In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by News Editor Joel Stocksdale. In this week's news, we about a pair of ultra-luxury electric cars, the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq and Rolls-Royce Spectre. We also cover the 2024 GMC Sierra EV and 2024 Chevy Trax, plus some of the reveals from the Paris Motor Show. The show is capped off with a discussion about the electric cars Greg Migliore has driven for the North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards: the Rivian R1S SUV and Lordstown Motors Endurance pickup truck.
Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com.
Transcript[MUSIC PLAYING]
GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome back to the Autoblog Podcast. I'm Greg Migliore. We have an awesome show for you this week, so much to get to. There is a new Rolls-Royce. It's electric. It's called the Spectre. There's a new Cadillac. It's electric. It's called the CELESTIQ. Got some other things. The Sierra EV-- that's going to be interesting.
And the new Chevy Trax, which I know that doesn't quite fit into these other three. It's pretty cool looking. You probably saw some of the pictures. Maybe you were a bit surprised. We'll talk about the Jeep from Paris, and then we'll get into what we have been driving, which includes the Rivian R1S and the Lordstown Endurance.
Joel, news editor, who I'm going to bring it here just one minute, has been driving the Toyota Crown. He's going to preview what he did with it, what it's like. But we've got to save drive impressions for a little bit later, for a future podcast. But he'll tell you what it's like in our On Location at the end of the show. So with that, news editor Joel Stocksdale, how are you?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Doing all right. Doing all right.
GREG MIGLIORE: Awesome. Let's just right into it. You saw the CELESTIQ in person at the tech center in Warren where they're going to actually hand build these things. They're $300,000. It's an extremely long vehicle. I think it's gorgeous. But why don't you take us through your impressions because you did see it in real life? I guess my first question is, is it blue? If you look at these press shots, these images, it's very blue.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: It is blue. It was actually a little bit difficult to say, walking into the design dome where they were showing it, because all of the lighting in the room was very blue also. So it was a little bit difficult to tell if it was actually blue or if it was just like kind of a gray or white that was just being illuminated blue.
But as you can see in the press photos, it is very blue. It's got a blue interior also, and it looks really, really, really cool-- at least in my opinion. It's enormous. It's 18 feet long, which is longer than a standard wheelbase Cadillac Escalade.
But the whole thing is lower than a Cadillac CT5 sedan, so it's got very old school like '60s, '50s Cadillac proportions. It's got a long nose, low roof, long tail. I mean, to me, it's pretty much exactly what I would hope from a super flagship Cadillac.
It does look a bit like the LYRIQ, and the reason for that is apparently the CELESTIQ was designed before the LYRIQ and was going to be the first Cadillac EV launch car, but higher ups decided that they needed to get the LYRIQ out sooner, so that got moved up, and the CELESTIQ followed soon after.
I don't think it's a bad thing, though. I think the LYRIQ is very attractive as well. And honestly, I think this is a case where having the Halo car looks so similar to kind of the mainstream one is a good thing because this Halo car is such a striking machine.
And if it gets people's attention and they find out that like, oh, hey, I can get something that actually looks fairly close to it in a lot of ways and is maybe even a little bit more practical-- I think this could really have like a good strong Halo effect for LYRIQ.
I also honestly think that even at $300,000 plus-- because Cadillac will let you customize this basically any way you want. They will do any paint job you want, any color or type of upholstery you want, any kind of custom materials and things. All of that will add to the cost and add to the time that it takes to build the car.
I think they'll actually be able to sell them. I think this is something that looks very different to anything else that you can get in this segment, and it looks very special and unique. It's got solid stats, also. It's got dual motors rated at 600 horsepower and 640 pounds feet of torque.
It's got 111 kilowatt hour battery pack that should give it about 300 miles or more of range, 0 to 60 in an estimated 3.8 seconds. I mean, I think this is the real deal. I'm excited for it.
GREG MIGLIORE: I really agree with everything you said there. I didn't see it in person. I hope to. I would like to actually drive it someday. I mean, this is literally Cadillac's entry against, say, Bentley or Rolls-Royce, even. When you're talking about a $300,000 price range, the really going for it.
And I think from a design standpoint, I think they crushed it. When you mentioned the 60s, that's what Cadillac was king with its design and then its technology at different eras. It's really led with its merits. And to me, this car, I think, brings that sense of gravitas to the fight, does a lot for Cadillac, and I think the Hello effect is real.
And we'll talk about some of this maybe later in the podcast. But I am a NACTOY juror. That's the North American Car Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year Awards. And the LYRIQ out there, testing this week, was very popular with jurors who hadn't gotten in it yet.
