TransportBlog

Youtube is overflowing with automotive content. But some are just focused on raving about brands, looks or interior while others offer detailed information on performance, engineering, driving characteristics, industry trends and all those other stuff that car enthusiasts drool about. So here are some channels that definitely won’t be a waste of your precious time.

Autogefühl

https://www.youtube.com/user/autogefuehl

Unbiased, spot on, surgical reviews. Can’t get any German than this (contents are in English tho!)

AutoTopNL

https://www.youtube.com/user/AutoTopnl

Autobahn, and pretty good reviews.

Auto Trader UK

https://www.youtube.com/user/autotraderuk

Also pretty good consumer advice.

Bjorn Nyland

https://www.youtube.com/user/bjornnyland

Bjorn’s channel is like an applied EV version of engineering explained.

Carwow

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUhFaUpnq31m6TNX2VKVSVA

Interesting drag races, pretty good consumer advice.

Drag Times

https://www.youtube.com/user/DragTimes

Proper drag racing

Edmunds

https://www.youtube.com/c/edmunds

U.S. consumer advice

Engineering Explained

https://www.youtube.com/user/EngineeringExplained

Well rounded automotive and industry engineering channel.

Fully Charged

https://www.youtube.com/c/fullychargedshow

Clean mobility news.

Jay Leno’s Garage

https://www.youtube.com/user/JayLenosGarage

History, engineering, performance, the drive.. It’s Jay Leno. Enough said.

Misha Charoudin

https://www.youtube.com/user/Wallerus

Focused on the Nordschleife.

Nico Rosberg

https://www.youtube.com/c/NicoRosbergDE

F1 champion’s views.

TFL Truck, TFL Offroad

https://www.youtube.com/user/tflcar

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDYoRaOBygvmVdRqne0XG2A

TFL channels are great in general, but their truck and offroad contents really stand out.

Throttle House

https://www.youtube.com/c/ThrottleHouse

Well rounded reviews focused mainly on the drive.

Tyrrell’s Classic Workshop

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2pQT90JBqbMHSVLtbJBvyw

 There have been talks about Apple planning an Apple car and  more recently news from Elon Musk stating that Tim Cook refused a meeting proposing the sale of Tesla to Apple at around USD 60 Billion (roughly 10% of today’s value of Tesla). Some go as far to say that Apple will again come up with a game changing product, but Apple currently lacks the key ingredient for such product, namely an innovator.

 Steve Jobs was an innovator. His concept of the iPhone was beyond phone. It was a ubiquitous portable processor with the most advanced user interface. Steve Jobs’ iPhones (up to iPhone 4S) were all same in size with almost identical design in terms of essential features such as the location of the connection port and physical buttons and switches. What this meant was that external devices for the iPhone would work across the different generations of iPhones and in most cases, fit adequately too. I personally had several external devices including midi controller keyboards, audio interfaces, docking speakers etc. I could change my iPhone to a new one and the new phone would simply fit into the ecosystem of devices.

 This was innovation. Manufacturers of various professional equipment created iOS devices on par with professional products and people bought them for professional grade price tags because they worked and would continue to work with the next new iPhone. This did not happen for Android devices. The reason is simple. If you were to make an external docking device for iPhones, you could simply design one and it would fit new generation iPhones without much problem and you’d be able to sell that product for a long time. For Android, the story is different. You run into the question of which hardware brand will it fit or how long into the future your device will be compatible. Why would any manufacturer jump into such a market?

 Furthermore, any complicated software settings were inaccessible to the users, making the user experience limited, but extremely simple and intuitive. Today’s iPhones have much more features and functions, but iOS has become so complex that it isn’t intuitive anymore and is becoming just as complex as Android devices. Personally, I wasn’t able to learn how to use Android devices and had to stick with iPhones despite constant rage. But recently, iOS is becoming less and less intuitive.

