Just whenever you thought Toyota’s jacked-up Crown could not get any weirder, right here comes the Landscape. It’s the identify of a brand new particular version for the Japanese market the place the mannequin is bought because the Crown Crossover. Targeting outdoorsy individuals, the off-road variant has a 1.0-inch enhance in floor clearance for more durable terrain.
Toyota fitted the Crown Crossover Landscape with 18-inch two-tone wheels wrapped in 245/60 R18 all-terrain tires, and there are even contrasting pink mud flaps behind them. The further cladding across the wheel arches has a matte end and we’re being instructed these over-fenders are painted by hand. Another improve is on the again the place there is a towing hitch for hauling as much as 1,653 kilos.
There’s no such factor as pausing improvement. Although it has been solely a few months since Porsche updated the Taycan, work is already underway on the second-generation mannequin. Despite giving the present sports activities EV substantial tweaks for its mid-cycle revision, extra upgrades are deliberate for the subsequent iteration.
The Taycan Manager of Charging and Energy Systems, Sarah Razavi, confirmed in an interview with Australian journal CarSales {that a} new Taycan is already being developed. She admitted the J1 platform that additionally underpins the Audi E-Tron GT has been pushed to the utmost and that Porsche must give you one thing else. Although not specified, maybe the next-gen automotive will change to the already introduced SSP Sport platform that can function the idea for a big three-row electric SUV.
“Next generation? Yes, obviously, once we publish one model, we already [start] work on the next one, so we are currently creating ideas [and asking] what should we improve with the next generation. I think we did a great job to really push and squeeze every bit out of the current platform. We’re probably going to see an evolution of the platform.”
Razavi admitted the J1 structure “definitely has some limitations” and that the purpose for a follow-up to immediately’s Taycan shall be to realize larger vary. Meanwhile, the revised mannequin launched in February guarantees as much as 421 miles of WLTP vary, a soar of 109 miles or 35 %. EPA figures should not out but. Asked if solid-state batteries are deliberate, Taycan product specialist Mayk Wienkötter instructed the know-how won’t be prepared in time:
“We’ve been working on it, of course, but giving a timeframe when it’s ready? It’s way too early, too early [to confirm]. It’s not ready in one or two years. It’s coming but it will take time.”
Porsche might simply cram in a much bigger battery however that will increase the burden of an already heavy EV. Razavi talked about that the engineers must “find the sweet spot” in order to not overburden the Taycan but additionally keep away from giving homeowners vary nervousness.
With a second-generation Taycan confirmed, you are in all probability questioning the place does that depart the Panamera. An Autocar report from September 2022 alleged the latter will evolve right into a larger EV positioned above the Taycan whereas utilizing the identical SSP Sport platform. It’s too quickly to know for certain however an electrical Panamera won’t essentially spell the top of the gasoline mannequin.
After all, the brand new Macan EV will peacefully coexist with the ICE mannequin for a number of years, and so will the electrical and gasoline Boxster and Cayman sports activities automobiles. That mentioned, the first-gen crossover and the present 718 fashions have been phased out within the European Union attributable to stricter cybersecurity regulations.
Subaru’s popular Forester SUV received a redesign for the 2025 mannequin 12 months. It’s not all-new, nevertheless it does get new seems, a revised flat-four engine, and up to date driver-assist tech. And for the primary time, the bottom value has crested the $30,000 mark. Subaru confirmed Thursday that the brand new base mannequin Forester prices $31,090, together with a $1,395 vacation spot cost.
Here’s a pricing breakdown for your complete 2025 Forester lineup, and the way it compares to its 2024 equivalents.
Model
2025 Price (Including $1,395 Destination)
2024 Price (Including $1,345 Destination)
Increase
Forester
$31,090
$28,440
$2,650
Forester Premium
$33,390
$31,640
$1,750
Forester Sport
$35,890
$33,210
$2,680
Forester Limited
$37,390
$35,320
$2,070
Forester Touring
$41,390
$38,740
$2,650
Subaru additionally confirmed that the previous-generation Forester Wilderness will stay in manufacturing alongside the brand new 2025 mannequin, however did not specify for a way lengthy.
All 2025 Foresters get a 2.5-liter flat-four producing 180 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque. It’s paired with a CVT, and in Subaru custom, all-wheel drive is customary. Subaru touts enhancements to its Global Platform, which ought to deliver upgrades to experience and dealing with, whereas decreasing street noise. A hybrid version is coming within the close to future, however Subaru hasn’t confirmed any particulars but.
Once upon a time journalists, together with these at Motor1, labored at centralized editorial places of work. But current years have modified our way of life, working, shifting, and understanding mobility. Therefore, the way in which we go about creating automotive content material has additionally modified.
This transition impressed us to create a brand new technology of places of work we name the House of Motor1, inaugurated right now by by our editorial group, the Motorsport Network, in Rome.
What is the House of Motor1 about? It’s a spot to have and share experiences, a home devoted to the automotive of the long run. Because we imagine that the automotive (hybrid, electrical or hydrogen, it would not matter) might be an undisputed protagonist of the long run, because of the applied sciences that compose it.
