The Rimac name briefly pricked the pop culture zeitgeist in 2017 when former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond threw the earlier Concept One electric hypercar (this one had only 1,224 hp) off the road while filming an episode of The Grand Tour. For the most part, though, it has flown under the radar, known only

The team put together a fascinating story entitled “Ditch Your Car” a couple months ago. In it, we profiled an L.A.-area businessman who traded car ownership for full-time ride-hailing via Uber and Lyft. We’re big fans of cars and car ownership here at MotorTrend, and we know that our readers are, too, so I was

Some Googling will turn up lots of academic studies of pulsed charging, but GBatteries’ secret is in the adaptive nature of the pulsing frequency, which constantly pulses parameters like amplitude, width, and periodicity, interspersing discharge cycles as necessary. Artificial intelligence programmed into the controller monitors the battery’s dynamic impedance, or resistance to current flow, tailoring

I distinctly remember the first time I saw Chris Forsberg. It was inside the October 2003 issue of Wired magazine. I know because I wrote a sidebar to the story “Go, Skid Racer, Go!” that profiled him and his buddy Tony Angelo, two kids from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with a penchant for the underground Japanese

America’s current infatuation with SUVs was either a perfect storm of circumstance or a return to a familiar form. To some, it was a savvy marketing construct to embrace our disused frontier spirit, play off our post-9/11 survivalist crisis, and excuse our migration from unhip minivans and dowdy sedans into something cooler to haul our

When I picked up the Forester, my intention was simply to replace my last vehicle, an Outback. But a test drive changed my mind, largely because of how much more of the road I could see in the Forester. I was more able to see past the vehicle immediately in front of me. But therein

“Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” It’s a marketing line as old as the automobile. When Henry Ford raced—and famously beat—rival automaker Alexander Winton on the Detroit Driving Club’s 1-mile oval at Grosse Pointe in 1901, it wasn’t to prove who was the better driver, but whose was the better car. Racing made the reputations

We are thinking of a 919 [hybrid Le Mans racer] because this is the combination that is embracing a 911. A 911 must be attractive from the sports driver point of view. It must produce fun in the car and the car has to be fast. View 29 Photos You had responsibility for the 718

Then there’s Instagram’s stigegyptiancousin, who suggests that Grand Theft Auto Online should add this car to the game. But why limit appreciation of the Bugatti to a game? daltoonnnn on Instagram described the one-off as the “most expensive hot wheel I’ve seen.” Not all responses were as straightforward. The Bugatti La Voiture Noir (it’s a one-off)pic.twitter.com/H8G519OyfD

However, America is a country with a different transportation layout, logistics, cost structures, legal impediments, and population psychographics than Europe, Japan, or increasingly train-loving China. Even if we can corral the costs, high-speed rail will still be competing against the North American airport network, which accounts for half of worldwide air traffic—serviced by low-cost carriers

January 2003. I’m talking with a senior auto industry analyst about Carlos Ghosn. “If it was announced Ghosn was about to take the top job at Ford,” he muses, “it would add $10 billion to the value of the company.” He pauses just long enough to ponder a pile of greenbacks larger than the GDP

Pop quiz: do you know what they call Thai food in Thailand? Food. Do you what they’ll call electrified cars in an electrified future? Cars. And autonomous cars in an autonomous futur- you get the point. Recently I was pushed to defend MotorTrend’s take on electric vehicles (EVs) and the burgeoning autonomous car segment. It

But it’s the actual number of rides happening on these platforms that may shock you. Ubiquitous Uber recently completed its 10 billionth trip, and second-place Lyft just completed its first billion. There appears to be no slow-down in sight. Uber and Lyft have raised billions of dollars in investor capital, and both are preparing for

It might seem antithetical for an automotive enthusiast magazine to allocate pages to the idea of life without cars. But this is the reality we live in. Five years ago, the concept of ride-hail and ride-share was barely a blip on society’s nav screen—a quirky Silicon Valley experiment. Now Uber is so commonplace that it’s

Best lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, and other assist tech. It rivals systems from Mercedes and Tesla yet comes standard on nearly every trim level. Fuel Economy: Honda CR-V View 85 Photos Honda has cracked the magic code that gives the CR-V peppy performance and great fuel economy. Interior Design/Craftsmanship: Toyota RAV4 Adventure View 85

