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TikToker With A Viral Video Of New Tesla With Improperly Installed Airbag Didn’t Actually Own The Car

Despite what my recent colonic lab results suggest, I’m human. And, as a human, I make mistakes. Statistically, I suspect I make many more mistakes than an average human. One of these mistakes was taking a TikToker at their word regarding a Tesla they claimed to own. The TikToker in question is the one we wrote about last week, who claimed to be taking delivery of his new Tesla when the airbag came off in his hand. According to another video, it appears he did not own the car he sat in, and the cops told him to stay clear of the Tesla Store.

Here’s the video where the TikToker, bird owner, and hopeful Tesla owner, Rico Kimbrough, comes clean regarding ownership of the car:

And, for reference, here was the TikTok that started all of this mess in the first place:

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Somehow, I suspect Elon will be able to weather the financial fallout of this okay, despite Kimbrough’s concern. And, yes, to the Children of Elon—that angelic, pious group of noble humans who, for various curious reasons, have tied their personal identities to a for-profit company, I humbly and sincerely apologize for taking the word of a man who claimed to have just bought a new Tesla via a series of videos.

I did reach out to Kimbrough, and have continued to, so far to no avail. The original story was as much about the sensation the video caused as the event depicted, because, as we all know, Tesla is an automaker that commands an awful lot of public attention, as the original TikTok video going viral demonstrates.

In fact, I sort of addressed all of this in the original article:

Of course, Tesla is hardly the only carmaker to experience quality issues, but here’s the thing about Tesla: if you have a car people are so excited about that they post dozens of videos of the process, then when they incidentally document a glaring issue, you have to expect attention for that, too.

I’m saying this because I already know my social media is about to be clogged with quivering Tesla-stans ranting at me about my focus on Tesla’s failings and my cruel, miserable bias against Tesla and sweet, innocent Elon Musk, but the reality is that nothing’s free.

If there’s a car brand with so much popular culture clout and attention and positivity that—as happened to me just today—I get emails pitching stories about how Tesla owners do better on online dating sites, then you’ve got to accept the flip side of that valuable attention-coin, which is that if that brand fucks something up, that gets talked about, too.

I also did hedge regarding the possibility that Kimbrough might not be telling the truth in that earlier article:

And, even if, wildly improbably, Kimbrough isn’t really the owner, and he and his birds just staged an absurdly involved hoax to discredit Tesla for clicks or some other incomprehensible reason, and he was just sitting in a car he didn’t own with an airbag that comes off, I don’t see how that’s any better.

Clearly, I was very wrong about the “wildly” and “improbably” part, suggesting I’m quite naive about the motives and ethics of TikTokers.

Now, the real issue is none of this changes that the airbag came off in our less-than-forthright friend’s hand.

Of course, his admission that the car wasn’t his could mean there’s a whole greater level of nefarious activities going on here, activities that would require a lot more than getting in a car and shooting some videos.

I suppose it’s possible Kimbrough’s intent from the start was to specifically remove the airbag unit, an act that requires tools and at least a bit of research, all in an effort to cause Tesla to look bad.

I’m skeptical this was the goal, as all of Kimbrough’s videos prior to the airbag falling out were wildly pro-Tesla. The man certainly presents himself as a fan in a convincing manner, though he did also present himself as a new owner with some conviction as well.

So, yes, that’s possible. It’s also possible that this is a manufacturing defect, from a company with a rich, lavish history of defects, and even if the car was in Transport Mode (see previous article about why that should not affect whether or not an airbag was properly installed) a car making it to the lot with an improperly installed airbag is not great, no matter who owns the car or who’s lying about owning the car.

I’m positive no matter what, that airbag would have been sorted very early within the ownership of the car—likely before it left the lot—but there’s no reason not to call out such issues, especially when they generate as much attention as this one did, long before any of the many media outlets that covered it wrote about it.

So, to all of you Tesla-stans out there who remain very, very engaged with any and all interactions that involve Teslas, again, my apologies. I’m sorry. The TikToker did not own that car, and I dearly hope that his claims of ownership — and my amplification of those claims — did not cause you any harm, somehow.

But maybe still make sure your new Teslas have their airbags properly installed, and, yes, I still think that yoke sucks.

If I can get through to Kimbrough directly, I will update accordingly. He does seem to be a genuine Elon/Tesla fan, though, so I maybe shouldn’t get my hopes up that he’ll want to talk to me.

