I’m not sure I can forgive the lack of engine bay shots...

It depends on the manufacturer. Most keep a couple percent buffer on the top and bottom, Chevy with the original Volt was much more conservative, with a 40% or so buffer, but has since gotten more aggressive with their strategy. You’re trading off weight and cost to carry around all the time, while taking away the…

As an LGT wagon owner in MI... do want. I’d even take a FWD Wagon ST... we’ll probably get just the ST hatch.

That will be tough as the plant that makes the US version is shutting down in the next two weeks to be re-tooled for the Bronco and Ranger...

Based on the other prototype photos, looks like it’ll be a couple inches longer in the wheelbase which should help the lear legroom immensely.

There’s actually a bunch of cars doing exactly that now, with either a normal hybrid system or just a gas engine in the front. It’s called a through the road hybrid system, see the most recent Rav4 Hybrid, Mini Countryman SE All4. I’ve driven a couple of development vehicles that are exactly that with an unmodified…

Will look into it, thanks! Not looking forward to having to have a shop evacuate and then fill it anyway, so would definitely be the preferred solution.

I’m still rocking my 06 LGT wagon and think I will just keep on keeping it up as long as I can with no reasonable replacement in sight. Just ordered a whole new set of suspension bushings for it as MI roads have beat the hell out of it this year. Thank goodness for my winter steelies or I’d be shopping for at least…

I can nominate myself as an outlier. EJ257 with 215k and counting, running 7.5k oil changes with not a drop added between, still sitting at the same level as when they started. And no, it’s not being supplanted with coolant, either... I’ve got two friends who also own 257s who are both very jealous... but mine is also…

Not saying you’re wrong, but most electric motors have maybe 6 components to assemble. The winding of them is pretty much an automated process at this point AFAIK, so your line of maybe 100 people for engine assembly just became 3 or 4 and some robots for the same “motor” throughput. They do have a point, that the…

I’ve actually driven a 1910 Baker roadster, and it was a really cool experience. Having spent plenty of time on small sailboats, the tiller steering wasn’t hard to figure out, though the timing of when to shift from forward to reverse gears to slow down was definitely tricky. It’s been a couple years, but I’m pretty…

I was hoping you’d also get into platform age in this, as I wouldn’t be surprised if FCA was also a market-leader in that... Isn’t the LX platform of the Charger and Challenger based on the W220 S-Class from the early 90s?

Did you miss the actual Bronco shot?

Oh! I clearly misread that part of the article. I like it much more when the machete-wielder is a vigilante coming to the rescue haha

Things like this confuse a lot of people when they’re not written very well. “ability to use just one (one!) pedal to drive have the same luxury”

Yes, for range, but not for power.. though it’s also likely that the “little” battery can’t make the full 160 ish kW for long periods that would be necessary to drive the full motor capability, though same torque means it’s at least capable of the high current for short periods.

There’s a bunch mis-stated in this article. In the US we’ll only get the long range version with the 64 kWh pack and 150 kW motor, good for about 240 miles EPA range and 7.6 0-60. It’s no hot hatch, but should be perfectly serviceable!

The 150 kW motor version is actually supposed to do 0-100 in 7.6 seconds. Still slower than the Bolt but a bit more reasonable. And I completely agree, that’s the daily I want too!

The quoted numbers are WLTC estimates, which has replaced NEDC in Europe, though is only marginally better. The US EPA estimated range of the large pack ( only one we’ll get here) is about 240 miles, which should be reasonably achievable.

And a Niro BEV with likely the same 150 kW, 64 kWh powertrain still to come!