Enlarge/ Robert Wickens looks out from the cockpit of the Formula E GenBeta test car in Portland, Oregon.
Formula E
PORTLAND, Ore.—The timing of Robert Wickens’ life-altering crash at Pocono Raceway in 2018 could hardly have been more cruel. After landing a full-time seat in IndyCar, he was named rookie of the year at the Indy 500 in June, finally showing the world his talent in a single-seat race car. F1’s loss was IndyCar’s gain, and the prospect of championships seemed certain. But a bad wreck derailed all of that, leaving Wickens paralyzed from the waist down. This past weekend, he made his return to the cockpit of a single-seater, testing a Formula E car with hand controls at Portland International Raceway.
It wasn’t his first time in a racing car since 2018—for the last few years he’s been running in IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge series, taking the 2023 TCR championship in a Hyundai Elantra N. But Formula E’s GenBeta car weighs almost 900 lbs less than Wickens’ Hyundai and boasts far more power and that immediate electric torque. More power than the Gen3 Formula E cars that lined up to race the following day, too—the 530 hp (395 kW) GenBeta machine is Formula E’s test bed and is able to deploy energy from its front electric motor (in addition to the rear motor) instead of just regenerating energy under braking.
I spoke with Wickens a few hours before his test and asked what he was expecting in terms of performance. “It’s an entirely different beast to an IndyCar,” he said. “So I know here in Portland that they actually had the exact same straight line speed as IndyCar [170 mph/275 km/h], obviously achieving in very different ways. The aerodynamic differences between the two and the whole philosophy of the series are entirely different. You’ll never really compare them, apples to apples, I don’t think, but, I’m really excited to give the Gen beta car a go,” Wickens said.
Enlarge/ The GenBeta car is Formula E’s rolling test bed.
Formula E
Unlike the steering wheel and accelerator and brake pedals most of us use, there’s no standard hand control setup, especially for a racing car. When Alex Zanardi competed in the 2019 Rolex 24, he used a wheel-mounted hand throttle to accelerate, but braked using a hand lever. That would be a challenge to fit into the tight confines of a single-seater cockpit, but that’s not the only reason Wickens and Formula E haven’t gone that route.
Hand controls
“When I was very early in my recovery, I had the luxury to talk to Alex several times. And he told me that if you need something easy, doing the brake lever off the steering wheel is the quickest solution to get into a car. But if you want to be as competitive as you can be, you have to have the brake on the steering wheel in some capacity,” Wickens said.
“It’s not like a sequential gearbox where you just downshift and then your two hands are on the steering wheel turning in—you’re trail-braking all the way to the apex. In Daytona, for example, you’re in the whole first section of the bus stop one handed—it’s like you can’t be 100 percent committed to the corner entry with one hand,” he explained.
I suggested that sounded like trying to race someone while holding a cellphone at the same time. “Pretty much yeah. But then unfortunately that cell phone is manipulating the balance of the car,” Wickens pointed out.
The advantage of a lever is the amount of force it allows the driver to send to the master cylinder. In his current setup in the TCR car, there’s a pneumatic actuator that helps apply sufficient brake pressure, “because I can only squeeze so much with my hands. And the difficulty with it is, there’s a small latency in achieving peak brake pressure. And that latency is not the same every time,” he said. While most of us would be rightfully terrified at having inconsistent brakes on track, Wickens adapted his driving style, something he says won’t transition to faster cars, though.
Enlarge/ Tires are a growing source of microplastic pollution. Michelin says it wants to change that.
Getty Images
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—it’s more than just a fun alliteration tagline. It’s also a set of instructions for how to consume in a way that’s less destructive to our environment. We reduce our consumption and reuse what we already have, then recycle it once it no longer has any use. Unfortunately, many are going straight to recycling and calling it a day.
At its sustainability summit in Northern California at the Sonoma Raceway, Michelin laid out a new roadmap for its plans to become a more sustainable company. Most importantly, the company shared what it’s been doing for decades to reduce the harm done to the world by its tires.
The company reiterated its desire to have 100 percent renewable tires by 2050. Companies make a lot of pronouncements like this, and they only sometimes come to fruition. But looking at Michelin’s present efforts and past record, the company has a decent chance of succeeding.
The now
Michelin currently has a demonstration tire made of 42 percent renewable materials. The company has plenty of time to reach its goal in 2050, so it’s trying to make the change in the most profitable way possible.
“We are guided by a sustainable world view of organizing principles that is in every business decision we make. We balance it across three domains: the people, the planet, the profits,” Michelin North America President and CEO Alexis Garcin said during a presentation.
The “People, Planet, Profit” principles emphasize eco-consciousness but also remind everyone that Michelin is a company that needs to make money to keep tires rolling off the lines.
During the event, Michelin said that its research into more sustainable tires requires teams to show that the materials they use are readily available and that the tire can be produced at scale. This is a vast improvement over companies that unveil unrealistic, feel-good items that won’t ever see production.
The then
In 1992, Michelin introduced its first fuel-efficient tire. It had a lower rolling resistance, allowing drivers to potentially save money on gas and reduce their carbon footprint (although, to be fair, most probably didn’t think about that).
The company has been stress-testing the stuff that goes into tires, too. In 2019, it introduced new racing tires for IMSA’s WeatherTech Sportscar Championship that used 30 percent renewable and recycled materials, with no real drop-off in performance.
There’s also the reputation for longevity. According to a 2023 study by the German ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club—think Germany’s AAA), Michelin’s average tire abrasion rate was 28 percent lower than the rate in average tires from other brands on the road in Germany.
The abrasion rate is how much of the tire is shed while driving. The higher the abrasion rate, the more particulates are left on the asphalt, which migrate to the soil and eventually end up in the water supply. Much has been said about these particles that have permeated our environment, little of it good.
Tires are a major source of microplastics, and as our vehicles get larger and heavier due to an insatiable appetite for large vehicles and our transition to EVs, tire companies have a spotlight on them to reduce their product abrasion rates. Here, Michelin seems to be ahead of the curve.
