Enlarge / Streamlined aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s were an inspiration for the Hyundai Ioniq 6. (credit: Hyundai)

The physical unveiling of the Hyundai Prophecy concept car was an early casualty of COVID, originally scheduled for the hastily canceled 2020 Geneva auto show. That didn't stop it from blowing my socks off once Hyundai sent some images over the Internet, however. At the time, I didn't think the Korean automaker would put the concept—which I described as the result of "a transporter accident involving a Mercedes CLS and a Tesla Model 3"—into production.

Obviously, I was being a fool because just as the Hyundai 45 concept morphed into the excellent Ioniq 5 crossover, the Prophecy has been translated into production as the Ioniq 6 sedan. Like the Ioniq 5, the Ioniq 6 uses Hyundai's new E-GMP platform for 800 V vehicles, but importantly, it's actually smaller (with a 2-inch/50-mm shorter wheelbase) and will be cheaper than the angular Ioniq 5. (Yes, this still confuses me, because 6 is more than 5, so one expects a bigger, more expensive car, plus the Ioniq 7 is going to be a large seven-seater electric SUV, due next year.)

The most notable change from the concept is the Ioniq 6's extra height, an unavoidable consequence of having to package a 6-inch (150 mm) slab of lithium-ion batteries under the cabin's floor. I asked Hyundai design chief Sangyup Lee if he had been tempted to stretch the production car's wheelbase to maintain the concept's proportions.

Enlarge / The Cadillac Lyriq is the first expression of the classic American luxury brand's future as an electric automaker. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

PARK CITY, UTAH—They say—accurately, in my opinion—that nothing focuses the mind like a deadline. I'm not sure what the amplification factor is when that deadline suddenly shrinks by nine months, as was the case for Cadillac's new Lyriq, but the result is an extremely competent new battery-electric SUV.

As we've covered in the past, General Motors is at the start of an electrification plan that it hopes will mean no more tailpipe emissions from any of the group's vehicles by 2035. The key to that is a family of batteries and electric motors (named Ultium) to be used across everything from big body-on-frame trucks to small crossovers. We've actually sampled a couple of early Ultium-based BEVs already—the bombastic Hummer EV truck and BrightDrop Zevo 600 delivery van. Both of those are rather niche applications, but the Lyriq is much more mainstream, given America's love for the SUV.

At launch, the Lyriq is available in a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive configuration, with a twin-motor, all-wheel-drive version coming early in 2023. The RWD Lyriq uses a 340 hp (255 kW), 325 lb-ft (440 Nm) version of the Ultium Drive motor, which is powered by a 102 kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

Enlarge / What better way to enjoy a vacation in Ireland than by spending some time with a true enthusiast's car that's not available in the US? (credit: Dan Carney)

A thumbs-up from the middle-aged mountain bike racer confirmed that the Pearl Ice White Toyota GR Yaris I was testing had hit its target of appealing to adventure-seeking drivers and manual transmission traditionalists. His snap judgment was correct: This car delivers on its promise of being the kind of combustion-fueled fun that is well into its twilight.

American car enthusiasts like to complain that we never get the good stuff in the US market. Last year's announcement of the Toyota GR Yaris, a World Rally Championship-inspired tidbit of a car, seemed to confirm this glass-is-half-empty viewpoint. But since then, Toyota has revealed plans for a US-market GR Corolla using much of the same hardware.

Will putting the Yaris' 257 hp (192 kW) turbocharged direct-injected 1.6 L three-cylinder G16E-GTS powerplant into the larger, heavier Corolla spoil the intended experience? We've yet to drive the GR Corolla for comparison, but a turn behind the wheel of the GR Yaris while in Ireland suggests that Toyota's product planners know what they're doing. The Corolla will enjoy the benefit of more power to offset its weight, as Toyota has announced that it will produce a 300 hp (224 kW) version of this engine, resetting the mark for the world's strongest three-cylinder engine.