 The iPhone following the death of Steve Jobs, the iPhone 5 was the beginning of the disaster. Both the size and the connection port changed rendering most of the external devices useless. This phone took away the ‘ubiquitous’ concept of the iPhone. As time passed, Apple came up with new iPhones that were similar in design to the iPhone 5. However, the ‘ubiquitous’ concept was long gone. New iPhones looked similar, but locations of buttons, mic and speakers varied across following generations, making devices designed for previous generation iPhones physically unfit for new iPhones. At this point, I wasn’t comfortable with buying expensive professional external devices for the iPhone anymore since there was no guarantee that they would work if I had to buy a new phone. I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one as third party devices went into rapid decline in both variety and quality. Docking devices were off the market as nobody could predict whether the next iPhone would fit the dock. Variety of professional equipment plummeted as well, as the future of compatibility of such expensive products were uncertain. Such devices were replaced by low quality consumer grade toys that would be used for the duration of an iPhone and be replaced. Tim Cook’s Apple had put an early end to Steve Jobs’ innovation.

 Apple has since then released some new products such as the watch, stylus pens, 700 dollar mac pro wheels etc. Which of these were innovative? None in my opinion, and I’d bet many would agree despite Apple’s financials skyrocketing in the post Steve Jobs era. Then how was Apple able to achieve such financial success without actual innovation? There may be many theories, but I would say Apple owes it to the brand concept and image that Steve Jobs had created. Apple products were used by professionals of some sort, be it graphics, video, audio etc. You buy an Apple product despite the drawbacks because you need the functionality. The original concept of the iPhone was an extension to this brand image. The uniform physical design and the iOS ecosystem attracted manufacturers of professional equipment. Even if your profession had nothing to do with the iOS ecosystem, Apple products symbolized this image. Brand images have inertia effects and Apple has been capitalizing on this inertia effect rather than coming up with game changing innovation. Obviously, this image is also fading with the lack of professional grade external devices being developed and Apple itself targeting regular consumers rather than savvy imaged professionals.

 Now the Apple Car. The Apple watch, the Apple pen (or whatever they call it), the USD 700 Mac Pro wheels were in no way innovative ideas. They are nice-to-have but insignificant extensions of iOS related products. For almost a decade, Apple has failed to show innovation in their products. Moreover, the new disruptive innovator, Elon Musk, proposed sales of his game changing car company, Tesla, for USD 60 billion when the Model 3 was beginning production. Elon Musk states that Tim Cook refused to even have a meeting. Tesla is now valued at over 600 billion. Not only has Apple failed to come up with innovation themselves, they had rejected the chance to adopt innovation at a cost of around 10% of the value. What did they buy? Beats, which sound engineers laugh at for rubbish product and sound quality. For the price point, Beats is a joke of a product and anyone buying into it is paying for expensive marketing costs and cheap (or basically no) engineering costs.

The Perfect Disappointment.

The Dutch Bike.

 Moving to the Netherlands, I was super excited. I always enjoyed the minimalist experience of cycling. You don’t have to worry about parking, fender benders are no big deal, you can stop wherever and whenever you want and you become part of the mechanics that move you forward. Having been to the Netherlands a couple of times before, I couldn’t wait to cycle through the cities built for cycling as the main mode of transport.

 There was just one thing I couldn’t understand. Almost everyone seemed to be on big heavy looking bicycles that didn’t seem very fast nor exciting. I looked online before coming to the Netherlands and these bikes weren’t exactly cheap either. Typically, you’d be looking at around EUR 500 for a basic Dutch bike that weighs almost 20kg. My fixie cost around that much and it was in the 9s and my commuter hybrid cost half that and was in the 8s. What is the deal with these bikes?

 If one would compare it to a car, I would say it would be the Citroen DS of bikes. It’s not screaming excitement, but little details make it the most comfortable and the appealing ride.

 First, the 28 1/2 wheels give it a tremendous ride. The huge wheels simply glide over any surface imperfection and the springs under the saddles make the ride even smoother. Posture is as comfortable as it can get and gearing is usually moderate, giving you both smooth acceleration and around 20kph of cruising speed. 