The later
Eighty percent of a tire’s environmental impact comes from the time that it’s sitting on a vehicle. Building a more sustainable tire can’t be done by just relying on different materials, especially if those materials wear down quicker than what’s already on the road. Michelin’s lifecycle assessment looks at the cradle-to-grave impact of a product as an ecosystem.
“For us, it’s people, profit, planet. We care about all of them at the same time with the same intensity, and that’s how we think we’re going to be sustainable,” Garcin said. If the company keeps sight of the goal, it might just pull it off.
Enlarge/ For some time now, Tesla has produced more cars than it has sold. This past quarter, that changed.
Toru Hanai/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Tesla published its quarterly production and delivery numbers yesterday afternoon, and anyone hoping that the last three months have marked a return to growth will be disappointed. For Q2 2024, the automaker built 418,831 electric vehicles, a 14.4 percent decrease on Q2 2023. The drop in sales wasn’t quite as bad—in Q2 2024 Tesla sold 443,956 EVs, a 4.8 percent decline, year on year.
After several boom years, even the hype-generating powers of Tesla CEO Elon Musk weren’t able to stave off the realities of a small and stagnant product line and a brutal price war, particularly in China. The first quarter of 2024 saw Tesla’s deliveries fall by 8.5 percent, the first time this number hadn’t gone up since 2020.
Later in April, we saw the effect on Tesla’s balance sheet. Profits fell by more than half, and profit margins slumped to just 5.5 percent, barely half the industry average.
In fact, there’s evidence that Musk’s vast reach through social media may be directly harming the Tesla brand at this point. A poll of more than 7,500 New York Times readers, collected earlier this year, revealed that many had a problem being associated with Tesla and Musk, with one comparing driving a Tesla to “a giant red MAGA hat.”
There may be a bright spot in the production and delivery numbers. Tesla delivered 422,405 Models 3 and Y between April and June, but it only built 386,576 at its factories in the US, Germany, and China. For many quarters, Tesla has been building more cars than it has delivered, raising questions and inspiring open source satellite image analysts to go looking for inventory from space. Now, perhaps, the automaker is clearing some of that excess inventory and matching production to more realistic expectations of demand.
In a brief text note to investors, Tesla notes that its solar energy and storage division had a bumper quarter, deploying 9.4 GWh of energy storage. This could see the division contribute up to 20 percent of Tesla’s total revenues for the quarter.
Musk’s reaction to the decline in Tesla’s automotive sales business has been to pivot. Perhaps bored of the realities of a low-margin industry surrounded by cutthroat rivals, the erratic CEO now says the future of the company will be humanoid robots, based on annual projections that bear little to no resemblance to objective reality as we know it.
Tesla investors obviously don’t mind; the company’s share price has risen by more than 8 percent since the market opened at 9: 30 am.
Enlarge/ Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker introduces the all-electric compact hatchback Pear during its inaugural “Product Vision Day” in Huntington Beach, California, on August 3, 2023.
It was the last week in June, and José De Bardi hadn’t gotten much sleep. The trouble had really kicked off on June 18, about a week earlier, when the electric vehicle company Fisker announced it had filed for bankruptcy protection. Now some 6,400 Fisker owners like De Bardi wondered: What will happen to their cars in the future?
The bankruptcy “lit a fire,” De Bardi says. “We had to get organized if we had any chance of representing owners’ interests.” Within days, he and a handful of other Fisker vehicle owners had established a nonprofit organization called the Fisker Owners Association, dedicated to keeping their cars running. (Hence, the lack of sleep.) By the end of the month, 1,200 owners—representing nearly a fifth of total Fisker cars sold—had registered through the group’s website, De Bardi says.
Fisker vehicle owners’ questions are mostly practical. Fisker began shipping the Ocean, its electric SUV—priced to start at $41,000 and ranging up to $70,0000—last year. Immediately, the vehicles were found to have serious build quality shortcomings and software issues, including a less-than-responsive central touchscreen. (WIRED’s reviewer declined to rate the vehicle entirely, calling it “just not ready yet.”)
Owners reported that some of the most serious issues, including a difficult-to-use brake hold and Bluetooth connectivity problems, were ironed out through software updates. But owners sometimes complained that it was tricky to get their vehicles serviced or repaired, because there weren’t enough certified Fisker repairers and technicians. Fisker initially launched with a Tesla-like “direct to consumer” model that eschewed the traditional “middleman” dealerships often seen in the US. But in January, the company began to sign dealerships to a new Fisker network, citing ballooning costs associated with the direct model.
Ownership woes
Even now, as the carcass of Fisker gets picked over, the EVs still have niggling problems—window cracks, dysfunctional key fobs, sudden connectivity blackouts—and will unquestionably need servicing and spare parts to keep them running into the future. Without Fisker, the company, to provide that, what are owners to do?
The FOA is still in the early stages of figuring it out. A small band of volunteers have worked around the clock to define the problems owners might face down the road—legal questions about their vehicle financing; issues with the car’s app; finding parts—and start solving them. These people have full-time jobs, too. De Bardi, for example, who lives in the UK and has headed up the European owners’ efforts, is also the CTO of a telecommunications firm.
Experts say Fisker owners’ situation is looking increasingly tricky. Automotive companies have a playbook to handle bankruptcies, developed during the 2008 financial crisis, which led General Motors and Chrysler to file for Chapter 11 protection, as Fisker has. Thanks in part to support from the US government, those automakers were able to honor their vehicles’ warranties as the companies restructured.
But in legal proceedings in Delaware this month, Fisker’s situation looked more dire. Lawyers for the firm’s creditors argued that Fisker should have filed for bankruptcy late last year. And Fisker plans to sell its remaining inventory, some 4,000 vehicles, to a firm that leases electric vehicles to New York City Uber and Lyft drivers, lawyers told the court.
