Cars

Chevy Bolt, BMW i3, or something else? At $10K, you have lots of EV options

Cars, used ev prices / Shannon Garcia / February 18, 2026

2026 is looking like a pretty good year for affordable electric vehicles. There’s a new Nissan Leaf that starts at a hair under $30,000 (as long as you ignore the destination charge). We’ll soon drive the reborn Chevrolet Bolt—with a new lithium iron phosphate battery, it also has a price tag starting with a two (again, ignoring the destination charge). And the closer you get to $40,000, the more your options expand: the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Chevy Equinox EV, Toyota bZ, Tesla Model 3, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Subaru Solterra all fall within that price bracket, and some of those are pretty good cars.

But what if you only want to spend a fraction of that? Well, you won’t be buying anything new, but then neither do three-quarters of American car buyers, and there’s nothing wrong with that. A few weeks ago, we looked at what passes for the used EV bargain basement—ones that cost $5,000 or less. As long as you’re OK with limited range and slow charging, going electric on a shoestring is possible. But if you’re prepared to spend twice that, it turns out you’ve got plenty of options.

As before, we stress that you should have a reliable place to charge an EV if you’re going to buy one, which means at home at night or at work during the day. At this price range, you’re unlikely to find something that DC fast charges quickly, and relying on public AC charging sounds stressful. You’ll probably find a car with some battery degradation, but for the vast majority of models that use active battery cooling, this should be minimal; about 2 percent a year appears to be the average.

EVs in the US usually come with an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty for the battery, although cars in this price range will probably be too old to take advantage of it. If you can, have the car checked out by an independent EV specialist; if not, for some models, there are apps you can use. Even a test drive would work, particularly if you can fully recharge it and see how much range the car reports.

Chevy Bolt, BMW i3, or something else? At $10K, you have lots of EV options Read More »

What happens to a car when the company behind its software goes under?

Connected car servers won’t be online indefinitely, and startups often go bust.

Fisker managed to deliver some Oceans before it sank. But are those owners beached now? Credit: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Imagine turning the key or pressing the start button of your car—and nothing happens. Not because the battery is dead or the engine is broken but because a server no longer answers. For a growing number of cars, that scenario isn’t hypothetical.

As vehicles become platforms for software and subscriptions, their longevity is increasingly tied to the survival of the companies behind their code. When those companies fail, the consequences ripple far beyond a bad app update and into the basic question of whether a car still functions as a car.

Over the years, automotive software has expanded from performing rudimentary engine management and onboard diagnostics to powering today’s interconnected, software-defined vehicles. Smartphone apps can now handle tasks like unlocking doors, flashing headlights, and preconditioning cabins—and some models won’t unlock at all unless a phone running the manufacturer’s app is within range.

However, for all the promised convenience of modern vehicle software, there’s a growing nostalgia for an era when a phone call to a mechanic could resolve most problems. Mechanical failures were often diagnosable and fixable, and cars typically returned to the road quickly. Software-defined vehicles complicate that model: When something goes wrong, a car can be rendered inoperable in a driveway—or stranded at the side of the road—waiting not for parts but a software technician.

It’s already happening

Take the example of Fisker. In May 2023, the California auto brand arrived in Britain with its Ocean Sport before filing for bankruptcy just one year later. Priced from £35,000 ($44,000)—although top-spec trims pushed the price to £60,000 ($75,000)—the all-electric Tesla Model Y rival featured tech including a partially retracting roof and a rotating BYD-like touchscreen. All cars also carried a six-year/62,000-mile (99,779 km) warranty, with the battery and powertrain covered for 10 years or 100,000 miles (160,934 km).

Before Fisker’s 2024 bankruptcy, just 419 Fisker Oceans made it into British driveways. One unfortunate buyer, a marketing manager from Southampton, experienced the worst of the brand’s teething troubles. After taking delivery, her Ocean was plagued by persistent software glitches. Following a call to Fisker, engineers were dispatched to collect the vehicle for repairs, but when the car was due to be collected, it refused to start. Mere days later, Fisker declared insolvency, leaving the Ocean stranded as a 5,500 lb (2,500 kg) driveway ornament for the next ten months with no solution in sight.

Preceding Fisker, there was Better Place. Founded in 2007, Better Place wasn’t a car manufacturer but an EV infrastructure and software company that promised to solve range anxiety through battery-swap stations. Its entire model relied on centralized servers, subscriptions, and proprietary software to authenticate vehicles and manage battery exchanges. The flagship car for this system was the Renault Fluence Z.E., an electric sedan sold primarily in Israel and Denmark.

Better Place filed for bankruptcy in May 2013 after burning through $850 million, leading to Renault closing the Fluence Z.E’s Turkish assembly line. Servers were shut down, battery-swap stations stopped operating, and backend software used for authentication, charging, and fleet management disappeared, leaving many cars bricked.

A man stands next to a compact electric car, inside a white-painted facility — Better Place founder and CEO Shai Agassi showing off a battery-swap station for electric taxis in Tokyo on April 26, 2010. Three years later, the company was done. Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images

These cases highlight a broader shift in the auto industry, where long-term ownership is increasingly dependent not just on mechanical durability but on continued access to proprietary software and manufacturer support.

“When a modern car’s software misbehaves, you don’t fix it yourself—you call the manufacturer,” said Stuart Masson, founder and editor of The Car Expert. “They control the code. At that point, you’re not dealing with a traditional service department so much as an IT help desk.”

