First drive

2025 Audi S5 and A5 first drive: Five-door is the new four-door

Audi A5, Audi S5, car review, Cars, First drive / Mike M. / June 18, 2025

The S5 is eager and more engaging to drive than the A5. Jonathan Gitlin

Like the Q5 last week, the A5 and S5 use a new electronic architecture called E3 1.2. This is a clean-sheet approach to the various electronic subsystems in the car, replacing decades of legacy cruft and more than a hundred individual electronic control units with five powerful high-performance computers, each with responsibility for a different domain: ride and handling, infotainment, driver assists, and convenience functions, all overseen by a master computer.

On the road

Sadly, those looking for driver engagement will not find much in the A5. Despite the improvements to the front suspension, there’s still very little in the way of feedback, and in comfort mode, the steering was too light, at least for me. In Dynamic mode, on the other hand, the car felt extremely sure-footed in bad weather. The A5 makes do with conventional springs, so the ride doesn’t change between drive modes, but Audi has tuned it well, and the car is not too firm. I noted a fair amount of wind noise, despite the acoustic front glass that comes with the ($6,450) Prestige package.

The S5 will appeal much more to driving enthusiasts. The steering provides a better picture of what the front tires are doing, and the air suspension gives the car a supple ride, albeit one that gets firmer in Balanced rather than Dynamic modes. Like some other recent fast Audis, the car is deceptively quick, and because it’s quite quiet and smooth, you can find yourself going a good deal faster than you thought. The S5’s exhaust note also sounds rather pleasant and not obnoxious.

The A5 cabin has a similar layout as the Q5 and Q6 e-tron SUVs. Audi

The A5 starts at $49,700, but the $3,600 Premium Plus package is likely a must-have, as this adds adaptive cruise control, a heads-up display, top-down parking cameras, and some other features (including USB-C ports). If you want to get really fancy, the Prestige pack adds speakers in the front headrests, OLED taillights, the aforementioned acoustic glass, plus a second infotainment screen for the front passenger.

Meanwhile, the S5 starts at $62,700; the Premium Plus package (which adds mostly the same stuff) will set you back $3,800. For the S5, the $7,550 Prestige pack includes front sports seats, Nappa leather, rear window sunshades, the passenger display, and the adaptive sports suspension. Those are all some hefty numbers, but the A5 and S5 are actually both cheaper in real terms than the models launched in 2018, once you take seven years’ worth of inflation into account.

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Here’s Kia’s new small, affordable electric car: The 2026 EV4 sedan

car reviews, Cars, First drive, Kia EV4 / Beth Washington / June 16, 2025

The mesh headrests are a clever touch, as they’re both comfortable and lightweight. The controls built into the side of the passenger seat that let the driver change its position are a specialty of the automaker. There are also plenty of other conveniences, including wireless device charging, 100 W USB-C ports, and wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. We relied on the native navigation app, which is not as visually pretty as the one you cast from your phone to the 12.3-inch infotainment screen, but it kept me on course on unfamiliar roads in a foreign country while suffering from jet lag. That seems worthy of a mention.

Public transport

Traffic in and around Seoul makes a wonderful case for public transport; it provided less of an opportunity for the EV4 to show its stuff beyond relatively low-speed stop-and-go, mostly topping out at 50 mph (80 km/h) on the roads, which are heavily studded with traffic cameras. Determining a true impression of the car’s range will require spending more time with it on US roads, as a result.

It was, however, an easy car to drive in traffic and to drive slowly. It’s no speed demon anyway; 0–62 mph (100 km/h) takes 7.4 seconds if you floor it in the standard range car, or 7.7 seconds in the big battery one. The ride is good over broken tarmac, although it is quite firm when dealing with short-duration bumps. Meanwhile, the steering is light but not particularly informative when it comes to providing a picture of what the front tires are doing.

Good driving dynamics help sell a car once someone has had a test drive, but most will only get that far if the pricing is right. That’s yet to be announced, and who knows what will happen with tariffs and the clean vehicle tax credit between now and when the cars arrive in dealerships toward the end of the year. However, we expect the standard-range car to start between $37,000 and $39,000, undercutting the Tesla Model 3 in the process. That sounds rather compelling to me.

Here’s Kia’s new small, affordable electric car: The 2026 EV4 sedan Read More »

The new version of Audi’s best-selling Q5 SUV arrives in the US

Audi Q5, Audi SQ5, car review, Cars, First drive / Kelly Newman / June 11, 2025

The driving dynamics are improved, and there’s plenty of tech to play with.

This is the third-generation Audi Q5. Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

ASPEN, Colo.—There’s a lot riding on Audi’s next Q5. The model has been Audi’s bread and butter here since the model went on sale in the US in 2009, as tastes changed and sedans fell out of favor. The third-generation Q5 is built on an all-new platform and is one of a new generation of software-defined vehicles that’s meant to ditch a lot of legacy crud for a clean sheet approach. You would have known all of that from our look at the new Q5 in a studio last year, when Audi briefed us on its new platform. What you wouldn’t have known from that piece is how it drives, particularly on US roads. The answer is: surprisingly well.

PPC

Just a few years ago, the world’s big car brands were telling us that soon everyone would be driving electric cars, and that it would be wonderful. Things haven’t quite panned out the way people thought they might when prognosticating in 2018, though. Electric powertrains have yet to reach price parity, in many places infrastructure still lags, and so automakers are developing new combustion-powered vehicles, particularly for markets like the US, where adoption remains far behind Europe or China.

For Audi and the other premium brands within the Volkswagen Group empire, that’s a new platform called PPC, or Premium Platform Combustion. PPC will provide the bones for new vehicles in a range of sizes and shapes, the same way the MLB (and MLB Evo) platforms have done until now. In a week, you can read about the A5, for example, but as the sales figures show, SUVs are what people want, so the Q5 comes first.