Enlarge (credit: Andrew Hedrick/Porsche)

As I'm fond of saying, electric motors just make cars better. Regular readers will notice that most of our automotive coverage is about electrified cars, but the other kind still represents more than 95 percent of all new cars sold in the US, so we have reason to drive a few of those from time to time as well. And when we do, it's often an exercise in frustration—even a performance car like a Porsche 911 Turbo can't match the immediate slug of torque from an electric motor doing its thing.

That's a good thing. Electric cars need to be the future of personal transportation if we want to avert the worst ravages of climate change, albeit only alongside everyone walking, cycling, and taking public transport more. (We could do with a comprehensive redesign of our built environment to make all that safer, too, but I realize I'm veering dangerously into a post-scarcity utopia there, whereas it currently looks like we're in the Mirror Universe.)

But the uncomfortable truth for the EV-loving driving enthusiast is that while EVs make perfect sense for getting from A to B—absent the occasional edge-case like an emergency cross-country trombone delivery—I'm not sure they're quite there yet when it comes to that last bit of fun.

Enlarge / The extremely aerodynamic Mercedes EQS 580 (credit: Eric Bangeman)

Mercedes-Benz first gave us a glimpse at its electrification strategy in 2018, with its first battery-electric vehicle—the EQC 400 crossover—going on sale in Europe in 2019. Sporting a range of around 220 miles, (354 km) the 402 hp (296 kW) SUV never made it over to this side of the Atlantic. The US instead got a pair of EQS sedans that went on sale in 2021: the $102,310 EQS 450 and the $125,900 EQS 580.

The EQS 580 4Matic is the heftier of the two models—it has more motors, more mass, and more horsepower. And don't mistake it for an S-Class sedan with all of the internal combustion bits swapped out for batteries and motors. The EQS is a new vehicle architecture designed from the beginning to push electrons, not hydrocarbons. And those electrons will push the EQS 580 a very long way—340 miles (547 km), to be exact.

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  Mercedes used the front of the EQS 580 to show how fond it is of its logo. There's no frunk above the plethora of three-pointed stars. [credit: Eric Bangeman ]

You can't get that far in an EV without a massive battery pack, and the EQS 580 has 107.8 kWh of juice at its disposal (the battery actually has a capacity of 120 kWh, about 10 percent of which is off-limits for driving). But what's truly impressive about this electric sedan is an absurdly low drag coefficient of 0.20, which is unmatched by any production BEV. It looks sleek, but at first glance, the profile isn't that much different from an S-Class sedan. Upon closer examination, you'll notice the longer wheelbase and a pop-open slot on the front quarter-panel, which is another clue to its aerodynamic profile. That slot is for adding wiper fluid, because not only does the EQS 580 have no frunk, the hood does not even open.

Enlarge / Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Ferrari F1-75 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan at Baku City Circuit on June 12, 2022, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

The sport of Formula 1 racing went through a massive change at the beginning of this season as it introduced new cars that harness aerodynamic ground effects to push them down onto the track. The aerodynamic approach was last used in F1 in the late 1970s and early 1980s before being banned on safety grounds.

One issue, then, that perhaps should have been anticipated this time was a condition called porpoising, where the cars oscillate vertically at a rather high frequency while traveling at high speed, violently shaking the driver in the process. As this season has progressed, the Grand Prix Drivers' Association has become more and more vocal about the potential health risk this poses for these athletes. And on Thursday, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (or FIA, the sport's governing body) announced it has a plan to do something about it.

What’s porpoising?

As the air travels underneath the body of an F1 car, it expands as it reaches the venturis at the rear of the car. The faster the car goes, the more downforce it generates via this expansion, until at a certain point the airflow detaches from the floor and stalls. This wipes out all the downforce immediately, and without that effect sucking the car to the ground, it raises up on its suspension.

Enlarge / The taillight of the Celestiq show car is one of the few images Cadillac has released of its next flagship. (credit: Cadillac)

Cadillac's transformation into an all-electric vehicle brand is about to get underway. The first new Cadillac EV will be the Lyriq, which has just entered production; Ars is driving it next week, and we'll be able to tell you about it on June 28.