 Dutch bikes are often equipped with chain cases and dress guards that clip onto the rear fenders. All of my jeans had chain grease stains on the inner ankle area from the chains of my fixie, road and hybrid. With the Dutch bike, your pants will never touch the chain. Even if you’re wearing a long coat, you don’t have to worry about it being ravaged by the rear wheels thanks to the dress guards. Dutch bikes also come with front and rear lights fixed on top of the headset and rear rack so you don’t have to remember to carry lights around separately.

 Although some bikes are equipped with gears and rollerbrakes that are operated by hand, basic Dutch bikes have single geared coaster hubs, eliminating the need for any cabling. Without the cables, there’s one less thing to worry about getting caught on handle bars of other bikes when parking on crowded racks. It goes without saying that these bikes are built to last. With a simple coaster hub trap brake, there isn’t that much to break and the frames are built to withstand the ever rainy Dutch weather as well as pannier bags that hold 20kg of groceries or more.

 While all of this means that Dutch bikes weigh a lot, I learned that weight is not necessarily a terrible thing. Of course, climbing is an awful experience, but with more weight, you are less susceptible to headwind and downhills can be a blast. Instead of carving through wind, it feels more like bashing through wind and the weight helps you push through air resistance like a swinging hammer.

Nobody knows what the future holds. However, one thing is certain. Policy is in favor of zero emission vehicles and demand for gasoline and diesel is already plummeting. We are at crossroads in terms of transportation energy sources. Crude prices have dipped down into negative values this year and the future for the fossil fuel industry is grim. Some believe the end is near for fossil fuel in private light duty vehicles while others think the use of fossil fuel will prevail. This is a guess each individual has to make before deciding to buy a car as an investment.

At the moment, it is much more inconvenient to operate electric vehicles when it comes to refueling. However, policies and new businesses are contributing to the rapid expansion of charging networks. On the other hand, crude oil is turning into unwanted stock from its former glory as liquid gold. If electrification continues its rapid growth, gas stations will have less business. Even with crude prices dropping, gas stations may have to charge more to their customers as economies of scale will start to fail. Especially in areas where real estate prices are high, gas stations will either have to pass through the real estate costs to their few remaining customers or find a more profitable business. In other words, we might end up with a situation where EV charging is more convenient than finding a gas station that is still in operation.

In a more extreme scenario, crude oil extraction operations or refineries may fall out of their economies of scale, lose profitability, and cease operations. Enthusiasts alone will not be able to generate enough demand for fossil fuel to keep the entire supply chain running.

The process of traveling from an origin to destination is generally considered an inconvenience or dis-utility. It’s an added task that consumes money, time and effort. Of course, most car manufacturers know this and focus on making the driving experience as effortless as possible. Enthusiasts on the other hand, feel joy in the process of traveling and want to be as heavily engaged in driving as possible. Naturally, many copies of a given model will be specced for comfort, convenience or luxury as regular consumers like it and few will be ordered in stripped down lightweight enthusiast specs, focused heavily on driving characteristics. It goes without saying that if you want to sell a car at enthusiast level price, you would want to go for the enthusiast spec.

In general, manual transmission sports cars are turning out to be good investments. Although the time it takes to step on the clutch, row the gear in place and release the clutch is much longer than dual clutch transmission shifts, the manual control of invites the driver to become part of the vehicle operation battlefield rather than a commander overseeing the operation while the machines do the work. With lightning fast torque converters, DCTs and electric drivetrains, the extra work and attention required by the manual transmission is difficult to justify for today’s mainstream consumers or even for those who seek thrill in speed. Manufacturers are slowly removing manual transmission options from their offerings and even for the models that still do offer manuals, consumers are opting for automatics. For example, while the Ferrari California was considered one of the least desirable Ferraris and a blasphemy to the ‘Ferrari driving experience’, one example with the gated manual fetched EUR 330,000 in 2016. Unlike Ferrari’s common practice of creating artificial scarcity, the California was offered with a gated manual option for anyone willing to order it that way. However, only two orders were ever placed in manual form. In short, manuals are on rapid decline while enthusiasts willing to pay silly money are obsessing more and more over them. You get the picture.