And this is the third-generation Audi SQ5. Jonathan Gitlin

To begin with, the US will get just two choices of powertrain. The Q5, which starts at $52,200, is powered by a 2.0 L turbocharged, direct-injection four-cylinder engine, which generates 268 hp (200 kW) and 295 lb-ft (400 Nm), which is sent to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The SQ5 is the fancier, more powerful version. This starts at $64,800, and its 3.0 L turbocharged, direct-injection V6 provides 362 hp (270 kW) and 406 lb-ft (550 Nm), again to all four wheels via a seven-speed DCT.

At some point Audi will likely put a plug-in hybrid powertrain in the Q5, but there’s no guarantee it would come to the US, particularly if the US government remains hostile to both foreign trade and environmental protection. Audi sells a 48 V mild hybrid Q5—essentially a powerful starter motor—in Europe but currently has no plans to bring that version to the US. Happily for those looking for an entirely electric Audi midsize SUV, the Q6 e-tron is ready and waiting.

But you can get the Q5, and the SQ5, in a pair of different body styles. As before, Audi has a Sportback variant, which trades the upright rear hatch for a more sloping roofline. What the Sportback loses in rear headroom, it makes up for in style but should drive the exact same way. In Colorado, Audi only had the regular SUVs for us to test.

Software-defined vehicles

Although the Q5 and Q6 e-tron don’t share a common platform, they do share a common electronic architecture. Gone are the days of CANBUS and a hundred or more discrete black boxes and ECUs, each with a single function. Instead, it’s an entirely clean-sheet approach known as a software-defined vehicle, where a handful of powerful computers are each responsible for controlling a different domain, in this case vehicle dynamics, driver assists, infotainment, climate, and convenience, all tied together by Ethernet, with a backbone computer overseeing it all.

VW Group bit off a bit more than it could chew and tried simultaneously developing not one but two SDV architectures, before realizing no one wanted to work on the one the company actually needed sooner. That architecture is called E3 1.2, and with a bit of focus, VW Group’s software division has gotten it out the door.

I feel like Audi has taken a step back in terms of HMI for this latest generation of user interfaces. And why can’t I put a map display here? Audi

The practical upshot of SDVs, unlike older cars with their single-function black boxes, is that everything on an SDV should be updatable. The flip side is the potential for more bugs, although I can report that the Q5s and SQ5s we encountered in Colorado felt much more mature, software-wise, than the somewhat buggy preproduction cars using E3 1.2 that we drove in mid-2024.

As for VW’s future SDV architecture, it might well come from Rivian instead of its in-house division. Last summer, VW Group invested $5 billion in Rivian to gain access to the startup’s SDV technology.

As part of E3 1.2, the Q5 gets the latest version of Audi’s MMI infotainment, which now uses Android Automotive OS. There’s a more powerful voice assistant, triggered by “Hey, Audi,” that uses natural language processing that’s able to easily understand me, and which I think provides a good alternative to using a touchscreen while driving. I lament the lack of customizability, particularly in the main driver display and the fact that you can no longer display a map there, despite that being a feature Audi pioneered.

You can also add a second infotainment screen for the passenger, although only by ticking the box for the Prestige trim, which adds $8,400 to the price of a Q5, or $6,400 to the price of an SQ5. More on this later.

The driving experience: Q5

We began our day in the Q5, albeit one fitted with the optional air suspension and 20-inch wheels (18-inch wheels are standard, and 19-inch wheels are also available). Despite the altitude, there was more than sufficient power and torque to move the Q5’s 4,244 lb (1,925 kg) curb weight—forced induction providing the same benefit here as it did for piston-engined aircraft a century ago or more. At sea level, you could expect to reach 60 mph in 5.8 seconds, or 100 km/h in 6.2 seconds, according to Audi.

There’s plenty of storage places, and all the bits you touch feel pleasant under hand. Audi

There’s a new drive mode called Balanced, which fits between Comfort and Dynamic; on the road this mode is well-named as it indeed provides a good balance between ride comfort and responsiveness, with just enough but not too much weight to the steering. There’s also an individual mode that lets you pick and choose your own suspension, transmission, and steering settings, plus off-road and off-road plus modes, which we’ll encounter again later.

In fact, for a midsize crossover, the Q5 proved quite engaging from behind the wheel. It doesn’t lean too much when cornering, although if you plan to negotiate a sequence of twisty tarmac, the lower ride height in Dynamic mode, plus the firmer air springs, is definitely the way to go. When you’re not in a hurry or grinding along the highway, the ride is comfortable, and up front, there is little road noise thanks to some acoustic glass. I would like to try a car fitted with the conventional steel springs, however.

The cockpit layout is similar to the electric Q6 e-tron, with the same “digital stage” that includes a second infotainment screen for the passenger. But the materials here feel of a higher quality—my guess is that weight saving was much less of a concern for the gasoline-powered Q5 than the battery-carrying Q6. There is plenty of cargo room in the back, and perhaps a little more rear legroom than the photo would suggest—38 inches (965 mm), according to the spec sheet.

The driving experience: SQ5

The SQ5 can be specced with Nappa leather. Audi

The second half of our day was spent in the SQ5, most of it above 10,000 feet (3 km). Even in the thin air, the car was responsive, with the extra power and torque over the Q5 quite apparent. Audi was evidently confident in the SQ5, since our drive route included more than an hour on unpaved roads. None of the cars, all equipped with 21-inch wheels and lower-profile tires, had any trouble with punctures, and the off-road plus mode, which raises up the suspension, changes the throttle mapping, and disables the stability control, coped perfectly well over stretches of road that few luxury SUVs will ever face. I can report that as occupants, we weren’t even particularly jostled.

I liked the way the SQ5 sounded, particularly in Dynamic, and it’s engaging enough to drive that you’d take the long way home in it, despite being an SUV. However, it’s also deceptively quick, in part thanks to being quiet and refined inside. There’s a lack of intrusion from the outside environment that removes the noise and vibrations associated with speed, so you can look at the dash or heads-up display and see you’re 20 mph faster than you thought. That’s not great when mountain roads with no guard rails trigger your fear of heights, but the fact that I’m writing this means it ended OK.