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Battery Swap Stations Are Gaining Momentum In China

The simplest and most genius-brain solution to charging times and range with EVs isn’t one you’ll find in America. In China, though, it’s gaining ground. All that and more in The Morning Shift for June 2, 2021.

1st Gear: China Is An Alternate Universe For EVs

China is like the American car market in so many ways. It’s huge, for one, (the biggest in the world while we’re number two) and filled with people inexplicably buying sedans and not hatchbacks or wagons. It’s also the biggest market for electric cars in the world, and you see as many Teslas bopping around Shanghai as you do here in New York or Los Angeles.

But China also offers us a market where GM builds small, adorable, unbelievably popular EVs as opposed to 9,000-pound hulking Hummers for the rich. It feels like an alternate reality where everyone takes EVs as a given, not as a radical tech.

This is a long intro to the point that battery-swapping stations are taking off there, as noted in this overview story by Automotive News China:

Until 2019, state-owned BAIC Motor Co. and EV startup Nio were the only two automakers offering battery swap services for customers.

[…]

Competition from Tesla and Nio’s success in gaining customers with battery swap services have prompted other Chinese EV makers to take bold steps.

[…]

While Geely is constructing battery swap stations on its own, other Chinese automakers have opted to build facilities along with domestic companies to share costs.

In September, state-owned Changan Automobile Co. launched its first battery swap station in Chongqing along with a consortium of other major domestic companies.

The partner companies include CATL, China’s largest EV battery maker; Aulton New Energy Vehicle Technology Co., a Shanghai-based battery swap station operator; and State Grid, a state-owned power grid operator.

In March, SAIC Motor Corp., another major state-owned automaker, also teamed up with Aulton to kick off operation of the first battery swap station for its EVs.

Aiways, an EV startup, tapped Blue Part Smart Energy, an EV charging facility operator under BAIC, in April to offer battery swap services.

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This is all interesting to see from an American perspective, especially one based out of New York City. Around the turn of the century, NYC was home to the largest electric car company in the world, the Electric Vehicle Company, and it operated using battery-swapping stations right in the middle of Manhattan. The tech is basic. We could go down this route if we wanted to.

2nd Gear: Another Tesla Recall

Some 6,000 Tesla Model 3 and Model Ys are getting recalled for loose brake caliper bolts, as Reuters reports:

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is recalling nearly 6,000 U.S. vehicles because brake caliper bolts could be loose, with the potential to cause a loss of tire pressure, documents made public on Wednesday show.

The recall covers certain 2019-2021 Model 3 vehicles and 2020-2021 Model Y vehicles. Tesla’s filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it had no reports of crashes or injuries related to the issue and that the company will inspect and tighten, or replace, the caliper bolts as necessary.

Tesla said that loose caliper bolts could allow the brake caliper to separate and contact the wheel rim, which could cause a loss of tire pressure in “very rare circumstances.” The company said that, in the “unlikely event” there is vehicle damage from a loose or missing fastener, it will arrange for a tow to the nearest service center for repair.

Hey, at least they got the bolts on there this time!

3rd Gear: Everyone Is Copying How Elon Talks

Another interesting Tesla story comes from Bloomberg, which has taken notice that everyone is not just copying Tesla’s plans to make attractive and desirable electric cars, but also how Tesla talks them up with ever-grander terminology. Per Bloomberg:

Many of the words speak to the sheer scale of Musk’s ambitions, which are always far grander than people realize initially. A battery factory isn’t just a battery factory, it’s a Gigafactory. (Giga comes from the Greek word “gigas,” or giant.)

A fast charging station for Tesla’s electric cars isn’t just a charging station, it’s a Supercharger. (Tesla has more than 25,000, giving them the largest network in the world.)

The battery packs that Tesla sells to utilities that promise “massive energy storage?” Megapacks.

There are no signs of him stopping. At Tesla’s “Battery Day” in September 2020, Musk talked about reaching “Terawatt-hour” scale battery production. “Tera is the new Giga,” Musk said on stage.

We’ve now reached the point where every battery factory — even those being made by competitors — is called a gigafactory, regardless of its physical size or planned output. “Nissan in advanced talks to build battery gigafactory in UK,” reported the Financial Times. “Stellantis discussing conditions with Rome to build gigafactory in Italy,” said Reuters.

