+++ “The United States is not one market”, said AUDI boss Gernot Döllner. He spoke to a group at a roundtable discussion. Döllner said that certain models that work well in California might not work in Nebraska. One that might, however, is a more rugged SUV, something that Audi is actively “evaluating,” Döllner notes. Off-road capable machines are big business right now in the United States. From Honda’s Trailsport family to Subaru’s Wilderness line-up, dealers and customers are eager for adventure-ready vehicles. Audi itself has explored this idea. Last year, the company introduced its Q6 e-Tron Off-Road Concept with extra ride height and a track that is wider than on a stock Q6. That monstrous machine pushes the envelope, clearly, but there are ways to easily scale back those upgrades for a consumer product. Audi only has to look towards its own platform-sharing sibling for more inspiration. Bentley recently showed off an off-road-ready Bentayga concept, leaving customers and dealers itching to see it brought to production. For Audi, creating a new off-road trim for its SUVs could be a simple way to start making a bit more money. +++
+++ The drag-race format thrives on unlikely matchups, and this one qualifies. For years, the BUGATTI CHIRON was the absolute benchmark for production car performance, sprinting off the line like a rocket ship. But the Chiron is now a decade into its life, and a handful of newer hypercars have started to chip away at its aura. The question now is whether the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X can join that list. It is also worth noting the financial gulf between the two: the ZR1X starts at around $209,000 new, while used Chirons routinely trade above $3.5 million. Curious to see how his new ZR1X stacked up against the almighty Bugatti Chiron over the quarter mile, Brooks from the DragTimes channel pulled alongside a fellow YouTuber in the French hypercar for a run of races, both from a standing start and from a roll. The results are not what you would expect. In the first of the 3 drag races, the ZR1X launches off the line way quicker than the Chiron, able to put its power to the ground much better. By comparison, the Bugatti spun up all 4 wheels off the line in the hot Arizona conditions. Halfway down the quarter-mile, the Corvette was more than 10 car lengths ahead of the Chiron, and that’s not a gap even the Bugatti could close. The driver of the Chiron got a better launch in the second race and enjoyed a slight jump off the line. However, the Corvette quickly closed the gap and easily pulled away, taking another comfortable victory. Clearly, the instant power and traction provided by the Corvette’s front-mounted electric power is too much for the Chiron to handle. During a roll race from 48 km/h, the Bugatti should have the advantage, right? In the first run, the Chiron did get the jump and took the win, though the Corvette was not far behind. The Corvette driver fumbled the shifting during that race, so they lined up for a second go, this time with the ZR1X’s gearbox in automatic mode. Thanks to its 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8 and electric motor, the Corvette ZR1X delivers 1.250 hp and 1.319 Nm of torque. By comparison, the standard Chiron delivers 1.500 hp and 1,600 Nm) of torque. The key advantage the Corvette has is its lower weight: 1.775 kg compared to the Chiron’s 1.995 kg. +++
+++ Stellantis has laid out its roadmap for the next few years, and it includes over 100 new and refreshed cars. In the United States, every American brand is getting new metal, and for DODGE , that includes a new halo sports car called the Copperhead, which will have an SRT variant. Car and Driver got an early look at the car, describing it as long, low and sleek, and likely based on the Charger. It has a copious number of vents, including an S-duct on the hood with a massive bulge. There are additional hood vents and vents behind the rear wheels for brake cooling. At the back is a massive rear wing, while exhaust tips hint at the combustion engine hiding under the hood. The automaker failed to provide any powertrain details, but I doubt it will offer anything less than a V8. If the new Ram Rumble Bee is any indication, Dodge could even have a range of engine options for the vehicle, but that remains to be seen. The Copperhead name is not new to Dodge, which will brand it with a Viper-like snake badge. The company last used the name nearly 30 years ago on a concept car designed to sit below the Viper. +++
+++ Say what you will about Luce, but FERRARI did get something right. It managed to keep the car’s exterior design a secret until the very end. That rarely happens nowadays, when people have little respect for embargoes and leak images in the hunt for clicks. But now the wraps are off, and boy, does the Internet have something to say about the company’s first electric car. One of the best-qualified people to talk about Ferrari is Luca di Montezemolo. He is more than just a former company employee. Having served as chairman from 1991 until 2014, he remains the longest-serving head honcho in the post-Enzo era. In fact, it was “il Commendatore” himself who asked di Montezemolo to join the fabled Italian brand in the early 1970s as his assistant. Over the decades, Montezemolo held several high-ranking positions at Ferrari and its former parent company, Fiat. He resigned as Ferrari’s president and chairman in 2014, but given his long tenure in Maranello, it was inevitable that journalists would ask him about the newly unveiled electric car. Speaking with the press this week, the 78-year-old former Ferrari boss shared his brutal take on the Luce. Di Montezemolo was quoted as saying: ‘If I were to say what I really think, I’d be doing Ferrari a disservice. We risk destroying a legend and I’m truly sorry about that. I hope they at least remove the prancing horse from that car”. The irony of his statement is that, aside from the usual front and rear badging, customers can order the Luce with a silver Prancing Horse on the front doors. Alternatively, the EV is available with Scuderia Ferrari shields on the front fenders. While the configurator doesn’t allow both at the same time, it’s evident that Ferrari wants to make it crystal clear which brand the car belongs to, even in profile. That’s not all di Montezemolo said in his otherwise brief take on Ferrari’s first production car without a combustion engine. His candid assessment of the design also included an indirect jab: “Luce is certainly a car that at least the Chinese won’t copy”. +++
