Author: News Room

XRT increases Ioniq 5’s ground clearance and rides on all-terrain tires Dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain makes 320 hp Ioniq 5 XRT gets more cladding, no skid plates Driving on a silty, sandy, rocky trail at Metate Ranch in Indio, Calif., I really want to treat this like a rally stage, but I’m worried the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT can’t really handle it. Yes, with 7.0 inches of ground clearance it sits an inch higher than standard, and yes it rides on a square set of 235/60R18 Continental CrossContact all-terrain tires, and yes I’m switching between Sand and Mud modes. But…

BMW’s Heart of Joy consists of four integrated control modules at the heart of every Neue Klasse EV The Dynamic Performance Control module integrates acceleration, braking, handling, and steering dynamics The systems were tested to the limits in BMW’s Vision Driving Experience, nicknamed “The Beast” Pushing a vehicle to its limits is the essence of motorsport. Having a pro driver push you around a track in a test rig is the essence of awesome.  That’s what BMW had in mind at its Performance Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina, last November. The goal was to show off the capability of its new…

Maserati gave the GT2 Stradale lots of the GT2 race car’s visual DNA The GT2 Stradale is less tunable than a 911 GT3 RS and quieter than an Artura The GT2 Stradale arrives in the U.S. in August and costs $311,995 Maserati’s going back to its racing roots. Or at least it’s trying.  The storied Italian automaker out of Modena returned to racing in 2023 with the MC20-based GT2. Now, thanks to that car we get this car: the 2025 Maserati GT2 Stradale. When the race car’s road-going spawn arrives in the U.S. in August it’ll look the part, but…

Screens overtaking cars is a controversial trend among enthusiasts, but it wasn’t always. I’ll risk my neck here and say I can’t imagine most people could watch the video below of a 1987 C4 Chevy Corvette‘s digital dash lighting up on ignition and not be mesmerized. There was a time when these digital clock-esque readouts and bar-graph speedometers made a car cooler, not more complicated. My girlfriend and I have been going through Star Trek: The Next Generation lately (she’s the expert, I’m the newbie) and I get a similar feeling seeing the LCARS interfaces in that, or, say, NERV…

A little over two years ago, Can-Am showed us its new Maverick R—a 240-horsepower beast of a side-by-side with a whopping 17 inches of ground clearance and a trick new suspension. But as impressive as that chassis engineering may be, its, ahem, unconventional design poses a challenge for those who like to push the limits of their machine’s capabilities. Put simply, bigger tires won’t fit well or at all. Take a look at the above pic and the reasons why should be obvious. The crazy factory design on the left improves driver control at the obvious expense of limited tire…

Lucid Motors has developed and designed some award-winning electric vehicles in its young existence, but its end game isn’t EVs. According to Lucid CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson, the goal is to be the “Intel” of the automotive world.  In an interview with Rawlinson, InsideEVs reports that the EV boss sees cars as a small fraction of Lucid’s future profitability plans. His strategy is to see Lucid evolve from an EV automaker to a hardware and software provider. The reasons are plenty, but the main one is to future-proof the company while making lots of money in the process. “I’d…

Walking on eggshells tends to bring stress and strife, but is it possible that driving on them could be a breath of fresh air? That’s the idea behind a patent submitted by Stellantis that takes eggshells out of the compost bin and puts them into the tire compound. The patent idea is simple: extract calcium oxide (CaO) from discarded eggshells and use the material to replace carbon black and silica as a tire filler and coupling agent. Stellantis actually filed its paperwork with the United States Patent and Trademark Office back in mid-2023, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office…

Automakers pitched everyone on connected cars by saying they’d be better to use and own. “Get over-the-air updates instead of going to the dealer,” they hooped. “Lock your car from anywhere with your phone,” they hollered. But as we’ve learned with everything from smart watches to smart TVs, connectivity often benefits corporations more than consumers. I mean, how else could a company hound you about your car’s extended warranty if you still haven’t answered all nine of their phone calls this week? That’s the gripe of one Jeep owner who says their 2022 Grand Cherokee won’t stop serving them pop-up…

After years of public “beta” testing of its Full Self-Driving feature, Tesla seems only incrementally closer to unleashing truly autonomous robotaxis on the broader market. But what if I told you that self-driving vehicles have been proving themselves day in and day out, with countless millions of miles traveled, hours documented, and processes improved? And all without you noticing? Welcome to the world of industrial automation, where robots have been running the show for decades. I saw this in action for myself when I visited Honda’s Marysville Auto Plant in late January, where the company has begun introducing Automated Guided…

I recently finished a week of driving the new Nissan Kicks. It’s a totally agreeable cheap and small crossover, and my review of it should be out soon. But I noticed something odd about the car that is probably best to share outside of the context of a formal assessment, mostly because it doesn’t make the car good or bad—it’s just strange. The Kicks’ powertrain comprises a two-liter four-cylinder and Nissan’s Xtronic Continuously Variable Transmission. Altogether, the combo sends 141 horsepower and 140 lb-ft of torque to the wheels, and it’s adequate, if a bit wheezy, for a car like…