The only people mad enough to pay ridiculous cash for cars are hardcore enthusiasts. While mainstream car buyers buy cars that provide the most utility for their lifestyle (be it cargo volume, fuel economy, brand value etc.), for enthusiasts, the car is the lifestyle. An enthusiast’s car doesn’t have to be more comfortable than others nor faster than others. It just has to be that car, period. There’s no alternative, replacement nor competitor. Enthusiasts view cars like viewing people. People can’t be measured nor judged. We all have different personalities. Cars also have personalities and that’s what enthusiasts fall in love with, ultimately paying ridiculous amounts of money to own that special car.

Speaking out of experience, if your ultimate goal in life is to own a certain car for the sake of owning, maintaining and driving that car, chances are, there will be others who have also picked up the appeal from that car and share your dream. There are die hard enthusiasts who spend huge amounts of money on such dream cars but commute by bicycle or public transportation. For these enthusiasts, the car is not a tool that can be compared based on its function or performance. It is the goal itself which supersedes all else including money. If you have the car in the spec they want, they will bid as far as their pockets allow them to for the car.

All sorts of EVs are rolling out, from RWD hot hatches to midsize pickup trucks. But one segment, which is also one of the most exciting segments for car enthusiasts is still untouched. This is the sport coupe segment.

Yes there are two door EVs that are bonkers in speed, but as exciting as their performance may be, their prices take them only half way. How many car enthusiasts can experience the excitement of buying a Rimac Concept One or a Lotus Evija or the Aspark OWL? Tesla has promised a much more affordable model with their upcoming Roadster, but the price tag is still quite lofty.

Some may argue that models like the Model S, Model 3 or the Taycan can fill this segment and offer two more doors and three more seats. But that’s the problem. Sports coupes don’t have two more doors and three more seats, making them lighter, more nimble and much more pleasing to the eye. I was hoping the Taycan would end up being produced in this format, but instead Porsche seems to have followed the tracks of Tesla.

Teslas in particular are a tremendous balance among performance, practicality, safety and affordability. Tip the plate a little towards more performance, while sacrificing other aspects, you get the Taycan. But what about cars like the Corvette or the Supra? Or reaching further down, the MX-5 or the Toyota 86? These cars are the models that go all the way in terms of excitement because they are not just exciting machines that exist somewhere, they are exciting machines that many can actually enjoy and experience.

In terms of sales, it would make very little sense as such a car would have little advantages over a Model 3 with much less practicality. Model 3s already pack more torque than their tires can handle without its traction control dialing the torque back. But less weight can also contribute to better handling as well as a stiffer suspension (although it would sacrifice comfort). Some downforce at high speeds would complement the Model 3 very nicely as well. Forget autonomous driving and price raising gimmicks for affordability and the product could have a strong appeal to car enthusiasts.

I’d be lying if I said that I'm not an absolute sucker for retro designs like the 98 New Beetle, BMW’s first gen Mini, the Mercedes W212 and 21st century pony cars. But recently, I feel that design has become such a huge portion of cars that it doesn’t make sense anymore. At the end of the day, cars are there to drive, not look at.

The ‘form over function’ approach has brought about great sales success for so many manufacturers. Considering the car buyers today, it would make sense to spend more on design teams than engineers. Mainstream consumers these days care more about what a car looks like it can do rather than what it can actually do. The popularity of FWD crossovers and aerodynamically inefficient retro designs goes to prove this point. The worse thing is that even manufacturers are jumping into this nonsense with their marketing companies, encouraging consumers to buy cars that look the part but will not deliver what the looks promise.

Fake vents, fake exhausts, useless ground clearance and retro design with corresponding aerodynamic inefficiency seem to be the norm nowadays and the way they make the cars look justifies their lack of ability for most consumers. But in the end, these are fake. In many cases they are fake decorations that have been paid to be designed and manufactured, adding to the cost of the cars. Car enthusiasts know exactly what they are looking for in a car. However, the average consumer doesn’t have the passion nor the time to devote to learning about cars and the automobile industry. To these consumers, car manufacturers are suggesting fake products and their marketing companies are telling the consumers that buying fake is not only okay, but the smart choice.