With a starting price of $59,990, the Lyric looks reasonably priced to enter the competitive luxury EV SUV space. But the Cadillac EV that follows will be a much more exclusive machine. It's called the Celestiq, and so far, details are scarce ahead of a formal reveal of the show car in late July. Cadillac has said that "from first approach, the striking silhouette of the Celestiq show car leaves a lasting impression, challenging the ultra-luxury space with the spirit of futurism and the avant-garde."

On Wednesday afternoon, Cadillac revealed that it will hand-build the Celestiq and will spend $81 million to set up production at General Motors' Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.

Enlarge / Tesla is facing multiple federal investigations into the safety of its automated and partially automated driving systems. New data from NHTSA shows the automaker accounted for three quarters of all crashes involving advanced driver assists in the past year. (credit: Tesla)

On Wednesday morning, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released data on the safety, or lack thereof, of advanced driver assistance systems. Since June 2021, automakers have been required to inform NHTSA if any of their vehicles crash while using partially automated driving systems, also known as SAE level 2 systems.

As many suspected, Tesla's Autopilot system accounted for the majority of crashes since the reporting period began. In fact, Teslas represented three-quarters of all ADAS crashes—273 out of 367 crashes reported between July 2021 and May 15, 2022. The news provides yet more data underminingTesla's safety claims about its Autopilot system.

In the past, Tesla and even NHTSA have claimed that Autopilot reduced crash rates by 40 percent. However, as we reported in 2018, that claim fell apart once a consulting company called Quality Control Systems got its hands on the data.

Enlarge (credit: Sony)

South African director Neill Blomkamp is set to direct a Gran Turismo movie for Columbia Pictures. Deadline first broke the news of a potential GT film in May, but on Tuesday, Sony announced a release date for the film: August 11, 2023.

Video games don't often make great movies, though I still have a soft spot for Super Mario Bros, even if the elevator scene with the koopas ruined slow dances at weddings for me forever. Although Blomkamp is no stranger to horror, the GT movie is unlikely to feature an army of subterranean dinosaurs.

Instead, the plot involves a teenager GT gamer whose skills see him through a series of competitions to become a professional racing driver.

Enlarge / You might think this looks like any other McLaren. But the Artura is a clean-sheet design with a new plug-in hybrid EV powertrain. And a total output of 671 hp. (credit: McLaren)

Since the launch of the McLaren MP4-12C in 2011, all the company's road cars have fundamentally used different variants of the same V8 engine and similar versions of the same carbon fiber monocoque chassis. But 11 years is a long time in the life cycle of an automotive platform, and now the British supercar maker has a shiny new toy called the Artura.

It's a clean-sheet design, powered by a plug-in hybrid EV powertrain with an all-new V6 engine augmented by a hybrid electric motor, with perhaps the best-looking interior of any McLaren to date and a raft of technology upgrades that should improve the experience without compromising driver engagement. And unlike McLaren's last PHEV, the multimillion-dollar P1, the Artura replaces the brand's previous entry-level supercar, the 570, so it starts at a (reasonable for a McLaren) $233,000.

New monocoque

Perhaps surprisingly for a company that pioneered the use of carbon fiber chassis in Formula 1 and then again with the F1 road car of 1993, McLaren Automotive has historically contracted the production of its carbon fiber monocoque tubs to an Austrian company called CarboTech. But with the advent of this new platform, called the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA), that work is being done in-house at a new facility in Sheffield in northern England.

Enlarge / The Ford Mustang Mach-E has had a few teething troubles since its launch in 2021. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Ford has to recall nearly 49,000 Mustang Mach-Es, and it told dealers to temporarily halt sales of the electric vehicle while it works to solve a bug in the propulsion system.

The news, first reported by CNBC, affects some Mach-Es built between May 27, 2020, and May 24, 2022, though Ford says not all of the roughly 100,000 electric crossovers will need to be recalled.

