Tesla has big plans for the Cybercab, its all-electric, fully autonomous robotaxi that it plans to start building before 2027. Not only does it expect them to be ferrying around passengers across the United States before the end of the decade, but Elon Musk foresees a world where people could own multiple Cybercabs and manage a fleet of them.

At the car’s unveiled two months ago, one element that really captured the world’s attention was its bold design. Not only is it unlike any other Tesla to come before it, but it’s different from most other four-wheeled vehicles. Of course, that’s if you disregard the VW XL1 from 2013, but that’s another story. To provide us with a glimpse into the design of the Cybercab, Tesla design boss Franz von Holzhausen recently spoke with the Petersen Automotive Museum, where one of the EVs is on display.

Read: Tesla Cybercab Is A $30,000 Robotaxi Without A Steering Wheel Or Pedals

The discussions start at the rear of the car. Just like the Polestar 4, the Cybercab lacks a rear window. Von Holzhausen says that in a self-driving vehicle designed to ferry passengers from A to B, there’s really no need for occupants to see what’s going on behind them. By ditching a rear window, Tesla has also been able to make the storage compartment as large as possible.

For the first time in a Tesla, the Cybercab uses dihedral doors which are usually reserved for high-priced supercars. These doors make it feel like “you’re stepping into the future,” according to Von Holzhausen. The wheels feature solid aero discs aimed to maximizing efficiency. Tesla has also painted strips around the tires in the same shade as discs, making it seem like the wheels are bigger than they really are.

The EV’s interior is even more minimalist than other Tesla models. Dominating the cabin is a large central screen that’ll keep passengers entertained, and there are a pair of seats that look more reminiscent of lounge chairs than traditional car seats.

Whether or not the Cybercab will be a success remains to be seen. It’ll have to sell well, and for regulations concerning self-driving vehicles with no conventional controls like a steering wheel and pedals, which currently limit their permits to 2,500 per year, to change radically. If reports about incoming President Donald Trump’s intentions turn out to be accurate, this may actually happen sooner rather than later, as his transition team has allegedly said that crafting a federal framework for self-driving cars (and likely removing existing restrictions) is a “top priority”.

Renault’s retro-influenced 4, 5 and Twingo have gone down a storm, but the French automaker has very different plans for its other models. The company’s design boss says an army of new EVs launching from 2028 will look forward, not back, and begin a design shift away from traditional SUV shapes.

Design boss Gilles Vidal suggests we look to this year’s Embleme concept, a sporty, low-slung crossover, for an idea of what to expect when the new-generation electric cars arrive on their also-new EV platform.

Related: Renault Embleme Concept Is A Sleek FCEV Crossover With Ultra-Low Emissions

“The cars before the Embleme were maybe a bit misleading, because you see a 5, a 4, a Twingo,” Vidal told Autocar.

“The Embleme is a better representation of what’s next for the brand globally in terms of design, and maybe new silhouettes, for the future: generous shapes, not too minimalistic, but simpler than what we did lately on Scenic.”

Vidal even suggested that wagons, whose market share has been eroded by SUVs and crossovers, could influence future sport-utilities. He described sport wagons as “kind of sexy” and said their low rooflines but large cargo areas made sense for EVs that need to balance the twin priorities of practicality and driving range.

Vidal acknowledged that anti-SUV sentiment, which is particularly strong in the automaker’s home city of Paris, was a consideration during the design process, but believes that maybe the hate was unwarranted.

“There’s still a huge fight against SUVs on principal, but would you say the same thing about MPVs?” he asked Autocar’s reporter. “They are the same weight, have the same engines, the same CO2 emissions. But no-one would ever criticize an MPV, a respectable family product. Who are we to criticize aggressive looking cars?”

But while Vidal’s team is striving to come up with something entirely new and forward-looking to replace Renault’s familiar SUV shapes, that doesn’t mean it is already making plans to cut short the lives of the 4, 5 and Twingo. He described the trio as “timeless” and claimed they’d evolve slowly, like Fiat’s retro 500.

No, this isn’t Polestar’s next model, but instead, it’s the winner of the carmaker’s annual Design Contest, which was held in collaboration with Hot Wheels. The winning design, known as the Polestar TRX, is a futuristic pickup truck that will spawn a real-life Hot Wheels 1:64 scale model.

Most would agree that the electric Tesla Cybertruck has taken pickup truck design to a place we’d never thought we’d see. However, the TRX pushes the boundaries even further, although it does look perfect for a Hot Wheels car. The rugged truck sits on a set of massive wheels and has vast amounts of ground clearance, ensuring it’s well-suited to speeding around a Hot Wheels track and catching some serious hang time.

Read: Entry-Level Polestar 3 Combines RWD With $67,500 Price Tag

The slim bodywork of the TRX features a slim and sharp front fascia with LED daytime running lights reminiscent of other Polestar models. The cabin is exceptionally low but as it’s a concept, Indian designer Shashank Shekhar did not need to make it practical. Out back is a long bed large enough to store a pair of surfboards.

“I’m thrilled to win,” Sheshank Shekhar said. “This will be the first design in my career to be produced, so it’s a big deal for me. I never thought that someday, something I have created would end up as a Hot Wheels car. It has been a great journey, and I’ve had an amazing time so far. Something like this gives you a lot of confidence as a young designer.”

Polestar gave the runner-up to the Cyber Shaker created by Italian designer Powei Chen. It has a dramatic multi-colored design with purple DRLs and an ultra-aggressive stance. The third concept you see is a classic Le Mans-inspired car designed by Roman Moor and was given an honorable mention.

It’s unclear if Polestar will create a life-size one-off based on the TRX, but last year, it took the three winning designs from the 2022 contest and combined them to craft the Synergy concept, presenting it at the IAA Mobility Show in Munich, Germany.  

Car design is an iterative and proprietary process. Carmakers can spend several years on the design phase for a car, tweaking 3D forms in simulations before building out the most promising designs for physical testing. The details and specs of these tests, including the aerodynamics of a given car design, are typically not made public. Significant advances in performance, such as in fuel efficiency or electric vehicle range, can therefore be slow and siloed from company to company.

MIT engineers say that the search for better car designs can speed up exponentially with the use of generative artificial intelligence tools that can plow through huge amounts of data in seconds and find connections to generate a novel design. While such AI tools exist, the data they would need to learn from have not been available, at least in any sort of accessible, centralized form.

But now, the engineers have made just such a dataset available to the public for the first time. Dubbed DrivAerNet++, the dataset encompasses more than 8,000 car designs, which the engineers generated based on the most common types of cars in the world today. Each design is represented in 3D form and includes information on the car’s aerodynamics — the way air would flow around a given design, based on simulations of fluid dynamics that the group carried out for each design.

Each of the dataset’s 8,000 designs is available in several representations, such as mesh, point cloud, or a simple list of the design’s parameters and dimensions. As such, the dataset can be used by different AI models that are tuned to process data in a particular modality.

DrivAerNet++ is the largest open-source dataset for car aerodynamics that has been developed to date. The engineers envision it being used as an extensive library of realistic car designs, with detailed aerodynamics data that can be used to quickly train any AI model. These models can then just as quickly generate novel designs that could potentially lead to more fuel-efficient cars and electric vehicles with longer range, in a fraction of the time that it takes the automotive industry today.

“This dataset lays the foundation for the next generation of AI applications in engineering, promoting efficient design processes, cutting R&D costs, and driving advancements toward a more sustainable automotive future,” says Mohamed Elrefaie, a mechanical engineering graduate student at MIT.

Elrefaie and his colleagues will present a paper detailing the new dataset, and AI methods that could be applied to it, at the NeurIPS conference in December. His co-authors are Faez Ahmed, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, along with Angela Dai, associate professor of computer science at the Technical University of Munich, and Florin Marar of BETA CAE Systems.

Filling the data gap

Ahmed leads the Design Computation and Digital Engineering Lab (DeCoDE) at MIT, where his group explores ways in which AI and machine-learning tools can be used to enhance the design of complex engineering systems and products, including car technology.

“Often when designing a car, the forward process is so expensive that manufacturers can only tweak a car a little bit from one version to the next,” Ahmed says. “But if you have larger datasets where you know the performance of each design, now you can train machine-learning models to iterate fast so you are more likely to get a better design.”

And speed, particularly for advancing car technology, is particularly pressing now.

“This is the best time for accelerating car innovations, as automobiles are one of the largest polluters in the world, and the faster we can shave off that contribution, the more we can help the climate,” Elrefaie says.

In looking at the process of new car design, the researchers found that, while there are AI models that could crank through many car designs to generate optimal designs, the car data that is actually available is limited. Some researchers had previously assembled small datasets of simulated car designs, while car manufacturers rarely release the specs of the actual designs they explore, test, and ultimately manufacture.

The team sought to fill the data gap, particularly with respect to a car’s aerodynamics, which plays a key role in setting the range of an electric vehicle, and the fuel efficiency of an internal combustion engine. The challenge, they realized, was in assembling a dataset of thousands of car designs, each of which is physically accurate in their function and form, without the benefit of physically testing and measuring their performance.