Waymo, which recently launched its autonomous ride-hailing service in the Phoenix area, is betting big on traditional sensing technologies—including cameras, GPS, radar, and those super-expensive spinning lidar sensors on the roof. These Waymo cars are essentially beta-testers, which means they are not fail safe. (Remember Uber?) If Waymo happens to have an accident and the

According to Dunne’s ZoZo Go automotive consultancy, there are 36 legitimate Chinese automakers with series production. The leaders are the Big 6 (which have Chinese government backing): SAIC, Beijing, First Auto, Dongfeng, Guangzhou, and Changan, which account for 75 percent of China-market sales. Then there are the Big 3 private companies (Geely, BYD, and Great

Five years ago, we put the curvalicious, basted-in-cherry-red-paint backside of Toyota’s FT-1 concept on our cover (see that cover below). We haven’t had a better-selling March issue since—which explains why the highly anticipated production version of the FT-1 is our cover car this month. View 85 Photos What is a surprise is how the excitement

You’re rolling down the freeway in heavy, fast-moving traffic, following a truck. On your right is a shiny, new Volvo XC90 with a “Baby On Board” sticker in the window. On your left, a suburban outlaw in a $500 leather jacket blat-blat-blatting along on his Harley-Davidson. Suddenly, a large, heavy object falls off the back

It’s been nearly a quarter century since I first rode in a car with my feet off the pedals and my hands in my lap, watching it negotiate turns while remaining centered in its lane and maintaining a safe following distance from a car in front. It even managed the auto stop-and-go trick. The test

On Black Friday of this year, the cable TV channel formerly known as Velocity officially changed its name to the MotorTrend Channel, a move we had long telegraphed but finally made official. With this change, we add 73 million homes and 17 million passionate automotive television viewers to an audience that already spans print, web,

It happens every year: The day after the final out is recorded in the World Series, the collective media looks ahead. The Champagne isn’t even flat yet, but the pundits are trotting out their best predictions for how things will shape up next season. For another Of-The-Year perspective on what’s ahead, check out our story,

Known to insiders as one of the best-dressed executives in the auto biz, Bugatti CEO Stephan Winkelmann also has served in some of the industry’s seeming dream jobs, as head of both Lamborghini and Audi Sport. Now he takes Bugatti into the future as the iconic French brand celebrates its 110th anniversary. But doing so

The Genesis brand has been on a roll lately. After debuting three sedans in three years—including the G70, the 2019 MotorTrend Car of the Year—Genesis is now looking to expand its lineup with SUVs. The GV80 Concept, which debuted at the 2017 New York auto show, was the first SUV ever to be seen from

I’ll bet you my last paycheck that you didn’t come to MotorTrend.com today to read about campers, and yet here you are. I didn’t expect to sit down with Bob Wheeler, CEO of the iconic silver-bulleted Airstream camper and RV company at the Los Angeles auto show, either, but I’m glad I did as the

It’s an interesting time to be an automaker. Some are doubling down on SUVs, some are focusing on autonomy or electrification, and others are focusing on connectivity and new ways to buy and sell cars. Volvo, meanwhile, seems to be doing a little bit of everything. MotorTrend, along with a handful of other journalists, joined Volvo global

3. Efficiency: Fuel economy relative to the competitive set, plus overall operating costs, weight, and recyclability. And yes, we consider mpg-e and well-to-wheel equations for electric vehicles. 4. Safety: We examine the safety measures that protect occupants from harm in a crash and test a vehicle’s ability to help a driver avoid a crash in

Our annual Of The Year awards celebrate the very best car, truck, SUV, and auto industry personality. They also capture a moment in time and serve as reminders, upon future reflection, that excellence comes in all shapes, sizes, and magnitudes. Some years we recognize a localized peak—a game changer whose impact is felt more deeply

It’s been 32 years since I first drove a Hyundai. I can still remember it, a droning yellow Excel hatchback with a tan interior that smelled like an oil driller’s armpit. As I walked into the office of the magazine where I was working, I glanced back at the parked Hyundai (1986 Excels are shown

My better half, the Applied Arts major, got way out ahead of me on this technology by investing in nine cryptocurrencies ranging from well-known names like Bitcoin and Ethereum to whimsical ones like Aragon, Dragonchain, and Golem Network. All cryptocurrencies utilize blockchain technology, which relies on a distributed ledger method of record-keeping rather than centralized