Category: Design

The recall affects about 13,200 Canyons in the U.S., about 40 percent of which are in dealership inventory or in transit, a GM spokesperson said.

While nothing has been promised or is happening now between GM and Hyundai, the potential is huge.

Cannis has the commercial vehicle unit Ford created in 2021 on pace for $70 billion in revenue this year. Ford Blue CEO Andrew Frick will take over on an interim basis.

General Motors and Hyundai Motor Co. will explore cooperation in everything from passenger and commercial vehicles to electric cars and raw materials under a sweeping agreement that aims to improve efficiencies, slash costs and reach bigger economies of scale.

Denso’s new ¥69 billion ($482.9 million) workerless plant will make advanced on-board computers that bundle together control of multiple functions in the car, accelerating the transition of Toyota’s top supplier into a software-driven mobility company.

• Lucid’s Technology and Manufacturing Day event gave several updates on the state of the company, the Gravity SUV and upcoming technology.
• A shadowy teaser of the new Project Midsize vehicle, coming soon. 
• The midsize platform is scheduled to start production in late 2026 with a starting price under $50,000.

Two things are true about Lucid Motors right now. It makes the most efficient and longest-range electric vehicles on the market. But it’s also still a nascent startup attempting to cross the “valley of death”: the gap between high initial startup costs and long-term stability and profitability. 

At Lucid’s Technology and Manufacturing Day event today, CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson showed off several new technologies and updates to existing products that the automaker hopes will get it across that valley. The upcoming Gravity SUV is one of them; done right, it should take the Lucid Air’s remarkable range and efficiency to a type of vehicle that’s far more popular with families and mainstream car buyers. We also know that existing Lucid models are getting enhanced automated driving software and dumping Amazon’s Alexa as the in-car virtual assistant (which is good news because it’s supremely unimpressive in the current Air.) 

But I’d argue none of these are as important as Project Midsize, the nickname for the program that aims to bring Lucid into the $50,000-ish crossover arena—something that will be as key to Lucid’s success as the Model Y was for Tesla. And today, we got our first good look at this vehicle not under some kind of a sheet. 

“The new crossover will use the efficiency and cost advantages enabled by Lucid technology to deliver the same range as competitors while using a smaller battery,” the automaker said on its website. “The midsize platform is scheduled to start production in late 2026 with a starting price under $50,000.” 

Here’s a lightened version I made, which also doesn’t reveal too much: 

But even from these pics, the car looks quite handsome. I think it carries its proportions a bit better than the electric Porsche Macan does, and even reminds me a bit of the Aston Martin DBX crossover. (That’s an interesting coincidence, considering Lucid is powering Aston’s future EVs.) 

Rawlinson said that the midsize car could be a market that’s 30 times bigger than the Air sedan, which goes to show just how important affordable crossovers are globally. He alluded to a possible event where the midsize car could be revealed next year. 

What do we think so far? Let us know in the comments. 

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when Rawlinson said the midsize EV may be revealed; it has been corrected. We regret the error.

Rivian’s new rewards program offers a $750 credit and six months of free charging to the Rivian owner making the referral and to the buyer of a new R1T pickup or R1S crossover, the company said.

• Lucid is gearing up to launch its first SUV, the Gravity.
• Designing a car that can handle a decade of life in the real-world is hard, as Tesla’s frequent durability problems have proven.
• To get around that, traditional automakers, Lucid and others use “proving grounds” that torture-test their vehicles.
• Lucid’s latest video highlights what sort of testing the Gravity has gone through.

How do you simulate an entire 150,000-mile vehicle lifetime in a couple of months? That’s the fundamental challenge facing engineers at automotive proving grounds. In the latest video from Lucid, you can see a peek into how it works.

I love this video, because I love proving grounds. I’ve only been to one—Hyundai Motor Group’s facility in the Mojave desert—and absolutely loved the experience. Hyundai laser-scanned and recreated some of the most tortuous bits of the U.S. interstate system at the facility, and torture-tested vehicles by driving them on undulating pavement, high-speed ovals, off-road trails and through salt baths. It bakes its vehicles in ovens—with salt still on their underbodies—and uses sun-tracking cases in the desert sun to do accelerated UV-wear testing. It was an incredibly impressive facility, and a trip I still recount frequently today. 

Yet while that approach is common among so-called “legacy automakers,” who almost all have Arctic, desert and specialty proving grounds, some startups take a less serious approach to durability testing. Tesla, for one, famously uses its consumers as beta testers. The brand still does some durability testing, but I’ve never seen evidence that Tesla has a similar-caliber facility to what the big companies use. 

Lucid wants to set itself apart from Tesla. Not just in efficiency, but in its approach to durability and quality. Early Lucid Airs had quality problems you’d expect from a brand new company—and MotorTrend’s long-term tester had plenty of issues—but it’s been working hard to build a reliable and durable product. That’s especially true for the upcoming Gravity, its first SUV, which may be asked to do some harder off-road work.

Lucid’s durability testing video shows the Gravity negotiating some gnarly rocky roads, dealing with undulating “cosin” bumps, plodding through sand, sitting on a suspension shaker, towing trailers and doing repeated acceleration attempts on a steep hill.  

It’s a tougher testing regimen for what’s supposed to be Lucid’s toughest product yet. Based on the testing procedure, it looks ready to handle a beating. But Lucid obviously isn’t going to show if the SUV has problems or breakdowns in its promotional videos, and the real world can throw curve balls rarely seen in repeatable, intentionally designed test. We’ll have to wait until the Gravity launches later this year to see Lucid’s work at the proving grounds results in a product that’s ready for prime time. 

Kia America COO Steve Center says the automaker will continue to lean on leasing to sell its EVs but calls the provision ‘very fragile.’

The sedan gains a tweaked exterior design, new interior features and additional power.