⚡️🔋Current Events 2/20/22: EV Challengers Have Arrived at the 2022 Chicago Auto Show
The EV-relevant proceedings of a freezing yet sunny Saturday at the McCormick Center. There were even more EVs this year and we're excited to share them with you.
Hey everybody,
Hope you all are having a good weekend, I know I am. Our second time heading to the Chicago Auto Show on Saturday morning gave us a look into a bunch of new models that are either already or shortly coming available to customers in North America. Let’s take a stroll through what we saw. We start with what I found was the most commanding presence of the EVs at the show, the new all-electric Chevy Silverado.
Two things immediately struck me about this EV pickup from our visit: Firstly, the frunk (front trunk for the uninitiated) is much smaller than the F-150 Lightning’s, albeit still quite large and definitely useful. Second, Silverado has better access to using power from the bed of the truck by giving customers power outlets on either side of the bed unlike the F-150 Lightning which places the lone panel only on the left side of the bed towards the tailgate. This was at least what I noticed in the Lariat version at the last show.
The bed of the truck lays out at at 5 feet, 11 inches in length, but when customers leave the midgate open with the optional configurable tailgate extended, that length stretches out to around 10 feet, 10 inches. It does however have a max payload rating of 1,300 pounds which is quite a bit less than what Ford has reported for F-150 Lightning. Lastly, the sail panel at the front of the bed remains an entertaining controversy among truck enthusiasts. Maybe it slightly improves range by reducing airflow into the bed, or maybe it’s just GM’s very GM way of being barely rebellious in a world where something like a Tesla Cybertruck is somehow heading to production. Who knows? I just want to drive this big blue beast.
Next, we have the truly handsome but preposterously named, Toyota bZ4X. Let’s start by clearing the air, Toyota have taken too long for this transition to begin and have somewhat damaged their EV credibility in the process. Nonetheless, I really hope the usually satisfied RAV-4 Prime owners find something to love with this car and give it a shot. With an estimated 250 mile range, it has roughly 10x what the average American driver puts on their odometer per day.
This interior for the bZ4X is going to become familiar quite quickly. I say this because the exact same design is being utilized for the Subaru Solterra interior with slight variations. It’s one thing to use the same platform as a partner company like Kia and Hyundai did with the EV6 and Ioniq 5, respectively. It’s another thing entirely to share the exact same dashboard, console, and steering column designs.
There was something interesting about Toyota’s strategy with this product. For the front-wheel drive, single-motor variant, the vehicle leverages a single 150 kW permanent magnet motor. In the all-wheel drive variant, Toyota has opted to use two 80 kW motors and only increases the battery size by 1.4 kWh from 71.4 to 72.8 kWh net capacity. This is a very interesting play as it allows them to offer AWD and range extension to customers at very affordable cost without dramatically ramping up the amount of batteries or motor components they need to build the car. They also seem to understand that the loyal Toyota customers that are purchasing family crossovers are hardly interested in supercar performance so why increase cost for those families unnecessarily? I’m very curious how this plays out. Even though the price is pretty high for such an average range, Toyota simply does not put out poor quality products. We’ll see how it goes.
Down the road, the F-150 Lightning stood tall clad in all-black. Here at Ronin, we appreciate seeing Ford dig deep to make this car look so appealing. I finally got a photo of it with the frunk closed, too. I wasn’t able to tell which trim level this was. Still eagerly waiting for an opportunity to drive one. For more on F-150 Lightning, we wrote a whole other Dispatch diving deep into its capabilities and details, please check it out here.
Here is just a quick glamour shot of the Mustang Mach-E. We’re in the process of getting another test drive with the GT variant soon and planning an update of our original Dispatch about the experience. We are eager to see if the GT has a chance of being increasingly competitive in sales with the regularly sold out, Tesla Model Y.
Moving forward through the show, we came face to face with the extremely competent and increasingly popular, Hyundai Ioniq 5. Our next regular dispatch is dedicated to a deep dive, comparing and contrasting this vehicle to its sibling, the Kia EV6. So for right now, I’m going to put away the analysis and just share some great shots we got from the show.
