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The Hyundai Santa Fe adds a plug-in-hybrid variant for the 2022 model year, which joins traditional hybrid and gas-powered versions.The Santa Fe PHEV starts at $40,535 for the SEL trim and $46,545 for the Limited, which adds a 360-degree camera, ventilated leather seats, and other goodies.The PHEV uses a 177-hp 1.6-liter four-cylinder mated to a 90-hp electric motor, which gets its juice from a 12.4-kWh battery for an electric-only range of 31 miles, according to the EPA.

Hyundai

The Hyundai Santa Fe received a significant refresh for 2021, gaining a bold new grille up front and a trendy full-width taillight around back. There were also new powertrains, including a traditional hybrid setup, but for 2022 the Santa Fe gets even more eco-friendly with the addition of a plug-in-hybrid variant. We learned the details of the PHEV’s powertrain earlier this year and now Hyundai has released pricing information for the Santa Fe plug-in hybrid.

Hyundai

The plug-in powertrain comes on two trim levels. The base SEL starts at $40,535 and nets you Hyundai’s digital key, Smart Sense safety features, a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, and an 8.0-inch infotainment screen. Upgrading to the Limited will cost $46,545 and adds the Smart Park system, a 360-degree camera, ventilated leather seats, and a 10.3-inch infotainment screen. All Santa Fe PHEVs are powered by a 177-horsepower 1.6-liter four-cylinder and 90-hp electric motor feeding off a 12.4-kWh battery. The system sends the combined 260 hp to all four wheels, and the PHEV gets an EPA-estimated 33 combined mpg and 31 miles of pure electric driving range.

Although the Santa Fe PHEV is the only plug-in in its size class, it competes against the smaller Toyota RAV4 Prime and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV for electrified-crossover sales. The 2022 RAV4 Prime SE is slightly cheaper at $39,565, while the more luxurious XSE goes for $42,890, and the Prime can extract an EPA-estimated 42 miles from its 18.1-kWh battery. A plug-in Outlander based on the new model is due soon, but for 2022 the Outlander PHEV carries over from the third generation. Pricing for the cheapest SEL starts at $37,890, undercutting both the Santa Fe and RAV4, while the LE starts at 39,590 and the GT goes for $43,590. The Outlander PHEV can go 24 miles thanks to a 13.8-kWh battery. The Santa Fe goes on sale this summer, but is only available in 11 states.
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You might think that the battery pack of any electrified vehicle—hybrid, plug-in hybrid (PHEV), or pure electric (BEV)—is pretty much the same, other than its size. But that overlooks two key differences in the way batteries are used in different types of electrified vehicles. First is the flow of electrical power in and out of the battery relative to its size. For example, during modest acceleration all three types of electrified vehicles use a similar amount of power, just as during moderate deceleration, they might all each recover energy at a similar rate during regenerative braking. But a pure electric car might have a battery ten times as large as a PHEV, which, in turn might have a battery times ten times as large as a hybrid. So the amount of power flow relative to the energy capacity of the battery—its power-to-energy ratio—is vastly different for the batteries in the different electrified vehicles. The chart below uses examples of each type of vehicle from Ford’s lineup to illustrate the differences in battery capacity and power-to-energy ratios.

