So Lucid developed a proprietary “boost” technology—it declined to give WIRED precise details—to raise incoming 500-volt power to match the pack’s 926 volts. It says only that it uses the rear motor unit to do so, presumably through one of the windings acting as a DC-DC inverter. The boost functionContinue Reading
Denza was originally founded in 2010 as a joint venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz, launching its first car into the Chinese market in 2014. Now wholly owned by BYD, it went through a significant rebrand in 2021, with Wolfgang Egger—who previously led design teams at Audi and Lamborghini—joining at theContinue Reading
After a keynote, Nissan led us into a courtyard to look at (but not photograph) a series of vehicles in various states of development. The most intriguing was a rugged electric SUV that oozed X-Terra vibes. The light-offroader will begin production in Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi, plant in 2027, deftly escapingContinue Reading
Let’s be upfront here: US cars haven’t been cheap for a long time. The average price of a new car in the US is close to $50,000, up some $5,000 from two decades ago, even adjusted for inflation. The reasons are manifold: Vehicles have gotten more complicated—and expensive—to manufacture, theContinue Reading
Likely referring to the significant negative coverage of Musk’s efforts leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the president committed to buying a Tesla via TruthSocial on Tuesday morning, stating that Musk “was ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing aContinue Reading
Last week, a Jeep driver turned to Reddit to do what people do best on the site—complain. Every time they hit the brakes on their Jeep, they wrote, a promotion for an extended warranty plan popped up in the center console. “Press the ‘call’ button to speak to a specialist,”Continue Reading
Strictly speaking, God’s Eye is the camera, ultrasonic radar, and lidar array alone, split into A, B, and C variants, with A being best. The system’s operating software is known as DiPilot, introduced in 2020 on the BYD Han, and now with the good, better, and best tiers of DiPilotContinue Reading
President Trump wants Americans to buy fewer European cars and Europeans to buy more American cars. To speed his pipe dream along, on Sunday night he said that new tariffs on EU companies would “definitely happen.” (The ones on Mexico and Canada have been stayed for now.) His threat ofContinue Reading
The most challenging part of FMVSS 127 is the night-time Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking (PAEB) test, which, unlike the EU’s new AEB regulation, needs to work in complete darkness. More than 70 percent of pedestrians hit and killed by motorists are struck at night, according to NHTSA. Protecting pedestrians atContinue Reading
