Elon Musk has bottled some lightning, and so far nobody’s successfully reverse-engineered his formula—the precise “it factor”—that earned Tesla 80 percent of the (admittedly still tiny) market for fully electric passenger vehicles in the U.S. in 2018. Legacy and startup manufacturers alike are trying their gol-dangdest, though, and upstart Sino-Scandinavian brand Polestar appears to be following most closely in Musk’s footprints.
Polestar “came out of stealth” with the low-volume $155,000 600-hp plug-in hybrid Polestar 1 that folks aren’t paying much attention to, echoing Tesla’s original Lotus-sourced Roadster. Next comes the mainstream Polestar 2, pitched directly at the Tesla Model 3 with a 27-module 78-kW-hr battery good for 275 miles of range (EPA estimated), all-wheel drive, and a fully loaded price tag of around $63,000 for the first year’s “launch edition” models.
Here’s what we know so far: The tall-riding four-door hatchback architecture is adapted from Volvo/Geely’s CMA (XC40) [...]
As one of Kia’s consistently best-selling models, the Soul has always been difficult to categorize. Tall wagon? Crossover? Maybe a little of both? Since its U.S. debut in 2010, the Soul has proudly marched to the beat of its own drum: boxy and dorky—and is ultimately cooler because of it. Now entering its third generation, the 2020 Kia Soul adds a healthy dose of refinement while keeping its weird streak intact.
Soul competitors have come and gone through the years. Nissan lost faith in its oddball Cube and Juke, replaced by the more conventional-looking Kicks for 2018. And the original subcompact box-on-wheels, the Scion xB, went from quirky and cool to flabby and boring in its second generation, before Toyota pulled the plug on the brand altogether. The verdict is still out on Toyota’s curiously styled spiritual successor, the C-HR.
Neither of these models can touch the Soul [...]
When Hyundai announced that it would build an electric version of its Kona subcompact crossover, we had a feeling it would be a hit. It offers an impressive 258 miles of range, a relatively affordable $37,495 MSRP, and better-than-expected driving dynamics. But as it turns out, the Kona EV ended up being even more popular than Hyundai expected.
InsideEVs first noticed the rollout might be going a little too well when forum members began reporting that they couldn’t get the Kona EVs they had tried to order through their dealers. Back in November, Hyundai had said that even though it planned to slowly increase the number of states where it sold the electric CUV, it also planned to fulfill a “sold order” anywhere the Kona EV wasn’t officially available. But according to forum members in those states, that wasn’t actually happening.
To figure out what the problem was, [...]
Every major player in the heavy-duty truck game is new or refreshed this year, including GM’s two offerings: the 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD and 2020 GMC Sierra HD. Both trucks receive upgraded hardware in addition to new styling. Which one is the better looker? Read on and decide for yourself.
The Silverado HD has been the internet’s punching bag since it was revealed, owing largely to its boxy front end and massive grille. The GMC’s grille actually looks a bit larger since it’s wider, and there’s no horizontal bar to break it up. Silverado High Country models get a unique front end with a grille that’s slightly less in your face and headlights that feature L-shaped LED accents. The Sierra HD AT4 also gets a bespoke nose complete with [...]
Ford is investigating the process it uses to certify emissions and fuel economy in the U.S., the automaker announced this week. The investigation comes after a handful of employees expressed concerns through Ford’s internal reporting channel back in September.
The automaker says it has identified possible concerns with how it calculates road load. The 2019 Ranger is the first vehicle Ford is evaluating, and it will be followed by other vehicles.
Ford has also hired an outside firm to look into the specifications used in its testing. According to the EPA, road load is “the force imparted on a vehicle while driving at a constant speed over a smooth level surface from sources such as tire rolling resistance, driveline losses, and aerodynamic drag.” Road load is determined by engineering models and validated through methods such as physical track tests, or “coastdown” testing.
Ford has asked the help of industry technical experts, and it has hired [...]