If the company is forced to liquidate this way, owners may not be top of mind for the court and Fisker’s creditors, says John A.E. Pottow, a professor of law who studies bankruptcy at the University of Michigan Law School. The company may simply not have enough money to honor its vehicles’ warranties. “If Fisker is bankrupt, they have no obligation to update their software,” he says. And the company’s assets—its cars, their parts, and its intellectual property—may be too piddling to attract another firm to take up the mantle of service and repair. “Bankruptcy is never good,” Pottow says. “The smaller the business, the worse the issues.”
Right now, Fisker owners should make sure they have great comprehensive insurance on their cars, says Justin Simard, an associate professor of law researching commercial law at Michigan State University College of Law. Without a functioning service and repair system, “you could get totaled out with a little fender bender,” he says. The worst-case scenario might also see Ocean insurance rates increase and the cars’ resale values plummet even further, he says.
Fisker spokesperson Matthew Debord declined to comment on issues related to vehicle repair and parts manufacture, and referred WIRED to the company’s statements related to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Fisker initially paused production of the Ocean in February, after warning investors it might not be able to see out the year. A month later, reported investment talks between the electric vehicle maker and Nissan collapsed, and the fate of Fisker became clearer. The automaker brought in some $273 million in revenue last year but lost $940 million and owes some $850 million to bondholders.
A handful of other electric vehicle makers, including Lordstown Motors, Arrival, and Volta Trucks, have also filed for bankruptcy amid a more-challenging-than-expected climate for electric vehicles and new vehicle development. A fleet maintenance firm agreed to provide service for Lordstown’s remaining fleet customers, while the assets of Arrival sold to another EV manufacturer, Canoo. Volta Trucks emerged from restructuring earlier this year with new ownership and says it will continue to manufacture vehicles.
Despite it all, José De Bardi, the Fisker Owners Association leader, says he wants to keep his black Fisker Ocean around for as long as he possibly can. “It’s now a fantastic car,” he says, acknowledging the EV’s initial “quirks.” Despite the challenges—and hard work—the group is feeling optimistic. “We’re feeling positive that we’re going to get some kind of good outcome,” he says.
Enlarge/ The Polestar 4 is the latest entrant into the crowded midsize luxury electric SUV segment. We think it has what it takes to stand out.
Jonathan Gitlin
“If you’re going to make a car and use all that energy, it should be a good car,” said Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar. Ingenlath was referring to the company’s latest electric vehicle, a midsize SUV with striking coupe looks called the Polestar 4. While Ingenlath is on point from a sustainability perspective, it makes good business sense, too. The Polestar 4 needs to be a good car to stand out as it enters one of the most hotly contested segments of the market.
In fact, Polestar uses less energy to make its latest EV than anything else in its range—the company quotes a carbon footprint of 19.9 tonnes of CO2 from cradle to gate. Like some other automakers, Polestar is using a monomaterial approach to the interior to make recycling easier, choosing the same base plastic for all the components in a particular piece of trim, for example.
The carpets are made from, variously, recycled fishing nets or plastic bottles. The vinyl seats use pine oil instead of the stuff extracted from the ground, and the knitted upholstery fabric—also recycled plastic bottles—was designed to leave no off-cuts.
The headlights are a Polestar trademark now, even though there have been just four models so far.
Jonathan Gitlin
Coupe-like looks, SUV-like practicality.
Jonathan Gitlin
No, your eyes don’t deceive you, there is no rear windshield.
Jonathan Gitlin
The interior is inspired by sportswear.
Jonathan Gitlin
The back seat of the Polestar 4 outdoes rivals from Porsche, BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz.
Jonathan Gitlin
At night, LEDs illuminate the interior from behind textile trim panels. The colors are switchable depending on which theme you have the car set to—more on that later.
Jonathan Gitlin
The fastest Polestar yet
In addition to being the greenest Polestar so far, this one is also the most performant. We tested the $62,900 Long Range Dual Motor version, which can send up to 536 hp (400 kW) and 506 lb-ft (686 Nm) to the wheels. Pick this version and you should see 270 miles (434 km) from the 100 kWh battery pack. In a suitable location like a motorway toll booth, 60 mph arrives in 3.7 seconds (100 km/h in 3.8).
That’s if you’re in performance mode, at least. Switch to range mode, and clutches disconnect the front permanent magnet synchronous motor and remap the throttle pedal for better efficiency. There’s also a heat pump as standard. The car can DC fast-charge at rates of up to 200 kW, which should take the battery pack from 10 to 80 percent state of charge in 30 min. At home on an 11 kW AC charger, 0–100 percent SoC should take about 11 hours.
There is also a Long Range Single Motor variant with precisely half the power and torque but an EPA range of 300 miles (482 km). Driven by just its rear wheels, the Polestar 4 has more modest performance—60 mph arrives in 6.9 seconds, 100 km/h in 7.1—but it also carries a $8,000-cheaper price, starting at $54,900. New tariffs on Chinese-made EVs have come into effect, but Polestar told Ars that it is sticking with the original pricing. Next year, production of US-market Polestar 4s will begin in South Korea, which will mean significantly smaller import tariffs. (This story originally stated there had been a $10,000 price increase; this was incorrect.)
Jonathan Gitlin
It’s surprisingly good to drive
It has to be said: Making an electric car go fast is not particularly difficult. Electric motors generate most of their torque almost immediately, and unlike with a combustion motor, if you increase the peak power, there isn’t really an efficiency hit lower down the performance envelope. So even a 3-ton monster can get hurled down the road rapidly enough to embarrass a whole lot of supercars.
The Polestar 4 isn’t quite that heavy—5,192 lbs (2,355 kg)—so it forgoes air suspension in favor of conventional coil springs and dampers. These are passive in the Single Motor, but the Dual Motor is equipped with active dampers as standard, and if you choose the performance pack, it’s upgraded with stiffer springs and antiroll bars and new damper tuning.
Our test car was so equipped, and it was a noticeably firm ride, particularly when sitting in the back. There was also a bit of wind noise at speed, but more tire roar, thanks presumably to the performance pack’s 22-inch wheels.