They make you pay

I enjoyed driving both the Q5 and SQ5, but as is always the case on first drives for the media, we were presented with very well-equipped examples to test. For example, the great ride I experienced with the Q5 requires the $8,400 Prestige pack, which also adds the acoustic glass that made it so quiet inside. That’s also the only way to get heated rear seats and ventilated front seats, the clever OLED tail lights, or the second display for the passenger. (On the SQ5 the Prestige pack is only $6,400, since air suspension is standard on all SQ5s, and adds Nappa leather as well.)

A pair of Audi Q5s parked by some mountain scenery — With scenery like this, who needs to look at cars? Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

Some other features that I expected would be standard were instead behind the Premium Plus pack—$4,500 for the Q5 and $3,500 for the SQ5. I would expect the high-resolution, full-color heads-up display to be an extra, but you also have to tick this option if you want USB-C ports (2 x 60 W in the front, 2 x 100 W in the rear) in the car. And you probably do.

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.

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2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 first drive: Engineered for insane speed

car review, Cars, Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, First drive / Mike M. / May 30, 2025

Cooling for the ZR1 became an even higher priority, because the LT6 and LT7 employ extremely tight tolerances between the crankshaft and connecting rods, which mandates keeping the 5W-50 oil below 120° C (248° F) at all times. And the system simply works, as even on a hot and humid Texas day, I only noticed oil temperatures cresting above 104° C (220° F) occasionally.

The interior is better than any prior generation of Corvette, but it feels prosaic compared to the cockpits of its more exotic mid-engined rivals. Michael Teo Van Runkle

The hardtop convertible ZR1 lacks the split-engine venting and shoulder intakes, while cutting into headroom so much that I skipped out while wearing a helmet. Other journalists noticed a drop-off in performance for the convertibles, and probably more so than the mild weight gains of just about 100 lbs (45 kg) might suggest. Instead, temperatures probably came into play, as the ECU drew back timing and instead allowed mild overboost of 24–25 psi to compensate for the Texas day. Even so, an engineer admitted he thought the engine was probably down 5–10 percent on power.

The fact that I hit my highest-ever top speed despite the ZR1 potentially giving up somewhere between 53 to 106 hp (40–80 kW) only makes this Corvettes sound even more insane. But I essentially wound up driving the turbos, since the DCT’s gear ratios carry over from the Stingray and therefore drop out of peak power when shifting from second to third and third to fourth.

I suspect nothing short of an F1 racecar feels this fast on a circuit of this size. A track designed for corner exit speeds double my pace in the ZR1 helps explain why Chevrolet declined to set us loose on public roads behind the wheel.

A Corvette ZR1 parked by turn 1 at COTA. — We drove it on track—will owners cope with this much power on the street? Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

That’s a concern for potential buyers, though, and why the ZR1’s electronics undoubtedly ratchet back the insanity. Chevy still uses Bosch’s ninth-generation traction control, which debuted on C7 and operates on a 10-millisecond loop, even if the ABS runs at 5 milliseconds—while the ESC is at 20 milliseconds. I suspect this computerized nannying slowed me down a fair amount, in addition to the torque-by-gear restrictions in first and second that purposefully protect driveline components.

We’ve probably reached peak internal-combustion Corvette, which is something of a hint about the all-too-real question of where Chevy can go from here. If so, this car reaches a new level of unfathomable American ingenuity, combined with a newfound level of refinement and traction management that attempts to belie the undeniable absurdity to a minimal, arguably necessary, extent.

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2025 Hyundai Ioniq 9 first drive: Efficient, for a big one

car review, Cars, First drive, Hyundai Ioniq 9 / Mike M. / May 20, 2025

Only the $58,995 Ioniq 9 S is available with a rear-wheel drive powertrain. In this case, one with 215 hp (160 kW) and 258 lb-ft (350 Nm) and a range of 325 miles (539 km) from the 110.3 kWh (gross) battery pack. All other trims feature twin motor all-wheel drive, but you give up little in the way of range.

The $62,765 SE and $68,320 SEL offer a combined 303 hp (226 kW) and 446 lb-ft (605 Nm) and 320 miles (515 km) of range, and the $71,250 Performance Limited, $74,990 Performance Calligraphy, and $76,490 Performance Calligraphy Design use a more powerful front motor to generate a total of 442 hp (315 kW) and 516 lb-ft (700 Nm), and a range of 311 miles (500 km).

The Ioniq 9’s interior loses some of the charm of the concept. Hyundai

While a short first drive is not the best place to evaluate an EV’s range efficiency, driven day to day in Eco mode, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were able to easily exceed 3 miles/kWh (20.7 kWh/100 km). Other drive modes include Normal, which uses the front motor much more often and therefore is markedly quicker than Eco; Sport, which has quite a lot of initial throttle tip-in and will head-toss your passengers if you have any; Terrain, first seen on the Ioniq 5 XRT; and Snow.

The ride is quite firm on surface streets but less so at highway speeds over seams and expansion gaps. As you start to corner faster you can expect to encounter understeer, but since this is a three-row SUV weighing between 5,507-6,008 lbs (2,498-2,725 kg), one has to wonder what else was expected. At sensible speeds, it’s easy to see out of and place it on the road, and if you’re stuck in a tailback with a couple of grumpy children in the back, it’s a calming enough environment to keep you from being over-stressed.

Hyundai has wisely priced the Ioniq 9 between the related Kia EV9 (which also uses the E-GMP platform) and EVs from premium OEMs like the Volvo EX90, Mercedes EQS SUV, or the aforementioned Rivian.

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The 2025 VW Tiguan caters to US tastes at an affordable price

car review, Cars, First drive, Volkswagen Tiguan / 9u50fv / May 16, 2025

In the modern era, cars keep getting bigger and bigger between generations. Or at least, they’re certainly not getting smaller. That’s especially true in America, where bigger is always better and the vehicles in the current crop of “compact” crossovers are now nearly as large as full-size SUVs from a decade ago. Don’t ask about curb weights, either, as more powerful drivetrains, including widespread adoption of hybrid-electric components, add significant mass, as highlighted by the new BMW M5 “sport sedan.”