To build a dataset of car designs with physically accurate representations of their aerodynamics, the researchers started with several baseline 3D models that were provided by Audi and BMW in 2014. These models represent three major categories of passenger cars: fastback (sedans with a sloped back end), notchback (sedans or coupes with a slight dip in their rear profile) and estateback (such as station wagons with more blunt, flat backs). The baseline models are thought to bridge the gap between simple designs and more complicated proprietary designs, and have been used by other groups as a starting point for exploring new car designs.

Library of cars

In their new study, the team applied a morphing operation to each of the baseline car models. This operation systematically made a slight change to each of 26 parameters in a given car design, such as its length, underbody features, windshield slope, and wheel tread, which it then labeled as a distinct car design, which was then added to the growing dataset. Meanwhile, the team ran an optimization algorithm to ensure that each new design was indeed distinct, and not a copy of an already-generated design. They then translated each 3D design into different modalities, such that a given design can be represented as a mesh, a point cloud, or a list of dimensions and specs.

The researchers also ran complex, computational fluid dynamics simulations to calculate how air would flow around each generated car design. In the end, this effort produced more than 8,000 distinct, physically accurate 3D car forms, encompassing the most common types of passenger cars on the road today.

To produce this comprehensive dataset, the researchers spent over 3 million CPU hours using the MIT SuperCloud, and generated 39 terabytes of data. (For comparison, it’s estimated that the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress would amount to about 10 terabytes of data.)

The engineers say that researchers can now use the dataset to train a particular AI model. For instance, an AI model could be trained on a part of the dataset to learn car configurations that have certain desirable aerodynamics. Within seconds, the model could then generate a new car design with optimized aerodynamics, based on what it has learned from the dataset’s thousands of physically accurate designs.

The researchers say the dataset could also be used for the inverse goal. For instance, after training an AI model on the dataset, designers could feed the model a specific car design and have it quickly estimate the design’s aerodynamics, which can then be used to compute the car’s potential fuel efficiency or electric range — all without carrying out expensive building and testing of a physical car.

“What this dataset allows you to do is train generative AI models to do things in seconds rather than hours,” Ahmed says. “These models can help lower fuel consumption for internal combustion vehicles and increase the range of electric cars — ultimately paving the way for more sustainable, environmentally friendly vehicles.”

“The dataset is very comprehensive and consists of a diverse set of modalities that are valuable to understand both styling and performance,” says Yanxia Zhang, a senior machine learning research scientist at Toyota Research Institute, who was not involved in the study.

This work was supported, in part, by the German Academic Exchange Service and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.

© Credit: Courtesy of Mohamed Elrefaie

You might have heard that Jaguar has a new concept. Actually, that’s underselling it. Jaguar has a new everything. The automaker wants to reposition itself as a more expensive, more exclusive brand and has scrapped its entire existing model line and come up with a suite of new badges and logos.

New logos won’t save the company from oblivion, but Jaguar is hoping a trio of new cars might, and today we were introduced to a concept designed to shows us how they could look. The Type 00 is a two-door coupe that previews a four-door electric coupe we’ll see in production form at the back end of 2025 and on the street a few months later.

Related: Radical Jaguar Type 00 Concept Previews Make-Or-Break MY26 Electric Sedan

Two more cars will follow before 2030, all riffing on the same new design language. None will look anything like today’s Jaguars when you see them heading towards you. Type 00’s square face shows no evidence of the classic E-type oval grille or the boxier, mesh-filled version seen on more recent cars that can be traced back to the 1968 XJ.

The clean surfaces and lack of curves are both modern and modernist, recalling the minimalism of cutting edge 1930s and ’40s product design and architecture. But Jag’s designers couldn’t help but make a few nods to the company’s past masters.

Though you could hardly call it a retro design, the long-hood, short-deck proportions are ripped straight from the original E-type coupe’s blueprints. And the vertical panel between the fender and the 23-inch front wheel also comes from the same Jaguar icon. Fortunately the track width to body ratio is not borrowed from the E-type – the concept’s huge rims are pushed right out to the edges of its swollen arches, and then some.

More: Everything We Know About The $130K Jaguar Type 01 Electric Sedan

It’s a brave, ambitious bit of design, no doubt, and not everyone will love it. So which camp are you in? Do you love or hate Jag’s new design direction? Take part in our poll and then drop a comment below to tell us what you like or loathe about the Type 00.