That dependence, Masson warned, becomes a critical failure mode when the manufacturer disappears. “Sooner or later, every owner risks a Fisker-style scenario, where the company is gone and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

While informal owner communities have begun attempting to reverse-engineer and distribute unofficial software updates, Masson is blunt about the risks. “You’re trusting that someone on the Internet actually knows what they’re doing,” he said. “If they don’t, the consequences might not be that Android Auto simply stops working but instead an airbag deploying at 70 mph.”

While buying a second-hand Fisker in the UK is a high-risk move, more established manufacturers generally have contingency plans if a critical software partner goes under. In practice, that usually means issuing recalls or pushing over-the-air fixes to affected vehicles. Warranty coverage should handle most issues for newer cars, but the story gets murkier on the used market.

Out of warranty

Take a decade-old Tesla Model S, for example: You might snag one at a bargain price, but there’s no guarantee Tesla will continue supporting it indefinitely. When a manufacturer drops software support, the car isn’t just at risk of breaking down—it becomes a potential cybersecurity liability. In a world where vehicles are increasingly defined by their code, running unsupported software is akin to leaving your router exposed to the Internet. You may have a functioning car today, but there’s no telling when—or how—it could stop running.

“Many teams, such as McLaren, who have F1 cars from the 1990s, require a 1990s-era laptop running an old Windows operating system, along with specialized interface hardware, for maintenance and to start the car,” Masson said. “We are up against time here, but it could be that brands like Tesla release its code, allowing people to use it. Who knows?”

The problem isn’t solely on the consumer; manufacturers shoulder a significant portion of the risk as well. One potential mitigation is standardization. Enter Catena-X, a collaborative data network connecting OEMs, suppliers, and IT vendors. By creating traceable digital records for parts and software—and standardizing data models and APIs for interoperability—Catena-X aims to make supply chains more resilient and software dependencies less catastrophic when a critical partner disappears.

When asked how OEMs can map software dependencies and mitigate vendor insolvency, Catena-X Managing Director Hanno Focken told Ars that “Catena-X supports software bills of materials and standardizes certain components to make software replaceable, plus a marketplace and open-source reference implementation helps OEMs find alternative vendors.”

The industry also shares responsibility in defining minimum operational lifespans for vehicle software. “As an association, Catena-X can facilitate shared industry commitments and consensus (e.g., data retention policies like a 10-year battery passport requirement), but it does not act as a regulator setting mandatory lifespans,” added Focken.

The lesson is clear: In today’s cars, the engine or electric motor isn’t always what keeps you moving—the software does. When that software vanishes with a bankrupt company, your car can go from daily driver to expensive paperweight overnight. And in the age of software-defined vehicles, owning a car increasingly means betting on the survival of its code. When that code dies, the driveway or highway—not the repair shop—becomes the final stop.

What happens to a car when the company behind its software goes under? Read More »

Ford is focusing on efficiency to make its 2027 $30,000 EV pickup affordable

car batteries, car battery, Cars, EV pickup, EV truck, Ford / Mike M. / February 17, 2026

A smaller battery means a cheaper truck, but customers still expect plenty of range.

Early design concepts for the mid-size electric truck on Ford’s Universal Electric Vehicle Platform. Credit: Ford

The electric car transition isn’t going great for America’s domestic automakers, but it’s far from over. Ford may have ended production of the full-size F-150 Lightning pickup truck, but next year, it will debut a new “Universal EV Platform,” beginning with a midsize truck that it says will start at a much more reasonable $30,000, if all goes to plan. The company seems serious about the idea, having created an internal “skunkworks” several years ago to design this new affordable platform from first principles.

Doing more with less is the key: fewer components and using less energy to go the same distance. Now, the company has given us a clearer picture of how it plans to make that happen.

A few years ago, Ford and its crosstown rival bet that full-size pickup truck customers would be wowed enough by instant torque and minuscule running costs to overlook how towing heavily diminished range. They created electric versions of their bestselling behemoths, packed with clever features like power sockets for job sites and the ability to power a home during an emergency.

Largely, though, truck buyers weren’t willing to overlook those things. People who may have still been interested were put off by sticker shock as supply chain chaos and dealership avarice inflated prices far beyond what was originally expected. Now those bets are unwinding—at a cost to Ford of almost $20 billion.

Smaller, cheaper? We got it.

Meanwhile, Ford appears to have been listening. Instead of making a full-size pickup with a starting price north of $60,000, it’s aiming to produce something more midsized (more interior space than a Toyota RAV4, it says), starting at half that. And it will only succeed if it can get away with using a smaller battery than you’d find between the frame rails of an F-150 Lightning. About 40 percent of the vehicle cost is the battery, Ford says.

Men stand underneath a prototype truck on a lift — Underbody aerodynamics are extremely important. Credit: Ford

We’ve known for some time that the plan included new prismatic lithium iron phosphate cells made in Michigan. The pickup will be assembled at Ford’s Louisville plant with a new, more efficient process that uses 40 percent fewer workstations than a traditional Ford assembly line.

If you want to provide more range with less energy and a smaller battery pack, you need a more efficient vehicle. Too much weight is a bad thing, and at highway speeds, aerodynamic efficiency matters most of all. But designing a new vehicle (or platform) is not simple—it involves many different departments, each with its own priorities.

“For example, the aerodynamics team always wants a lower roof for less aerodynamic drag; the occupant package team wants a higher roof for more headroom, while the interiors team wants to decrease the cabin size to reduce the cost,” said Alan Clarke, executive director of Ford’s advanced EV development. “Usually, these groups negotiate until they find a ‘middle ground,’ one that inevitably ends in a trade-off led by yet another department tasked with making tradeoffs on behalf of the customer.”