The problem is caused by overheating in the high voltage battery connectors—if this occurs, the Mach-E may not start. Should the problem arise while the EV is being driven, that could lead to a complete loss of propulsion.

Enlarge / Obviously when we say we've driven GM's new Lunar Vehicle we mean we've driven it in the simulator in Milford, Michigan. (credit: Roberto Baldwin)

General Motors provided a flight from San Francisco to Detroit and back, plus a night in hotel so we could drive the Lunar Vehicle at GM's simulator. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

MILFORD, MICH.—Over the radio, I've been instructed not to drive into the large crater near the south pole of the Moon. I had been circling the crest looking for a way in and as soon as mission control realized what I was about to do, it vetoed my heading. I turned away from the impact site and drove towards a hazy sun off in the distance determined to hit at least 25 km/h while battling the awkward effects of gravity one-sixth that of Earth.

General Motors and its partner Lockheed Martin are building a lunar rover without a NASA contract. They want to fly this vehicle to the Moon in support of the Artemis mission, because we're going back to the Moon to drive and GM wants to be there first.

Enlarge / This is the Cadillac GTP Concept, which is our first look at what will become Cadillac's endurance racing car in North America and at Le Mans. (credit: Cadillac)

This weekend saw the annual running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. It was hardly a race for the ages—don't worry, no spoilers here—but with any luck, that will change next year with the introduction of a new class of hybrid race cars (known as LMDh cars, for Le Mans Daytona hybrid) from manufacturers like Acura, BMW, Porsche, and others.

We've seen a teaser of the Acura ARX-06, and BMW showed off a semi-camouflaged version of its new M Hybrid V8 earlier in June. Porsche's car, which started testing at the start of the year, will be formally unveiled and named later this month at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK.

And on the eve of Le Mans, Cadillac released the first public images of the Project GTP Hypercar, which the company says previews the design of the car that will contest the North American IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and the global FIA World Endurance Championship (which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans).

Enlarge / Toyota's new home storage system will let an EV power a house. (credit: Toyota)

The Toyota Motor Corporation has decided to get into the home battery sector. Earlier this month, the automaker announced its O-Uchi Kyuden System, a home energy store that provides "long service life, high quality, good value for price, and high performance," according to the company.

It's a surprising move from the world's largest OEM, given that its supply of lithium-ion batteries is so constrained that it has to use battery packs from different suppliers for its new bZ4x electric crossover, depending on whether the EV is configured as a single or twin-motor variant.

The O-Uchi Kyuden system is more than just a battery pack for your house; there is also a DC-DC converter, which feeds into a power conditioner that can use energy from the battery pack or the house's photovoltaic cells, it if has them. The pack has a capacity of 8.7 kWh and a maximum rated output of 5.5 kW.

Enlarge / Tesla Model X at Brussels Expo on January 10, 2018 in Belgium. (credit: Getty Images | Sjoerd van der Wal)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has upgraded an investigation into Tesla's Autopilot system in a move that could lead to a recall.

The NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened the probe of Tesla Autopilot in August 2021 due to "eleven crashes in which Tesla models of various configurations have encountered first responder scenes and subsequently struck one or more vehicles involved with those scenes." Five other crashes have since been added to the analysis, which covers 830,000 Tesla Model Y, Model X, Model S, and Model 3 cars released from 2014 to 2022. The crashes being investigated resulted in 15 injuries and one death, the NHTSA said.

An NHTSA notice published Thursday said the investigation has been "upgraded to an Engineering Analysis (EA) to extend the existing crash analysis, evaluate additional data sets, perform vehicle evaluations, and to explore the degree to which Autopilot and associated Tesla systems may exacerbate human factors or behavioral safety risks by undermining the effectiveness of the driver's supervision. In doing so, NHTSA plans to continue its assessment of vehicle control authority, driver engagement technologies, and related human factors considerations."