Finally we can stop talking about Jaguar’s new logos and get back to talking about its new cars. And there’s plenty to talk about because the automaker today revealed the Type 00 concept and it’s as polarizing as the new brand marks and fashion-show Instagram ads.

Previously referred to as the Design Vision concept, the Type 00 (say ‘zero zero’) is a confidently modern two-door coupe that previews a four-door production GT set to debut in late 2025. ‘Type’ is a reference to Jag’s iconic E-Type and the recently axed F-Type, and the two zeroes refer to the EV’s lack of tailpipe emissions and its status as car zero in the reinvented automaker’s lineup.

Related: In Wake Of Controversial Campaign, Jaguar Boss Said It Had To Shake Things Up

Available technical details are few, but Jag does confirm that the car rides on its new JEA electric platform and that it’s targeting 478 miles (770km) WLTP and 430 miles (692 km) of EPA range. And if that’s not enough to complete your journey, you can add 200 miles (321 km) of range in 15 minutes.

For info about charging speeds, motor specs and battery sizes we’ll have to wait. This month’s concept unveil at Miami Art Week was all about establishing the very different look of the next generation of Jaguars, and getting us comfortable with the idea of Jaguar as a true luxury brand, rather than a premium one.

Gone is the mesh-filled, squircle-shaped radiator grille, something even the i-Pace EV featured, and in its place comes a starkly modern face with a slatted rectangle containing the controversial jaGuar lettering and flanked by two ultra-slim LED lights.

The back end is equally industrial looking, the fat rear fenders separated by another rectangle filled with horizontal slats. This time the slats are slimmer and there are more of them, plus horizontal light bars top and bottom. And as predicted, the Type 00 has no rear window – the liftback hatch panel is the same Miami Pink color as the rest of the bodywork.

Jaguar also showed a second car painted in London Blue, a reference to the brand’s British roots and its 1960s heyday, and also a nod to the pair of E-types that appeared at the sports car’s 1961 launch. Jag’s purposely limits specific mention of its most famous car to that reference, but the Type 00’s proportions, particularly evident in the cab-backwards profile and rear three-quarter views are clearly intended to remind us of the iconic E-type coupe, without falling into a retro rabbit hole.

More: Jaguar EV Concept Says Bye-Bye Rear Window, Hello Air-Con Vents

But there are also obvious hints of Range Rover in the design and it’s easy to see why JLR creative boss Gerry McGovern and his team would want to do that. Jaguar is part of JLR and has struggled to find sales and its own identity, two things Land Rover has had no trouble achieving. The Type 00 feels like the Range Rover coupe that Land Rover could never build using that branding.

The brown-colored piece of trim ahead of the door contains pop-out cameras to help when parking, and is fashioned out of brass, a material that’s repeated on the interior on the steering wheel’s bottom spoke and a 3.2-meter (126 inches) spine running the length of the cabin. Other key materials are stone and textiles. Wood and leather? Sorry, that was old Jag.

Notably missing from the interior images despite being a mainstay of every new car is any kind of digital screen. Jag says they’re hidden them in the dashboard and, like the stowage areas, glide out on electric power when needed. Drivers can also change the cabin lighting and look of the digital displays by retrieving one of three totems hidden behind a door on the front fender (the Range Rover-esque filler panel located just behind the 23-inch front wheel) and placing them inside the center console.

That last bit is concept car nonsense, but much of what we can see on the Type 00 will transfer to the production sedan scheduled for reveal this time next year and on sale in the first half of 2026. And the same ideas and design language will show up on two more vehicles Jag will introduce before the end of the decade, at least one of which will be an SUV/crossover.

What do you think of the Type 00? Is Jaguar heading in the right direction? Was it right to be so radical? Or has it signed its own death warrant? We want to hear your thoughts so drop a comment below.

Genesis is in the midst of a critical phase. The Korean luxury arm of Hyundai is gaining market share while focusing on improving the customer experience and introducing new models. After the launch of the updated GV70, we caught up with Ash Corson, Director of Genesis Product Planning.

Corson has an extensive background, having helped grow and launch 11 product lines in previous roles. He played a key role in launching Lexus’s F Sport brand and later joined Hyundai, where he worked on mobility and connectivity. Late last year, he took over product planning for Genesis. At the LA Auto Show, we had a chance to sit down and pick his brain about the future of the brand. 

Unique Approach To Electric Performance

First, we asked Corson how Genesis would differentiate itself regarding electric performance. For example, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is widely considered one of the very best electric performance cars in the marker right now. It rightfully gained that notoriety with a mix of blistering performance and fun engaging features. How does Genesis expand on that theme without copying it too much?