This attention to aesthetics has become so absurd that now, when somebody says that a car is ‘well designed’, I automatically think of a car that has been paid more to look a certain way than to be capable of certain things. ‘Design’ now gives me a negative notion rather than a positive one.

Historic cars like the E-Type, the Citroen DS, the Countach, the F40, the Hummer H1, the Defender and the Discovery are considered iconic designs because the way they looked were results of efforts to make the cars function better. The few manufacturers that are doing this seems to be Tesla, Suzuki and Koenigsegg, Jeep and some others in their commercial vans or pickup truck line ups (vehicles sold to ‘professionals’ seldom get away with functionless design tricks that cost extra). Others are fooling consumers and themselves with attention to aesthetics that has no meaning at all. Fake parts and retro design will catch up to the brand image in the long run, hurting the manufacturers more than the quick buck it has brought them.

I don’t think anyone will argue that Koenigseggs look absolutely ridiculous (in a good way). What’s more appealing is that the proportions and every detail are created that way to serve a purpose. This is the reason we find wide, low cars and scoops and vents appealing. They symbolize agility, power and stability and Koenigseggs deliver in those departments.

And then there are Teslas. Not everyone likes the design of Teslas and I’ve heard and read that their design is a bit boring. Aesthetically, I agree. But their design is the result of optimization with constraints in comfort, performance, safety, efficiency, usable space and production cost. In some ways, Tesla’s design is a product of more complex algorithms and technology than that of a Koenigsegg’s.

Jeeps are so iconic that in many countries, SUVs were called Jeeps. And it wasn’t artsy designers that made the wrangler’s design so iconic, but rather its capability offroad.

I admit that Suzukis in terms of design is quite a stretch. They look cheap, underpowered and actually are cheap and underpowered. But consider this. When you buy a Suzuki, you are paying for the hybrid system, the 4WD system, lane departure warning, emergency brake assist or whatever options you’ve chosen to pay for, not for design elements that have no function. They are bare bone cars you can add anything you want and they drive exactly the way you specked them. They are way more appealing than their looks suggest, and once you realize this, they really don’t look that bad at all.

To conclude, hiring artsy design teams can boost sales of a model or two. But in essence, doing so would mean spending money that could have been spent on engineering, on aesthetics. Considering that iconic designs come from engineering excellence, investing in aesthetics over engineering will end up a bad one.

Image sources:

 Although Mercedes Benz has been dominating F1 and their AMG models have become supercars, their mainstream models were more ‘form over function’, being beautiful and well built but not much more. The new generation design seems to be stepping away from the recently popular ‘retro design’. Personally, the facelifted W212 was the pinnacle of Mercedes Benz’s retro design with its cues directly from the bulletproof 400k km running W124. But that’s where the appeal ended.

 I have to say, the new generation design isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as previous designs. But the new styling has its own purpose rather than just invoking nostalgia of past greats and nothing more. The new design language started with the CLA. In addition to looking more aggressive than elegant, it was designed to cut through air like no other. It has a better drag coefficient than the Tesla Model 3, and that really is saying something. Instead of having E Class or S Class design handed down to its smaller models, Mercedes seems to have decided to take the CLA’s design language all the way up the ladder to the S Class (though the actual S Class has not yet been revealed).

 There’s a part of me that says the elegant and conservative design goes better with Mercedes than the new aggressive and cutting edge look. But the reason the W212′s design was so great was because it was based on a model that was an icon of quality and durability. It’s definitely time for Mercedes to come up with a generation of cars that will be lusted after in the decades to come. The ‘form over function’ approach has boosted sales for many manufacturers with certain models such as the PT Cruiser, BMW’s line of Minis, modern pony cars etc. But this kind of approach has not helped with overall brand value. It’s great to see that Mercedes is finally getting back to a ‘form follows function’ philosophy with their new design.