Within that fray, however, the new Volkswagen Tiguan stands apart. VW purposefully refined the third-gen Tiguan to cater better to American consumer needs, which meant dropping the third row to create more interior volume for the front and rear seats. The wheelbase still measures the same length at 109.9 inches (2,791 mm), but shorter overhangs mean the overall length actually shrinks by nearly two inches. Yet more efficient packaging on the inside also results in a marginal passenger volume increase of about two percent.

To help keep pricing attractive at below $30,000 to start, VW also decided to skip out on a hybrid variant, but the new EA888evo5 2.0 L turbocharged-four nonetheless delivers more power and improved fuel economy. And all of the above actually contributes to the Tiguan losing weight while evolving from the second to third generation, shaving about 160 lbs (72.5 kg), depending on trim.

There’s some ID.4 in here, but also a big helping of generic. Michael Teo Van Runkle

Generic outside, great inside

Volkswagen USA recently invited Ars to join a rainy test drive of the Tiguan’s SE and SEL R-Life trims in Bozeman, Montana. At first glance, the new exterior definitely hews more closely to current crossover trends, which the Tiguan arguably helped to inaugurate back in the late-2000s. There’s also a healthy dose of Volkswagen ID.4 design language throughout, especially at the nose. The interior truly steps up to a new level, though. I started out in an almost-base Tiguan SE, which means front-wheel drive and minimal options, not even onboard navigation.

Like most buyers, though, I connected my iPhone via Wireless CarPlay, which effectively makes onboard nav obsolete. And the SE’s 12.9-inch touchscreen atop the dash provides all the necessary tech, as premium materials throughout clearly prioritize touchpoints to enhance the impression of quality.

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2025 VW Golf GTI: Buttons are back on the menu, smiles never went away

car review, Cars, First drive, Volkswagen Golf GTI / Beth Washington / April 24, 2025

What’s new?

The improvements for model year 2025 amount to new bumpers—shades of Mk2, anybody?—and an illuminated VW badge that would have made you the coolest Beastie Boy in 1986. There are also adaptive front fog lights that turn with the wheels, and VW’s improved 12.9-inch infotainment system has replaced the old 10.25-inch unit. The wireless charging pad for mobile devices is now capable of 15 W, and the much-disliked capacitive multifunction steering wheel has been replaced by a wheel with plastic buttons. Hooray!

The base GTI starts at $32,445, but you’ll want to at least splash out for the $37,420 SE if only for the fantastic ArtVelours seats that previously were only found in the Europe-only Clubsport. The best wheels are found on the $40,880 Autobahn—19-inch telephone dials that evoke the Mk5. The Autobahn also benefits from adaptive dampers, a heads-up display, a parking assistant, leather seats (with 12-way power adjustment for the driver), ventilated front seats, and three-zone climate control.

Golf interiors have always been spartan. Volkswagen

A word of warning about the infotainment. The Wi-Fi stopped working on our test car, which prevented CarPlay from operating. While there is a pair of USB-C ports up front, CarPlay over USB does not appear to be an option. VW PR was not particularly surprised to hear of this malfunction; we had been issued navigation road books for the drive to Summit Point in West Virginia for just this eventuality, but no other journalists reported problems, so it seems to be a random if annoying bug that may well afflict any VW with this 12.9-inch system, at least until VW patches it.

Automakers are making a lot of heavy crossovers and SUVs now, so I mostly have to drive heavy crossovers and SUVs these days. Consequently, any time in something that doesn’t sit a foot off the ground is a refreshing change. Even more refreshing is the 3,188 lb (1,446 kg) curb weight. Sure, a few hundred pounds of the metastasizing weight of modern cars comes with better crash protection, and mod-cons like ventilated seats add a bit of mass, but the Golf has all that stuff and still tips the scales at less than a ton and a half. More of this, please.

2025 VW Golf GTI: Buttons are back on the menu, smiles never went away Read More »

2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS first drive: A big ride and handling upgrade

car review, Cars, Chevrolet Blazer EV SS, First drive / DJ Henderson / April 22, 2025

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Before letting us loose on the freshly laid tarmac of Ten Tenths Motor Club, Chevrolet was at pains to tell us that the new Blazer SS “is not a track car.” Sure, there’s a “competitive mode” to the suite of electronic settings and the fastest 0–60 mph time of any SS-badged Chevy to date. The upgrades have been focused on making the Blazer EV “stop, go, and turn” better, and you don’t need to be driving hard to appreciate the benefits.

The Blazer EV had a rocky start. When we first drove it at the end of 2023, it felt a little unfinished, and a few days later unreliable software stranded another journalist and led to a nationwide stop-sale on the then-new EV. By last March, the software was fixed and the Blazer EV was back on sale, now cheaper than before.

Watts new?

While other Blazer EVs are available with front- or rear-wheel powertrains or with a smaller battery pack, the SS only comes with all-wheel drive and the larger 102 kWh battery pack. Nominal power output is 515 hp (384 kW) and 450 lb-ft (610 Nm), which jumps to 615 hp (458 kW) and 650 lb-ft (880 Nm) if you engage the “Wide Open Watts” mode.

The styling changes for the SS trim are subtle. Jonathan Gitlin

The battery chemistry is the same as lesser Blazers, but the SS makes good use of new silicon carbide inverters in the rear drive unit that minimize energy losses and segmented magnets in the motors that reduce heat buildup. There are bigger brakes, better tires, and the suspension benefits from stiffer anti-roll bars and springs, a faster steering ratio, and new monotube dampers that (together with the springs) do a far better job of controlling the Blazer’s ride than the bits fitted to the Blazer EV RS I last drove.

Oftentimes, the performance variant of an EV suffers from reduced range as a consequence of the added power and bigger wheels. But the Blazer EV SS still manages an EPA range estimate of 303 miles (488 km), significantly better than the less powerful AWD option (which uses the smaller 85 kWh battery pack). DC fast-charging maxes out at 190 kW—I’d love to give you a 10–80 percent fast-charge time, but Chevy only quotes “78 miles in 10 minutes” when it comes to charging stats.