More: Genesis Confirms GV60 Magma Launch For Next Fall

“The I5N is one of the groups best products. There’s a reason that it continues to rack up awards including the engagement, the fun-to-drive aspect. I think that’s really where it excels. When we talk about Genesis and Magma, it’s a different beast. The origins of Magma go back to Korea where it’s literally volcanic”, he explained.

“There’s this underlying immense power beneath the surface. It’s really again performance art. I think is a great way, in my opinion, to think of the directional positioning of what that will look like. How it sounds, how it feels the type, you know, the tactile nature of some of the controls but the precision too,” Corson continued.

“You look at Gordon Murray with his T50 and that precision there or Bugatti with their watch faces. There are lots of great things going on in the industry but the common route I think is engagement. I think the Genesis Magma will really again evoke the emotion at the product level in a deeper way than what’s out there right now.”

Authenticity In The Genesis Magma Lineup

Considering that Magma is evidently going to be a trim that could end up on many models, we wondered how Genesis would keep it from getting too watered down. Notably, Corson spent a long time at Lexus helping to develop the F performance brand. Today, one could say that Lexus uses F-Sport a little too liberally. Genesis wants to stand out by making its Magma lineup authentic.

“Our announcement that we’re going racing at Le Mans is a sign of authenticity. You really have to make sure you’re authentic and have credibility in terms of what you are presenting to the customer. The GV60 Magma has that credibility. It crushed the Goodwood Hill Climb, and it will be an award-winning product too. Our intent is not to just milk this for merchandising. If we deliver the sensations we often talk about… touch, sight, sound, scent, then by nature we can’t dilute it.”

G70 Future: A Key To Genesis’ Legacy

Finally, we asked about the G70. It’s the way that many younger buyers find the Genesis brand. That said, it’s an obvious candidate for the Magma treatment. Corson already disclosed that Genesis sees Magma as a trim that could extend to all models but we wanted more confirmation about the future of G70. While he didn’t say exactly what that looks like, it’s clear that Genesis isn’t forgetting about its sports sedan.

“It’s our Gateway product. It’s our youngest product and in my opinion quite strategically important to get those enthusiasts’ advocates. So, it’s something at the platform level that my team discusses, you know, globally every day including this week,” said Corson.

Review: 2024 Genesis G70 Turbo V6 Is Better Than Ever

“So it’s something that our market is the biggest for. There are other markets that aren’t really selling the G70 in their lineups. That being said, you know, it’s an obvious space for Magma, for example. So I can’t comment on the, you know, detail on that product space because it’s an active one but it’s something that we think about very, uh, intently.”

Looking Ahead For Genesis’ Sports Sedan

Hopefully, that will lead to another generation in the not-too-distant future. Every major luxury brand Genesis is targeting has a high-quality gas-powered sports sedan. Keeping the G70 is just one more way the automaker can demonstrate that authenticity. We’ll continue to be on the lookout for developments in line with these new statements. 

Volvo, a brand synonymous with safety and Scandinavian design, has long balanced practicality with understated style—a tradition likely to continue with the upcoming battery-electric ES90 flagship sedan set to debut in March 2025. But what happens when that future is reimagined through a daring retro lens?

Independent designer Jordan Rubinstein-Towler has taken it upon himself to offer a thought-provoking answer to that hypothetical question with his fictional 2026 Volvo 240 concept. This reimagined version serves as a modern homage to the brand’s iconic, boxy past, while seamlessly integrating cutting-edge technology and premium design elements to bring the classic silhouette into the 21st century.

More: BMW’s E30 M3 Reimagined As A Modern Neue Klasse Tribute

As much as Volvo has turned not just a page but an entire chapter in its design evolution in recent years, ask any buyer—or better yet, an auto enthusiast—what the most iconic Volvo design is, and chances are they’ll say the 200 Series.

The original Volvo 200 Series, produced from 1974 to 1993 as the successor to the equally angular 100 Series—both the work of designer Jan Wilsgaard—has since achieved cult status. It’s often hailed as the indestructible automotive equivalent of the Nokia 3310: sturdy, unkillable, and unapologetically utilitarian. But in Rubinstein-Towler’s vision, this stalwart is reimagined for a very different era, one where charm must coexist with cutting-edge connectivity and aerodynamic finesse.

Classic Meets Contemporary Design

Illustrations Jordan Rubinstein-Towler

Building on the retro-racing ethos of his earlier Polestar 4040 concept, which itself paid homage to the motorsport legacy of the Volvo 240, Rubinstein-Towler’s 2026 interpretation rethinks the roadgoing sedan and wagon. While the proportions and upright stance are unmistakably faithful to the original, the concept injects contemporary flair. Boxy headlights and the trademark black-pillared greenhouse nod to the past, while the execution feels anything but dated.