Not everybody gets to the first drive or whatnot. And I don't think it's a coincidence because the Celestiq was revealed, like, 24 hours earlier. So I felt some of that vibe just driving the LYRIQ.
I was like, wow, this is a really nice crossover. It feels forward-looking, but also sophisticated Cadillac. It had earned its place, if you will, as opposed to sort of maybe resting on its laurels.
But we can get into the LYRIQ at another time. But very excited about the Celestiq. I'm also very intrigued, too, how this sort of hand-built operation is going to work at the tech center in Warren. Sprawling campus-- they have enough room to put, like, a little factory in there, so it makes total sense that they do it.
We'll see. I think Cadillac needs a Halo. They've kind of thrown out some of these concepts for the better part of a decade. You might remember the CL and the CN concepts.
And we're all like, these things look great. And then, you know, Pebble Beach comes and goes, and that's it. So to me, it's very impressive that they went ahead and built this formidable car. So I think it's very impressive.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah. For so long, we have seen all of those amazing concepts. The CL convertible is one of my absolute favorites. And the El Mirage concept coupe was really cool, too.
Something that's really neat with the Celestiq is that they're doing some cool manufacturing stuff. They're doing a lot of 3D-printed stuff. They're doing really large aluminum castings. And they also have this thing called Flexfab, where they set up a facility up in Pontiac to make these components that they then send down to Warren for assembly.
But they've got these machines that they can just take a flat sheet of metal, and they can program in what it needs to do. And it will cut and fold and punch and pierce and weld these sheets of metal into an actual component. And so they don't have to, like, create unique stampings and dies and things for making these parts.
This one machine can be customized to make whatever it needs to, granted it doesn't do lots and lots of parts on the car. It does some of them-- but a lot of neat things that let them do kind of small run parts, but can kind of develop them quickly and do it without being crazy expensive for a limited run. And it made me kind of hope that maybe if this goes well, maybe they can start doing even more unusual or different models. I told a Cadillac representative, I was like, you know, if you want to do a follow-up to this and do a CL, just make that and put it on this Ultium platform, I'd be totally into that.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. No, I agree. I think this really-- this is going to sound like a cliche. But it could open a new chapter for Cadillac, if they want it to. They could be the brand that makes beautiful, stunning cars like this.
You can really trade on design. You could use Ultium to underpin it and do more and different things. I think Cadillac's sort of mainstream business right now is in, like, OK shape. I feel like they're always sort of rebuilding, if you will, like trying to go to these German sports sedan vehicle things.
Then it's like, well, no, we got to get the crossovers, and we always have the Escalade. So it's a little scattershot. But it does feel like-- I mean, I haven't driven a bad Cadillac in quite some time.
I mean, there have been a few that are kind of like, well, OK, this is maybe amazing. But you know, every car has been very good. Some of the crossovers have been a little meh.
But the Escalade is just-- that will crush. So I'm with you. I think there's definitely room here to try to branch out and use this momentum. And I think the LYRIQ is a really good-- I think that's a real world sort of way to achieve it.
But I would love to see more, even some mainstream, like, SL Fighters. We had an SL AMG in the fleet recently. Well, OK, yeah, Mercedes is doing that.
Roll out a CL. Call it something different-- or CN-- and make it $100,000. Boom, you've got an electric coupe that even Tesla doesn't have right now. They say they're going to do the Roadster.
I wouldn't hold my breath. I'm sure they will eventually, just who knows when? Mercedes and Audi, et cetera are still kind of messing around with these high horsepower V8's. Yes, you've got the Blackwing.
But you know, like we said, make one of these concepts cars. Make them real, and you're going to get a head start. And Cadillac, I think, is-- what I like about this is they're trying to make prestige a part of their business and a really awesome product part of the business model.
In the past, it just seemed like, OK, we're going to do these concept cars. But really, we're just doing-- we're going to go back to making more SRX's or something, which, yeah, they got to do. But really seems like they're going for it, you know?
So very impressive. It sort of feels like, to use a sports analogy, like the rebuilding process. But it's actually starting to see some wins. So any other thoughts on the Celestiq? I could probably talk about this thing all day. It's pretty cool-looking.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah. Well, I just-- I wish I had the kind of money to be able to drop on something like this. Here's hoping for some impressive depreciation in the future.
GREG MIGLIORE: There you go. All right, let's talk about the Rolls-Royce Spectre. This is, I mean, I guess you could literally say a competitor. It's kind of funny that we can-- maybe that's what we should do this week is a comparo by the numbers.
But the Spectre is also very impressive. It's the first all-electric from Rolls-Royce. Great name-- the Spectre. Again, from a design standpoint, it's drop-dead gorgeous.