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2025 Audi RS e-tron GT: More range, more power, still drives like an Audi

Audi RS e-tron GT, car review, Cars, First drive / Mike M. / April 2, 2025

New motors, new battery

The front electric motor has revised electronics and a new pulse inverter, and the rear motor is a new version with a higher density of copper windings and an overall weight reduction of 22 lbs (10 kg). They’ve upped the amount of regenerative braking on offer, too—you can now harvest up to 400 kW under braking at up to 0.45 G before the friction brakes take over (the old car was up to 290 kW and 0.38 G). Audi also upped the maximum amount of regen braking that occurs when you lift off the throttle, which can now be 0.13 G (up from 0.06 G), which you toggle on or off using the paddles behind the steering wheel.

Being able to recover more energy under braking obviously helps efficiency, but there’s also new battery chemistry with a different ratio of nickel:manganese:cobalt from before, plus a lot of work on the 800 V battery pack’s cooling system. That also means it can DC fast-charge at up to 320 kW now, which drops the 10–80 percent charge time to just 18 minutes, making the e-tron GT competitive with the very fast-charging EVs from Kia, Hyundai, and Genesis. The optimum pack temperature for fast charging has been reduced from 95° C to 59° C, and the pack even weighs 25 lbs (11 kg) less than before.

The e-tron GT has AC charge ports on both sides, but only DC charging on one side. Audi

For an extra $11,000, you can equip the RS e-tron GT with active suspension (together with better performance tires and ceramic brakes in the Dynamic plus package). If you choose comfort mode, the active suspension will lean into turns, lift the nose under braking, and drop the nose under acceleration, combating the weight transfer that happens under cornering, acceleration, and braking. With this setting active, and when driven at regular speeds, the effect is a subtle but indeed very comfortable ride as a passenger.

I’m going HOW fast??

As you settle into the seat of the RS e-tron GT, you notice there’s a new multifunction steering wheel, with a pair of bright red buttons—one to activate the 10-second boost mode, the other to toggle between the two customizable “RS” drive modes and performance mode (to switch between comfort, dynamic, and efficiency, you use a button on the center stack). There’s also new Nappa leather for the seats, and the option of forged carbon fiber trim as opposed to the woven stuff. Oddly, the forged carbon is an $8,400 add-on, despite being cheaper and easier to make than traditional woven carbon fiber. There’s also the option of an all-carbon fiber roof, or a glass roof with or without electrochromic dimming sections.

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The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ first drive: 460 miles on a single charge

Cadillac Escalade IQ, car review, Cars, First drive / Mike M. / March 17, 2025

SAN FRANCISCO—Newsflash: the new electric Cadillac Escalade IQ weighs over 9,000 lbs, or a fair amount more than 4,000 kilograms. For context, that figure works out to almost exactly half again as much as the 682 hp (509 kW) Escalade V that comes equipped with a barking-mad 6.2 L supercharged V8. Yet the latest and supposedly greatest from Cadillac needed to weigh so very much to achieve a class-leading range target of 460 miles (740 km), thanks to a 205 kWh battery pack.

The Escalade IQ shares a modular General Motors (formerly Ultium) chassis and battery pack with the gargantuan Hummer EV, and even more hardware with the Silverado and Sierra pickup truck siblings. As opposed to trying to attract rugged work truck and off-roading cred, though, for Cadillac that kind of range figure seemed necessary to appeal to a “no compromise” lifestyle that Escalade buyers might well expect while considering a switch to fully electric power.

And the new IQ certainly puts down plenty of instantaneously available grunt, and despite its mass can punch out a 0–60 time under five seconds with the Velocity Max button pushed, thanks to dual motors rated at 750 hp (560 kW) and 786 lb-ft (1,065 Nm).

Three rows of seats will comfortably seat seven adults, and a forthcoming EQL variant stretches just over 4 inches longer with a higher roofline to create even more space in the third row. The rest of the interior, meanwhile, packs in all the tech possible: almost six feet of screens atop the dash, up to 42 speakers’ worth of surround sound, optional Executive second-row seats with massaging function, hands-free Super Cruise partially automated driving, and the list goes on.

We know by now that electrification fits well into the super-luxe ethos, because silent and smooth propulsion works better for shorter lifestyle drives. And yet, the sheer mass required to achieve those range and power figures—despite improved aero versus the ICE Escalade—unfortunately means that the laws of physics make no compromises, either.

Specifically, the Escalade IQ rides on the same battery cradle, same suspension components, same 24-inch wheel size, and same Michelin Primacy LTX tires as the Silverado EV RST First Edition—a behemoth of a pickup truck that many journalists panned due to the baffling decision by General Motors to spec the largest wheels ever sold on a production vehicle. Even slightly smaller 22-inch wheels, as I can attest after driving a Silverado EV LT, help to reduce the crashy and clunky reverberations that ruined any semblance of passenger serenity.

The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ first drive: 460 miles on a single charge Read More »

Weight saving and aero optimization feature in the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3

car review, Cars, Features, First drive, Porsche 911 GT3 / Beth Washington / January 29, 2025

Among the changes are better aero, shorter gearing, and the return of the Touring.

The Porsche 911 GT3 is to other 911s as other 911s are to regular cars. Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

VALENCIA, SPAIN—A Porsche 911 is rather special compared to most “normal” cars. The rear-engined sports car might be bigger and less likely to swap ends than the 1960s version, but it remains one of the more nimble and engaging four-wheeled vehicles you can buy. The 911 comes in a multitude of variants, but among driving enthusiasts, few are better regarded than the GT3. And Porsche has just treated the current 911 GT3 to its midlife refresh, which it will build in regular and Touring flavors.

The GT3 is a 911 you can drive to the track, spend the day lapping, and drive home again. It’s come a long way since the 1999 original—that car made less power than a base 911 does now. Now, the recipe is a bit more involved, with a naturally aspirated flat-six engine mounted behind the rear axle that generates 502 hp (375 kW) and 331 lb-ft (450 Nm) and a redline that doesn’t interrupt play until 9,000 rpm. You’ll need to exercise it to reach those outputs—peak power arrives at 8,500, although peak torque happens a bit sooner at around 6,000 revs.