Would Tesla be where it is if everyone just called gigafactories what they are? (They’re just regular factories.)

4th Gear: Toyota Scaling Back Olympic Plans

The Olympics in Japan seem to be still on somebody’s schedule, even if the people of Japan seem less than stoked on a global travel-fest in the midst of a still-ongoing global pandemic. Of course, this has huge implications for … high-profile industrial manufacturing that hopes to use the Olympics as a sales and marketing opportunity! Reuters has a broad report on it, and I’ll just take out this little section on Toyota:

For global sponsor Toyota Motor Corp., the Games were a chance to showcase its latest technology. It had planned to roll out about 3,700 vehicles, including 500 Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell sedans, to shuttle athletes and VIPs among venues.

It also planned to use self-driving pods to carry athletes around the Olympic village.

Such vehicles will still be used, but on a much smaller scale — a “far cry from what we had hoped and envisioned,” a Toyota source said. A full-scale Olympics, the source said, would have been a “grand moment for electric cars.”

A Toyota spokeswoman declined to comment on whether there were any changes to its marketing.

5th Gear: Biden Blocks Trump Plan For Arctic Drilling In Alaska

This is not a total win for climate, but it’s something, as the Financial Times reports:

The Biden administration has announced it will suspend the Arctic oil drilling rights sold in the last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, reversing a signature policy of the previous White House and handing a victory to environmentalists.

[…]

Tuesday’s decision marked a victory for environmentalists and activists, a pillar of Biden’s support in last year’s election, who have begun to grow impatient with some of the White House’s climate actions. The administration recently opted not to intervene to force the closure of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and has supported a major Alaska oil project approved during Trump’s term in office.

“In general the Biden administration is acting vigorously on climate change,” said Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. “This action on ANWR is quite consistent with that. The actions on the other two projects do not seem so consistent.”

I’ll take anything I can get at this point!

Neutral: How Is Your Car?

My Bug refused to start the other day just as I had loaded the car up for a multi-day road trip. With rain coming down, it refused to start even when I flagged down a ‘90s Infiniti for a jump. I ran out and got a new battery and it did start, but was running like shit until I found a half-bare wire leading to the coil. Some electrical tape later and we were on the road, though I’m still finding the car getting hot and leaking oil around some seals I know I just replaced. Stopping after one mountain pass I saw vapor rising out of one of the two carburetors. Time for a tune-up!

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This Is Why Formula One Cars Are So Freakin’ Long

It’s that time of year again. You know, the part where we take the Formula One circus to the streets of Monaco and pray for an entertaining race despite the fact that the cars are about as long as the yachts parked out in the harbor. And, of course, that means it’s the time of year where we ask the same question over and over: why the hell are F1 cars so damn long?

It seems like the cars get bigger and bigger every year. Where the cars used to be bullets, they are now essentially longswords on wheels. And plenty of folks have had ideas about how to shrink the cars, like reintroducing refueling (which would create a smaller fuel tank) or using narrower tires. But there are legitimate reasons why the cars have grown longer—and why that won’t be changing any time soon.

Basically, F1 cars have been growing for decades. A deeper understanding of aerodynamics during the 1970s made a lot of team owners realize that a longer, thinner car provided a better distribution of air. You want something thin that can pierce the air, which means you need to redistribute weight laterally, not vertically. Safety saw drivers sitting lower in the cockpit to keep their heads tucked below a roll bar, to the point where they were almost laying on their backs. And changing regulations have resulted in very specific measurements being included in the rule books, so there’s not as much wiggle room as there used to be.

But cars started getting noticeably longer in the recent era for several reasons. First, the introduction of a hybrid power added a ton of more electrical components as opposed to a straight-up combustion engine, which requires teams to use extra space. The elimination of refueling saw the introduction of larger gas tanks. There are extra wires and electrical bits and bobs to power things like radios, in-car cameras, telemetry, and the data projected on the steering wheel. Once you start adding all this extra 21st century technology, you’re going to start running out of space unless you expand the car.

The FIA will generally take all these changes into account when it proposes a new set of rules, which means it comes up with mandatory weight and size limits to ensure that teams include everything without skimping but also without adding too much extra nonsense.