It's really impressive. It involves many of the Rolls-Royce tricks-- things that they've rolled out on their other models. I like it. I think it's-- again, it's interesting to see which brands are pulling ahead, if you will, in the electric space.
Like, couple weeks ago, we talked about how Maserati will sell you an electric GranTurismo. And it's kind of like, wait, Maserati's got one? So you kind of look at some of these other automakers, like, where are you? Maserati's got one.
And now Rolls-Royce does. It's certainly easy to maybe go at that higher price point. But you still got to have the product.
You got to have the technology. So I like the Spectre. What do you think?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah, I think it looks great. But it does look a lot like other kind of recent Rolls-Royce coupes, kind of like the Ghost coupe, which is not a bad thing, in my opinion. I really like the way those coupes look.
GREG MIGLIORE: No, I agree totally.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: I don't mean this-- I mean this in the best way possible. But it reminds me of something like if Chrysler built a version of the Challenger that was kind of a 300 coupe. I mean that in the best possible way. I mean, it's broad-shouldered. It has fastback roofline.
I think it looks really good. I don't think it wows me as much as the Cadillac, just because the Cadillac feels like something completely new and special. And the Spectre feels like it's another Rolls-Royce, and it happens to be electric this time.
That being said, I actually wrote an editorial a while back about the companies like Rolls-Royce and Bentley need to hurry up and get their electrics out here because it's gotten to a point where it's a little bit gross to be spending huge amounts of money on an extremely thirsty gas-powered vehicle. It's kind of like, if you were that kind of clientele, it kind of feels like the least you could be doing is to buy something electric.
And that's finally here. And I think that's great. And electric just makes so much sense for something from Rolls-Royce because it's really smooth.
It's extremely quiet. It can handle a lot of weight. Electricity is-- the electric power is the perfect way to propel a Rolls-Royce.
So I think this is a good thing for the company. And I think it looks great. I actually really also like the yellow paint scheme and interior that they did for it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. No, it's definitely very solid. I think it's-- yeah, I think they hit this one out of the park. But it's also exactly what we expected them to do. It seems like they come through with the magic carpet ride elements in electric form, which is cool.
Yeah. I mean, I guess we should probably-- literally, we're talking about-- the first two cars we've talked about, probably about 600, 700, maybe 1,000 people will ever be able to buy. And that's assuming that the Spectre is more the volume model. I don't know how many they'll make of those-- probably, maybe more in the thousands.
But the Cadillac's only 300. So I guess to go a little more mainstream, let's talk about the Chevy Trax, which we were both a little surprised that they even did. I think we both thought this was kind of on its way out, if you will.
But it's larger. It's got a little bit more of the Chevy sort of Trailblazer vibe to it, Chevy Blazer vibe. I was pleasantly surprised, if you will. So I'm curious, what do you think?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah. I am still a little bit puzzled about its position in the lineup because it is now-- whereas the Trailblazer was slightly bigger than the old Trax, the new Trax is now slightly bigger than the Trailblazer. But the new Trax is cheaper than the Trailblazer, so you're getting a bigger vehicle for less money.
But that's also offset by the fact that you can't get all-wheel drive on the new Trax. And it only gets the smaller of the little turbocharged engines. But I think it's going to be a good product because it's got a decent engine.
It's going to be spacious. And most importantly, it's really cheap. Every single one, including destination, starts under $25,000. So the base one is just a little over $21,000.
And the high trim 2RS or Activ ones start at $24,995, and that's including destination. That is the price. I mean, that's really great pricing for a car that looks nice outside and inside.
It almost feels a little bit like Chevy's stab at sort of-- it's not quite a Maverick competitor because obviously, it's not a pickup truck. And it's not offered with a hybrid. But it's like, if you don't want a truck, and that's still kind of your budget, this is a really value-packed vehicle that looks pretty nice.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, that's a really good observation. I can see this as a Maverick-- maybe not competitor, but sort of something to be cross-shopped with. We all know consumers don't necessarily shop at the neat segments and buckets that we, as auto journalists, try to put these cars in, with good reason.
But I can see this. It's in that price point. It's kind of got that almost quirky sort of feel to it. Maybe not quirky, but it's definitely a design play, much in the same way the Maverick is.
It's just-- it's interesting to me, too, because the Trax was-- I mean, there's really no bad cars on the market, with a few exceptions. But the Trax was pretty underachieving-- let's put it that way-- as far as vehicles in Chevy's lineup.