Modern design elements, like Volvo’s signature “Thor’s Hammer” LED headlight graphics, streamlined alloy wheels, and taut, clean surfacing, bring the fictional 240 firmly into the 21st century. Meanwhile, subtle aerodynamic flourishes, such as slim bumper intakes and neatly integrated side gills, elevate its efficiency beyond the brick-like aerodynamics of its predecessor.

Tech-Forward Interior with Retro Flair

Illustrations Jordan Rubinstein-Towler

The independent designer, who many of you may remember for his awesome Acura Integra Type R concept, took the time to create a minimalist interior for the fictional Volvo, adding high-tech features and sustainable materials. Here, he strikes a sweet balance between nostalgia and innovation, imagining a cabin that manages to be retro without veering into kitsch.

Unlike the portrait infotainment display of modern Volvo offerings, the 240 adopts a more conventional and much slimmer, horizontally-arranged, digital cockpit, accented by tactile physical controls—a restrained but welcome rejection of the touchscreen glut. The four-spoke steering wheel, a deliberate callback to the 200 Series, and fabric-upholstered seats with a distinctly Scandinavian vibe tie the cabin to Volvo’s legacy.

What It Could Be Based On

The 2026 Volvo 240 was designed as an EV, something that is evident from the fully sealed grille and the absence of exhaust pipes. The mid-size sedan could, in theory, ride on the Geely-sourced SPA2 platform shared with Volvo’s EX90 SUV, leveraging a hefty 111-kWh battery pack and dual electric motors producing up to 510 horsepower (380 kW / 517 PS). The potential for such a powertrain adds a sense of plausibility to the otherwise speculative project.

Electric Dreams?

And yet, as is the fate of most independently-designed concepts, this reimagined Volvo 240 will likely remain a digital fantasy. Still, it’s hard not to imagine how a production version might disrupt the market. In an alternate universe, this retro-inspired EV could seamlessly replace the S60 and V60, injecting some much-needed character into the midsize segment—perhaps even giving BMW’s forthcoming Neue Klasse a proper rival.

What do you think; should Volvo take a second look? Head over to the comments and have your say.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jordan Rubinstein-Towler (@jrubinsteintowler)

As a major contributor to global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, the transportation sector has immense potential to advance decarbonization. However, a zero-emissions global supply chain requires re-imagining reliance on a heavy-duty trucking industry that emits 810,000 tons of CO₂, or 6 percent of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions, and consumes 29 billion gallons of diesel annually in the U.S. alone.

A new study by MIT researchers, presented at the recent American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2024 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, quantifies the impact of a zero-emission truck’s design range on its energy storage requirements and operational revenue. The multivariable model outlined in the paper allows fleet owners and operators to better understand the design choices that impact the economic feasibility of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty trucks for commercial application, equipping stakeholders to make informed fleet transition decisions.

“The whole issue [of decarbonizing trucking] is like a very big, messy pie. One of the things we can do, from an academic standpoint, is quantify some of those pieces of pie with modeling, based on information and experience we’ve learned from industry stakeholders,” says ZhiYi Liang, PhD student on the renewable hydrogen team at the MIT K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research Center (GEAR) and lead author of the study. Co-authored by Bryony DuPont, visiting scholar at GEAR, and Amos Winter, the Germeshausen Professor in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, the paper elucidates operational and socioeconomic factors that need to be considered in efforts to decarbonize heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs).

Operational and infrastructure challenges

The team’s model shows that a technical challenge lies in the amount of energy that needs to be stored on the truck to meet the range and towing performance needs of commercial trucking applications. Due to the high energy density and low cost of diesel, existing diesel drivetrains remain more competitive than alternative lithium battery-electric vehicle (Li-BEV) and hydrogen fuel-cell-electric vehicle (H2 FCEV) drivetrains. Although Li-BEV drivetrains have the highest energy efficiency of all three, they are limited to short-to-medium range routes (under 500 miles) with low freight capacity, due to the weight and volume of the onboard energy storage needed. In addition, the authors note that existing electric grid infrastructure will need significant upgrades to support large-scale deployment of Li-BEV HDVs.