Enlarge/ A Tesla Cybertruck at the Viva Technology show at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on May 24, 2024 in Paris, France.
Getty Images | Chesnot
Tesla has announced two more recalls of the Cybertruck, both of which affect over 11,000 vehicles produced since the car first became available late last year. Cybertruck owners will need to bring their cars in for service because of faulty windshield wiper motors and a cosmetic piece that could come off the vehicle while it’s being driven.
Tesla previously recalled the Cybertruck in April over a faulty accelerator pedal assembly and in January for a software problem in which the font size of brake, park, and antilock brake system visual warning indicators were too small. The January recall also affected Tesla Model 3, S, X, and Y.
A new recall notice says, “the front windshield wiper motor controller may stop functioning due to electrical overstress to the gate driver component. A non-functioning windshield wiper may reduce visibility in certain operating conditions, which may increase the risk of a collision.”
The wiper motors have a gate driver that “may have been damaged due to electrical overstress during functional testing,” the notice said. The fix is to “replace the windshield wiper motor with a wiper motor that has a properly functioning gate driver component.”
The wiper motor recall affects 11,688 cars. While it is estimated that 2 percent of cars have the defect, the notice said the “recall population includes all Model Year 2024 Cybertruck vehicles manufactured from November 13, 2023, to June 6, 2024.”
Tesla said it is not aware of any crashes, injuries, or deaths related to the wiper motor problem. Newly manufactured Cybertrucks shouldn’t have the problem because “the supplier introduced a functional test using a lower current to prevent damage and ensure integrity of the gate driver,” the notice said.
Cosmetic applique may not stay on the car
The other new recall notice describes a problem “with a cosmetic applique along the exterior of the trunk bed trim, known as the sail applique, which is affixed to the vehicle with adhesive.” The applique or adhesion was not installed correctly on some cars, “which may cause the sail applique to become loose or separate from the vehicle.”
“If the applique separates from the vehicle while in drive, it could create a road hazard for following motorists and increase their risk of injury or a collision,” the recall notice said. The fix is to “replace or rework the sail applique such that the assembly meets specifications and ensures sufficient adhesion between the applique and the vehicle’s deck rail.”
It’s estimated that 1 percent of vehicles have the applique defect, and the “recall population includes all Model Year 2024 Cybertruck vehicles manufactured from November 13, 2023, to May 26, 2024.” That amounts to 11,383 Cybertrucks. Customers will not be charged for the fixes to the wiper motor and applique.
The problem was discovered in December 2023 when “an undelivered Cybertruck with a single missing applique arrived at a Tesla delivery center after being transported on a vehicle hauler,” the notice said. The problem was found a second time in May 2024 on a customer vehicle, and then on more cars when “Tesla surveyed and assessed the retention of sail appliques on vehicles in the field.”
Tesla said it is not aware of any crashes, injuries, or deaths related to the applique problem. On newly manufactured Cybertrucks, “quality control improvements to the adhesive application” should keep the piece attached to the car.
Separately, one Cybertruck owner recently alleged that his car crashed into a neighbor’s house despite him holding down the brake pedal. The driver claimed that Tesla told him, “We have reviewed logs and due to the terrain the accelerator may or may not disengage when the brake is depressed.”
We contacted Tesla about the alleged braking problem today and will provide an update if the company responds. There is video of the accident, and the driver says the incident left skid marks for about 50 feet, “almost like one motor was accelerating while the other set of wheels locked.”
Volkswagen is committing $5 billion to upstart EV company Rivian, with $1 billion in cash upfront and $4 billion over time. The companies aim to use this joint venture to deliver new vehicles “in the second half of the decade,” according to the announcement, and the cash will likely help push along Rivian’s next generation of vehicles, including more affordable models.
Enlarge/ Oliver Blume, left, CEO of Volkswagen Group, and RJ Scaringe, founder and CEO of Rivian.
Rivian
Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that the partnership “brings Rivian’s software and zonal electronics platform to a broader market through Volkswagen Group’s global reach and scale.” VW Group, which also controls Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi, and Ducati, among others, has a lot to gain from working with Rivian, particularly when it comes to software and ride control. Ars and most other reviewers have been impressed by Rivian’s drive engineering and display software on the R1T truck, R1S SUV, and the second generations of them both, which majorly reworked the underpinnings and offerings, largely through design and software choices.
Rivian, which was valued at nearly $86 billion during its public stock debut, has burned through a lot of cash, making well-liked cars that cost a lot to build. In the first quarter of 2024, it sold its cars for an average of $38,784 less than it cost to make them before expenses like research, development, sales, or marketing. Having paused production on a $5 billion truck plant and gone through rounds of recent layoffs, the firm lost $1.51 billion last quarter. Rivian reported $7.86 billion in cash on hand and $4.43 billion in debt.
Hence the likely very useful first $1 billion from VW to Rivian, a convertible note that becomes Rivian common stock after regulatory approval. Two more $1 billion payments should arrive in 2025 and 2026, with a $2 billion loan tied to the joint venture available in 2026.
Enlarge/ The Tourbillon is recognizable as a modern Bugatti, but it’s very different under the skin.
Bradley Iger
Since the launch of the hypercar-defining Veyron back in 2005, modern Bugattis have served as benchmarks for straight-line performance and no-expense-spared automotive engineering. At a time when a 300 horsepower Mustang GT was something to crow about, the quad-turbocharged, W16-powered Veyron offered more than a thousand, metric (987 hp/736 kW).
Perhaps more importantly, and in contrast to most other world-beating performance cars, the Veyron wasn’t presented as some skunkworks project that had been pushed to the ragged edge. Instead, it was a wholly realized ultra-luxury performance machine, replete with the sort of grand touring appointments you’d expect to find in a Bentley rather than a top-speed record holder.
Still, it was the numbers that instantly captivated enthusiasts and casual onlookers alike, and Bugatti would go on to reset the bar with the introduction of the 1,479 hp (1,102 kW) Chiron in 2016.