And now it's like, this looks competitive in a segment where I question how much-- how profitable it is. But I mean, it's priced right. It's accessible to anybody. And just given how crazy the car market is, if you could get something that looks cool for this kind of a price, and there's a degree of functionality to it, my guess is this could be a sleeper of the next 18 months as far as car sales.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Totally. Yeah. And I'm just happy to see any kind of new car that's priced reasonably and doesn't seem like a penalty box, to dig up an old car journalism description. This actually seems like something that you could be genuinely happy with. It's not going to-- it doesn't seem like it's going to be painfully slow or with a really crummy interior or really lackluster-- it seems like just a good value.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. I think it's, again, pleasant surprise. I think it's a version of Chevy sort of showing itself to be maybe more competitive than it's been in recent years. And I think that's a good thing. So you know, we'll see.
Looking ahead, we also have stayed with the GM family of brands. The Sierra EV coming out-- it was revealed Thursday. For those of you listening to the podcast over the weekend, this is sort of our latest reveal of the week.
The first trim is going to be over six figures. It's going to be Denali, naturally. And it's the first, edition 1. Tons of horsepower-- I'm impressed with the range. 400 miles of range-- this is definitely another good competitor in this segment, where we've got a lot of things like the Lightning, of course, and everything from eventually the Cybertruck to even the Lordstown Endurance. So what do you think?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah. I think it's really interesting, and particularly the fact that it feels like GM is working really hard to differentiate GMC from Chevy now-- that it's not going to be a case of we put GMC badges and some styling on a Chevy. This is meant to be something more and something different.
The top spec Denali has more than 700 horsepower. And that's more than what a top spec Silverado EV RST will have. And the interior is dramatically different from the Silverado. The Silverado has an interior that you can see a lot of design.
I mean, I hate to use the term design DNA. But there's a lot of relation between the Silverado EV design and what you'll see in, like, Equinox EV, Blazer EV, and actually even the Trax that we were just talking about. The Sierra has a completely different interior.
It looks much more minimalist, lots of straight horizontal lines, one big vertical screen. It looks like really nice materials, too. It looks very upscale.
But it's interesting that GM is doing a whole lot more to make GMC a more premium, higher capability option to Chevy trucks. And I think that's great for the brand because I feel like for ages the GMC has not really had much differentiation at all. I mean, I have a '97 GMC Suburban parked out front. And--
GREG MIGLIORE: You just said it-- a GMC Suburban, right? They just gave a Suburban to each brand at different points. So yeah, you said it.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: And outside of the front grille and badge, it's, like, identical to the Chevy version. So it's great to see that GMC is finally kind of getting to be its own thing. And I think it'll work because certainly the groundwork was put into place with the Denali brand, that that was kind of what started to make GMC more of the premium, more special kind of thing, but is also slightly more down-to-Earth feeling than a Cadillac.
It's like, you still have a truck, but it's a nice truck. And I think GMC is leaning into that image across the board. And I think that's good for it.
GREG MIGLIORE: I agree. It's interesting to me, as General Motors has sort of continued on its electric journey, the ways they've sort of not just made the vehicles electric, but they've done a good job of incorporating different parts of their technologies into the different brands-- things that once might have only been reserved for Cadillac, or this is only a GMC thing. They're using them wisely to make these products better.
And I think GMC has really been the recipient of that. Everything from the fact that the Hummer is at least nominally a GMC-branded vehicle to the electrification to supercrews, it's been impressive. And you know, I don't know if we'll ever see a luxury truck brand in the future. I think what you're just going to see is the existing brands getting more and more expensive, as far as the Sierra and then the top-line F-150s and whatnot.
And that's what it is. And you see, it's certainly evident in this Sierra. I mean, man, another $108,000 vehicle. Vehicles are not cheap these days. Let's put it that way.
So yeah, this is another one that I think will be interesting to drive. Strikes me as something that we'll maybe be testing for Tech of the Year next year. It seems like there's a lot of stuff out here we could get under the hood and start to really consider.
But hey, we got to get through this year's Tech of the Year. More on that to come-- we'll have an announcement probably in the next month or so. So that's quite the new section.
Let's talk about just a couple of quick notes from Paris. I didn't go this year, sadly. The last time I went was 2016, I think.
And it's actually a pretty awesome car show-- not so much, it seems like, anymore, looking at just some of the vehicle reveals. There really wasn't that much there. Of interest to you, the "Autoblog" reader and podcast listener, is the Jeep Avenger. It's the electric Jeep.
It looks pretty cool. I think there's a bunch of cool stuff from Renault and some of the French brands. Macron showed up a little bit, probably because he had to. It's in Paris. If he doesn't show up for it, like, geez.
I think it certainly speaks to the fact that auto shows are continuing to be in a bit of a diminished state from a media standpoint, not necessarily from a public standpoint. But I mean, all the stuff that was revealed this week, any of it could have been at the Paris Motor Show. There was an auto show this week.