Images from:

E Class: https://www.caricos.com/cars/m/mercedes-benz/2021_mercedes-benz_e-class/images/22.html

CLA: caranddriver.com

I’ve recently had a chance to drive a Model S 75D, Model 3 standard range plus and a Model 3 long range. This is a short comparison of the three Teslas.

I won’t bore you with details about gimmicks and electric torque and all the stuff that’s already all over Youtube. I’ll mainly write about the differences that others had not pointed out.

First up, the Model S. Of the three cars, I drove this car last, and compared to the Model 3, it immediately felt old. I’ve seen people talk about how the Model 3 is too simplified with all the functions packed into one screen. But once you get used to the simplicity, it’s actually much more convenient. The three stalks on the Model S felt cumbersome and having two screens (one in the dash) divided my attention even more while driving. The center screen is located further away from the driver than in the Model 3. This means that I had to extend my arm fully to operate the screen while driving. It’s much harder to aim at the icon that I want to touch when my arms are stretched compared to when I have an elbow on the armrest and can touch the screen by just moving the lower part of my arm. But on the brightside, the glass roof on the Model S was far more beautiful than that on the Model 3 as there was no horizontal structure in the middle of the glass roof. The air suspension was also a plus as I could adjust the stiffness as I needed. But in general it is and feels like a much heavier car. The ride quality and driving characteristics felt like something between a Mercedes E class and S class, being much smoother than an E class, but not as plush as an S class. Acceleration of course, would be in the AMG territory but much quicker to respond and way more smooth.

Now the Model 3s. The Model 3 literally blew my mind. I knew how quick and fun EVs can be, but I hated the concept of autonomous driving. ‘People should work the clutch, always stay aware of the gear you’re in and talk complete control of the basic functions of the car’. That was my philosophy. I used to think that I’d rather take a train than sit in an automous car. I couldn’t have been more wrong. 90 percent of the time, driving is boring. It’s just those occasional highway on-ramps and bendy roads that are fun to drive. I guess I never realized that because I was too busy working the clutch and thinking about gears and rpm. Autopilot was fantastic. I could talk with my family and stay relaxed. Not having an autopilot stalk and having the function integrated into the gear lever made much more sense. Also, like I mentioned in the Model S part, having almost every function in the center screen actually proved to be so much more convenient. It’s the only place my eyes have to roll to for information, instead of having multiple screens and a gauge cluster so that my eyes have to run all over the place. Some people worry that the center screen would force the driver to look away from the road. I used to be one of them, but after driving the Model 3s and then getting into a regular car with a gaufe cluster, I realized that looking at the gauge cluster also takes my eyes off the road. Also, I got used to the center screen so quickly, I found myself looking to the right to check the speed. Another small but well planned detail is the location of the center screen in the Model 3. It is placed much closer to the driver and can be operated with an elbow resting on the armrest. The difference in accuracy in touching the screens was immense compared to the Model S.

The most surprising thing about the Model 3s was how different the Standard Plus and Long Range models were in driving characteristics. The difference in acceleration is a no brainer, but the real surprise comes in the twisties. I could not get the Long Range to oversteer no matter how hard I mashed the throttle going out of corners. The suspension felt harder and overall, the car felt like it was planted to the maximum degree without hurting ride comfort. I am dying to find out where the Taycan stands in the balance between ride comfort and suspension stiffness. The Standard Range Plus on the other hand felt much more smooth and passenger friendly. It would also oversteer a little bit when I mashed the throttle out of a tight corner, and then traction control would kick in about a half a second later to stop the back end from rotating. I’m not sure if it was the tires that made this difference between the Long Range and the Standard Range Plus, but the two cars definitely felt like to totally different models.