Bugatti concentrated on achieving a lower frontal area and roofline with the Tourbillon.
Bradley Iger
The Tourbillon’s oval-ish profile forms a similar shape to that of a bird of prey.
Bradley Iger
The curve around the door opening is called the Bugatti line.
Bradley Iger
Getting cooling air into the car remains an important priority
Bradley Iger
A large rear diffuser generates important downforce at speed.
Bradley Iger
In case there was any doubt, the taillights spell it out.
Bradley Iger
Bugatti
Bugatti
A Bugatti needs to be more than just fast
But now, less than a decade later, the landscape of automotive performance looks markedly different. Thanks to Rimac—which incidentally now has a controlling interest in Bugatti—those with the means can roll out of a showroom driving a street-legal vehicle that’s capable of out-accelerating a Formula One car, while other manufacturers are offering rather inconspicuous luxury sedans with more than 1,200 hp (895 kW).
Today, buyers can choose from dozens of different vehicles that are capable of blasting to 60 mph from a standstill in less than three seconds. As a result, there’s a growing sense that we’re living in a post-horsepower world, and Bugatti seems to be well-aware of this paradigm shift.
“I think we’ve reached a point where cars are so incredibly fast that it’s not the differentiator anymore,” Bugatti design director Frank Heyl noted while showing us around a Tourbillon prototype at a production studio in Long Beach, California, a few months ago. “It’s about the emotions that it generates. Your heart has to tell your brain that it’s a good decision to buy this car.”
Enlarge/ The only screen you’ll find in here is hidden from view unless the driver requests it.
Bradley Iger
It’s a sentiment that speaks volumes about Bugatti’s approach to the Tourbillon development. This time around, the focus seems to be more about engaging the senses rather than delivering headline-grabbing stats. Still, figures like 0-186 mph (300 km/h) in less than 10 seconds and 277 mph (445 km/h) top speed make it abundantly clear that the Tourbillon will be a sensational performer.
That performance, which bests the Chiron by more than three seconds and 16 mph (26 km/h) in those metrics, respectively, is due in part to the Tourbillon’s more aerodynamic shape. During our briefing, Heyl said that designers turned to birds of prey for inspiration, influence that is particularly evident at the nose of the car, where the Tourbillon’s reduced frontal area significantly lowers aerodynamic drag. While the overall look doesn’t stray too far from the Chiron, the increased emphasis on aerodynamics—as further evidenced by elements like the massive rear diffuser and sinewy front clip—also gives the Tourbillon a more muscular, purposeful aesthetic.
Enlarge/ Ford Mustang Mach E electric vehicles are offered for sale at a dealership on June 5, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
CDK Global touts itself as an all-in-one software-as-a-service solution that is “trusted by nearly 15,000 dealer locations.” One connection, over an always-on VPN to CDK’s data centers, gives a dealership customer relationship management (CRM) software, financing, inventory, and more back-office tools.
That all-in-one nature explains why people trying to buy cars, and especially those trying to sell them, have had a rough couple of days. CDK’s services have been down, due to what the firm describes as a “cyber incident.” CDK shut down most of its systems Wednesday, June 19, then told dealerships that evening that it restored some services. CDK told dealers today, June 20, that it had “experienced an additional cyber incident late in the evening on June 19,” and shut down systems again.
“At this time, we do not have an estimated time frame for resolution and therefore our dealers’ systems will not be available at a minimum on Thursday, June 20th,” CDK told customers.
As of 2 pm Eastern on June 20, an automated message on CDK’s updates hotline said that, “At this time, we do not have an estimated time frame for resolution and therefore our dealers’ systems will not be available likely for several days.” The message added that support lines would remain down due to security precautions. Getting retail dealership services back up was “our highest priority,” the message said.
On Reddit, car dealership owners and workers have met the news with some combination of anger and “What’s wrong with paper and Excel?” Some dealerships report not being able to do more than oil changes or write down customer names and numbers, while others have sought to make do with documenting orders they plan to enter in once their systems come back online.
“We lost 4 deals at my store because of this,” wrote one user Thursday morning on r/askcarsales. “Our whole auto group uses CDK for just about everything and we are completely dead. 30+ stores in our auto group.”
“We were on our own server until a month ago because CDK forced us to go to the cloud so we could implement [Electronic Repair Orders, EROs],” wrote one worker on r/serviceadvisors. “Since the change, CDK freezes multiple times a day… But now being completely down for 2 days. CDK I want a divorce.”
CDK benefits from “a rise in consolidation”
CDK started as the car dealership arm of payroll-processing giant ADP after ADP acquired two inventory and sales systems companies in 1973. CDK was spun off from ADP in 2014. In mid-2022, it was acquired by venture capital firm Brookfield Business Partners and went private, following pressure from activist public investors to trim costs.
Brookfield said at the time that it expected CDK “to benefit from a rise in consolidation across the dealership industry,” an industry estimated to be worth $30 billion by 2026. Analysts generally consider CDK to be the dominant player in the dealership management market, with an additional 15,000 customers in the trucking industry.
CDK released a report on cybersecurity for dealerships in 2023. It noted that dealerships suffered an average of 3.4 weeks of downtime from ransomware attacks, or potentially an average payout of $740,144 (or even both). Insurer Zurich North America noted in a 2023 report that dealerships are a particularly rich target for attackers because “dealerships store large amounts of confidential, personal data, including financing and credit applications, customer financial information and home addresses.”
“In addition,” the report stated, “dealership systems are often interconnected to external interfaces and portals, such as external service providers.”
Ars contacted CDK for comment and will update this post if we receive a response. As of Thursday morning, the firm has not clarified if the “cyber incident” is due to ransomware or another kind of attack.
This post was updated at 2 pm to note a message indicating that CDK’s outage could last several days.
Clint and Rachel Wells had reasons to consider buying an electric vehicle when it came to replacing one of their cars. But they had even more reasons to stick with petrol.