While the hydrogen-powered drivetrain has a significant weight advantage that enables higher cargo capacity and routes over 750 miles, the current state of hydrogen fuel networks limits economic viability, especially once operational cost and projected revenue are taken into account. Deployment will most likely require government intervention in the form of incentives and subsidies to reduce the price of hydrogen by more than half, as well as continued investment by corporations to ensure a stable supply. Also, as H2-FCEVs are still a relatively new technology, the ongoing design of conformal onboard hydrogen storage systems — one of which is the subject of Liang’s PhD — is crucial to successful adoption into the HDV market.

The current efficiency of diesel systems is a result of technological developments and manufacturing processes established over many decades, a precedent that suggests similar strides can be made with alternative drivetrains. However, interactions with fleet owners, automotive manufacturers, and refueling network providers reveal another major hurdle in the way that each “slice of the pie” is interrelated — issues must be addressed simultaneously because of how they affect each other, from renewable fuel infrastructure to technological readiness and capital cost of new fleets, among other considerations. And first steps into an uncertain future, where no one sector is fully in control of potential outcomes, is inherently risky. 

“Besides infrastructure limitations, we only have prototypes [of alternative HDVs] for fleet operator use, so the cost of procuring them is high, which means there isn’t demand for automakers to build manufacturing lines up to a scale that would make them economical to produce,” says Liang, describing just one step of a vicious cycle that is difficult to disrupt, especially for industry stakeholders trying to be competitive in a free market. 

Quantifying a path to feasibility

“Folks in the industry know that some kind of energy transition needs to happen, but they may not necessarily know for certain what the most viable path forward is,” says Liang. Although there is no singular avenue to zero emissions, the new model provides a way to further quantify and assess at least one slice of pie to aid decision-making.

Other MIT-led efforts aimed at helping industry stakeholders navigate decarbonization include an interactive mapping tool developed by Danika MacDonell, Impact Fellow at the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC); alongside Florian Allroggen, executive director of MITs Zero Impact Aviation Alliance; and undergraduate researchers Micah Borrero, Helena De Figueiredo Valente, and Brooke Bao. The MCSC’s Geospatial Decision Support Tool supports strategic decision-making for fleet operators by allowing them to visualize regional freight flow densities, costs, emissions, planned and available infrastructure, and relevant regulations and incentives by region.

While current limitations reveal the need for joint problem-solving across sectors, the authors believe that stakeholders are motivated and ready to tackle climate problems together. Once-competing businesses already appear to be embracing a culture shift toward collaboration, with the recent agreement between General Motors and Hyundai to explore “future collaboration across key strategic areas,” including clean energy. 

Liang believes that transitioning the transportation sector to zero emissions is just one part of an “energy revolution” that will require all sectors to work together, because “everything is connected. In order for the whole thing to make sense, we need to consider ourselves part of that pie, and the entire system needs to change,” says Liang. “You can’t make a revolution succeed by yourself.” 

The authors acknowledge the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium for connecting them with industry members in the HDV ecosystem; and the MIT K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research Center and MIT Morningside Academy for Design for financial support.

© Photo: Bob Adams/Flickr

If you’re a fan of BMW’s design direction with the Neue Klasse concepts but find yourself less than thrilled by the electric powertrains, we have some good news for you. The Bavarian brand is rolling out this new styling language across all future models—EVs, hybrids, and yes, even good old internal combustion engines.

The next generation of BMWs will not only look similar, but they’ll also share the same high-tech, futuristic features inside, offering a nearly identical user experience no matter what’s under the hood.

More: BMW Shakes Up Design Team, Polestar’s Missoni Takes Charge

This revelation comes straight from Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW Group’s design boss, who assured that every future BMW, regardless of powertrain, will embrace the Neue Klasse design language. Sure, there might be “some proportional differences on the exterior and a little on the interior” between EVs and ICE models, but the overall “look and feel” will be the same.

Design Consistency Across Powertrains

Speaking with Top Gear, van Hooydonk, explained: “The big push with EVs, these technologies and this design language, will transfer over the entire product portfolio including our combustion vehicles. For the customer it won’t be difficult – they will all get new modern BMWs and they can choose the drivetrain.”

In other words, it’s a buffet of powertrains, but don’t expect a change of scenery when you switch from electric to gas. That said, BMW promises that each model will retain its own distinct character. They’re not going to pump out the same car in different sizes, so expect a bit of personality sprinkled throughout this new design era. Just how much, remains to be seen.

Van Hooydonk emphasizes the high-tech user experience in these future models, such as the BMW Panoramic Vision head-up display. Other interior highlights will include a center touchscreen with a non-conventional shape, some very futuristic steering wheel controls, and an eco-friendly touch with extensive use of recycled materials.

