MotorTrend May 2022

Rhetoric is landing like hard jabs in the electric vehicle arena. Tesla is the global leader when it comes to EV sales, but General Motors is unwavering in its claim it will top Elon Musk’s company by 2025. And feisty Ford came out of nowhere recently to garner buzz as it endeavors to defeat both. The CEOs wearing the gloves are equally intriguing. GM boss Mary Barra is the stoic leader who chooses her words carefully and only makes promises she is confident she can keep. At the other end of the spectrum is Tesla’s Musk, who plucks ideas from his bulging brain and throws them against the Twitter wall to see what sticks. His promises come with an asterisk: Results could be spectacular but are likely to be delayed or…

The Blue Oval has finally, officially put two of our favorite words together—Bronco and Raptor—and coughed up details on the hotly anticipated 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor. Here’s the big news: The Bronco Raptor comes one way—with four doors, a removable hard top, 37-inch tires, and a version of the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 and 10-speed automatic transmission found in the Explorer ST. Ford promises more than 400 hp, but the exact number and the torque figure have not been finalized as of this writing. The engine exhales via an active exhaust system. To produce Raptor-worthy power, Ford Performance engineers worked to increase the amount of air moving in and out of the engine via lower-pressure ducts, new exhaust headers, and even a simplified muffler. The idea is to excel at high speeds both…

Now that major automakers have fully committed their enormous resources toward eliminating Tesla’s head start on EVs, things are getting real. In fact, aside from the Supercharger network, there aren’t many good reasons left to buy a Tesla Model Y or Model 3 over a 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5. The Ioniq 5 costs tens of thousands of dollars less than the Model Y, can go just about as far on a charge, charges faster, has more features, is quieter inside, rides better, is built better, and has a nicer interior. The Model Y is quicker and sportier, and the Supercharger network is more reliable and easier to use than the non-uniform options for everyone else, but that and brand prestige are all the Tesla really wins on. The Model 3? It…

It’s been a good chunk of time since any Maserati has been truly competitive. Although the Italian brand’s vehicles have nearly always had gorgeous design and a storied—but increasingly distant—history on their side, they came up short in product quality, holistic excellence, and consumer excitement. To say the marque has underperformed its reputation is a massive understatement. Positive things were happening behind the scenes, however. In 2015, when Ferrari went public and Fiat Chrysler (now Stellantis) had more time and money for Maserati, the brand began developing the Nettuno powerplant, which would serve as the heart of its next range-topper—the mid-engine MC20 supercar. The new twin-turbo V-6 features 12 spark plugs and 12 combustion chambers, dry-sump lubrication, and variable valve timing. It delivers 621 hp and 538 lb-ft of torque to…

The compact truck is back, and its name is Ford Maverick—and the way its hybrid “base” powertrain performed in our testing should make you rethink all your assumptions about what a pickup can and should be. We’ll get to its test numbers in a second, but first let’s discuss something important they can’t capture: the Maverick Hybrid’s charisma. The version we tested was an XLT, one step up from the entry trim, and its fantastic mix of interior materials added to its puckish charm. The seats featured an attractive and premium-feeling two-tone textile, and the Maverick really shines in its use of texture and color, turning what would normally be hard, nasty plastic into something you want to look at and touch. The attention to detail in making an inexpensive interior…

Sequoia trees are among the oldest living things on earth, so it’s appropriate that Toyota’s full-size SUV is named for them: The outgoing model dates from 2008, and over the many years it’s been on sale, it’s slipped from first to last in comparison to its peers. Now, a new Sequoia sapling has sprouted, with a few surprises. If you think the current Sequoia is a bit too plain or, ahem, old, your concerns have been addressed. Mostly, the new Sequoia shares its lines and creases with the all-new Tundra pickup, and that means it’s less doughy and more aggressive than the old model—and that latter trait is backed up by what’s under the hood. For those keeping score in the Toyotaverse, the new Sequoia one-ups the mechanically related Lexus LX 600…