I mean, I think in years past, the Celestiq might have been a great fit for Paris. You want this aspirational style play. Celestiq would have been great to have there.
Spectre-- maybe, maybe not. Sometimes the British car brands have always done their own thing. Probably not the Chevy Trax or GMC Sierra, but there have been actually a fair number of other types of reveals in the last few weeks, too, that could have fit. Either way, let's just boil this down to the Jeep Avenger, which I keep thinking of the Dodge Avenger when I think of this name.
I think it looks pretty good. It's very Jeepy-- kind of futuristic Jeepy. Reminds me a little bit of, like, a shrunken Volkswagen Atlas if you look at the pictures. It's electric, 154 horsepower, 192 foot pounds of torque.
It's not going to be sold in the US. It's a very small vehicle. It's actually shorter than a Jeep Renegade.
But this is, I think, part of Jeep's strategy to try to make some gains in Europe. So the Paris Motor Show is a great place to show this thing. It's also a place where you could use the Avenger name, and no one's going to remember the Dodge Avenger here.
So yeah, I don't know. At this point, it's kind of a footnote. But any thoughts on this or anything else from Paris?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: I mean, I think it looks really neat. I thought it did when they first showed pictures of it at the big Stellantis EV day a couple years ago. I totally get why they're not bringing it here because the fact that it is actually smaller than a Jeep Renegade means that it's really small. And I think it would be a bit of a tough sell to get somebody into something even smaller than a Renegade.
That being said, I do still kind of wish that they would offer it here because it seems like a fun little thing. It looks really cool. And even though the name has been attached to some fairly mediocre Dodges in the past, Avenger is a good name.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Oh, yeah. The movie, right? "The Avengers"-- it makes sense. There's good SEO, right?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Oh, geez. I didn't even think about that. And it's got solid stats. 150 horsepower, 192 pound feet of torque in something that small would be pretty fun. A range of probably about 200 miles or more-- that all sounds pretty darn good.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Sign me up for that. That sounds good.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah. Admittedly, it's also not great that it's only available with front wheel drive. They did show a four-wheel drive concept version, though, in Paris. So I could almost see that being an option in the US. But really, it would probably be better for Jeep to just wait for launching an electric version of Renegade or Compass.
Quite frankly, I'm still waiting on them to launch the plug-in hybrid version of both the Renegade and Compass, which are currently available in Europe and have a decent amount of range. And I think it actually shares basically kind of the same powertrain as what's in the upcoming Dodge Hornet. So I don't know what the holdup is there because I feel like those would be great options for a lot of people. But anyway.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. No, I tend to agree with you. The other thing with Jeep is I feel like as we move through the '20s and then the '30s, electrification is going to become more and more common. And you don't necessarily have to go small. You can just electrify something that has a larger footprint.
Now, granted you're talking about just changing up perhaps your strategy. But I mean, I don't know. I've always been a little cynical of the smaller Jeep, if you will.
But I mean, they've made some cool ones. They've definitely-- they have tried valiantly in the smaller Jeep segment with some very notable misses. But they have gotten a few right. And even if you go all the way up to the compact Cherokee, that's been a pretty successful vehicle from a design and capability and sales standpoint.
So all right. So let's talk about-- let's go over to the reviews section. Just teasing this out real quick-- Joel drove the Toyota Crown, which we'll finish out the show with an on-location of his sort of preview of that. But before we get into it, let's talk about what we've been driving in the fleet.
A couple things here-- again, I was out at Car of the Year testing this week. North American Car Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year awards-- it's a privilege to be a juror. It's kind of a pretty fun thing to get to do, actually.
Yesterday I was out there. And literally, I was thinking, man I've driven, like, 15 cars today or something like that and some of the coolest things out there. So it's kind of fun. It's a lot of work because driving that many cars in a day is, quite frankly, exhausting.
But two that I'll highlight today in no particular-- I drove the Rivian R1S and the Lordstown Endurance. So I guess we'll kick things off with the Endurance. Not many people have actually driven one of these. I imagine I'm among the first.
It is up for Truck of the Year, so that's a pretty high honor for its first production vehicle. Lordstown has certainly faced some challenges. That's for sure. But this was their chance to really get the truck in front of a lot of jurists, a lot of journalists, and show the proof in the pudding.
Describe what it is-- this is very much a fleet play. They are going right after the commercial segment, which I think is interesting. I think you're seeing Bollinger is a company that's going to do that right now. They had tried to go with maybe this high-designed SUV truck thing. And then they've pivoted to commercial.
I think Lordstown is wise to try to go for what I would say-- there can be a bit of certainty with the commercial segment because you take your order from, I don't know, consumers or whoever-- DTE or the city of Northville. You've got your orders. So you can build in some cost structure into your business model, which, for a startup, I think makes a ton of sense.
So how does this thing drive? Well, it's interesting. It is an electric pickup truck. I've only driven a few of those. So the fact that they're getting one to the market like this is definitely an achievement.
They had just started early production a couple weeks ago-- like, September 29, I want to say. So barely a month-- so pretty big achievement to actually get a vehicle. The testing was in Ann Arbor, Michigan. So they managed to get one up here from Lordstown, Ohio.
That's the old Chevy Cruze factory, for those of you that you might not remember that. So that's all the context. I thought the vehicle was pretty well screwed together. You get in something like that, you always kind of wonder.
Something from a new automaker, that's the first thing you sort of notice. But I thought it was pretty well screwed together. Very basic interior, which is definitely what they're going for. It's a work truck.
It'll compete with, like, the Lightning Pro, if you will-- the Ford F-150 Lightning Pro. So it's that sort of size. But again, it's for people who need a light duty pickup truck for their job.
About 200 miles of range. It's got the hub motors, which is pretty rare. I mean, I don't really know many people that are taking that approach, which is interesting. So that was pretty cool.
Just some specs here-- it gives you, they say, 0 to 60 in 6.3 seconds; top speed of 118 miles an hour-- no real reason to do that. They will have sort of like a quick charging capability, which can get you-- by using a fast charge thing, you can get from, like, 20% to 80% in about 45 minutes. I didn't charge it, but that's something they said.
Yeah. Again, 200 miles is the range. And the kerb weight is 6,450 pounds. So payload-- they're counting at a little over 1,000 pounds. So that's the vitals, if you will.
It drove, I would say, pretty normal, if you will, for lack of a better way to put it. It's quick but not super quick. The Lightning felt quicker. But in some ways, I don't know if that necessarily matters.
It's a work truck. It felt quicker than a four-cylinder V6 gas truck, that type of thing, as you would expect. There's ways you can tune the regeneration.
And there's also ways you can just tune the general demeanor of the vehicle. So you can do sport mode, that type of thing, which isn't crazy. It just goes to a slightly more edgier approach.
Steering felt pretty well sorted. It was-- drove like a truck, I guess, for lack of a better way to put it. And I think that's a good way to sum it up.
You don't want something that's crazy remarkable, especially from a new automaker. You want your vehicle to feel good, but also normal. I think some of the areas we've seen-- no less than Tesla fall short-- is some of their vehicles, you see some quality issues.
And this has been an issue with them since day one. The build quality isn't there, or the steering wheel yoke thing, which weirded some people out. Some people like it.
Lordstown is not doing any of that. This is very much straight ahead, blocking and tackling, electric pickup truck. And I think that's a good thing.
I was impressed with its-- I'm impressed with it as a very just bare bones, back to basics, utility truck. And I think that's what they're going for. Pricing-- if you look around, it looks like they're going for about $60,000. I don't have that exactly pinned down.
And that's before incentives. So they're building it in the United States. I imagine they'll be eligible for at least some of the new federal tax credits. Yeah, I drove it for about 45 minutes, mostly on open roads.
Drove through-- I wouldn't call this off-roading, but it was a really muddy, bumpy parking lot, just to mainly get some pictures. But it was fine in my very brief off-road experience. So that's about it.
I think, again, I think it's an achievement that they are building the truck. As we've seen with many new automakers, just simply doing that is not an easy task. Looks kind of interesting-- again, it's very simple. But they're going for almost like a stormtrooper look.
If you look at it, it's white. It has this kind of black trim, I think LED headlights. The charge port is right up front. So I tend to like that in vehicles.
I like having it right up in the front, where you can point the vehicle somewhere, or in the back so it's just an easy-- if you're at a ChargePoint or EVgo or something, you can do it that way. Good visibility. I mean, again, super basic-- I was asking about the infotainment.
They were like, well, we're going to go with internet radio. And I'm like, oh, geez, OK. I had to try to remember what internet radio is.
But everybody has their podcasts. And they're streaming radio on their phone. That's a way to keep things simple.
The screen, if you will-- everybody's got to have a screen. It was pretty good. It was pretty colorful. I was able to-- it worked.
Using a touch screen, I can think of a couple hundred-year-old automakers-- more than a few-- that their touch screens don't work. So all that stuff worked. There were some redundant knobs and buttons. Just solid execution.
I don't know. I'm literally probably one of only a few people who have driven it. What do you think? Any questions? What do you think of it?