To get everyone on the same page, Ford instituted what it calls “bounties” to help engineers evaluate the trade-offs involved in design decisions.

“Now, the aerodynamics team and interior team share the same goal, and both understood that adding even 1 mm to the roof height would mean $1.30 in additional battery cost or .055 miles [0.089 km] of range. With bounties, each team has a common objective to maximize range while decreasing battery cost—a direct linkage to giving our customers more,” Clarke said.

15 percent better efficiency

The wake from the front wheels helps prevent the rear wheels from creating even more drag as they rotate. The underside of the drive units has been aero-optimized, with the driveshafts angled to minimize friction. The traditional pickup-truck shape isn’t the ideal starting point for an extremely low-drag vehicle, but Ford has shaped the cab to help airflow continue over the back in a teardrop shape, ignoring the bed, until it meets the top of the tailgate. “To the air, it’s no longer a truck,” said Saleem Merkt, head of aerodynamics for Ford’s advanced EV development.

A screenshot of an aerodynamic simulation — A prototype illustration of the aerodynamic efficiency of Ford’s mid-size electric truck. Credit: Ford

Like Merkt, many of the aerodynamicists working on the EV platform have a background in Formula 1, and Ford says it used their “fail fast, learn faster” mentality to good effect. They introduced the wind tunnel early in the truck’s development, using a modular approach that allowed them to swap 3D-printed or machined parts in and out to test new configurations quickly.

“[F]rom under-body shields to front fascia to suspension—in as little as minutes. We tested thousands of 3D-printed components, including versions of the suspension and drive units that didn’t even exist as functional prototypes yet,” Merkt said. “Since these 3D-printed parts were accurate within fractions of a millimeter of our simulations, it allowed us to develop a deeper, data-driven understanding of how every single detail impacts range and efficiency in the real world.”

In addition to the wind-shaping roof, Merkt’s team redesigned the side mirrors to use a single actuator for both adjusting the glass and folding the mirror. “Now that the mirror body no longer needs internal ‘wiggle room’ for the glass to move independently, we were able to shrink the entire housing by over 20 percent. This reduction in frontal area and mass unlocks a more aerodynamic shape, adding an estimated 1.5 miles of range,” Merkt said.

On their own, each small optimization adds only a little more range. Together, though, they add up to a meaningful improvement over any midsize truck on the market, Ford says.

Large castings, fewer wires, smarter electronics

Large castings are a hot trend in the automotive industry right now. As long as you have good quality control, using single castings instead of assemblies made from dozens or hundreds of components can save time and weight. For the 2027 electric pickup, Ford is using just two front and rear structural parts, each a single aluminum casting. For comparison, the Ford Maverick pickup uses 146 structural parts in the front and rear, Ford says. And since unicastings require fewer fasteners and adhesives, Ford needs fewer robots on the assembly line.

The battery uses a cell-to-structure architecture, meaning more of the pack’s volume is taken up by cells, increasing energy density. And there’s a flexible one-piece circuit board on top. A shorter (and therefore lighter) wiring harness is made possible by a switch to 48 V for the low-voltage system. Ford has designed the new platform’s charging system entirely in-house, creating a single high- and low-voltage power-electronics unit for the entire EV. This includes bidirectional charging, although the company has stuck with 400 V for the high-voltage system rather than moving to 800 V or greater. And the pickup will be an entirely software-defined vehicle. Instead of having dozens of discrete electronic control units, each with a single job, the EV will use a zonal architecture with five powerful computers, with one overseeing each zone.

Details like the exact price, EPA range estimate, and sale date will come later, the company told us.

Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica’s automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC.

Ford is focusing on efficiency to make its 2027 $30,000 EV pickup affordable Read More »

Sideways on the ice, in a supercar: Stability control is getting very good

Cars, Features, ice driving, McLaren Artura, stability control, traction control / Shannon Garcia / February 16, 2026

To test stability control, it helps to have a wide-open space with very low grip.

You can tell this photo was taken a day or two before we were there because the sun came out. Credit: McLaren

SAARISELKÄ, FINLAND—If you’re expecting it, the feeling in the pit of your stomach when the rear of your car breaks traction and begins to slide is rather pleasant. It’s the same exhilaration we get from roller coasters, but when you’re in the driver’s seat, you’re in charge of the ride.

When you’re not expecting it, though, there’s anxiety instead of excitement and, should the slide end with a crunch, a lot more negative emotions, too.

Thankfully, fewer and fewer drivers will have to experience that kind of scare thanks to the proliferation and sophistication of modern electronic stability and traction control systems. For more than 30 years, these electronic safety nets have grown in capability and became mandatory in the early 2010s, saving countless crashes in the process.

Through a combination of cutting engine power and individually braking each wheel, the computers that keep a watchful eye on things like lateral acceleration and wheel spin gather it all together with the idea that the car goes where the driver wants it rather than sideways or backward into whatever solid object lies along the new path of motion.

Obviously, the quickest way to find out whether this all works is to turn it off. And then find a slippery road, or just drive like an oaf. Yet even when automakers let journalists loose on racetracks, they invariably require that we keep some of the electronic safety net turned on. Even on track, you can hit things that will crumple a car—or worse—and with modern tire technology being what it is, the speeds involved when cars do let go tend to be quite high, particularly if it’s dry.

An orange McLaren Artura, seen from behind on a frozen lake. The rear is encrusted with snow. — The Artura is probably my favorite McLaren, as it’s smaller and more versatile than the more expensive, more powerful machines in the range. Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

There are few environments that are more conducive to exploring the limits and capabilities of electronic chassis control. Ideally, you want a lot of wide-open space free of wildlife and people and a smooth, low-grip surface. A giant sand dune would work. Or a frozen lake. Which is why you can sometimes find automotive engineers hanging out in these remote, often extreme locations, braving the desert’s heat or an Arctic chill as they work on a prototype or fine-tune the next model.

And it’s no secret that sliding a car on the ice is a lot fun. So it’s not surprising that a cottage tourism industry exists that—for a suitable fee—will bring you north of the Arctic Circle where you can work on your car control and get some insight into just how hard those electronics are capable of working.

That explains why I left an extremely cold Washington, DC, to travel to an even colder Saariselkä in Finland, where McLaren operates its Arctic Experience program on a frozen lake in nearby Ivalo. The company does some development work here, though more of it happens across the border in Sweden. But for a few weeks each winter, it welcomes customers to its minimalist lodge to work on their car control. And earlier this month, Ars was among a group of journalists who got an abbreviated version of the experience.

Our car for the day was a Ventura Orange McLaren Artura, the brand’s plug-in hybrid supercar, wearing Pirelli’s Sottozero winter tires, each augmented by a few hundred metal spikes. Its total power and torque output is 671 hp (500 kW) and 531 lb-ft (720 Nm) combined from a 3.0 L twin-turbo V6 that generates 577 hp (430 kW) and 431 lb-ft (584 Nm), plus an axial flux electric motor that contributes an additional 94 hp (70 kW) and 166 lb-ft (225 Nm). All of that is sent to the rear wheels via an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission.

A McLaren Artura winter tire fitted with studs — Winter tires work well on snow, but for ice, you really need studs. Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

Where most hybrids use the electric motor to boost efficiency, McLaren mostly uses it to boost performance, providing an immediate shove and filling gaps in the torque band where necessary. In electric-only mode, it will do just that, right up to the 81 mph (130 km/h) speed limit of the mode. Being the sort of curious nerd I am, I took the opportunity to try all the different modes.

Once I got control of my stomach, that is.

Are you sure you should drink that?

Our first exercise was ironically the hardest: driving sideways around a plain old circle. A couple of these had been scribed into the ice—which freezes from November until April and was 28 inches (70 cm) thick, we learned—along with more than a dozen other, more involved courses. Even under the best of conditions, the Sun spends barely six hours a day on its shallow curve from horizon to horizon at this time of year. On the day of our visit, the horizon was an indistinct thing as heavy gray skies blended with the snow-covered ice.

The lack of a visual reference, mixed with 15 minutes of steady lateral G-forces, turned out to be unkind to my vestibular system, and about 10 minutes later, I found myself in shirtsleeves at minus-11˚F (minus-23˚C), saying goodbye to a cup of Earl Grey tea I’d previously and perhaps unwisely drunk a little earlier. At least I remembered to face downwind—given the sideways gale, it could have ended worse.

A number of circuits carved into the surface of a frozen lake — These are just some of the circuits that McLaren has carved into the ice in Ivalo. Beware of the innocent-looking circles—they’re deceptively hard and may turn your stomach. Credit: McLaren

Fortified with an anti-emetic and some extremely fresh air, I returned to the ice and can happily report that as long as you slide both left and right, you’re unlikely to get nauseous.

Getting an Artura sideways on a frozen lake is not especially complicated. With the powertrain set to Track, which prioritizes performance and keeps the V6 running the whole time, and with stability and traction control off, you apply enough power to break traction at the rear. Or a dab of brake could do the job, too, followed by some power. You steer more with your right foot than your hands, adding or subtracting power to reign in or amplify the slip angle. Your eyes are crucial to the process; if you look through the corner down the track, that’s probably where you’ll end up. Fixate on the next apex and you may quickly find yourself off-course.

Most of the mid-engined Artura’s 3,303 lbs (1,498 kg) live between its axles, and it’s a relatively easy car to catch once it begins to slide, with plenty of travel for the well-mapped throttle pedal.

As it turns out, that holds true even when you’re using only the electric motor. 166 lb-ft is more than enough to get the rear wheels spinning on the ice, but with just 94 hp, there isn’t really enough power to get the car properly sideways. So you can easily control a lazy slide around one of the handling courses, in near silence, to boot. Turn the electronic aids back on and things got much less dramatic; even with my foot to the floor, the Artura measured out minute amounts of power, keeping the car very much pointed where I steered it rather than requiring any opposite lock.

A person stands next to a McLaren Artura on a frozen lake — It feels like the edge of the world out here. Credit: McLaren

Turn it on, turn it off

Back in track mode, with all 671 hp to play with, there was much more power than necessary to spin. But with the safety net re-enabled, driving around the handling course was barely any more dramatic than with a fraction of the power. The car’s electronic chassis control algorithms would only send as much power to the rear wheels as they could deploy, no matter how much throttle I applied. As each wheel lost grip and began to spin, its brake would intervene. And we went around the course, slowly but safely. As a demonstration of the effectiveness of modern electronic safety systems, it was very reassuring.

As I mentioned earlier, even when journalists are let loose in supercars on track, it’s with some degree of electronic assist enabled. Because for the sportier kind of car, you’ll often find some degree of halfway house between everything on and buttoned down and all the aids turned off. Here, the idea is to loosen the safety net and allow the car to move around, but only a little. Instead of just using the electronics to make things safe, they’ll also flatter the driver.

In McLaren’s case, that mode is called Variable Drift Control, which is a rather accurate name—in this mode, you set the maximum slip angle (from 1˚–15˚), and the car will not exceed that. And that’s exactly what it does. A slug of power will get the rear wheels spinning and the rear sliding, but only up to the set degree, at which point the brakes and powertrain will interrupt as necessary.

It’s very flattering, holding what feels like a lurid slide between turns with ease, without any concern that a lapse in concentration might leave the car requiring recovery after beaching on a few inches of snow. Even when your right foot is pinned to the firewall, the silicon brains running the show apply only as much torque as necessary, with the little icon flashing on the dash letting you know it’s intervening.

A man seen drifting a McLaren — If you have the space, there’s little more fun than drifting a car on ice. But it’s good to know that electronic stability control and traction control will help you out when you’re not trying to have fun. Credit: McLaren

I can certainly see why OEMs ask that modes like VDC are the spiciest setting we try when they lend us their cars. They’re just permissive enough to break the rear loose and fire off a burst of adrenaline, yet cosseting enough that the ride almost certainly won’t end in tears. Fun though VDC was to play with, it does feel artificial once you get your eye in—particularly compared to the thrill of balancing an Artura on the throttle as you change direction through a series of corners or the satisfaction of catching and recovering a spin before it becomes too late.

But outside of a frozen lake, I’ll be content to keep some degree of driver aids running.

Sideways on the ice, in a supercar: Stability control is getting very good Read More »

What if riders don’t close a robotaxi door after a ride? Try DoorDash.

Cars, doordash, robotaxis, waymo / Shannon Garcia / February 13, 2026

Autonomous vehicles have a lot of potential. As long as you program them right, they won’t speed, won’t break traffic laws, and won’t get drunk, high, abusive, or violent. And the technology has been getting much more capable, even as some of the hype has died down, taking some of the related companies with it. Waymo still easily leads the field and is already operating commercially in six cities across America, with a dozen more (plus London) coming soon. Waymos can even drop you off and pick you up at the airport in Phoenix and San Francisco.

Soon, Waymo will begin deploying its sixth-generation Waymo Driver, using upfitted Zeekr Ojai minivans, adding to the Jaguar I-Paces that have become so common on San Francisco streets and to its fleet of Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric vehicles. It has upgraded the cameras, lidar, and radar, meaning the cars can better sense their environments at night and in inclement weather. There are even microphones that can pick up sounds like sirens to better inform the robotaxi of the direction the emergency vehicle(s) are coming from.

But even with all these advances since the pod-like two-seater that predates even the Waymo name, there are still a few things that remain beyond a robotaxi’s capabilities. Like closing a door a passenger left open on their way out. All the sophisticated sensors and high-powered computer processing in the world are useless if the car can’t move until the door closes and there’s no one there to give it a hand.

What if riders don’t close a robotaxi door after a ride? Try DoorDash. Read More »

The Kia PV5 electric van combines futuristic looks and thoughtful design

car review, Cars, First drive, Kia PV5, vanlife / Beth Washington / February 10, 2026

The driver gets a hefty 7.5-inch digital instrument binnacle alongside a 12.9-inch infotainment display. Nearly everything is run through that screen, which is sad for those of us who want a return to physical buttons. It’s quick and responsive, but it lacks the haptic feedback that confirms a tap. The infotainment system supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, so you don’t have to use it too much if you don’t like it.

On the road, delivering a load

Even with 600 lbs (272 kg) loaded in the back—Kia wanted us to have a proper experience—the van felt remarkably car-like. The steering is smooth, and it has a delightfully tight turning circle to help navigate small towns and sharp city bends. It felt sure-footed and stable, though the ride was a touch on the jiggly side on all but the smoothest roads.

Yes, it’s a van, so don’t expect a buttery-smooth ride, but because everything else is so car-like, you don’t expect quite so agricultural a ride. Nor do you expect the cabin to sound so echo-y. That contrast strikes you from time to time: it’s clearly built to do a job, but it’s also thoughtfully designed. Its touchpoints are designed to withstand heavy use, so while they’re not especially luxurious, they should hold up to the many painty/muddy/gunky hands that will use them.

The powertrain is smooth, the ride a bit less so. Credit: Kia

Its powertrain feels exactly as you’d expect from Kia: silky smooth. It’s not the quickest vehicle in the world, but its torque gets you up to speed briskly enough. Kia’s claimed WLTP figure of 3.8 miles/kWh (16.4 kWh/100 km) wasn’t quite achievable on a chilly day, but winter weather will inevitably knock those numbers down a bit.

You can tell the PV5 isn’t the result of a simple “we have a powertrain, so let’s make a van” situation. Real thought has gone into how it will be used, how operators will interact with it, and how to make their lives easier. Ford, VW, Stellantis, and other van makers in Europe should take note.

As for America, never say never. In the UK and Europe, the PV5 costs tens of thousands less than VW’s retro microbus, suggesting that a North American PV5 could avoid the sticker shock that slowed VW’s sales, leading VW of America to delay imports for a model year. Kia America hasn’t announced plans to import the PV5 yet, but Car and Driver recently spotted one testing US-specific modifications on roads near its office.

The Kia PV5 electric van combines futuristic looks and thoughtful design Read More »

Ive and Newson bring old-school charm to Ferrari’s first EV interior

Cars, Ferrari Elettrica, Ferrari Luce, Jony Ive, marc newsom / 9u50fv / February 9, 2026

Ferrari has published images of the interior of its forthcoming electric vehicle, which it designed with LoveFrom, the new firm of former Apple star Jony Ive and another legendary designer, Marc Newson. The Italian sports and racing car maker is taking a careful approach to revealing details about its first battery EV, signaling a depth of thought that goes well beyond simply swapping a V12, transmission, and fuel tank out for batteries and electric motors. Indeed, the interior of the new car—called the Ferrari Luce—bears little family resemblance to any recent Ferrari.

Instead, LoveFrom appears to have channeled Ferrari interiors from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, with a retro simplicity that combines clear round gauges with brushed aluminum. Forget the capacitive panels that so frustrated me in the Ferrari 296—here, there are physical buttons and rocker switches that seem free of the crash protection surrounds that Mini was forced to use.

The steering wheel now resembles the iconic “Nardi” wheel that has graced so many older Ferraris. But here, the horn buttons have been integrated into the spokes, and multifunction pods hang off the horizontal spokes, allowing Ferrari to keep its “hands on the wheel” approach to ergonomics. Made from entirely CNC-milled recycled aluminum, the Luce’s wheel weighs 400 g less than Ferrari’s usual steering wheel.

The binnacle is actually two displays, one in front of the other. Ferrari

The binnacle that houses the main instrument display is actually two overlapping OLED screens. The analogue dials are displayed by the rear-most of the two, appearing through cutouts as if they were traditional dials from Veglia, Smiths, or Jaeger (or the clock on your iPhone). The infotainment screen is on a ball joint that allows it to be oriented toward the driver or passenger as necessary, an interesting feature that other automakers would do well to study (and perhaps copy).

Ive and Newson bring old-school charm to Ferrari’s first EV interior Read More »

Waymo leverages Genie 3 to create a world model for self-driving cars

AI, Cars, Google, self-driving car, waymo, world models / 9u50fv / February 6, 2026

On the road with AI

The Waymo World Model is not just a straight port of Genie 3 with dashcam videos stuffed inside. Waymo and DeepMind used a specialized post-training process to make the new model generate both 2D video and 3D lidar outputs of the same scene. While cameras are great for visualizing fine details, Waymo says lidar is necessary to add critical depth information to what a self-driving car “sees” on the road—maybe someone should tell Tesla about that.

Using a world model allows Waymo to take video from its vehicles and use prompts to change the route the vehicle takes, which it calls driving action control. These simulations, which come with lidar maps, reportedly offer greater realism and consistency than older reconstructive simulation methods.

With the world model, Waymo can see what would happen if the car took a different turn.

This model can also help improve the self-driving AI even without adding or removing everything. There are plenty of dashcam videos available for training self-driving vehicles, but they lack the multimodal sensor data of Waymo’s vehicles. Dropping such a video into the Waymo World Model generates matching sensor data, showing how the driving AI would have seen that situation.

While the Waymo World Model can create entirely synthetic scenes, the company seems mostly interested in “mutating” the conditions in real videos. The blog post contains examples of changing the time of day or weather, adding new signage, or placing vehicles in unusual places. Or, hey, why not an elephant in the road?

Waymo is ready in case an elephant shows up.

Waymo’s early test cities were consistently sunny (like Phoenix) with little inclement weather. These kinds of simulations could help the cars adapt to the more varied conditions. The new markets include places with more difficult conditions, including Boston and Washington, D.C.

Of course, the benefit of the new AI model will depend on how accurately Genie 3 can simulate the real world. The test videos we’ve seen of Genie 3 run the gamut from pretty believable to uncanny valley territory, but Waymo believes the technology has improved to the point that it can teach self-driving cars a thing or two.

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Driven: The 2026 Lamborghini Temerario raises the bar for supercars

car review, Cars, First drive, Lamborghini Temerario / Kelly Newman / February 6, 2026

This V8 hybrid with more than 900 hp replaces the V10 Huracán.

Does this feel like an unusually restrained color for a Lamborghini? The car is the new Temerario. Credit: Bradley Iger

While mainstream vehicles usually get comprehensive updates every few years, low-volume exotics tend evolve more gradually. Supercar platforms often remain unchanged for a decade or more, with manufacturers instead focusing on what can be tuned, massaged, added, or subtracted to keep their lineups fresh. Every once in a while, though, a performance car debuts that truly earns the label “all-new,” and the Lamborghini Temerario is one of them.

As the replacement for the Huracán, Lamborghini’s bestselling sports car to date, the Temerario has big shoes to fill. At first glance, it might seem like a more subdued affair than its predecessor, but the Huracán debuted in a similar fashion before wilder iterations like the STO and Sterrato were introduced to the lineup.

During a technical briefing late last year, Lamborghini sales chief Frederick Foschini noted that the Temerario’s streamlined look is intentional. The team sought to increase downforce by more than 100 percent compared with the Huracán Evo through the car’s core design, rather than relying on big wings, splitters, and other racy aerodynamic bits. Designers were also tasked with creating an all-new car that was distinctive yet instantly recognizable as a Lamborghini. Judging by the number of heads this car turned during my time with it, I’d say the company was successful.