It’s a Hyundai and I WANT ONE

 One function turns this EV from a sensible EPA efficiency leader to a hooligan hatch you can throw around without worrying about wasting range. It’s the paddle shifters. Almost all EVs have regenerative braking but the paddle shifters on the Ionic gives you so much more control over how much regen the car will do under braking. Yes, the Model S can also do that, but through the giant center touch screen, which means you have to be browsing through menus. Ionic has three regen modes, 1 arrow, 2 arrows and 3 arrows. 1 arrow gives you some braking and 3 arrows gives your passengers motion sickness. The 3 arrow setting can’t be used in everyday driving because it breaks too hard, but it was frequently used on down hill rolls and when coming to a stop at traffic lights. Ionic’s paddle shifters let you control the regen setting with a flick of a paddle. Other EV’s might do this automatically from the pressure on the brake pedals, but would I know how hard to stomp on the brakes to slow the vehicle down without the brake calipers touching the disks? I doubt it. The paddle brakes let’s you control how much regen you want and once you get used to the level of braking with each setting, you hardly ever touch the brakes before coming to a complete stop. When over taking, you can just click the paddles into 3 arrows setting, and mash the acceleration pedal. When you’re done over taking, you can just lift off the gas and the car will quickly turn the excess speed into battery juice without having to guess whether the brakes took away some of the energy or not. Then you can flick it back into 1 arrow setting, and the car will no longer jolt violently when you take your foot off the accelerator. Being able to control the level of regen with a couple of flicks on the paddles made me mash the throttle more because I was able to recoup the excess speed back into the batteries without wasting any on heat at the brakes. Of course, there would be energy loss in the process and I would have been getting back less energy from the speed than the energy that originally when out of the batteries in the first place, but having this function definitely made me drive faster than anybody else on the road. Even in petrol cars I wouldn’t mash the throttle that much because most full throttle pulls would just end in braking behind cars ahead. Sport mode make the car noticeably more responsive, but not something back thumping like the Model S. If the Model S acceleration is like a 1st gear pull on a super car, the Ionic’s acceleration feels more like a second gear pull on a sports car.

 Although the Ionic isn’t a quick car on paper, the characteristics of electric drive are there, and it feels so much quicker than most petrol or diesel cars. The instant response is something that’s just incomparable to petrol or diesel cars. It’s so much easier to merge into faster traffic because the moment you step on the throttle, the car will accelerate faster than oncoming cars on the left lane. And again, you don’t have to worry about accelerating too much and wasting energy because you can flick the switch a few times and get some of the energy back into the batteries without operating the wasteful disk and caliper brakes. I’m sure the Bolt or the i3 would smoke the Ionic, but in everyday driving, I would be much more inclined to floor the Ionic than other cars simply because I can get the energy back without heating the brake disks and pads.

 Driving like Ebenezer Scrooge, I was able to do 11.4km/kWh on hilly highways with occasional traffic lights. That would translate to about 198 miles of range with the 28kWh battery back. But I was accelerating more slowly than little girls on bicycles and had to keep a huge gap between the car ahead to avoid using the brakes. I had to let off the throttle and start regen even when I saw a red light a quarter mile ahead. I would get brain cancer driving like that again. Driving like an idiot, I averaged 7.4km/kWh, which would mean about 129 miles of total range. Although I was constantly flooring the throttle, I tried not to use the brakes and mainly used the paddles to slow down. The Ionic did pretty well even with me driving like an asshole.

 Steering was very light and lacked feel, but I could feel the low center of gravity on tight turns, which also made me brake less on the curvy scenic roads of Jeju. I didn’t push the limits of the tires, but the car handled high speed turns superbly for a four door economy car with stock suspension. The turning radius was also an incredible feature of the Ionic. The radius was so tight that it almost felt like going sideways when making U-turns or maneuvering in tight spaces.

 In terms of interior, everything is laid out reasonably. I know big screens that do everything is popular these days, but I prefer to have some knobs that I can reach for without looking into the screen. No matter how smooth the ride is and how good a multi-tasker a person may be, if the road has rough surfaces and the car is shaking, you are bound to make a wrong touch or two on the screen and end up opening up the wrong function. The Ionic does have a screen the size of a smartphone, but also has four knobs, two for climate control, one for audio volume, and one for browsing music files. While audio can be controlled from the steering wheel in the Ionic and most other cars with huge touch screens, having the HVAC dials was much better than having to control it over touch screens while driving. Another feature of the HVAC system I notices was that when the sunroof was tilted, a significant blow of wind would rush in through the cabin air vents. This feature allowed me to drive in the sun with only the sunroof tilted and the windows closed, keeping out some of the traffic noise from outside.