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah. One of the things that I was really curious about is, with the hub motors, I figure that's going to add a lot of unsprung weight, especially having them at all four corners. And I was curious-- well, and also the fact that it's got, I believe, a very traditional truck rear end on it, that it's a solid rear axle and leaf springs. And so I was really curious about the ride and handling on it.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. I didn't detect anything crazy due to the drive and the ride character or the handling, any of that, due to the motors. It drives kind of like a truck. I would say-- I tend to almost put it-- it reminded me a little bit of-- dimensionally, it's like an F-150, Silverado.
And it kind of rode like one of those. It wasn't particularly comfy, like, say, a Ram could be. Ram just-- they know how to really make a chassis comfortable in a truck. But it wasn't unduly harsh.
It wasn't like driving even a last gen Tacoma or something, where you're like, oh, geez, this hurts. It was pretty fine. It wasn't like, oh, my gosh, this is like the Rolls-Royce Cullinan of full-sized work trucks.
But it was fine. So that worked out pretty well. I didn't do, like, hit the bumps really hard. So it was a little hard to get a sense of suspension testing, maybe like you would do at the chatters at a proving ground or something.
But yeah, I mean, my thought is the F-150 Lightning Pro is really just, in some ways, the gold standard because not only do you get an F-150, you get an electric F-150. They're pretty competitive on pricing with it. And you can get all sorts of things on it, too.
You don't have to-- you can make that a pretty nice truck if you want it to be with things like on-board scales, that sort of thing. You can get all the Ford touch screens-- that type of thing. If you want your work truck to be maybe a little snazzier, Ford can get that for you.
And of course, they've been building trucks since, like, World War I. That's there for you. That's always going to be there. And it's always tough to go up against that level of competence.
But I think we're going to see more entries. And this is solid. If you were, I don't know, Edison or whatever, just making up Utility Bell-- like, the Pawnee Utility Company or something-- and you needed a fleet of trucks, it's definitely something. Put it on your radar.
I'll be interesting to see where the pricing shakes out because I feel like when I look at where the Lightning's at and also where the Endurance is at, Ford seems to be getting in pretty aggressive with their pricing. Let's put it that way. And then it's only to get more competitive with the Silverado work truck.
That's a very impressive looking vehicle. I imagine when Ram ends up getting their electric truck to the market, I can't imagine Ram won't get into the commercial segment. I don't know why they wouldn't. They're there in every way currently.
But I mean, just at a high level, I think it's really interesting to test new products from new companies. And they're definitely going for it. The trucks there.
It's real. It drives. It's solid.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah. I've got a few thoughts on this. And I guess one of the first things I want to say is that I feel a little bit like Lordstown has not gotten the credit that they deserve that they are actually building trucks now. And even with as turbulent as its history has been, going through executives and having all kinds of financial issues and all of that, they actually are building trucks.
And actually, we've seen for the last couple years that they've been developing their frames and suspension and motors. They made an honest attempt to go down to Baja and try and compete there. Didn't go well because they didn't have things figured out quite yet for how to make an electric truck go through all that.
It ended up they only got through maybe a couple of stages. And they just-- they were burning through electricity way faster than they anticipated and just didn't have any way to compensate for that. But it's like, they're really trying. And they actually have something here. And I feel like it should be pointed out that they actually have real trucks that exist and can be driven.
GREG MIGLIORE: I drove one, man. It's real.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: And a certain more prominent electric car company with a perhaps overly prominent CEO still hasn't released their very prominent Cybertruck. Yes, I'm talking about Tesla. That thing is still very much MIA.
And now this little startup has the real deal. And some people have seen prototypes kind of out testing with poor body fitment and stuff. But it's like, well, they are prototypes.
But also, they've got real prototypes running around out there that they're testing with. And now they've got production spec cars that they're getting into the hands of actual car reviewers. So I feel like they do deserve a lot more credit than they often get.
I do have some concerns because the fleet electric truck market is going to be very quickly filled up by Ford and GM. I mean, the Lightning Pro is already out. And the Chevy Silverado EV work truck is just around the corner.
Both of them will be starting at under at under $50,000, which is probably going to undercut the Lordstown truck. Plus, both of those companies have decades and decades of fleet sales and fleet support and software to go with-- if you need a lot of trucks and you want ways to manage them and maintain them, both of those companies know how to take care of you because they've just been doing it for ages with commercial vans and commercial trucks. And that's a really tough thing to compete with, no matter what kind of startup you are, no matter what your resources are.
It's just-- those companies have the infrastructure, the history, the experience. They know how to handle it. I do kind of wonder if maybe there would be an opportunity, though, for Lordstown in the sense that supply chain issues are a really big problem. And there's probably a lot of people clamoring to get a hold of F-150 Lightnings.