The venerable Huracán served Lamborghini well for a decade, but its replacement is a bit of a step up in terms of price and performance. Bradley Iger

It’s not obvious from a cursory look at the exterior, but the Temerario is longer, wider, and taller than the car it replaces. Underpinned by a new all-aluminum spaceframe that’s more than 20 percent stiffer than the Huracán’s, the Temerari’s dimensional changes become immediately evident when you settle in behind the wheel, as head and legroom are noticeably improved over the outgoing car. I’m 6 feet, 3 inches (1.9 m), and at a rained-out track session at Sonoma Raceway back in November, I was able to position my seat however I wanted with headroom to spare, even with a helmet on.

The Temerario is also a big step forward ergonomically, as Lamborghini seems to be taking a more pragmatic approach to the control layout, which, like the Revuelto, sees the majority of often-used features accessed on the steering wheel. The tightly packed array of buttons and knobs looks overwhelming at first, but once you’re used to it, having everything directly in front of you—and controlled by physical buttons rather than capacitive surfaces—means your attention can stay on the road.

They hybridized this bull

These are definitely welcome improvements, but the star of the show, and arguably the most controversial element of the Temerario, is its all-new powertrain. While the Huracán was motivated by a lovely naturally aspirated V10, the Temerario gets its propulsion from a 4.0 L twin-turbocharged DOHC dry-sump V8 that revs to a searing 10,000 rpm. An axial-flux electric motor is sandwiched between the flywheel and the eight-speed dual clutch gearbox. Combined with two additional electric motors that power the front wheels, the total system output is a healthy 907 hp (676 kW) and 538 lb-ft (730 Nm) of torque.

A Lamborghini Temerario engine as seen through the rear deck. — I’m not sure many owners will do anything with the knowledge of their engine’s firing order. Credit: Bradley Iger

A 3.8 kWh lithium-ion battery mounted in the central tunnel of the spaceframe powers the electric motors and provides about six miles (10 km) of all-electric range. Though it can be recharged in about 30 minutes on a Level 2 charger, the hybrid system is designed to capture energy from the internal combustion engine and regenerative braking, so owners won’t need to plug in very often, if ever.

The sophisticated setup adds some heft: Lamborghini cites a dry weight of 3,726 lbs (1,690 kg), which means the Temerario weighs about 600 lbs (272 kg) more than the Huracán Evo. Additional mass is never a welcome development for a sports car, but to the automaker’s credit, Lamborghini has done a truly commendable job of hiding it.

Although I had originally planned to drive the Temerario exclusively on track at Sonoma, heavy rain forced us to scrap that idea after a slippery autocross session and a few harrowing laps around the course. To make up for the false start, Lamborghini graciously provided me with a Blu Marinus example for a few days at my home in Los Angeles. While the dry weather seat time reinforced the notion that you really do need to get this thing on a racetrack to see what it’s capable of, I was pleased to find it’s not a one-trick pony.

It’s not a dumb beast

As with the Revuelto, the Temerario defaults to Citta (Italian for “city”), its all-electric drive mode, each time it’s started. This makes pressing the jet-fighter-style start/stop button less exciting than it was in the Huracán, but it gives the Temerario an element of stealth that its predecessor never had.

There are 13 drive modes, but only four main ones (Citta, Strada, Sport, and Corsa), which can be augmented with additional settings selected via the EV knob on the upper right-hand side of the steering wheel. The latter offers Recharge and Hybrid settings in all four main modes, while a third Performance setting is available only in Sport and Corsa. Each of these EV-related settings alters how the hybrid system behaves and how the battery’s state of charge is managed. The Performance setting is the only way to get the full 907 hp out of the powertrain.

A Lamborghini’s cockpit should always look dramatic, and the Temerario does not disappoint. Bradley Iger

The Temerario can reach highway speeds solely with electricity, but it’s not a particularly exciting way to get around. Acceleration is best described as leisurely, and the front motors’ torque output can struggle to contend with even a moderately steep hill, which often triggers the internal combustion engine to spring to life. But the engine has its own required warm-up process, so situations like this sometimes result in less-than-graceful powertrain handoffs.

How is it on the road?

Once all the systems are working together, though, the Temerario proves to be a surprisingly competent tourer, thanks to improved ergonomics and a firm but forgiving adaptive suspension that, in its softer setting, absorbs bumps on the highway instead of bouncing over them. But as impressive as the Temerario is at handling everyday driving tasks, everything starts to feel like a mere lead-up to the main event once you’ve unleashed it on a fast stretch of canyon road. Given room to stretch its legs, the V8 emits a superbike-like snarl as the revs climb, and the sheer thrust of the powertrain makes chasing its 10,000 rpm redline feel like a test of bravery, even in lower gears.

Lamborghini Temerario passenger seat — It’s a better road car than its predecessor. Credit: Bradley Iger

The way this car piles on speed is stunning on its own, but it’s the accessibility—and how confidently it can maintain a pace—that truly sets it apart from the Huracán. It feels every bit as nimble as the Huracan, delivering relentless grip even on standard Bridgestone Potenza Sport summer tires, while the brakes—which now use ten-piston calipers instead of the Huracán’s eight-piston setup—offer strong, repeatable stopping power at top speeds.

I did find myself occasionally wishing for more aero stability during these moments, though. Fortunately, for any would-be Temerario owners who plan to track their cars regularly, Lamborghini also offers the Alleggerita package. This add-on increases downforce by 67 percent versus the standard Temerario while swapping the Bridgestone Potenza Sport tires out for track-ready Bridgestone Potenza Race rubber. The package also includes a raft of carbon fiber components for modest weight savings over the standard car.