Moreover, because the three different vehicles use their electrified powertrains in different ways, the number of charge/discharge cycles seen by each battery varies considerably. In a hybrid, designed to boost the efficiency of a gasoline engine, the power is constantly flowing into and out of a small battery designed to be compact, light, and not very expensive. You might fully charge and discharge the battery five times on the way to a grocery store to get a gallon of milk.A plug-in hybrid has a much bigger battery, designed to fully power a vehicle for distances between about 10 and 40 miles. It also sees constant charging and discharging in urban driving, but these power flows are small compared to its total capacity, which might only be fully discharged once or twice a day. A BEV has a much larger battery still and that battery rarely sees full charge/discharge cycles—perhaps only during road trips or our 75-mph highway range test. According to Bab Taenaka, Ford’s Senior Technical Expert in Battery Cell Technology and Advanced Battery Systems, a battery in a BEV might only see 1000 charge/discharge cycles in its lifetime. That’s dramatically fewer than the 4000–8000 cycles a PHEV’s battery might see, while a hybrid’s battery could endure 100,000 cycles or more.“As a battery charges and discharges, its internal resistance increases,” says Taenaka. One way to control this is to limit how much of a battery’s capacity is used during a charge/discharge cycle. For a hybrid such as the F-150, which sees the maximum number of cycles, the “state-of-charge window (the fraction of the battery capacity that is actually used) is probably around 50 percent today.” For PHEVs such the Escape, that usable fraction might rise to 80 percent or so. And for the Mustang Mach-E, it’s approaching 90 percent.To adjust a battery’s power-to-energy ratio the engineers alter the thicknesses of both the current collectors and their chemical coatings. A hybrid’s brief spurts of peak power require high electrical current from a small battery, which, oddly enough, means thinner electrodes and thinner chemical coatings. That’s because these thinner elements bring a larger electrode surface area in contact with the electrolyte. Conversely, a BEV uses thicker electrodes and a higher loading of active chemical material. Thicker electrodes enable greater energy density because more of the cell’s total volume is made up of electrodes and active material and less is occupied by the separator, current collectors, and electrolyte. Maximizing the available kilowatt-hours per pound becomes more important as batteries get larger. A typical chemical coating is lithium-manganese-oxide—and there are others—but the chemistry is not critical to determining if the cell is more power- or energy-dense.One other consideration is the total voltage of the battery pack. Ford uses hybrid electrical systems that max out around 400 volts, so all three types of cars have their cells wired to stay within this limitation. Since most lithium-ion cells operate at 3.6-volts, the F-150 Hybrid battery uses 76 small cells wired in series to produce 274 volts. The Escape PHEV’s 84, much-larger cells—171 watt-hours per cell vs. 20—are also wired in series totaling 300 volts. However, the 376 even-larger cells (262 watt-hours) in the Mustang Mach-E are wired in four strings of 94 cells, each totaling 343 volts, which are then wired in parallel, to stay within the 400-volt limit of Ford’s electrical architecture.

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The Audi Skysphere, a rear-wheel-drive electric convertible concept, is the first of a trio of Audi concepts in the coming months, all with a -sphere name. As Audi Design Studio chief Gael Buzyn told Car and Driver, one of its attributes is the ability to extend or shorten its wheelbase by 9.8 inches.It’s intended as both a semi-autonomous grand tourer—it has Level 4 self-driving capability—and a driver-centric sports roadster.The Audi Skysphere concept is the latest elaboration on the theme of the long, low hood and rear-set cabin that has intrigued automotive enthusiasts for a century or more. This one is filtered through Audi’s technological worldview with a touch of emotion. With the press of a virtual button and the aid of electric motors and telescoping structural elements, the Skysphere’s entire front end can extend or contract, changing from an autonomous, long-wheelbase, stable grand tourer to a 9.8-inch-shorter and 0.4-inch-lower driver-centric roadster.

Audi

Audi

Even the interior transforms, the steering wheel and pedals coming out of the bulkhead as the passenger seat moves rearward and the driver’s portion of the dash comes forward to serve as an instrument panel. Yes, it’s an actual transformer.