And if it's just going to be so much of a hassle to get one of those or you're going to be facing gigantic markups, maybe that's an opportunity for Lordstown. And it's like, hey, you may be waiting an entire year or something on that F-150, but we can have one to you sooner. And that could be a big difference for a fleet, I imagine.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. I mean, like we said, though, it's a tough market. But again, they have a truck out there. Tesla doesn't.
And that's not necessarily a good or a bad thing. Companies struggle. Ford has had some highly publicized issues with different quality of some of their vehicles.
Sometimes it takes a minute, if you will, no matter how long you've been building these things. But overall, I thought it was a solid execution. I think if they can get a few customers, get them on the books, it only takes one.
Get a couple customers. Bank that money. And we'll see what happens. So yeah, that's the Lordstown Endurance. Honestly, I'm intrigued to drive it again, drive it for longer, take a closer look at some of it, and go from there.
A slightly more established automaker is the Rivian R1-- is Rivian. And I drove the Rivian R1S. This is the sport utility vehicle version of the R1T, which I actually drove last year. It was up for Truck of the Year.
Some people have driven it. I think it's-- quite simply, it's the SUV version of the truck. So there's that. It's powerful.
The one I drove was $97,000-plus, beautiful shade of slab gray. It was sort of like the stereotypical three-box SUV. And I think that's a good thing.
It felt kind of expensive and different in the way sort of like Land Rovers and Jeeps sometimes do. So that was cool. Yeah, I mean, it's just a solid vehicle to drive around in as far as an SUV.
With the SUV, there's fewer tricks than you might see in the R1T, where they have that sort of pass-through thing in the back. The main party tricks are sort of just like, it's a three-row SUV. And there's a couple different ways to knock down the chairs, fair amount of room in back.
Yeah. I mean, again, this is probably a short drive. So I hesitate to get too far into it. But you know, I enjoyed my fairly quick time in the R1S.
JOEL STOCKSDALE: Yeah, it's a handsome looking SUV. I mean, I assumed with how rave the reviews have been for the R1T that the R1S would be just as good, but with more roof.
GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the interior is beautiful-- kind of that rugged, outdoorsy, L.L.Bean sort of feel. A lot of different ways you can spec it out. Infotainment was good.
I noticed the regeneration was pretty strong, which you would expect in an SUV. But you know, I mean, I would just say this-- I've driven other electric vehicles that are sort of smoother, if you will, including the Cadillac LYRIQ. But again, it's kind of like a rough and tough SUV.
So yeah. So we can leave it-- we'll leave it there. We will now go over to your report on the Toyota Crown on location. This is a preview. The drive is embargoed, but let's hear about the Crown.
[AUDIO PLAYBACK]
- Hey, guys. Yes, indeed, I am in Nashville, Tennessee. And I am here to drive the new Toyota Crown. It is an interesting car. And I can't really go into details yet about what it's like to drive, but stay tuned for our full review, which will come out on October 25.
What I can tell you is that the Crown has two versions. One of them has a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter four-cylinder and electric motors. And that powertrain is very similar to what you'll find in, say, the Camry Hybrid, the old Avalon Hybrid, even Toyota Venza and RAV4 hybrid.
There's also a higher end version with the Hybrid Max powertrain, which combines a turbocharged four-cylinder with two even larger electric motors and, interestingly, a six-speed automatic transmission. And that automatic transmission was chosen primarily to provide a more direct feeling when it comes to acceleration and shifting and connection to the driver. It is exclusive to this car at the moment.
But talking with the chief engineer, sounds like it could be adapted to other Toyota products relatively easily. Obviously, it would require additional work to make it work, but overall, not completely impossible to do. So you never know. Might see it show up in future models.
And the Crown is based on the TNGA K platform, which is shared with Toyota Camry, Avalon, Highlander, Venza-- things of that nature. And it's certainly an unusual looking car. It's a tall, sedan-shaped car. And there are other versions of it coming to Japan.
We did learn that the version that we're getting in the US-- the lifted sedan-looking thing-- was the prime Crown, the one that was designed first. And additional models were designed after that one, which will be introduced to the Japanese market.
There's no sign of whether we'll get any of those in the US. But depending on how the Crown is received in the US, it could have some impact on whether other Crown variants come to the US. And anyway, that's our little update for the Crown in Nashville. And as I said before, stay tuned for the full review on October 25.
[END PLAYBACK]
GREG MIGLIORE: All right. Well, Joel, I don't know. Do you want to thank yourself? Thank you for that report on location.
But that's all the time we have today. If you enjoy the podcast, please give us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get the show. Send us your Spend My Money. That's podcast@autoblog.com. Be safe out there, and we'll see you next week.
[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]
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