Good morning, dear readers. Back to my usual oh dark-thirty Sunday morning routine, this time in the midst of a mega-thunderstorm that hopefully won't kill power until I have a chance to send this thing on up the wire.
Let's dig into what's fresh on the 'nets since the last time I swung by your inbox.
Chevrolet's Corvette ZR1X revealed
There have been rumors of a wildly powerful, electrified Corvette for ages now, chatter that seemed to gain steam over the past few months with extra spy shots and speculation. We can finally set all that aside, as the ZR1X has been revealed. At a high level, it's basically the ZR1 I recently tested, plus the hybrid system in the E-Ray, but there's a lot more to it than that.
While I was down in Austin, Texas, for that ZR1 drive, Chevrolet kindly gave me an early look at the thing. My video above gives you a quick look, but I also have all the details in written fashion over at Engadget. The one detail I don't have yet is the pricing, but this one's clearly going to be well north of $200,000. I think most would agree is a lot for a Corvette, but then this is going to be a lot of Corvette.
Another take on BMW's upcoming iX3
This one didn't quite make the wires in time for my last update, but if you wanted even more impressions of BMW's upcoming iX3, the company’s first implementation of the long-awaited Neue Klasse platform, I have an in-depth writeup for InsideEVs. There, I delved into the impressive charging performance the car offers, plus details on the rest of the platform. Read it below, or again, you can catch me in video form above if that’s more your style.
All four of Audi's new 5s
Audi is in the midst of another a bit of a back-and-forth reshuffling of its lineup that was formerly a bastion of logic in an increasingly confusing sea of letters and numbers slapped on the back of luxury sedans and SUVs. I won't try to explain the company's new nomenclature because it'll probably change again between my hitting send and this popping up as unread on your end. Suffice it to say that the new A5 is the replacement for the A4 sedan and A5 coupe, though it is actually a hatchback of sorts. The new Q5, meanwhile, lives on as an SUV.
Regardless, this cadre of machines — A5, S5, Q5, and SQ5 — make up the bulk of Audi's sales, and so they have to be good. Thankfully, they are, for the most part, a big step up over their predecessors from a tech and driving feel standpoint. But I must say I don't love the more generic styling they're wearing this year. I'm also a bit bummed to see such a limited choice of powerplants, but hopefully, the company will add a little more variety there in model years to come.
Anyhow, you certainly have a variety of places to read my impressions:
Wrapping up my BMW iX long-term reports
All good things must end, and for now, at least, this update marks the end of my (mostly) monthly update on what it's like to live with our 2024 BMW iX. For this last one, I talked about taking it down to BMW's shiny new North American headquarters to meet its successor, the new iX, and provided some more impressions of they compare. Cruel, I know, but honestly, I didn't feel like I was missing much when I saddled up in our old gal for the long mosey home.
So, no more updates on InsideEVs for now, but we still have another year and change on the lease, so the experience (and, sadly, the payments) continue on this end. If y'all are interested in more updates on how that’s going, drop me a comment and say so, and I'll try to add some impressions from time to time.
That's about it from me this week, and I'd say that's plenty. In the week ahead, I'm wrapping up a final few days with the Escalade IQ, Cadillac's preposterously proportioned electric SUV. I’m also headed out west to try out Rivian’s new preposterously powerful EVs. I'll have full impressions of all that and more to come.
Until then, be well, do good, and maybe try to spend a little less time doomscrolling this week. It's going to be a long one.