As 2022 draws to a conclusion and we anxiously await to see how much weirder things get in 2023, it's natural to reflect on the year past. In addition to compiling a list of the 10 best cars, trucks, and SUVs we drove in 2022, I decided to also put together a roundup of our most-read automotive articles, plus a few of my particular favorites you might have missed.
1. Ford lays down the law with dealerships
The car buying process in the US is often an awful one, even more so since the pandemic and supply chain disruption resulted in reduced manufacturing capacity and exorbitant markups. It's particularly acute if you're looking for a new electric vehicle, many of which are far beyond affordability for many, especially after the loss of the $7,500 federal tax credit.
At least one automaker has had enough of indifferent dealerships and their bad behavior, and it was our most-read car story this year. In September, the Ford Motor Company told its dealers community that they had eight weeks to agree to new rules; the alternative being no more EVs to sell. Ford has restructured itself into new divisions—Ford Blue, which will make and sell fossil-powered vehicles, and Ford Model e, which is responsible for the battery powered stuff (there's also Ford Pro, for commercial vehicles, some of which are EVs).
Ford CEO Jim Farley told dealerships that EV pricing has to be transparent, and that prices need to be posted online and cannot be suddenly changed when a customer is at dealership. Those locations also have to install at least one DC fast charger if they want to continue selling Ford Model e vehicles. The new rules go into effect in 2024.
2. EV charger reliability has to improve
Number two in the 2022 traffic charts concerns the topic of EV charger reliability, or rather the dreadful lack thereof. A lot of money is being spent to build out the infrastructure we need to support a transition from liquid hydrocarbon-based transportation system to one that just plugs into the grid. Some of that is for the lower-power AC chargers, but much of the investment is in high speed DC chargers that can return an EV's battery to 80 percent in half an hour or less (depending on the specific EV).
The only problem is that it's common for EV drivers to reach a bank of chargers only to find that one or more—sometimes most—are out of commission and refuse to charge. What's worse is that the process is so entirely opaque, with cryptic error messages that even automotive engineers aren't able to decipher there and then. Just about every non-Tesla EV driver has a story, possibly more than one, about road trips gone awry due to broken chargers, and if we ever want EVs to gain mass market acceptance, that needs to change.
3. Let me see that funky bus
Our first new EV on the list is the Volkswagen's eye-catching ID. Buzz. We had to wait until the 1980s for the minivan, but Volkswagen has been making van-like vehicles for decades, starting with the Type 2 Transporter in 1949.
Over time they got a bit bigger and definitely more angular, but air-cooled VW styling has many aficionados, and from 2001 the Germany automaker has teased us with concept after concept showing a modern version of the iconic VW. The most recent of those debuted in 2017 and caused such a stir that VW's bean counters greenlit it for production, using the company's new modular EV platform that also underpins cars like the VW ID.4 and Audi Q4 e-tron crossovers.
US sales of the ID. Buzz remain a couple of years away, as the longer wheelbase version with three rows of seats won't go on sale here until 2024. But Europeans can now buy a short-wheelbase two-row version, and we tried out it earlier this summer. It's been quite a hit over there despite a hefty price tag, and in September VW announced it was doubling production and aiming for a capacity of 100,000 vans a year by 2023.
4. Koenigsegg's creations capture your attention
I will admit it, I was a little surprised (but rather pleased) to see a story for Monterey Car Week crack the top 10 charts, at number four no less.
It's an interview with Christian von Koenigsegg, the founder and boss of Swedish car company Koenigsegg. Koenigsegg has been building cars for just over 20 years now, resolutely doing its own thing and ploughing new ground as it does so. No other automaker could boast V8 engines with no flywheels, a transmission that doubles as a nine-speed automatic and a six-speed manual (with clutch pedal), or even those distinctive doors that appeared on the very first CC8S and still feature on Koenigseggs today.