An Office Ecosystem
“The house is a machine for living” mentioned architect and designer Le Corbusier. And if right now’s machines hunt most effectivity, we’ve finished the identical with our workplace, designed and constructed as an ecosystem of power effectivity.
That means self-producing a part of the power we have to work on daily basis (together with charging the electrical automobiles we take a look at on Motor1.com and InsideEVs) and on the similar time consuming as little power as potential.
So we lined the roof with photovoltaic panels, put in storage batteries, and added a high-efficiency air-con system able to recovering warmth produced whereas inside air is exchanged.
Everything is networked and interconnected to the automotive park’s charging infrastructure with “smart” charging stations that recharge the automobiles or, when wanted, take a part of the power saved within the batteries and change it with the workplace.
The entrance to the House of Motor1
Charging stations
Our tremendous environment friendly HVAC
A Space to Talk About Changing Mobility
The first House of Motor1 was born in a particular place, an outdated manufacturing unit in-built 1900 within the coronary heart of Rome close to the Trastevere district.
The constructing underwent a 12-month industrial restoration, which represented a problem inside the problem each when it comes to redevelopment to scale back its power wants and for the transformation of the massive inside areas redesigned in accordance with the wants of the editorial workforce.
Among different environments, we have created a studio for recording movies and podcasts in addition to areas devoted to modifying the content material that feed our web sites and social channels.
Conan O’Brien has loads of followers at Motor1, and some of us additionally fancy the Ford Taurus SHO. Conan has lengthy poked enjoyable at himself for driving an previous Taurus, however we all know the SHO is one thing particular. He spoke about it lately on his Team Coco podcast, revealing he truly purchased it with out understanding drive a guide after which promptly hit the streets of LA. Yikes.
Speaking as somebody whose first guide automobile was additionally a Ford Taurus SHO, enable me to say I’m impressed Conan survived these preliminary trials. The previous SHO used Ford’s MTX-IV transmission, a gearbox sourced from Mazda and beefed up a bit for SHO responsibility. It wasn’t a horrible design, but it surely was notchy and oftentimes fussy getting again into first—precisely what you need when the prolonged pink mild turns inexperienced and you’ll’t get it into gear. And whereas the high-revving V-6 had a good 220 horsepower, its 200 pound-feet of peak torque at 4,500 RPM made it a bit difficult to get shifting till you bought used to it.
At least I had a little bit of three-pedal expertise from BMWs earlier than buying my SHO, so I acclimated fairly rapidly. In the podcast, O’Brien says he “bought it on faith” in Massachusetts then went to a grocery store car parking zone along with his brother, who confirmed him the fundamentals. That’s fairly typical for many three-pedal newbies, however then he took it to Los Angeles the place he was “grinding gears like crazy” till he finally acquired the hold of it. And for these questioning, sure, he nonetheless owns it. He confirmed as a lot within the podcast.
The previous SHO made a number of appearances by means of O’Brien’s profession in tv. Brad Pitt famously dropped the clutch for a smoky burnout in New York, and on TBS he tried to convince an insurance agent it was price thousands and thousands. Arguably the very best SHO bit got here throughout his Late Night tenure the place, amongst different issues, he hilariously referred to the guide shifter because the “Cone Bone.”
Stay stylish, Conan, and do not promote the SHO simply but. These are going up in worth, and along with your celeb possession within the combine, it may fetch a minimum of $2,500 at public sale.
In February, BMW’s design boss let slip that the corporate would sell the next-generation M5 Touring wagon in America. BMW wouldn’t affirm any particulars after we reached out on the time, however now it’s able to make issues official—the M5 Touring is coming to the US. BMW will start producing the 2025 M5 Touring within the fourth quarter of this yr.
BMW is already teasing the automobile, and launched a brand new video of the sedan and wagon occurring a highway journey. It follows the pair from Munich, Germany, to Arjeplog, Sweden, as BMW finishes winter testing for the brand new M5, and it’s the primary in a video collection.
The mannequin will pack a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V-8 engine, an electrical motor, and a plug. The setup will produce over 700 horsepower, with the output doubtless falling between the XM and XM Label, which tops out at 738 hp. The previous-generation M5 delivered as much as 617 hp in Competition trim.
That’s much more energy, however the M5 will doubtless want it. The sedan will reportedly weigh 5,368 pounds, about 1,000 lbs greater than the F90, and the wagon could possibly be even heftier. The hybrid powertrain doesn’t assist, however the next-gen automobile can also be allegedly bigger than the outgoing mannequin, rising in size and width.
It’s too early to know the brand new M5’s value, nevertheless it’ll undoubtedly attain the six-figure mark. The 2023 M5 sedan began at $107,900, and we count on the value to extend with the next-generation mannequin. You’ll doubtless have so as to add a premium for the prolonged roof and further cargo capability, driving the fee effectively previous $110,000.