It’s a mighty engine indeed, derived from the racing version of the 911, with some tweaks for road legality. So there are things like individual throttle valves, dry sump lubrication, solid cam finger followers (instead of hydraulic valve lifters), titanium con rods, and forged pistons.

I’ve always liked GT3s in white.

For this car, Porsche has also worked on reducing its emissions, fitting four catalytic converters to the exhaust, plus a pair of particulate filters, which together help cut NOx emissions on the US test cycle by 44 percent. This adds 3 lbs (1.4 kg) of mass and increases exhaust back pressure by 17 percent. But there are also new cylinder heads and reprofiled camshafts (from the even more focused, even more expensive GT3 RS), which increase drivability and power delivery in the upper rev range by keeping the valves open for longer.

Those tweaks might not be immediately noticeable when you look at last year’s GT3, but the shorter gearing definitely will be. The final drive ratios for both the standard seven-speed PDK dual-clutch gearbox and the six-speed manual have been reduced by 8 percent. This lowers the top speed a little—a mostly academic thing anyway outside of the German Autobahn and some very long runways—but it increases the pulling force on the rear wheels in each gear across the entire rev range. In practical terms, it means you can take a corner in a gear higher than you would in the old car.

There have been suspension tweaks, too. The GT3 moved to double front wishbone suspension (replacing the regular car’s MacPherson struts) in 2021, but now the front pivot point has been lowered to reduce the car diving under braking, and the trailing arms have a new teardrop profile that improves brake cooling and reduces drag a little. Porsche has altered the bump stops, giving the suspension an inch (24 mm) more travel at the front axle and slightly more (27 mm) at the rear axle, which in turn means more body control on bumpy roads.

A white Porsche 911 GT3 seen in profile

Credit: Porsche

New software governs the power steering. Because factors like manufacturing tolerances, wear, and even temperature can alter how steering components interact with each other, the software automatically tailors friction compensation to axle friction. Consequently, the steering is more precise and more linear in its behavior, particularly in the dead-ahead position.

The GT3 also has new front and rear fascias, again derived from the racing GT3. There are more cooling inlets, vents, and ducts, plus a new front diffuser that reduces lift at the front axle at speed. Porsche has tuned the GT3’s aerodynamics to be constant across the speed range, and like the old model, it generates around 309 lbs (140 kg) of downforce at 125 mph (200 km/h). Under the car, there are diffusers on the rear lower wishbones, and Porsche has improved brake and driveshaft cooling.

Finally, Porsche has made some changes to the interior. For instance, the GT3 now gains the same digital display seen on other facelifted 911s (the 992.2 generation if you’re a Porsche nerd), similar to the one you’d find in a Taycan, Macan, or Panamera.

Some people may mourn the loss of the big physical tachometer, but I’m not one of them. The car has a trio of UI settings: a traditional five-dial display, a more reduced three-dial display, and a track mode with just the big central tach, which you can reorient so the red line is at 12 o’clock, as was the case with many an old Porsche racing car, rather than its normal position down around 5 o’clock. And instead of a push button to start the car, there’s a twister—if a driver spins on track, it’s more intuitive to restart the car by twisting the control the way you would a key.

You can see the starter switch on the left of the steering wheel. Porsche

Finally, there are new carbon fiber seats, which now have folding backrests for better access to the rear. (However, unless I’m mistaken, you can’t adjust the angle of the backrest.) In a very clever and welcome touch, the headrest padding is removable so that your head isn’t forced forward when wearing a helmet on track. Such is the attention to detail here. (Customers can also spec the car with Porsche’s 18-way sports seats instead.)

Regular, Touring, Lightweight, Wiessach

In fact, the new GT3 is available in two different versions. There’s the standard car, with its massive rear wing (complete with gooseneck mounts), which is the one you’d pick if your diet included plenty of track days. For those who want a 911 that revs to 9 but don’t plan on spending every weekend chasing lap times, Porsche has reintroduced the GT3 Touring. This version ditches the rear wing for the regular 911 rear deck, the six-speed manual is standard (with PDK as an option), and you can even specify rear seats—traditionally, the GT3 has eliminated those items in favor of weight saving.

Of course, it’s possible to cut even more weight from the GT3 with the Weissach Pack for the winged car or a lightweight package for the Touring. These options involve lots of carbon fiber bits for the interior and the rear axle, a carbon fiber roof for the Touring, and even the option of a carbon fiber roll cage for the GT3. The lightweight package for the touring also includes an extra-short gear lever with a shorter throw.

The track mode display might be too minimalist for road driving—I tend to like being able to see my directions as well as the rpm and speed—but it’s perfect for track work. Note the redline at 12 o’clock. Porsche

Although Porsche had to add some weight to the 992.2 compared to the 992.1 thanks to thicker front brake discs and more door-side impact protection, the standard car still weighs just 3,172 lbs (1,439 kg), which you can reduce to 3,131 lbs (1,420 kg) if you fit all the lightweight goodies, including the ultra-lightweight magnesium wheels.

Behind the wheel

I began my day with a road drive in the GT3 Touring—a PDK model. Porsche wasn’t kidding about the steering. I hesitate to call it telepathic, as that’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s extremely direct, particularly the initial turn-in. There’s also plenty of welcome feedback from the front tires. In an age when far too many cars have essentially numb steering, the GT3 is something of a revelation. And it’s proof that electronic power steering can be designed and tuned to deliver a rewarding experience.

The cockpit ergonomics are spot-on, with plenty of physical controls rather than relegating everything to a touchscreen. If you’re short like me and you buy a GT3, you’ll want to have the buckets set for your driving position—while the seat adjusts for height, as you raise it up, it also pitches forward a little, making the seat back more vertical than I’d like. (The seats slide fore and aft, so they’re not quite fixed buckets as they would be in a racing car.)