"We started out trying to innovate from the get-go, because I didn't believe we could survive just doing what everyone else is doing, because I always felt the need to bring something new to the table to be worthwhile and viable and interesting. And we just kept on doing that over the years. And we got away with it all the time. So we just got kind of wilder and wilder at fulfilling our ideas or wild dream," he told me.
5. The campaign for the return of hydraulic steering
Fifth place belongs to a story from January bemoaning the dearth of steering feel in most modern cars. The culprit is an industry-wide shift from hydraulic power steering to electric power steering, and it's a move that makes sense for multiple reasons.
The electric-assist motors require much less power which means less parasitic drag on an internal combustion engine, obviating the need for a hydraulic system on an EV. And electric motors also make possible driver assists like lane keeping. They're also much cheaper, particularly if you mount the electric-assist motor on the steering column (rather than on the steering rack).
The only problem is that the motors also filter out feedback as it travels back from the wheels through the suspension and steering column back to the steering wheel. Completely and totally, in the case of a column-mounted steering system. And that in turn is responsible for making so many modern cars feel dull and lifeless behind the wheel.
Some cars are better than others—Porsche is better than most at imbuing its cars with steering feel, and the new BMW i7's steering proved quite talkative when we drove it last month. In the future, expect entirely drive-by-wire steering systems that add that feel or communication back, much like a driver-in-the-loop simulator, according to Dr Werner Tietz, head of R&D at the car company Cupra.
6. We love the Kia EV6, you love the Kia EV6
Fittingly, the Kia EV6 comes in sixth place. A January 2022 report, I traveled to Sonoma to try out Kia's first electric offering to use the company's new 800 V platform, called E-GMP. And I found a pretty darn good EV when I got there. Less distinctively styled than the related Hyundai Ioniq 5, the EV6 is slightly smaller and feels a fair bit sportier to drive.
But more than that, it's a thoroughly compelling platform and car, from an automaker that has churned out nothing but great cars for the last few years now. It can fast-charge to 80 percent in just 18 minutes, and the automaker has made it easy to use the EV6 as a giant battery on wheels thanks to a 110 V vehicle-to-load capability. It's generously equipped and the infotainment system won't make you want to shout with frustration or bang your head against the screen. It's even on sale in all 50 states, although with the US allocation at just 20,000 EV6s a year, it might be hard to find.
7. The Ars Guide to EV Charging
The process of recharging an EV is just different enough to refueling a conventional car that it scares off some potential converts. That's understandable—in the mid-2010s, just as lithium-ion EVs reached feasibility, one had to worry about three competing kinds of DC fast charger plug, none of which would fit in an incompatible car.
But in 2022 the situation is much simpler, and our eighth-most read car article of 2022 is Ars' explainer on EV chargers. It walks you through the two levels of AC charging that will fully charge a battery over the course of a night (or perhaps two in the case of a 110 V level 1 supply).
For fast charging with a DC power supply, basically every EV on sale today in the US uses the CCS1 plug, with the exception of Teslas, which use a proprietary connector, and the Nissan Leaf, which clings on to ChaDeMo even as the Japanese automaker ditches that standard for CCS for its future American-market EVs.
8. Ferrari's faulty brake fluid reservoir cap
Ars readers like reading about automotive recalls, often going on to argue about the definition of a recall in the comments. Our most popular recall story from 2022 probably involves a bit more schadenfreude than usual as it involves Ferrari recalling almost every car it's built since 2005. The problem concerns the cap to the brake fluid reservoir, which is supposed to be able to vent but sometimes can't, resulting in a brake fluid leak.
Ferrari thinks that only about one percent of the brake fluid caps are actually faulty but it's easier to just replace them all, which it started doing in September.
9. The Mercedes-Benz EQS is a smooth customer
Managing Editor Eric Bangeman is responsible for our ninth most popular auto article in 2022, and it's his review of the Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan. He drove the EQS 580 over the summer and came away impressed with many of the same features that impressed me when I drove the SUV version later this year. It's a comfortable cruiser with great seats and an infotainment system with fantastic voice recognition, which allows you to keep your hands on the wheel while you interact with it. And it's got a big battery and a tiny drag coefficient so it's got a decent range for a big EV.