Enlarge / Cars make their way toward downtown LA on the 110 freeway during the morning commute on April 22, 2021, in Los Angeles, California. (credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

California's ability to regulate its own air quality is being defended by five automakers this week. BMW, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo have filed a motion to defend the Golden State's waiver, issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency, that allows the state to limit the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by vehicles sold within its borders.

As a result of severe air pollution in the 1960s, then-California Governor and future Republican hero Ronald Reagan created the California Air Resources Board to set a statewide approach to managing air quality. But in recent years, the party of Reagan has been working double-time to undo the move.

Former President Donald Trump was determined to prevent CARB from regulating California's air. In September 2019, Trump revoked California's waiver under the clean air act, with the intention of bringing it under an Environmental Protection Agency that had been weakened by executive branch edict. Trump's attack on California's air was backed by automakers like Toyota and GM, who have sought to water down fuel efficiency standards.

Enlarge / This is the view of the top of a cylinder as the TPS ignition module sends out a plasma pulse. (credit: Transient Plasma Systems)

In 2019, we took a look at an interesting new advanced ignition system from Transient Plasma Systems. It replaces the conventional spark plugs in a vehicle's engine with an ignition module that uses very short duration (nanosecond) pulses of plasma to ignite the fuel/air mixture within the cylinder. Back then, the technology was still being bench-tested, but now it's almost ready for production after validation testing has confirmed its potential to increase fuel efficiency by up to 20 percent when fitted to an existing engine.

"We're showing that the technology has ticked off all the things that an advanced ignition system would need to do to go to market," said Dan Singleton, founder and CEO of TPS.

Aren’t we going all EV?

At this point, some of you are probably wondering why anyone is even bothering to develop new internal combustion engine technology—after all, isn't our future electric? But with the best will in the world, it's going to be many years before countries like the US stop selling new internal combustion-powered vehicles and longer still until they're no longer allowed on our roads.

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  A "sneak peek" of the new CarPlay experience, as showcased by Apple during its WWDC 2022 keynote on June 6. [credit: Apple ]

Apple detailed significant updates to its CarPlay platform at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday.

During its keynote presentation, Apple gave what it termed a "sneak peek" of the "next generation" of the CarPlay standard, which allows iPhone users to control and view phone-based apps through their car's dashboard. The company says the update will see CarPlay more deeply integrate with a car's hardware, allowing it to display info across multiple screens in a host vehicle at a time when more and more cars are integrating more and more displays.

The idea, it would seem, is to make CarPlay into something closer to a whole-car interface, not just the phone-mirroring infotainment system it is today.

Enlarge / This is our first look at an undisguised Polestar 3 SUV.

Polestar has released the first image of its next production electric vehicle. It's called the Polestar 3, and it's the brand's first offering in the highly competitive SUV market.

"Polestar 3 is the SUV for the electric age. Our design identity evolves with this high-end large luxury EV, with a strong, individual brand character. With this car, we bring the ‘sport’ back to the SUV, staying true to our performance roots," says Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO. "This is a major milestone for our company, one that boosts our growth trajectory and takes us into our next phase."

The Polestar 3 is the first EV in that next phase and will be followed in 2023 by the Polestar 4 (a smaller SUV coupe) and the flagship Polestar 5 in 2024.

Enlarge / The M Hybrid V8 is instantly recognizable as a BMW, as it wears the brand's kidney grille. (credit: BMW)

On Monday, BMW became the first carmaker to reveal its new hybrid racing prototype built to the new LMDh rule set. It's called the BMW M Hybrid V8, and it will race for the first time at next January's Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Sports car racing is in the midst of a transition period as race organizers in the US and Europe adopt new rules for prototype race cars. Because we're talking about sports car racing, and because there are two sets of organizers, it's all a bit complicated.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is organized by the French Automobile Club de l'Ouest, or ACO. Many of the cars that run in that race also compete in the World Endurance Championship, which is organized by the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile (or FIA). In the US, there's the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), which runs the WeatherTech championship.