The anti-dive effect of that front suspension is quite noticeable under braking, and in either Normal or Sport mode, the damper settings are well-calibrated for bumpy back roads. It’s a supple ride, if not quite a magic carpet. On the highway, the Touring cruises well, although the engine can start to sound a little droning at a constant rpm. But the highway is not what the GT3 is optimized for.

On a dusty or wet road, you need to be alert if you’re going to use a lot of throttle at low speed. Jonathan Gitlin

On windy mountain roads, again in Normal or Sport, the car comes alive. Second and third gears are perfect for these conditions, allowing you to keep the car within its power band. And boy, does it sound good as it howls between 7,000 and 9,000 rpm. Porsche’s naturally aspirated flat-sixes have a hard edge to them—the 911 RSR was always the loudest race car in the pack—and the GT3 is no exception. Even with the sports exhaust in fruity mode, there’s little of the pops, bangs, and crackles you might hear in other sports cars, but the drama comes from the 9000 rpm redline.

Porsche asked us to keep traction control and ESC enabled during our drive—there are one-touch buttons to disable them—and given the muddy and dusty state of the roads, this was a wise idea. (The region was beset by severe flooding recently, and there was plenty of evidence of that on the route.) Even with TC on, the rear wheels would break traction if you were injudicious with the throttle, and presumably that would be the same in the wet. But it’s very easy to catch, even if you are only of moderate driving ability, like your humble correspondent.

After lunch, it was time to try the winged car, this time on the confines of the Ricardo Torno circuit just outside the city. On track, the handling was very neutral around most of the corners, with some understeer through the very slow turn 2. While a low curb weight and more than 500 hp made for a very fast accelerating car, the braking performance was probably even more impressive, allowing you to stand on the pedal and shed speed with no fade and little disturbance to the body control. Again, I am no driving god, but the GT3 was immensely flattering on track, and unlike much older 911s, it won’t try to swap ends on you when trail-braking or the like.

The landing was not nearly as jarring as you might think. Porsche

After some time behind the wheel, I was treated to some passenger laps by one of my favorite racing drivers, the inimitable Jörg Bergmeister. Unlike us journalists, he was not required to stay off the high curbs, and he demonstrated how well the car settles after launching its right-side wheels into the air over one of them. It settles down very quickly! He also demonstrated that the GT3 can be plenty oversteer-y on the exit of corners if you know what you’re doing, aided by the rear-wheel steering. It’s a testament to his driving that I emerged from two passenger laps far sweatier than I was after lapping the track myself.

The GT3 and GT3 Touring should be available from this summer in the US, with a starting price of $222,500. Were I looking for a 911 for road driving, I think I might be more tempted by the much cheaper 911 Carrera T, which is also pared to the bone weight-wise but uses the standard 380 hp (283 kW) turbocharged engine (which is still more power than the original GT3 of 1999). That car delivers plenty of fun at lower speeds, so it’s probably more useable on back roads.

A green Porsche 911 GT3 seen at sunset — Credit: Porsche

But if you want a 911 for track work, this new GT3 is simply perfect.

Weight saving and aero optimization feature in the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3 Read More »

Jeep’s first battery EV is not what we expected: the 2024 Wagoneer S

car review, Cars, First drive, Jeep Wagoneer S / Mike M. / January 26, 2025

Drag optimization means it’s very quiet inside, but it’s also quite expensive.

The Wagoneer S is more like an electric Cherokee than a Wrangler EV. Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

This year marks the return of the Jeep Wagoneer, which formerly served as a more luxurious version of the Cherokee, but now hits the market as Jeep’s first full EV. The challenge? How to merge the modern electric lifestyle with the outdoorsy, rugged ethos that defines Jeep as a brand, alongside the more recent addition of the internal-combustion Grand Wagoneer SUV’s enormous luxury.

First of all, the new Wagoneer S wound up much smaller in person than I expected. The overall profile falls more in line with the shape of mid-size electric crossovers including the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Chevrolet Equinox, and of course, Tesla’s Model Y. But the interior volume belies that relatively compact exterior, with plenty of space for me at 6’1″ (185 cm) to sit comfortably in both the front and rear seats. Total cargo volumes of 30.6 cubic feet (866 L) with the second row up and 61 cubic feet (1,727 L) with the second row folded flat end up mattering less than the large floor footprint, because the height used to calculate those measurements drops with the low sloping roofline and rear window.

Much of the interior space can be attributed to packaging of the Wagoneer EV’s battery. Rather than going for all-out kilowatt-hours in a dedicated skateboard layout, Jeep instead used the Stellantis group’s STLA Large platform, in this case stuffed with a 100.5-kWh lithium ion pack built on 400 V architecture. That’s enough for an EPA-estimated 303 miles of range (487 km), a solid figure but not a seriously impressive efficiency stat. In comparison, the world-beating Lucid Air Pure RWD manages about 40 percent more range per kilowatt-hour and a Polestar 3 AWD does about 18 percent worse. Claimed DC fast charge times of 23 minutes for a 20-80 percent top up, or 100 miles (160 km) in 10 minutes similarly get the job done without standing out from the pack.

That modular STLA Large chassis can house either a full internal-combustion engine, a hybrid powertrain, or fully electric components. The Wagoneer S uses two matching 335 hp (250 kW) motors, front and rear, for a combined 600 hp (447 kW) and 618 lb-ft of torque (838 Nm). In typical EV fashion, the latter comes on quick and makes this undoubtedly the fastest accelerating Jeep ever, as I learned while battling horrendous headwinds in fire-ravaged Southern California (which served as something of a nonstop reminder of the importance of taking baby steps, a la Jeep’s first EV, toward a more sustainable transportation future).

Pushing deep into the “throttle” pedal, the Wagoneer S will happily chirp all four tires in Sport mode. And the jerk thrusting my torso and skull back into the plush seat suggests that Jeep’s claimed 0-60 mph time of 3.4 seconds might just be accurate, potentially thanks to being able to do a true launch by stepping on the brake and gas pedals simultaneously—possible because Jeep chose to retain more standard mechanical brakes rather than a brake-by-wire system as on the EV6/Ioniq siblings and Model Y.