The couple live in Normal, Illinois, which has enjoyed an economic boost from the electric vehicle assembly plant opened there by upstart electric-car maker Rivian. EVs are a step forward from “using dead dinosaurs” to power cars, Clint Wells says, and he wants to support that.
But the couple decided to “get what was affordable”—in their case, a petrol-engined Honda Accord costing $19,000 after trade-in.
An EV priced at $25,000 would have been tempting, but only five new electric models costing less than $40,000 have come on to the US market in 2024. The hometown champion’s focus on luxury vehicles—its cheapest model is currently the $69,000 R1T—made it a non-starter.
“It’s just not accessible to us at this point in our life,” Rachel Wells says.
The Wells are among the millions of Americans opting to continue buying combustion-engine cars over electric vehicles, despite President Joe Biden’s ambitious target of having EVs make up half of all new cars sold in the US by 2030. Last year, the proportion was 9.5 percent.
High sticker prices for cars on the forecourt, and high interest rates that are pushing up monthly lease payments, have combined with concerns over driving range and charging infrastructure to chill buyers’ enthusiasm—even among those who consider themselves green.
Financial Times
While EV technology is still improving and the popularity of electric cars is still increasing, sales growth has slowed. Many carmakers are rethinking manufacturing plans, cutting the numbers of EVs they had planned to produce for the US market in favor of combustion-engined and hybrid cars.
Electric vehicles have also found themselves at the intersection of two competing Biden administration priorities: tackling climate change and protecting American jobs.
Biden has pledged to lower US greenhouse gas emissions to 50-52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, with widespread EV adoption a significant part of that ambition.
But he wants to achieve it without recourse to imports from China, the world’s biggest producer of EVs and a dominant player in many of the raw materials that go into them. Washington has set out an industrial policy that hits Chinese manufacturers of cars, batteries and other components with punitive tariffs and restricts federal tax incentives for consumers buying their products.
The idea is to allow the US to develop its own supply chains, but analysts say such protectionism will result in higher EV prices for US consumers in the meantime. That could stall sales and result in the US remaining behind China and Europe in adoption of EVs, putting at risk not only the Biden administration’s targets but also the global uptake of EVs. The World Resources Institute says between 75 and 95 percent of new passenger vehicles sold by 2030 need to be electric if Paris agreement goals are to be met.
Enlarge/ Rivian electric vehicles on the assembly line at the carmaker’s plant in Normal, Illinois. Its focus on luxury vehicles means many families cannot afford its cars.
Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Getty Images
“There is no question that this slows down EV adoption in the US,” says Everett Eissenstat, a former senior US Trade Representative official who served both Republican and Democratic administrations.
“We are just not producing the EVs the consumers want at a price point they want.”
Incenting consumers
The administration is attempting to reconcile its industrial and climate policies by offering tax incentives to consumers to buy EVs and by encouraging manufacturers to develop US-dominated supply chains.
Tax credits of up to $7,500 are available to buyers of electric cars. But the full amount is only available on cars that are made in the US with critical minerals and battery components also largely sourced in the US.
That means few cars qualify for the maximum credit. Two years on from the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which set out Biden’s ambitious green transition strategy, there are only 12 models that can actually score buyers the full $7,500.
The act also offered hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and other incentives to companies building a domestic clean energy industry. The automotive sector has been one of the beneficiaries of that largesse.
Last month, the Biden administration went a step further, adding steep new tariffs on billions of dollars of goods imported from China. These included a quadrupling of the tariffs on imported electric vehicles, a tripling of the rate on Chinese lithium-ion batteries to 25 percent and the introduction of a 25 percent tariff on graphite, which is used to make batteries.
The levies were an extension of a package first imposed by then president Donald Trump as part of his trade war with Beijing in 2018, and have been under review by the Biden administration as it figures out how to respond to what it says are Beijing’s unfair subsidies to strategic industries.
Enlarge/ Joe Biden with union members last month as the president approved a rise in tariffs on Chinese-made goods, including a quadrupling of the levies imposed on imported EVs.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Few Chinese EVs are available for sale in the US. Polestar is the only Chinese-owned carmaker currently active in the country and it sold a mere 2,210 cars in the first quarter—out of nearly 269,000 new EV sales. (The company plans to add manufacturing in the US this year.)
Wendy Cutler, a former trade official and vice-president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, describes the pre-emptive levying of tariffs as a new development in global trade policy.
“This sends a clear signal to China: don’t even think about exporting your cars to the United States,” she says.
More significant than the tariffs on Chinese electric cars are the levies on lithium-ion batteries and the materials and components used to make them.
China is a key player in the supply chain for EV batteries, with companies such as BYD and CATL developing the country’s capacity over more than a decade. It dominates the processing of the minerals contained in lithium-ion batteries as well as the manufacture of battery components such as cathodes and anodes.
According to data analyzed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think-tank, US-based carmakers have been importing a growing share of their batteries from China. In the first quarter of 2024, more than 70 percent of imported car batteries came from the country.
The tariffs will drive up manufacturing costs for carmakers in the US and that cost is likely to be passed on to consumers because battery materials and components are not currently available in large quantities from any supply chain that excludes China.
US trade officials draw parallels with the solar industry. The cost of photovoltaic panels fell worldwide as Chinese manufacturers, benefiting from subsidies, lower labor costs and growing scale, came to dominate the industry.
That has been a boon for consumers, but resulted in production and jobs shifting from the US to China. Washington does not want a rerun of this process in the automotive sector.
“The idea that we should just open our gates and have a bunch of systematic Chinese economic abuses . . . and that that’s the answer to climate change is incredibly naive and short-sighted,” says Jennifer Harris, a former economic adviser to Biden.
In an election year, the issue is politically charged too. Michigan and Ohio, both home to large numbers of auto workers, are swing states in the presidential election. Both Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump are trying to appeal to working-class voters there.
