Yahoo Finance NY Auto Show's top trends: Electric vehicles, indoor tracks, and one hot hatch
The New York Auto Show returned to the Javits Convention Center in New York City for the first time since 2019. After the three-year break, there's lots of news and new cars to discuss. Yahoo Finance senior columnist and auto expert Rick Newman joined me to review our top trends of the show, which runs through this week.
The Nissan Ariya arrives
Nissan debuted its all-new Ariya electric vehicle, it's second EV and its first real "adult EV." I say adult because Nissan's first EV, the Leaf, was more of a short range, get-around-town kind of car, whereas the Ariya is a mid-sized crossover with high-end materials and an all-new dual motor drivetrain capable of a range of 300 miles.
Nissan's Global Design Head went for a Japanese minimalist approach for the Ariya's design ethos, which Nissan pulled off with good effect. Rick Newman also was impressed:
"I also thought this was the most interesting thing I've seen here at the show," he said. "What caught my interest is there's no center hump. And the space where there would normally be that hump in the front is completely open, and the same in the back. So I was able to talk to one of the engineers about this, and he explained, well, there's no drive shaft, which you don't need in an EV."
While we were both impressed by the interior space and design, we were not surprised that a traditional automaker like Nissan could build such a car. But what did surprise us was the sheer number of new EV makers there are out there, which brings us to the next topic.
EV confusion comes to the masses
While you may have heard of Nissan, GM (GM), Tesla (TSLA), and Rivian (RIVN) — you might not know VinFast, INDI, and DEUS. These three upstart EV makers are joining the mix of big traditional automakers in the EV landscape and showed off their new cars in New York.
There's a lot there for consumers new to the EV game to come to grips with as the competition heats up. "People are going to have to do a lot of work educating themselves. I mean, a lot of people find buying a car complicated already," Newman said. "If you want an electric, you're just going to have to educate yourself. It's not impossible, but you're just going to have to do some work."
Besides all the domestic and international brands, confusion also comes in the form of models within a certain brand. Take Kia, which offers its Niro compact crossover as a battery electric vehicle, but also uses the 'EV' nomenclature for its all-electric offerings, the EV6 and EV7.
Indoor test tracks come to auto shows
Leave it to the New York Auto Show to allow you take your confusion behind the wheel. As more and more EVs enter the space, automakers want potential buyers to drive these vehicles, or at least get driven around in one. What better place than an auto show for mass test drives? And, EVs don't release harmful emissions.
There were a three test tracks that we saw at the show, some better than others.
"I guess you get to get inside the car and at least see what it looks like, and notice that it doesn't make any noise. And you can drive these around inside because there's no exhaust," Newman said. "So they have a couple of those set up here, and they look completely boring, honestly."
Rick was impressed with what Ford had on offer, if at least for some cheap thrills. "Ford was able to set up kind of a sprint track, where they have an F-150 Lightning pickup and a Mustang Mach-E. And all they do is launch it. You go fast for about two seconds, and then it comes to a braking halt...Maybe it's more interesting than just the putt-putt in the other courses."
Welcome to screens everywhere in your new car
Not surprisingly, smart screens are everywhere, as automakers try to make consumers and 'digital-native' types feel more at home in cars. Look around the floor, and you'll see screen after screen in any place of open real estate in a car, even curved screens like the impressive piece of glass we saw in the Nissan Ariya EV.
"So I looked inside a Jeep — it's the Grand Wagoneer. And so there's the usual set of instrument display in front of you. Then there's the usual— what's now a large console in the center stack. And then the passenger has another screen, which in the version I saw broken down into three different screenlets," Newman said. "And then in the second row, because it's a third-row vehicle, each of the outboard passengers has a screen... So really, it's the equivalent of having, like, 15 smartphones in your car, different phone screens."
There are still some cool, gas-powered cars coming
All those screens beg the question for the auto enthusiasts out there: Can there be a driver-focused, pure performance car available for the masses?
Well, Toyota (TM) and its CEO were listening. In sort of a swan song to the gas-powered rally car, Toyota unveiled the GR Corolla. Based on the Corolla hatchback, Toyota added a bunch of aero components and a wider and more aggressive front and rear fascia and aero components and a forged carbon roof, among other things.
Under the hood is a hopped-up 1.5 liter turbocharged 3-cylinder engine, putting out a rather impressive 300 horsepower, going to all four wheels using a trick all-wheel drive system that can send up to 70% of the power to the rear wheels for some drifting fun. And it only comes in a 6-speed manual transmission.
In my mind this is the car to get, if you can get your hands on it. Rick was more impressed with Volkswagen's (VOW.DE) competitor in the segment, the ultra-smooth and more adult looking (though still a beast on the track), Golf R hatchback.
What caught your eye at this year's New York Auto Show? Let us know in the comments below.
——
Pras Subramanian is a senior autos reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn