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And, of course, aerodynamics still play a role. You don’t want a wide car. You want something more arrow-like, that narrows to a sharp point and that keeps the sidepods slimmer and carved to redirect air more efficiently. So, if you keep adding more shit into your car, you’re going to need to put it somewhere, and no one wants to bulk up the sides of the car. Which means you get F1 cars that are as long as yachts.

If you’re not convinced, then consider this: for 2019, the FIA added five kilograms of allowable fuel capacity so teams wouldn’t have to scrimp and save fuel during the race. But even that relatively meager addition required an extension of the cars’ lengths because there just wasn’t space to cram all that extra fuel in. That was already the preferable route, anyway; Mercedes had opted for a longer wheelbase in 2018, which saw its extra body surfaces generate more downforce in corners that outweighed the fact that the extra length made for a heavier car. And you don’t need me to tell you that Mercedes was absurdly dominant in 2018.

There are, of course, other downsides to the longer car. It makes it more challenging for cars to pass each other, since it takes a greater amount of track space to do so. On thinner or twistier tracks, you’re not going to see as much overtaking because the sheer length of the car serves as an inherent blockade.

But we’re not likely to see many differences. Back in 2020, F1 technical consultant Rob Smedley told Motorsport Magazine that “there is no single magic bullet” to fix the length problem. You can’t just reintroduce refueling or mandate shorter cars when you’d end up compromising on safety or speed. There would need to be a wholesale rewriting of the rulebook to create shorter cars—and it’s probably just not going to happen in this day and age. You can go ahead and assume the longer cars are here to stay.

I’ve Got A Bone To Pick With Bentley’s Pikes Peak Race Car

What you see here is Bentley’s newest race car, the Continental GT3 Pikes Peak, built explicitly to attack the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb this June. This is the third time in as many years that Bentley has launched a factory effort at PPIHC, following a production car record in a Continental GT in 2019 and a production SUV record set by a Bentayga. This time Bentley is aiming for the Time Attack 1 record, a lofty goal, with mountain regular Rhys Millen at the wheel — Millen also drove in ’18 and ’19. There’s only one problem: this isn’t a GT3.

Cup Grand Touring Cars, colloquially known as GT3, is a set of regulations developed by SRO and maintained by the FIA for grand touring racing cars. Street cars are strictly homologated to the class with limits on horsepower, minimum weight, and aerodynamics. In order to run in the class, Bentley has to build all of its Continental GT3 racers to the same specification and it will receive adjustments to its performance relative to other cars in the class with series-mandated ballast or engine air intake restrictors.

While Bentley specifically calls its Pikes Peak machine a “GT3” it has been modified above and beyond the spec of the class so that it simply cannot be GT3 any longer. While it may have started as a car intended for GT3 homologation, it has been prepared and bastardized beyond the scope of that name. With a huge rear wing, the deepest diffuser I’ve ever seen, and a massive dual-plane front splitter flanked by gargantuan canards, it’s already beyond GT3, but then Bentley tuned the 4-liter twin-turbocharged engine to produce well more than the GT3 class allows. Come on, Stowe. Get your shit together.

Bentley’s Member of the Board for Engineering, Dr Matthias Rabe, comments:

“We are delighted to be returning to Pikes Peak for a third time – now powered by renewable fuel, as the launch project for another new element of our Beyond100 programme. Our powertrain engineers are already researching both biofuels and e-fuels for use by our customers alongside our electrification programme – with intermediate steps of adopting renewable fuels at the factory in Crewe and for our company fleet. In the meantime, the Continental GT3 Pikes Peak will show that renewable fuels can allow motorsport to continue in a responsible way, and hopefully it will capture the third and final record in our triple crown.”

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Pikes Peak doesn’t subscribe to any particular sanctioning body’s ruleset, preferring a run-what-you-brung approach, which is refreshing in today’s motorsport. I’m not knocking Bentley for building this truly badass Continental, but I do take umbrage with the use of GT3 in the name. I’m a stickler for things doing what they say on the tin.

To me, this car feels like the ultimate extension of a production-based machine. It’s kind of the GT version of what Porsche did with the 919 Hybrid Evo a few years ago. It took a car built to a very strict specification (in Porsche’s case the FIA’s LMP1 category) and removed the restrictive power and aero rules to see what it was capable of at full chat. If this had been called the Continental Evolution or some such thing, I wouldn’t even be writing this blog.