Preserving jobs in the US auto industry as it moves towards green technology is largely about the supply chain. More than half the 995,000 people employed in the auto industry across the US are making parts, rather than assembling vehicles, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
EVs already threaten these jobs because their powertrains comprise fewer components than cars with traditional engines and transmission systems. The United Auto Workers union, arguing for a “just transition” to clean energy, fought during its six-week long strike last autumn to have battery plants in the US covered by the same contracts that protect workers at plants making petrol-powered vehicles, winning an agreement with General Motors.
Financial Times
Ilaria Mazzocco, chair in Chinese business and economics at CSIS, says the reduced competition and rising cost of imported battery components could delay price decreases for US consumers.
“It’s not just that the same car costs less in China, it’s that in China you have a wider variety,” says Mazzocco. “US automakers will have the leisure of not having competition, and they’ll be able to focus on making these high-cost trucks”—a reference to larger sedans and SUVs, which have bigger profit margins.
“That’s just what the Biden administration feels they need to do on the political front, because they need to prioritize jobs,” she adds.
Price and infrastructure
Electric vehicles face other barriers to mass adoption. Affordability, lack of charging infrastructure and range anxiety all remain concerns for mainstream US car buyers.
The price for a new EV averaged just less than $57,000 in May, compared with an average of a little more than $48,000 for a car or truck with a traditional engine.
The starting price for a Tesla Model Y, by far the most popular electric vehicle in the US, was just less than $43,000 during the first quarter. The Ford F-150 Lightning, the electrified version of the best-selling pick-up truck in the US, was teased at $42,000 when it went on sale in May 2022 but now starts at $55,000—more than $11,000 above the petrol-powered F-150.
Used EVs are cheaper, with a vehicle less than five years old costing about $34,000, according to Cox Automotive. But they remain more expensive than used cars with traditional engines, which average about $32,100—and they make up just 2 to 3 percent of used vehicle sales.
Enlarge/ esla Model Y vehicles at a dealership in Austin, Texas. Elon Musk has suggested that the carmaker would launch ‘more affordable’ models in the coming year or so.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Ford and Stellantis, which owns brands such as Dodge, Ram and Jeep, are promising $25,000 EVs for the US market in the next few years. General Motors plans to revive the Chevrolet Bolt as “the most affordable” EV on the market. Tesla chief Elon Musk also told investors in April that Tesla would launch “more affordable models” this year or early in 2025.
But these models will still face obstacles like a dearth of charging infrastructure. Overnight charging at home is the preferred method of replenishing an EV, but this is only really an option for those who can install a charger on their property. Those living in apartment complexes in states like California, where a greater share of people drive EVs, are more reliant on public charging facilities.
While there are about 120,000 petrol stations nationwide, according to the US Department of Energy, there are only 64,000 public charging stations in the US—and only 10,000 of them are direct current chargers, which can replenish a battery in 30 minutes rather than several hours. Charging stations also can be inoperative or have long lines when drivers arrive, forcing them to go elsewhere.
Potential buyers also worry their EV may not travel as far on a single charge as they require. While electric vehicles are well suited to the short trips that make up most driving, many Americans also use their cars and trucks for longer distances and worry that charging en route may add to their driving time, or even leave them stranded. Cold weather and towing a load can both diminish an EV’s range.
“What we’re seeing is the pace of EV growth is faster than the rate of publicly available charger growth,” says John Bozzella, chief executive of US auto trade group the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
Two strategies
Many global carmakers are making big investments in US manufacturing plants, in response to the government’s incentives. But in the light of slowing EV sales growth they are shifting that investment towards hybrid vehicles, which use battery power alongside a traditional engine.
Last month, executives from GM, Nissan, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Ford all said that tapping into demand for hybrids was a priority. Ford chief executive Jim Farley told investors at a conference “we should stop talking about [hybrids] as a transitional technology,” viewing it instead as a viable long-term option.
Hyundai said it was considering making hybrids at its new $7.6 billion plant in Georgia. US competitor GM said in January that it would reintroduce plug-in hybrid technology to its range, though chief executive Mary Barra recently affirmed she still saw EVs as the future.
Bozzella says that even with the tariff protection measures and US subsidies in place, he was unsure how long it would take for the US auto industry to produce EVs that could compete with heavily subsidized Chinese vehicles on pricing.
“There is no question that EVs built in the US now, and built by American companies now, are absolutely competitive with EVs around the world,” he says, citing Tesla.
“If what you mean is competitive at price points . . . well that’s a different matter entirely, and my answer to that is: I’m not sure.”
Van Jackson, previously an official in the Obama administration and now a senior lecturer in international relations at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, says electric cars still need to fall in price if the market is to grow substantially.
“How do you bring workers along and increase their wages, and have a growth market for these products, given how expensive they are?” he asks. “I’m an upper-middle-class person and I cannot afford an EV.”
He is skeptical about whether shutting the world’s dominant producer of EVs and related componentry out of the US market will reduce the price of the cars and encourage uptake.
“The tariffs are buying time,” he says. “But towards no particular end.”
Enlarge/ Car designer Henrik Fisker poses with a Fisker Ocean at the Salvation Army California South Division’s annual Sally Awards in June 2022.
Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
Fisker, the second EV firm started by legendary BMW and Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker, has filed for bankruptcy and intends to sell its assets and restructure its debt. The almost inevitable outcome comes months after it paused manufacturing amid cash flow shortages, safety probes, and devastating reviews of its only product, the Fisker Ocean SUV.
Fisker’s statement about the filing notes the firm’s production of the Ocean “twice as fast as expected in the auto industry” and delivering “the most sustainable vehicle in the world.” However, a Fisker spokesperson writes, “[L]ike other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic headwinds that have impacted our ability to operate efficiently.”
Rumors of Fisker’s bankruptcy have been circulating since March when the company suspended production of its Ocean for initially six weeks and then indefinitely. A month earlier, the company reported $273 million in 2023 sales but more than $1 billion in debt. Fisker’s stock was pulled from the New York Stock Exchange in late March. Amid what many saw as a generalized weakening of EV demand, Fisker was particularly vulnerable.