Volvo is the most recent automaker to publish sturdy hybrid stats amid diminishing EV demand within the US by way of the primary quarter of 2024. The Swedish model is off to a optimistic begin with a year-over-year gross sales improve of 17 %, and hybrids are the explanation why.
Specifically, Volvo plug-in hybrids have been sizzling commodities by way of the tip of March. These fashions have been up 44 % for the interval, totaling 7,118 items. Mild hybrids have been up 5 %, main the general gross sales cost with 8,088 autos. EV gross sales, nonetheless, fell off a cliff. Just 970 absolutely electrical Volvos have been bought for the primary three months of 2024, in comparison with 2,782 final 12 months; a drop of 65 %.
Exactly every week after Toyota dropped the first teaser of the new 4Runner, the automaker is revealing a bit extra of the upcoming truck. In a picture and video launched in the present day, Toyota confirmed off the 4Runner’s roll-down rear window, one of many SUV’s signature options. The automaker additionally confirmed the 4Runner’s debut subsequent Tuesday, April 9.
The sixth-generation 4Runner replaces its predecessor after 15 years on sale. That’s historic in automotive phrases, however the 4Runner has enjoyed a U.S. sales surge that started in 2014 and peaked in 2021. Even final 12 months’s 109,951 U.S. gross sales, down from the 2021 peak of 144,469 items, exceeded first model-year gross sales. That’s all however extraordinary within the auto trade.
Like the brand new Land Cruiser, Tacoma, Tundra, Sequoia, and Lexus GX and LX, the sixth-generation 4Runner will experience on Toyota’s TGNA-F truck platform. As ever, it will likely be a body-on-frame beast, and it ought to slot in beneath the brand new Land Cruiser in Toyota’s off-road lineup.
We suspect that the 4Runner will share its powertrains with the brand new Tacoma pickup. That means a 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine as a base, with a hybrid drivetrain a potential future possibility. In the bottom Tacoma this engine makes 220 horsepower, whereas in most different fashions it will get bumped as much as 278 hp. The hybrid i-Force Max powertrain presents up 326 hp from the identical engine paired with an electrical motor.
It can be a bummer if Toyota did not put its potent three-cylinder engine in additional vehicles aside from the GR Yaris and GR Corolla. It seems as if the third mannequin to get the 1.6-liter turbo may need a Lexus badge. Unveiled as an idea in January on the Tokyo Auto Salon, the LBX Morizo RR has a excessive likelihood of reaching manufacturing.
The small Lexus crossover with the tiny however mighty G16E-GTS is all however confirmed to go on sale in choose markets. Drive journal spoke with Lexus Australia CEO John Pappas who mentioned the LBX Morizo RR is “highly likely” going into manufacturing. However, he did add the potent by-product of the Yaris Cross-based LBX has not obtained the inexperienced gentle simply but.
While the Yaris Cross has spawned a GR Sport by-product, it is all present with none further go. The hotter LBX proven in the beginning of the yr in Japan had the 300-horsepower engine from the GR Corolla, full with the 295 pound-feet of torque discovered within the GR Corolla Morizo Edition. As against the recent hatch we get right here within the United States solely with a six-speed handbook gearbox, the spicy LBX has a newly developed eight-speed, torque converter computerized transmission borrowed from the 2024 GR Yaris.
Australian journal Drive factors out Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda has already been heard saying the LBX Morizo RR will go on sale later in 2024. Fun reality—the corporate’s former President and CEO is understood by his “Morizo” nickname when he is sitting behind the wheel. If authorised, the beefy by-product would have greater than twice the ability of the common LBX, which makes do with 134 hp from its hybrid 1.5-liter engine.
We do not get the LBX in North America the place the UX is the smallest mannequin Lexus sells. However, placing the punchy engine into the crossover may be an indication that Toyota and Lexus are wanting to develop extra enjoyable vehicles. Ideally, a few of them will get a US visa. The new R&D heart in Japan with its interior designed to mimic the Nürburgring pit lane is the place future GR (and Lexus) fashions are being developed. That provides us hope for extra Gazoo Racing-branded vehicles.
The exact same Akio Toyoda hinted on the finish of final yr about reviving the Celica. Earlier in 2023, Toyota President Koji Sato additionally advised he’d prefer to see an eighth-generation mannequin. Meanwhile, the FT-Se idea is a window into the way forward for an MR2-esque electric sports car.
Renault gave the Clio supermini a mid-cycle facelift a couple of yr in the past, so it is solely pure its crossover equal is receiving a nip and tuck as nicely. The 2024 Captur follows the most recent design language with hanging LED daytime operating lights and the restyled diamond brand. The total entrance fascia has been redesigned, which does not occur fairly often throughout a car’s shelf life.
There are fewer modifications on the rear the place the taillights have retained their “C” form however now have completely different graphics. Renault up to date its badge on the tailgate to suit the most recent company id, and it seems to be as if the pretend exhaust ideas at the moment are (fortunately) a factor of the previous. Hopefully, it’s an indication this annoying pattern is starting to die off.
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