The suspension tuning definitely trends toward the typical tautness of today’s crossover segment, where aspirational sporty dynamics can sometimes create harsh and uncomfortable ride quality. But I still might have ventured to call the Wagoneer S somewhat softer than most of the competition, until the roughest of roads revealed the 5,667 lb (2,570 kg) curb weight. For an EV, that figure falls roughly in the middle of the pack, but this crossover weighs about as much as a full-size internal-combustion three-row SUV.

Still, even at highway speeds (in gale-force winds) or on those roughest of roads, the Wagoneer S remains shockingly quiet. And not just to enhance the experience of the Wagoneer S Launch Edition’s 1,200 W Macintosh sound system. Instead, Jeep exterior designer Vince Galante walked me through the design process, which kicked off with a targeted 0.30 coefficient of drag despite the need to stick with a squared-off, upright SUV posture typical of Jeeps throughout history.

“On the exterior design portion, the aerodynamic drag is our biggest contributor,” Galante told me. “It kind of comes up off the hood, up the A pillar, and tapers down towards the back, and finishes in a square, yet tapered pillar reminiscent of the original Wagoneer. But through the middle of the car, it’s basically ideal for what the wind wants to do.”

From the front or side perspective, this Wagoneer looks almost as boxy as a 1980s Jeep. But a rear viewing angle reveals the massive rear wing creating that illusion, which sits well off the sloping line of the rear roof and glass.

“Anytime we do a floating element, we think ‘Yeah, there’s no way engineering’s gonna let us get away with this,'” Galante laughed. “We work really collaboratively with the engineers, and they were like, ‘Let’s test it. Let’s see what it does.’ And they came back and said, ‘You know, yeah, this has potential. But you guys gotta make it sit off the surface three times more dramatically.'”

Galante estimates the original wing design rose up two inches, while the final production version is more like nine inches off the rear window. He also pointed out a host of other less obvious details, from body panels that step in by fractions of millimeters to differently rounded radii of wheel arch edges, and especially the confluence where the A pillar connects to the body.

“The windshield, the A pillar, the side glass, the mirror, the post that holds the mirror, the fender, everything comes together there,” he said. “I think every vehicle I’ve ever worked on, that was the last thing to finalize in the wind tunnel… I mean, we’re talking tenths of millimeters for some of the iterations that we’re doing in those areas. Especially the front edge of the A pillar, I can recall trying twenty, thirty, forty different radii on there to get that just right.”

All the aero considerations attempt to coax air to stick to surfaces, then break off suddenly and evenly. The rear wing therefore pushes air down toward the rear window, while creating as little turbulence as possible. The final range figure critically—and barely—cracking 300 miles justified so much refinement in Jeep’s new rolling road wind tunnel, thanks to a final Cd of 0.294. Maybe juggling production cost savings of the STLA Large platform dictated such extensive aerodynamic efforts more than a dedicated skateboard battery layout might have, but the resulting quietude that combating those inefficiencies produced does truly border on a luxury experience, even if we’re not quite at Audi (nor Lucid) levels of silence.

On the interior, Jeep also tried to lean into the Wagoneer S’s sustainability, using quality materials with textural designs and as little piano-black plastic as possible. The fabrics, plastics, and aluminum trim come almost entirely from recycled sources—62 percent for suede and 100 percent for fabric and carpeting, in fact—and you’ll see zero chrome anywhere on the car, since chroming is apparently one of the most environmentally deleterious processes in all of automaking.

But the Wagoneer S similarly leans into a tech-heavy user experience, with almost 55 inches of screen visible from the front seats: the gauge cluster, center infotainment, climate controls, passenger dash screen, and digital rearview mirror all contribute to that total. Climate control, especially, seems critical—and an often overlooked element for many EV manufacturers. Rather than a full panoramic glass roof, as on the Lucids and Polestars of the world, this Jeep gets a long sunroof with a retracting insulated cover to keep out heat. The excellent ventilated front and rear seats (and massaging, for the fronts!) also more efficiently cool down passengers.

For my taste, the digitalization of driving went a little too far. I never enjoy a rotating shift knob but this one clicks into gear with a positive heft. I also noticed some pixelation and latency in the gauge cluster’s navigation maps, as if the refresh rate was too slow for the speed I was driving. Not that I started ripping up the road too much in this luxury crossover, or at least, not more often than scientific experimentation demanded (and a similar problem also affected the Dodge Charger EV we drove recently).

Sport mode brought out some of my inner grinning child, but I actually preferred the Wagoneer S in Eco mode. So much power split to the front and rear wheels can create some torque steer, and throttle response that borders on touchy. The electrically assisted steering also prioritizes a heavy on-center zone, then snaps to light inputs with the slightest turn of the wheel, which made holding a steady line slightly distracting.

Instead, Eco dulls down the throttle response and the steering becomes a bit less reactive. The Wagoneer S will then also more regularly disconnect the front wheels for improved efficiency—though at the hubs, rather than the axles, so some reciprocating mass still saps precious electrons.

It would be more efficient to disconnect the rears, but this decision also centers around maintaining some semblance of Jeep-ness. Even if the Wagoneer S aligns most nearly with recent Cherokee and Grand Cherokee models, rather than the off-roady Wrangler and Gladiator or the super-luxe Grand Wagoneer. The forthcoming Trailhawk version promises to double down on the 4×4 capability, with a locking rear differential, better tires, and hopefully better suspension than I experienced on a quick sojourn off the asphalt onto a slightly rutted gravel road east of San Diego.

More importantly, cheaper trims will arrive later in 2025, also, since the Launch Edition’s tall ask of $71,995 almost doubles the starting sticker of a Equinox EV, seriously eclipses either a Model Y, EV6, or Ioniq 5, and also somehow costs more than a Polestar 3 or even a Lucid Air. Jeep so far wants to keep pricing for those lower-spec Wagoneer EVs under wraps, though, even if the heart of the run will undoubtedly help the first electric Jeep more effectively escape from unfortunate comparisons to such stiff competition.

Jeep’s first battery EV is not what we expected: the 2024 Wagoneer S Read More »