The Fisker Ocean, on display at Mobile World Congress in 2022.
YouTube tech reviewer and podcaster Marques Brownlee, who reviews cars on his Auto Focus channel, cut right to it: “This is the Worst Car I’ve Ever Reviewed.” Brownlee’s video pointed out disconcerting software issues, including an excessively slow response by the central display, irregular warning lights, and key fob issues. Fisker did itself no favors with its reaction to the video review, which involved trying to track down Brownlee’s borrowed Ocean and alternately chastising and cajoling the dealer who loaned it to him.
Brownlee posted on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday that “everyone’s commenting that I killed them, but truth is they were doomed long before any of my videos.”
The second Fisker auto bankruptcy
Fisker is technically the second EV company started by Henrik Fisker to stall out of the gate. Fisker Automotive made the Fisker Karma, a plug-in hybrid (or “range extender”) sports GT, that broke down on Consumer Report’s test track before it could be actually tested and had a fire-risk recall. Fisker Automotive spent $1.4 billion making roughly 2,500 cars before it filed for Chapter 11 in 2013. This latest version of Fisker reported 6,400 vehicle deliveries by mid-April.
Fisker is seeking to sell its assets, worth between $500 million to $1 billion, with liabilities between $100 million–$500 million, according to its filing. The company, formed through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), contracted Canadian firm Magna to manufacture its cars. Adobe and Google are among its largest creditors.
Fisker said in its filing that in limited operations, it would work at “preserving certain customer programs.” No specifics about parts, warranty, or software updates were included. Ars reached out to Fisker to inquire about these items and will update the post with a response.
Enlarge/ The introduction of model year 2025 brings a retractable hard-top option for the McLaren Artura, plus a host of other upgrades.
McLaren
MONACO—The idea of an “entry-level” supercar might sound like a contradiction in terms, but every car company’s range has to start somewhere, and in McLaren’s case, that’s the Artura. When Ars first tested this mid-engined plug-in hybrid in 2022, It was only available as a coupe. But for those who prefer things al fresco, the British automaker has now given you that option with the addition of the Artura Spider.
The Artura represented a step forward for McLaren. There’s a brand-new carbon fiber chassis tub, an advanced electronic architecture (with a handful of domain controllers that replace the dozens of individual ECUs you might find in some of its other models), and a highly capable hybrid powertrain that combines a twin-turbo V6 gasoline engine with an axial flux electric motor.
More power, faster shifts
For model year 2025 and the launch of the $273,800 Spider version, the engineering team at McLaren have given it a spruce-up, despite only being a couple of years old. Overall power output has increased by 19 hp (14 kW) thanks to new engine maps for the V6, which now has a bit more surge from 4,000 rpm all the way to the 8,500 rpm redline. Our test car was fitted with the new sports exhaust, which isn’t obnoxiously loud. It makes some interesting noises as you lift the throttle in the middle of the rev range, but like most turbo engines, it’s not particularly mellifluous.
The new engine map means the upper half of third gear will give you a real shove toward the horizon.
McLaren
The Artura Spider’s buttresses are made from a lightweight and clear polymer, so they do their job aerodynamically without completely obscuring your view over your shoulder.
McLaren
The Artura Spider is covered in vents and exhausts to channel air into and out of various parts of the car.
McLaren
You could have your Artura Spider painted in a more somber color. But Orange with carbon fiber looks pretty great to me.
If you look closely, you can see the transmission hiding behind the diffuser.
Jonathan Gitlin
Combined with the 94 hp (70 kW) electric motor, that gives the Artura Spider a healthy 680 hp (507 kW), which helps compensate for the added 134 lbs (62 kg) due to the car’s retractable hard top. There are stiffer engine mounts and new throttle maps, and the dual-clutch transmission shifts 25 percent faster than what we saw in the car that launched two years ago. (These upgrades are carried over to the Artura coupe as well, and the good news for existing owners is that the engine remapping can be applied to their cars, too, with a visit to a McLaren dealer.)
Despite the hybrid system—which uses a 7.4 kWh traction battery—and the roof mechanism, the Artura Spider remains a remarkably light car by 2024 standards, with a curb weight of 3,439 lbs (1,559 kg), which makes it lighter than any comparable car on the market.
In fact, picking a comparable car is a little tricky. Ferrari will sell you a convertible hybrid in the shape of the 296 GTS, but you’ll need another $100,000 or more to get behind the wheel of one of those, which in truth is more of a competitor for the (not-hybrid) 750S, McLaren’s middle model. Any other mid-engined drop-top will be propelled by dino juice alone.
What modes do you want today?
Enlarge/ It’s easy to drive around town and a lot of fun to drive on a twisty road.
McLaren
You can drive it using just the electric motor for up to 11 miles if you keep the powertrain in E-mode and start with a fully charged battery. In fact, when you start the car, it begins in this mode by default. Outside of E-mode, the Artura will use spare power from the engine to top up the battery as you drive, and it’s very easy to set a target state of charge if you want to save some battery power for later, for example. Plugged into a Level 2 charger, it should take about 2.5 hours to reach 80 percent.
The car is light enough that 94 hp is more than adequate for the 20 mph or 30 km/h zones you’re sure to encounter whether you’re driving this supercar through a rural village or past camera-wielding car-spotters in the city. Electric mode is serious, and the car won’t fire up the engine until you switch to Comfort (or Sport, or Track) with the control on the right side of the main instrument display.
On the left side is another control to switch the chassis settings between Comfort, Sport, and Track. For road driving, comfort never felt wrong-footed, and I really would leave track for the actual track. The same goes for the Track powertrain setting; for the open road, Sport is the best-sounding, and comfort is well-judged for everyday use and will kill the V6 when it’s not needed. Sport and Track instead use the electric motor—mounted inside the case of the eight-speed transmission—to fill in torque where needed, similar to an F1 or LMDh race car.