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Mini’s Electric Hot Hatch Might Debut As A Formula E Safety Car

We’ve known that an electric Mini JCW hot hatchback is in the works from the Brit brand by BMW. It’s an exciting proposition, one many of us are looking forward to, and it gets more exciting as the day draws nearer. In a tweet on Wednesday, Mini released the above teaser image with the caption “Feels like it’s time for a boost. Watch this space… #ElectricThrillMaximised” Does that mean Mini will be pacing the field at future Formula E events?

The current Formula E safety car is this unique roofless BMW i8 with a giant wing. The hybrid i8 sports car has been serving in this role since season 1 way back in 2014 when the i8 was a brand new car. It makes sense that the company would want to replace the aging i8 as the face of safety in one of the most advanced and forward-looking series in the world of motorsport. Not least because the i8 will be ending production soon, but also because BMW will be leaving Formula E at the end of this season.

With BMW out, and Mini’s commitment to electrification, this swap would make perfect sense. You can see from the light bar on the roof of the Mini that it matches the one currently in use on the BMW. Therefore, one could infer that this is the specification which will continue onward into Mini’s tenure as safety car.

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I have high hopes for the electric JCW. The Mini Cooper SE electric is already considered one of the best handling electric cars on the market, so by extension the better handling JCW version should deliver more power and more on-track speed. Because Formula E tracks are typically quite tight, the Mini should be able to deliver on the job of safety car. Electric torque and nimble handling should be enough tools in the box for the effort.

Dammit, I’m going to have to buy one of these things, aren’t I?

With Mini almost sure to be running the Formula E safety car in the near future, how long will it be before Mini enters the sport as a manufacturer? While it’s certain that BMW is leaving FE, there’s nothing saying its compact car brand can’t pick up where it left off. It wouldn’t be the first time in this series, either, as Nissan’s FE program came out of Renault’s abandoning the sport.

I, for one, would love to see Mini racing in Formula E.

We Want To Hear Your Electric Car Ownership Stories

Did you own a Ford Ranger EV back in the ‘90s? Do you have a Nissan Leaf in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from a fast charger? Do you keep your Tesla Roadster in Manhattan, even in a blackout? The world of EVs is full of interesting stories, and we want to hear yours!

Every week, we’ll be posting an interview with an owner of an electric vehicle. We want our coverage of EVs to be practical. We want it to represent reality, not the hype that comes from Silicon Valley startups, or the untethered hope of over-eager politicians, or the pessimism of head-in-the-sand retrogrouches who think you just can’t own an EV in this day and age.

That means we want to hear from rural EV owners, from apartment-bound EV owners, first adopters, and veteran drivers.

But to get those stories we need to hear from you! We want to interview you for this site and get your story out. Maybe you worked at one of the California utilities that got EV fleet vehicles decades ago, or you were part of that BMW 1 Series lease program. Half of the world has forgotten these things even existed.

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We want:

Your name
What car do you own? (If you owned a car in the past, let us know what years!)
Where do you live with it?
How and where do you charge it?
How was buying it?
How long have you had it?
How has it lived up to your expectations?
A photo of your car

If you want to be interviewed, please let us know an email with an re: EV Ownership Stories to tips at jalopnik dot com!

The Maruti Gypsy Is The Suzuki Jimny’s Final Form

Truck YeahThe trucks are good!

The Jimny is one of the coolest off-roaders bar none, but did you know that there’s room for improvement even for the Jimny? This is what peak performance looks like, and its name is the Maruti Suzuki Gypsy.

The Jimny already rocks, and I’m bracing myself for my first sighting of the Mexican market Jimnys. But I’ll confess that I arrived to the Jimny by way of the Samurai and its overseas cousin, the Maruti Gypsy. Sold in India, I first fell in love with the Gypsy from the only secret agent that gives James Bond a run for his money, Jason Bourne:

The Gypsy in this The Bourne Supremacy scene is a Gypsy King which is really just a Jimny with a longer wheelbase and a taller roofline. Bourne’s off-roader sports a hardtop but the Gypsy was available with a soft top and it even came with rear bench seats!

You could almost call it a Defender knock off but in this case, it would only be a compliment because the Gypsy King ends up being as cool as any Rover.

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It was nigh unstoppable off road but kind of sucked on the road. That sounds like the modern Jimny, except the modern version has some creature comforts while the Gypsy and Gypsy King had nothing in the way of amenities. Though, if you ask me, that’s a plus for a truck like this.