Gael Buzyn and the team at the Audi Design Studio in Malibu conceived and designed the Skysphere concept, drawing inspiration from the proportions and purpose of the 1931 Horch 853, an Audi predecessor that was a long, luxurious roadster with a compact cabin. Both cars also drive the rear wheels, but unlike the straight-eight-powered Horch, the Skysphere concept packs a 623-hp electric motor and a battery pack, 30 percent of which lies between the passengers with the other 70 percent behind the rear bulkhead, yielding a front-to-rear weight balance of 40:60. With a single speed and 553 pound-feet of torque, Audi says, there’s enough theoretical propulsion to send the Skysphere to 62 mph in 4.0 seconds.
Buzyn pointed out the active aerodynamics at the front and rear of the car, which remain closed in GT mode but open in Sport mode. Though they weren’t yet active on the concept car, they can create a path for air to travel under the car and out the diffuser at the rear, effectively creating a venturi tunnel for downforce. Despite the sportiness of the silhouette and lack of apparent cargo area, there’s actually space for a custom luggage set, under glass and just above the rear drivetrain assembly, and space for two custom golf bags under the long hood, too. Buzyn says the interior pays subtle homage to Art Deco architecture, but the Skysphere also has a full dashboard screen, which splits and recedes or draws near the driver depending on the use mode, plus large touchscreens for armrests. The otherwise gorgeously minimalist interior is focused equally on semi-autonomous commute comfort and sporty-driving support. The underlying theme is a continuation of Audi’s tech-forward nature into the ever more technological future, but with a mind toward preserving the sensual, visceral joy of a good car.
More important than the specifics of the Skysphere concept, however, are the generalities: the things it tells us about what’s to come for Audi, especially as new models become increasingly autonomous. The concept hinges on the realization of at least Level 4 autonomous driving technology, which is the ability to fully self-drive without any need for human intervention within limited, predetermined environments or conditions. While that level of self-driving is still in development both technologically and legislatively, its desirability grows if your car could someday transform into a sporty roadster for a fun weekend romp in the hills once you’ve let it drive you out of town. An 80.0-kWh battery pack would provide the Skysphere a range of about 310 miles on the European WLTP cycle when it’s in the more economical grand touring mode, according to Audi. Don’t expect to see a production Audi Skysphere, but aspects of it can be expected to appear in Audis of the near future. Meanwhile, Audi will also reveal two other concepts, the Grandsphere and the Urbansphere, in coming months, all designed for an autonomous future. Desirable, sure, but how much of it can really happen? Could we really have one car from commute to canyon, even in the presumably dystopian metropolises of 2033 and beyond? Maybe. I didn’t use to think so, but now, I’m not so sure.
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Nissan has revealed full pricing information for the 2022 Frontier, and the cheapest S King Cab 4×2 model will start at $29,015.The bigger Crew Cab starts at $30,515 for the S Crew Cab 4×2, and can go up to $38,415 for the starting price of the Pro-4X off-roader.The Frontier will go on sale starting in September.We just drove the new 2022 Nissan Frontier, and we found it to be a sharper and more modern truck that maintains the familiar capability of its predecessor. Now Nissan has released pricing information for the 2022 Frontier, giving us a sense of what consumers will have to fork over when the the truck goes on sale soon.
The cheapest version of Nissan’s new mid-size pickup is the Frontier S King Cab 4×2, which starts at $29,015. The extended cab setup, featuring rear-hinged, half-sized rear doors, can be had on the S and SV trim levels, with the SV King Cab 4×2 starting at $31,715. Four-wheel-drive is an additional $3200 on both trims, and all King Cab models come with a six-foot bed.

The Frontier will also come as a crew cab with full-length rear doors, and the most affordable is the S Crew Cab 4×2, starting at $30,515. The Crew Cab also offers an SV model with two wheelbase lengths—the SV Crew Cab 4×2 SWB starts at $33,315 while the long-wheelbase variant is an additional $1900. The range-topper is the off-road-focused Pro-4X, starting at $38,415, although a new two-wheel-drive Pro-X can be had for $35,415. All Crew Cab models use a five-foot bed except the SV LWB, which has a six-footer, and four-wheel-drive is an extra $3000 on Crew Cab models. The Nissan looks to be be more expensive than its competitors when we’re talking about base models. The cheapest 2022 Chevrolet Colorado starts at $26,395, the 2021 Ford Ranger XL costs just $26,015, and the 2021 Toyota Tacoma SR undercuts the Frontier at $27,615. Both the Colorado and Tacoma can get pricier than the Frontier if you opt for the off-road versions, but the Pro-4X splits the milder Colorado Z71 and Tacoma TRD Off Road—the Chevy starts at $39,195 (for a crew cab, short box, four-wheel-drive Z71) and the Toyota starts at $36,915 (for a Double Cab, five-foot bed, manual TRD Off Road). The Frontier will face off against the Chevy and the Toyota when it goes on sale in September.
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