Midsize Cars

Ford recently revealed a teaser image of the electric F-150 while announcing the company’s new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. From the looks of it, Ford seems to have followed Rivian and Tesla’s footsteps to come up with a bold truck that doesn’t look to share a lot of similarity with the internal combustion-engined crop of trucks. It’s too soon to comment, but it looks, well, weird.

It is one thing to be inspired by a product, and another to copy a product. Unfortunately, some Chinese automakers fall under the second category. We’ve seen ripped-off versions of Minis, Teslas, BMWs, and the latest one to join that ‘flattered’ list is the Ford F-150 Raptor. What we see here is not a Ford F-150 Raptor modified by some tuner who has slapped its badge on it. This truck is a production-version vehicle from Foton. Foton’s latest pickup truck called the Da Jiang Jun is nothing but an F-150 Raptor face with some lackluster mills under the hood.

After only five years on the market, the third-generation Hyundai Tucson was discontinued to make way for a brand-new model. The fourth-gen SUV is a big departure from its predecessor in terms of exterior design, but it also brings new and innovative technology to the table. The fourth-gen Hudson is also the first to offer a hybrid drivetrain. The SUV was launched without the usual diesel options, and it remains to be seen if Hyundai will add any later on.

Mil-Spec Automotive is known to turn civilian Hummers to monstrous beasts. But the company has worked on trucks as well, especially the Ford F-150. This time, the company again laid its hands on the world’s best-selling truck to give it a twist of its own. The last time the company played around with one, it gave the truck steroids and bumped up the power figures to 500 horses. This time, the Michigan-based company upped the ante and tuned the truck to make 675 ponies! Called the Intrepid F-150 Supertruck, there are a whole lot of other changes that make this Ford F-150 one-of-a-kind.

Once a company that built a handful of compact cars, Skoda has recently expanded to include a midsize sedan, and since 2016 it entered the SUV market with no fewer than three models. Come 2020, and Skoda is taking yet another step toward new heights with the Enyaq iV, an all-electric crossover. Although this isn’t Skoda’s first EV, being preceded by the tiny Citigo iV, the Enyaq iV is the company’s first vehicle built on the Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform, which is dedicated exclusively to zero-emission models. The Enyaq iV is essentially Skoda’s own variant of the upcoming Volkswagen ID.4.

Shaquille O’Neal needs no introduction. The four-time NBA champion is one of the most renowned and celebrated basketball players of all time. As a sports fan, you will surely be amazed by his career stats. But, as an automotive nut – whether you care to admit or not – you’d have wondered how can this man get into cars.

His tall stature means he can’t enjoy the low seating and the not-so-big dimensions of any hot hatch or sedan. And, the Tesla Model S, despite its spacious interior, is no exception. A TikTok video posted by Anthony C.Hall proves exactly that. After finally making his way inside, Shaq had a piece of advice for Tesla’s CEO - “Elon, you wanna make a big boy Tesla?”

The three biggest launches of this year – Ford F-150, Ford Bronco, Ram TRX – are already out, so it looks like rendering artists don’t have a lot of unseen products to work on. There is one, however, that we haven’t seen to date except for the camouflaged examples – the electric F-150. But, since it is expected to be based on the 2021 F-150, there aren’t a whole lot of wild renderings of the electric truck. However, one artist decided to let his creative juices flow and came up with a design that seems to be heavily inspired by the Tesla Cybertruck. Gosh, we hope Ford doesn’t get any idea from it.

With single-turbo or twin-turbo engines so popular today in BMW’s stable, it’s easy to overlook the fact that back in the late 1980s-early 1990s, the Bavarians built a performance sedan that had some BMW M1 DNA baked in under the hood. That performance sedan was the E34 M5, which happens to get the DeMuro treatment - and a Doug score, of course.

Subaru is keeping the Forester fresh for the 2021 model year with subtle tweaks. In the process, the base sticker takes a hike, going from $24,495 for the 2020 Forester to $24,795 for the 2021 Forester. Granted, the $300 bump in price isn’t that much, not when it’s justified by the list of features.

BMW is dead serious about its electrification ambitions. And to prove the use of electricity isn’t solely justified by a bump in performance - a la Porsche, if you wish - the Bavarians just dropped the 545e xDrive 5 Series, a PHEV version of its core model, one than can run purely on electricity when needed. But, yeah, it will also pull its own weight and more on the Autobahn, so no need to worry about sluggish behavior. Here’s all you need to know.

Established in 2016, Lynk & Co is a Chinese brand owned by Geely, the same group that owns Volvo. Lynk & Co cars are positioned between those from Geely and Volvo, so they’re pretty much entry-level premium products. Although it’s a very young company, Lynk & Co has already introduced six different models in three years, all based on the Compact Modular Architecture that underpins the Volvo XC40 and the Polestar 2.

Among them there’s the 03, a compact sedan that’s now available in a sporty version with a "+" badge. Sports sedans are something you see very often coming from China, so YouTube’s Wheelsboy got his hands on one to find out what it’s all about.

It hasn’t been long since we reported that the Lucid Air might beat out the best Tesla Model S with up to 442 miles of range. Considering that the Air starts out at just $60,000 this could put it in a position to effectively dethrone the Tesla Model S. Now, however, a new report from Ars Technica claims that independent testing has confirmed an estimated range of more than 500 miles on a single charge. If this report is true, and the EPA agrees, the Lucid Air could become the first production EV to cross that threshold. How likely is it that the EPA will give the air a similar rating? Well, the chances might actually be pretty good.

So far, the Ford Maverick pickup has been a pretty well-kept secret outside of some leaked CAD images and a photo that showed off what appeared to be the real tailgate with the Maverick name stamped on it. Rumors have suggested that it would be part of the Bronco family and could even be the rumored Bronco truck that has now been all but confirmed to arrive before 2024. However, a new leak via Maverick Chat forums, which quotes a person claiming to work for a supplier, has painted a very clear picture of what we can expect, and it’s probably not good.

Alfa Romeo introduced the Giulia with very high hopes as redeeming itself as a producer of thrill-inducing, beautiful but also sporty sedans. To some extent, the luscious Giulia had the desired effect, but it still needs some smoothing around the corners if it wants to take on the die-hard Germans.

The same can be said about the Giulia QV, which certainly got the performance and looks right, but still struggles on the reliability front when it comes to mechanical and electrical systems. But how does it fare when driven next to its spiritual predecessor, the GTV?

Audi is arguably the most active brand today when it comes to EVs. The company had announced a bold claim that it will launch 20 new EVs by 2025, and surprisingly, it seems to be on track.

The German automaker has added yet another vehicle to its EV portfolio, the Q4 Sportback e-tron, which happens to be its seventh fully electric vehicle. The company revealed the concept version for now and the real deal is expected to go on sale sometime in 2021.

If you’re from China and you’re in the market for a new four-door sedan, you might want to steer clear of the Volkswagen Passat. The German sedan of Chinese roots was recently subjected to a safety test by China’s C-IASI (that’s the country’s equivalent of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), and to the surprise of many, the Passat recorded one of the worst performances of any car in the crash test.

A video of the C-IASI’s crashworthiness assessment shows the Passat undergoing several crash tests that end in a similar fashion: the sedan gets beaten up pretty badly. The Chinese Passat’s poor performance in the crash tests has bought into question the quality of the model relative to Passat models that aren’t built in China, including Passat models that have received good safety ratings in American crash tests. Is this a case of one Passat being much safer than the other?