 Overall, cabin noise is not something the Ionic does well with. Although the electric motor is quiet, the wind and road noise at high speeds was very loud. At high speeds, a diesel powered S Class was much quieter. But for me, the loud wind noise just added to the sensation of speed and made the drive more exciting.

 Hyundai was one of my least favorite brands mainly because of the boring line up and their tendency to copy successful models off of other brands rather than pioneer into new technology or segments. There is also the fact that Hyundai has been influencing trade policy to keep the price of imported cars ridiculously high in Korea to keep a firm grasp on the Korean market. Through this Hyundai was able to sell cars at higher prices in Korea than in overseas markets, while using mediocre parts that would only be replaced and upgraded on cars where those parts failed (it happened to my friend’s newly purchased Santa Fe, and the Hyundai mechanic confessed that it’s built cheap and proper parts are only installed if the cheap parts fail within warranty). However, the Ionic is a brilliant product that I have to love. It seems Hyundai has chosen the right compromises based on human factors to build an EV that will top the efficiency rank and exciting and comfortable to drive. Although it falls behind on range, power, or acceleration compared to other EVs, acceleration was way more than sufficient for overtaking every other car on the highway and city traffic (there weren’t any ridiculous super cars or Teslas). The range is relatively short, but careful planning of restaurants and stores that I had to visit didn’t make range an issue at all. Overall, the Ionic is definitely a car that I would consider buying if (and a very important if) I could install a charger at home. It’s not the type of excitement from a Tesla or throwing gears and thomping on clutches of manual transmission sports cars, but it’s a different kind of excitement that is equally addictive and much more usable in everyday driving.

Pros:

Energy efficiency

Instant torque

Turning radius

Low center of gravity

Overall HVAC system, especially working in conjunction with the sunroof

Regenerative braking control paddle shifters

Cons:

A bit more range would have let me mess around with the throttle more and given me more freedom in planning stops (but I guess a bigger battery would mean sacrifice in efficiency)

A bit more power would also help (maybe only a little considering that it is a front wheel drive and already has sufficient power within most legal speed limits)

Steering feedback is quite numb

Braking feedback is also very bad especially when trying to make tiny parking adjustments. It feels like I can only choose to stop or go 3 mph and nothing in between. Closing gaps between walls or other cars was probably the most annoying thing

You would really need a charger at home that you have full access to every night.

Specs:

EPA overall efficiency: 136MPGe

EPA range: 124miles

Battery: 28kWh lithium ion

Front motor, rear battery, FWD

1 speed transmission

0-60mph: 9.9 seconds

Power: 118hp

The Typical Modern SUV

Pros

Typical diesel acceleration.

Had almost all equipment and creature comfort available these days in production cars.

Auto 4WD was effective for city driving and light trails. Tires never slipped under full throttle acceleration even on wet roads. Power distribution indicator on the dash was interesting.

4WD lock gives you more options if you’re more serious about off roading or have heavy snow winters

Moderate interior.

Center console and stocks on the steering wheel need some getting used to but once you do, they’re pretty comfortable.

The SUV ground clearance is always helpful.

Cons

Throttle response is awful. It felt like a full second before anything would happen after flooring the accelerator.

No brake feel. It seems there are only three braking levels: slight, hard, very hard.

Tiny rear window. Back up camera and sensors are a must.

Auto stop/start function is way too sensitive. It turned the car off quite frequently when I had to reach for stuff in the back seat. This never happened in the E-Class or the Mitsubishi Outlander.

Car feels a lot heavier and bigger than the Outlander. Not as sharp or responsive and more body role.

Trunk is tiny compared to the size of the vehicle.

Typical noisy diesel. Don’t expect it to be as quiet as the new BMW or Audi diesels.

Super slow manual gear shifts.

It had a 7 speed gearbox, but on downhill roads, the gears would stay low, constantly engaging in engine braking. In eco mode, it would make better sense to shift up a gear or two.