The platform the Gypsy is built on, the SJ410, was available with a long-wheelbase and a pop-top (plus a slew of other combinations) globally, according to Suzuki Club UK and Motor Trend. But the Maruti trucks were exclusively LWBs and either soft or pop tops. I think it may be because this was a military and first aid vehicle, so standardizing production would save money. Also, they were the only ones in the family with bench seats. I suspect the benches are why the Marutis came with the LWB, to maximize passenger capacity.

It was very successful with Indian law enforcement and the Indian Military and it enjoyed quite a run in Indian motorsport. Of course, those trucks running in rally events had upgraded drivetrains because the stock motor started at a modest four-cylinder 1.0 liter which did not exceed 80 or so horsepower and 76 lb-ft of torque, even in its last iterations.

The Gypsy sold in its home market for over three decades, from 1985 – 2019, per Autocar India, but it could be set for a return! There are reports of the Jimny being reintroduced into the Indian market — maybe even as a Gypsy — and I think it was only a matter of time given its popularity.

And also because the Jimny is currently produced in India. Maruti Suzuki may not have a hard time selling it in its country of origin and the carmaker is considering its viability, per Autocar India. I really hope there’s a new one with the long wheelbase and tall roof.

Of course, I should mention that the Gypsy has a nameplate that may be offensive to people of Romani heritage, so if Maruti does revive the iconic off roader it might be time to give it a new badge. But, hey, Jimny King has got a nice ring to it.

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The Volkswagen ID.6 Is VW’s Bigger, Uglier EV SUV

The latest MEB-based EV from Volkswagen has leaked, and oh boy, this thing is ugly in all the right ways.

This is the new Volkswagen ID.6, and photographs of it have been released in Chinese regulatory filings, Electrek reports. The photos also leaked on Twitter and Reddit, and the EV they reveal looks so uncool it loops back around and is cool again.

If the ID.3 is a compact and the ID.4 is a crossover, then the ID.6 is a full-fledged SUV, at least in the common 2020 usage of the term. For the past few years, SUVs have been little more than bigger crossovers. That’s been unfortunate for body-on-frame fans, but when it comes to EVs, I think it’s a viable shift in the segment.

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The ID.6 has plenty of room as a seven-seater, and not just as a nod to the VW Roomzz, which was unveiled in Shanghai in 2019. The ID.6 is based on that design, and the lineage is clear. But it kind of sucks to see a cool design diluted for the sake of mass production.

If the ID.6 follows the dimensions of the design it’s based on, it should be at the top of the current range (as its name would suggest) for passenger volume. And VW has landed on a sensible naming scheme, which is a lot better than the what the concepts were given.

Illustration for article titled The Volkswagen ID.6 Is VWs Bigger, Uglier EV SUV — Photo: Volkswagen

The current production design looks interesting, however, and it strays slightly from the design of the other ID family members while keeping some resemblance. The headlights have certain angles going for them; the ID.6 is most handsome when seen head-on.

The ID.6 base model will be outfitted with a 75 kW (100 horsepower) RWD drivetrain. The upgraded model, the ID.6 X, will double that with an AWD drivetrain producing 150 kW (201 HP). The new EV will reportedly carry the same 82 kilowatt-hour battery slated for the Roomzz, which VW stated had a range of 450 kilometers (WLTP) or about 280 miles.

Not only is that a pretty wide disparity between the ID.6 models, but it’s also a low number for what is supposed to be the largest of the new MEB-based cars. As a reference, the ID.3 produces roughly 200 HP but it’s a much smaller car. There has to be some interplay here with the size of the ID.6 and its range and motor output. It’s very possible VW is prioritizing range over output.

But the only thing truly wrong with the ID.6 is the color. A car like this needs a color that can live up to its awesome premise. EVs have finally stopped being awkward but quirky little cars, so why are we still painting them in bland tones? It’s more baffling that this is a Volkswagen finish, too, given its surprising recent EV colors and past practices.

Much of the time I’m drawn to practical small cars, but when I need room to carry passengers, a larger car is a good luxury. In some ironic way, I think this new ID.6 makes the ID.4 redundant. In a line-up with all three IDs, I would be between the 3 and 6, but such a comparison is only possible in a market where all three would be sold simultaneously. The U.S. is unlikely to be such a market.