Friday, April 21, 2023

New York International Auto Show - All of the Electric Vehicles!

 I went to the NY Auto Show last wee, specifically to see the various EV's that are now for sale.... And I have t say, I was very surprised at the number that are currently available in the US! I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in this space, but it was great to see (almost) every new EV currently available, as well as a few that are hopefully 'coming soon'. This disappointment stems from the LACK of EV's from some of the large manufacturers of popular cars, but I'll discuss that a little later.

First, here are the ones you can order and/or buy now, in no particular order....


First up is Ford, with 2 vehicles there (as well as a Transit E-Van) - the Lightning Pickup and the Mach-E - they had several of each, and were doing a little Mach-E ride-along... First time I had the chance to see the Lightning up close and it's impressive - certainly full-sized, and with a massive frunk that opens up right down to the bumper. I'm guessing Red Bull is a sponsor...

Ford F150 Lightning 


Ford Mustang Mach-E




Next up was Chevy with several up-coming cars (some of which I believe you can pre-order now) - 

First up is the Equinox, which Chevy has been touting as starting at around $30,000. I imagine the one on display is a top-of-the-line model, but it looks pretty sharp.



Chevy also had the Blazer EV which seems to be a similar size as the Equinox but I imagine will be a bit more up-market as it's starting price is supposed to be around $45,000.





Silverado EV Pick-Up




Subaru showed up with their version of the Toyota bZ4X, the Solterra, It's a poor effort, just like the bZ4X. Hopefully the Japanese manufacturers (Toyota, Honda, Subaru mainly) start to take EV's seriously at some point, as they could certainly make them at a high level if they actually cared. Not all of the fingerprints on the 'piano black' console cover. No one really uses PB any longer for this exact reason.



Stellantis was the next stop, they have no current modern EV's, only the Fiat 500e which is admittedly cool, but not really useful in the real world if you drive a lot of daily miles. They did have a 'future' vehicle, the Chrysler Airflow, the Challenger EV and a weird 2-seat golf-cart kind of thingy that serves no purpose, but was kind of cool none-the-less.

Chrysler Airflow


?


FIAT 500e


Challenger EV 






Next up were the real stars of the show, in my view - Kia and Hyundai. They have really bought in to the idea of EV's and are making some really good ones - both in design and in features and capabilities.
Kia EV9 - a full-sized, 3-row SUV





EV6 in GT guise









Niro EV


Hyundai Ioniq 6 - gorgeous!






This is actually a beautiful dark green


Ioniq 5


 

Hyundai's version of the Niro, the Kona




Genesis, which is Hyundai's luxury division (see: Lexus) had a couple of EV's as well. The GV60 is the SUV and the G80 is a large sedan, which they called by the awkward name of 'Electrified'. But their paint is incredible.

GV60



G80 Electrified



BMW showed 2 of their EV's. The German companies are making a bit of noise in this space, which is nice to see - although BMW has completely lost their way styling-wise. Fortunately, when driving one, you don't have to look at the hideous front end... Unfortunately, they were roped off with no one there, so you could only stare in dismay at the front of the cars.

BMW iX


i4



Ram showed off their upcoming full-sized truck EV, the RAM EVO. They have taken a page from Ford in that the vehicle is very 'trucky' with a few EV hints. Hopefully it does as well as the F150 Lightning...





VW is another company getting ready to make a big move into EV's, although they only had 2 on display - the ID.4 which has been on sale for a couple of years, and the ID.Buzz, their VW Van remake - which was very cool...

'Split' ID.4


ID.Buzz - could not get inside as there was a line right after I took these pics...



ID.4 dashboard - ID.Buzz is the same



Finally, Nissan had several of their new Ariya cross-over EV's. The interior is very nice although the overall specs are a little underwhelming.







Some no shows: Mercedes which was a bit of a surprise - they are rolling out a new EV every couple of months, it seems. Also, Volvo was a no-show as well. Polestar and Audi were in a roped off section. The former only had one Polestar 2, along with a Polestar 1 hybrid. Audi had an e-tron Sportback which I would have liked to have sat in. Their loss. No Porsche. No Honda, who amazingly doesn't make an EV for US consumption.... And there were no Rivians, Lucids or Teslas on the main floor (although I heard later on that there was a Rivian pick-up in the aftermarket area - missed it. 

Overall, it's really encouraging to see all of the new EV's that are out there or coming very soon! It's a great time to be an EV enthusiast - more choices are always better, and the technology is only going to get better, more efficient and less costly..

Updated Supercharger Visits Map

65 separate Superchargers visited to date...... I need to head out west now!