The big electric Mercedes is not entirely perfect, however. I'm less of a fan of the giant Hyperscreen than Eric, and neither of us is keen on the way Mercedes' EVs make their brake pedal move as the car regeneratively brakes.
10. 747 miles on a single charge
The tenth spot for 2022 belongs to a concept car, but it's a fully functional one that Mercedes let us drive. It's called the EQXX, and it's a hand-built technology demonstrator that was able to drive more than 747 miles on a single charge, on public roads, from Stuttgart, Germany to Silverstone, England. It even had enough charge left for a handful of hot laps upon reaching the Silverstone race circuit.
The biggest factor in range efficiency in an EV is aerodynamics—at highway speed at least 60 percent of the car's energy is being spent pushing the car through the air. (By contrast, weight, which is a perennial complaint about EVs, is much less important.) Consequently the EQXX has a minuscule drag coefficient... and a tiny frontal area.
Driving the EQXX on Mercedes' test track, I learned that it's more efficient to coast than constantly applying power then regenerating it under braking, but I was still able to average more than 7.4 miles/kWh (8.4 kWh/100 km).
Perhaps even more impressive was the 5 miles/kWh (12.5 kWh/100 km) I was able to achieve in eMMA, a GLB test mule that's had its powertrain ripped out and replaced with the same battery and motor you find in the EQXX. For context, the production EV version of the GLB—the EQB, which was released this summer—only managed 3 miles/kWh (20.5 kWh/100 km) when I drove it that same day. The first production Mercedes EV with the EQXX's tech is due in 2024.
And a few others you might have missed
There are also a number of auto stories from this year that didn't make the traffic charts but which did push my buttons. In March, I went to visit Honda's new wind tunnel facility in Ohio, probably the most advanced automotive wind tunnel in North America now.
April saw a feature which should give you ammunition against any EV skeptics in your life. Specifically, it examines the full lifecycle of a car's carbon emissions, including construction and eventually being scrapped. Since EVs are more expensive to buy than an equivalent gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicle, it's reasonable to think that an EV uses more raw materials and has a higher lifetime carbon impact.
In fact, EVs are so much more efficient than "regular" cars that it's quickly clawed back—most EV batteries range between 66-100 kWh, which is equivalent to just 2-3 gallons of gasoline. Once you add in the fact that most EV factories now use renewable energy or are entirely carbon neutral, it only takes a couple of years for the EV's lifecycle carbon footprint to become smaller than that of an equivalent car powered on dino juice.
Another April feature looks at the burgeoning field of converting classic cars to electric propulsion. It's definitely an appealing idea, giving new life to old cars, particularly those with uninteresting engines. (No one is suggesting ripping the V12 out of a Ferrari 250 SWB to make it electric, for instance.) Sadly it's still not a cheap endeavor, and one that isn't really applicable to modern cars which have interdependent systems that make it very hard or impossible to replace their powertrains with electric ones.
I very much enjoyed reading Dan Carney's account of driving a Toyota GR Yaris in Ireland. It's a hand-built homologation special that now shares little with the mainstream budget hatchback of the same name, and by Carney's account is a hoot to drive. I do wish I had edited out the bit about its price in Ireland, given that includes enormous new car taxes that wildly inflate the price to the eyes of US readers. While the GR Yaris isn't coming to America, Toyota will sell you a Corolla with the same powertrain now.
Perhaps the favorite thing I wrote all year was my first drive of the BMW 760i. A V8-powered sibling to the excellent i7, I thought about the car from the perspective of someone who only ever drives EVs and can't quite understand why gasoline powered cars exist, coupled with a photo shoot that made the most of the stunning scenery in Joshua Tree National Park.
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December 28, 2022 at 08:35PM
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Here are the 10 most popular auto stories of the year - Ars Technica
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