All this doesn’t come cheap, though. Temerario’s base price of $389,554 ($486,721 as-tested) represents a six-figure jump over the last Huracán, and you can tack on another 45 grand if you opt for the Alleggerita package in its most basic form.

That’s a tall ask, especially when cars like the Corvette ZR1 offer similarly incredible performance for substantially less coin. But something tells me that Lamborghini won’t have any problems moving its latest “entry level” model. Then again, have you seen the price of bitcoin lately?

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Stellantis swallows $26 billion costs as it rethinks its EV strategy

Cars, EV adoption, Stellantis / Mike M. / February 6, 2026

The automotive industry’s big bet on a rapid adoption of electric vehicles—at least here in the United States—continues to unwind. Today, Stellantis, which owns brands like Jeep and Dodge, as well as Fiat, Peugeot, and others, announced that it has “reset” its business to adapt to reality, which comes with a rather painful $26.2 billion (22.2 billion euro) write-down.

It wasn’t that long ago that everyone was more bullish on electrification. Even the US had relatively ambitious plans to boost EV adoption into the next decade, including a big commitment to charging infrastructure. Ten new battery factories were announced, and the future looked bright.

Not everyone agreed. Some automakers, having been left behind by the push toward battery EVs and away from simple hybrids that offered little in the way of true decarbonization, lobbied hard to relax fuel efficiency standards. Car dealers, uncomfortable with the prospect of investing in and learning about new technology, did so, too. When the Republican Party won the 2024 election, the revanchists got their wish.

Gone were the incentives to consumers and businesses to buy EVs, which helped offset the higher purchase price. Out went funding for that national network of high-speed chargers. Tough future emissions standards were torn up, and inefficient and polluting gasoline engines will instead be the order of the day. And automakers were told to forget about being fined under the existing regulations—”sell as many gas-guzzlers as you like” was the message. (But also, bizarrely, import those tiny Japanese Kei cars, too.)

Reality bites

Stellantis is hardly alone in feeling this pain; in December, Ford announced a $19.5 billion write-down as it reprioritized combustion-engine platforms going forward. GM followed in early January with news that canceling some of its EV plans would cost the company $6 billion. Neither bill is quite as large as the one facing Stellantis (and its shareholders).

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China bans all retractable car door handles, starting next year

Cars, road safety / 9u50fv / February 3, 2026

The locking mechanism must be designed so that, in a crash that results in airbags deploying or a battery fire, doors on the non-impact side can be opened without tools. Chinese regulators are just as concerned that a vehicle’s occupants don’t get confused about how to open a door from the inside in an emergency. So each door must have mechanical releases where an occupant would expect to find them.

Again, Tesla is probably the worst offender—its front doors have always had mechanical handles, but for some model years, the rears could not be opened without tools.

For cars already approved by the Chinese government (which includes everything currently on sale), there’s a grace period. For existing designs, automakers have until January 1, 2029, to redesign their doors, and due to the specificity of the rules, that group of automakers is much larger than just Tesla. Xiaomi, which seems to be China’s most-hyped EV brand, will have to redesign some models, but BMW will, too—the rather good iX3 that will go on sale there soon will also need a redesign. The same goes for cars from Nio, Li Auto, and Xpeng.

And unless there are exemptions for low volume, I would imagine that most supercars from OEMs like Ferrari and McLaren will need new doors for the all-important Chinese market. Indeed, given China’s importance to the car industry, we should expect this ban’s impact to be widely felt on any model sold globally. The benefit should be clear: fewer car occupants dying after being trapped in their cars.

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How far does $5,000 go when you want an electric car?

Cars, used ev prices / Beth Washington / January 30, 2026

How about turning over an old Leaf instead?

The first-generation Nissan Leaf was the best-selling early EV, so it’s no surprise that it’s the most common EV you’ll find under our budget. The car didn’t have that much range to begin with, with a battery capacity of just 24 kWh at launch. And Nissan’s decision not to liquid-cool the battery pack means this EV battery will degrade more significantly over time than virtually any other modern EV. Essentially, the first- and second-generation Leafs are responsible for the general distrust of EV battery longevity.

Used Leafs can be had for less than $2,000, but below a certain point, they become economical to strip for spares, particularly the battery packs, which can have a second life as static storage. But what if you don’t want a Leaf?

Well, there’s the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which will always hold a spot in my heart because it was the first car I tested for Ars Technica. I’ll always remember how quickly its skinny front tires were overwhelmed into understeer on a highway interchange. Its one-box pod-on-wheels design still looks different from almost anything else on an American road, and it’s very compact for city life. But its battery pack was just 16 kWh when new, and it’s certainly less than that now, so it helps if you live in a compact city.

Other choices lean more toward compliance cars, like the Chevrolet Spark EV or a Fiat 500e. A few Volkswagen e-Golfs and electric Ford Focuses might show up in this price range, too, and I’m seeing a couple of Kia Soul EVs and even a pair of very cheap BMW i3s just within budget. And I do like the i3.

However, something to consider is how wide to cast one’s net. Sites like Autotrader will happily let me search for cars across the entire country, but could I drive an i3 home to DC from Florida or Texas? An e-Golf from California? At this price point, charging will be level 2 at best, and stops would need to be more frequent than the “every 50 miles” we were shooting for under the Biden-era NEVI plan. While buying a bunch of very cheap EVs far away and seeing who gets closest to home would undoubtedly make for an entertaining video series, in the real world, a long-distance purchase probably needs to factor in the cost of shipping the car.

How far does $5,000 go when you want an electric car? Read More »