Onward… BMW put their best foot forward today with the presentation of the all black M50 variant of their luxury crossover, the BMW iX. Really wish I could have sat inside and enjoyed the feel of the materials. From other reviews I’ve seen, the strongest aspects of this car are the luxurious cabin experience and lack of NVH (noise, vibration, harshness).
Electric torque that generates performance worthy of the M-badge is also never unwelcome. The beaver teeth front grill still needs to go, but I will admit the rest of the vehicle is growing on me.
Now let’s move on to the new Subaru Solterra. Honestly, from the announcements of both Toyota and Subaru about this platform, I wasn’t much interested in it. Given the size of the battery pack it’s a little odd for it to only go around 220 miles to a charge. Nonetheless, after seeing it in person and seeing how well it was received by Subaru enthusiasts at the show, I’m confident that many will be adding this vehicle to the garage as their daily driver. I think this EV looks quite sharp and beats the bZ4X in the aesthetics department.
Solterra is special from its Toyota cousin in that it leverages Subaru’s extensive rally experience into producing an EV drivetrain and suspension that can handle off-road conditions quite well. People who are at all concerned about its average range when off-roading should bear in mind that off-roading, especially on difficult terrain, is way slower than driving on a highway or a city. That difference in velocity on the trail (or off it) accounts for a huge boosts to efficiency. I’m sure lots of folks will easily figure out ways to use this vehicle for some amazing adventures when it delivers later this year.
And now, for what can only be described as my personal favorite of the show, the new Kia EV9 concept. It will be likely releasing in 2023 but Kia’s EV6 is generating so many good reviews that we at Ronin are pretty sure they’re going to convince a lot of people to reserve this one too.
The announced specs and pricing are aspirational to say the least. Kia is targeting a $45,000 starting price for this gorgeous concept of a 7-seater, all-electric SUV. They also expect it to drive 300 miles to a charge and accept a monstrous 350 kW of charge power. For a vehicle releasing in 2023 at the earliest, that is exactly where Kia wants to be spec-wise.
If they could just keep this color scheme and drastically improve the wheel design, I’d be a happy camper. Those uncanny triangles in the center of the rims gotta go. The “lightbar” design for headlights is starting to pick up steam in future releases of electric SUV and Pickup design. Production is truly too far out for me to speculate any more over specs so we’ll leave things here for now.
Here’s a quick appearance from our good friend, the Volkswagen ID.4 Pro S AWD that’s just begun deliveries here in the US. This is another model we will be revisiting and updating an original Dispatch for. Please be on the lookout for that. I’m quite curious to see what improvements they bring to the second and third model years of this enormously important car for VW.
Last but certainly not least, is the Nissan Ariya. We had the pleasure of meeting this fine vehicle in its Platinum+ variant with e-4orce AWD available at the truly wild price of $60,125. It’s not often you see eye-watering pricing on a Nissan of this rather compact size, let alone one with a range of only 265 miles.
We are still so excited to see how it drives, how the autonomous features work, and if Nissan will continue to build on it’s substantial experience and loyal customer base from the Leaf platform. It all remains to be seen but one thing is for certain, if they can get as loyal a following as Leaf owners, this crossover has a bright future ahead.
Well that’s all we got for today. Thanks for joining us for this Special Ronin Dispatch exploring the EVs of the 2022 Chicago Auto Show. Below, I’ve built a chart with basic data and analysis of all the vehicles I had the opportunity to spend time with today. I hope it helps in assisting you or anyone else in finding the perfect EV for whatever roads lie ahead.
Have a lovely Sunday everybody,
Renato
Renato A. Amboss is the Founder and First Pilot of Ronin EV. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are his own. None of the views expressed are intended as investment advice of any kind and should not be taken as such. Cars are not investments, but we would love to show you what electric ones can do! Have a lovely day!