, and Land Rover is set to launch a plug-in-hybrid Defender in some markets, one that combines the 296-hp four-cylinder engine with a 139-hp electric motor. There are no immediate plans to bring the plug-in to the States, but that might change in the face of toughening emissions requirements.
JLR has committed itself to a comprehensive transformation that will see the Jaguar brand turn EV only, and its entire existing model lineup axed, as soon as 2025. With the 130 plus the strong likelihood of other future variants, the Defender is going to play an increasing role in the company’s future.
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