+++ With its sales in decline, PORSCHE ’s new chief executive, Michael Leiters, is reportedly pushing for the company to downsize, dramatically reducing its production plans, cutting its workforce and shrinking its executive board. Under the leadership of former boss Oliver Blume, Porsche had been seeking to boost sales, aiming to sell between 350.000 and 400.000 vehicles per year. As production increased, so did Porsche’s workforce. However, poor sales of its EVs, as well as an overall downturn in its business across the US and China, led to a drop in Porsche’s profit margin to just over 1% last year. Now under the helm of Leiters, who previously served as McLaren’s CEO, Porsche recently announced it is dissolving the Car-IT division, reducing the number of divisions from eight to seven. It’s possible Porsche’s executive board could also be cut from 7 to 6 members, as it was when Porsche was led by Matthias Müller. More important are Porsche’s production plans. Last year, it sold roughly 280.000 vehicles, down more than 30.000 from the previous year. The downtrend has continued this year, with sales dropping 15 percent through the first quarter. With this in mind, Leiters wants to reorganize the company so it can be profitable while producing roughly 200.000 vehicles annually. By the end of the decade, it will reportedly aim to achieve an operating margin between 10 percent and 15 percent. Leiters is in negotiations with the German works council to cut costs, which will result in job losses. It’s unclear how many workers could be let go, but many of the losses could be focused on Porsche’s development center in Weissach. This facility is currently home to around 5.200 staff, and an insider suggests a quarter of these jobs are at risk. Porsche sales chief Matthias Becker could also lose his job, having been partly blamed for the company’s sales decline in China. Becker was also notably absent at the recent Beijing Auto Show. The car manufacturer also has overcapacity issues to deal with. It may seek to overcome this by merging its production and procurement divisions. +++
+++ Fans of the TESLA MODEL 3 were offered more excitement when the Model 3 Performance launched, but they’ve never been given a full-on Plaid variant like the Model S. That may soon change if Tesla vice-president of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, gets his way. Speaking on the Ride the Lightning podcast recently, he said that a tri-motor Model 3, or Model 3 Plaid, effectively, is something that he’s constantly turning over in his head. “I think about it all the time”, he said when asked if a third motor could be fitted to the Model 3. With the Model S and Model X now discontinued, it would be a great way of highlighting Tesla’s performance credentials, and at a lower price than before, too. While Moravy neither confirmed nor denied that the Model 3 would get the Plaid treatment at some point, he indicated that Tesla has other priorities right now and that a high-performance Model 3 might be more effort than it’s worth. He said a Model 3 Plaid is being looked at from a “work for reward” perspective, which seems to suggest that the time and resources expended on such a product may not have a strong business case at the moment. Moravy did mention the carbon-sleeved motor technology that made the Model S Plaid so reliably quick, so Tesla is clearly thinking about a hi-po Model 3, it’s just not a priority. Instead, Tesla is focused on expanding its Robotaxi operations, producing more Optimus robots, and working on the Tesla Roadster. Apparently, that’s still happening. Moravy said that Tesla’s latest and greatest motor tech will go to the Roadster, so he and the rest of his engineering team haven’t necessarily put the project on the back burner. Moravy didn’t deny that a Model 3 Plaid would eventually happen, and his reference to carbon-sleeved motors as part of a tri-motor package for Tesla’s most affordable model suggests that the automaker has thought about how to make the EV more exciting. But he didn’t confirm it either, and with Tesla viewing itself as more of a technology company than a car manufacturer these days, launching new models and improving existing ones are not issues Tesla is most worried about at the moment. CEO Elon Musk has said the Tesla Roadster will be one of the last human-driven cars in history, and when quizzed about new product, he’s regularly diverted attention to solving autonomous driving, providing a network of robottaxis to service bustling metros, and offering robots to serve as assistants in every facet of life. Basically, Tesla has the tools to make a riveting Model 3 Plaid, but other projects are more important to the leadership of the company. +++
+++ The headlines about Chinese EVs almost always lead with the prices, and for good reason, they’re often absurdly low. What gets buried is that most of the companies building these cars are often bleeding money on every one that leaves the factory. XIAOMI is the latest name to land in that column. The technology giant, often viewed as the Apple of China, spun up a smart EV and AI division a few years back with the express purpose of building cars. Two models are currently on sale: the SU7 sedan, which arrived to genuine acclaim, and the YU7 SUV. Both have found buyers in serious numbers. Xiaomi moved 80.856 vehicles across China in the first quarter alone. According to the company’s fillings, Xiaomi also generated 19.9 billion yuan or around $2.9 billion in revenue over the same period, yet posted an operating loss of 3.1 billion yuan ($457 million). This amounts to a loss of around $5.600 per car sold this year. From a financial perspective, things aren’t getting better for Xiaomi, and they’re actually getting worse. During the first 3 months of 2025, it sold 75.869 vehicles. Although this was down 6.6 percent from this year, the company’s losses were also much smaller, so much so that it only lost roughly $900 per vehicle sold. One obvious lever is the average transaction price, which currently sits at just 235.000 yuan, around $34.600. Pushing more buyers into the higher-margin variants would change the math quickly. The new 990 hp YU7 GT opens at 389.900 yuan, or $57.300. The SU7 Ultra, the hypercar-baiting flagship, starts at 529.900 yuan, a hair over $78.000. Neither is a volume play, but every one sold drags the average up. Xiaomi posted particularly strong sales in April after a decline in February and March. Last month, it delivered 36.702 vehicles, significantly more than the 21.440 sold in March and the 20.414 sales reported in February. However, sales have yet to recover to the peak of 50.212 reached in December. +++