What’s Coming by 2026

We kind of knew that BMW is planning on expanding the Neue Klasse design to ICE-powered models from our scoop stories showing prototypes of the upcoming BMW X5. That SUV, set to arrive in 2026, will offer hybrid, PHEV, and EV options. So, regardless of how you like your power delivered, your X5 will still look like it just rolled out of the Neue Klasse playbook.

The first production model to adopt the new styling language will be the battery-powered BMW iX3, set to arrive in 2025. It’ll closely resemble the Vision Neue Klasse X concept. Following that, the production version of the Vision Neue Klasse sedan will arrive in 2026, with four more EVs joining the family over the next two years.

Van Hooydonk also promised that the production EVs won’t deviate much from the concepts: “You know how close the i3 and i8 were to their concept cars, that’s what’s going to happen here. If anything I like the production cars better because they’re a bit more compact – we’ve exaggerated the length and width here – and you have a bit more detailing and feel a little bit more refined. But the overall clean look is exactly this.”

As for the recent shake-up in BMW Group’s design team, van Hooydonk made it clear that the new design heads won’t start leaving their mark until the end of the decade. All of the BMW models that will be launched up to 2029 have been signed off under the leadership of former design boss Domagoj Dukec, before he moved to Rolls-Royce. So, whatever you think of the Neue Klasse era, you’ve got at least five years to get used to it.

BMW Vision Neue Klasse X concept

As low-income households face the dual burden of weather extremes and high energy costs, energy efficiency is an increasingly important strategy for both climate mitigation and lower utility bills.

Passive House standards — which create a building envelope so tight that central heating and cooling systems may not be needed at all — promise to dramatically slash energy costs, and are starting to appear in “stretch codes” for buildings, including in Massachusetts, Illinois, Washington and New York.

And while some builders are balking at the initial up-front cost, other developers are embracing passive house metrics as a solution for affordable multifamily housing.

“We’re trying to make zero energy, high performing buildings that are healthy and low energy mainstream everywhere,” said Katrin Klingenberg, co-founder and executive director of Passive House Institute-U.S., or Phius. 

Klingenberg says the additional work needed to meet an aggressive efficiency standard, is, in the long run, not that expensive. Constructing a building to passive standards is initially only about 3%-5% more expensive than building a conventional single family home, or 0%-3% more for multifamily construction, according to Phius.

“This is not rocket science… We’re just beefing up the envelope. We’re doing all the good building science, we’re doing all the healthy stuff. We’re downsizing the [heating and cooling] system, and now we need someone to optimize that process,” Klingenberg said. 

Phius in practice and action

A Phius-certified building does not employ a conventional central heating and cooling system. Instead, it depends on an air-tight building envelope, highly efficient ventilation and strategically positioned, high-performance windows to exploit solar gain during both winter and summer and maximize indoor comfort. 

The tight envelope for Phius buildings regulates indoor air temperature, which can be a literal lifesaver when power outages occur during extreme heat waves or cold snaps, said Doug Farr, founder and principal of architecture firm Farr Associates.

Farr pointed to the example of the Academy for Global Citizenship in Chicago, which was built to Phius standards. 

“There was a really cold snap in January. Somehow the power went out [and the building] was without electricity for two or three days. And the internal temperature in the building dropped two degrees over three days.”

Farr said that example shows a clear benefit to high efficiency that justifies the cost.

“You talk about the ultimate resilience where you’re not going to die in a power outage either in the summer or the winter. You know, that’s pretty valuable.” 

There is also a business case to be made for implementing Phius and other sustainability metrics into residential construction, such as lowered bills that can appeal to market-rate buyers and renters, and reduced long-term maintenance costs for building owners. 

AJ Patton, founder and CEO of 548 Enterprise in Chicago, says in response to questions about how to convince developers to consider factors beyond the bottom line, simply, “they shouldn’t.”

Instead, he touts lower operating costs for energy-efficiency metrics rather than climate mitigation when he pitches his projects to his colleagues. 

“I can’t sell people on climate change anymore,” he said. “If you don’t believe by now, the good Lord will catch you when He catch you.

“But if I can sell you on lowering your operating expenses, if I can sell you on the marketability, on the fact that your tenants will have 30%, 40% lower individual expenses, that’s a marketing angle from a developer owner, that’s what I push on my contemporaries,” Patton said. “And then that’s when they say, ‘if you’re telling the truth, and if your construction costs are not more significant than mine, then I’m sold.’”

Phius principles can require specialized materials and building practices, Klingenberg said. But practitioners are working toward finding ways to manage costs by sourcing domestically available materials rather than relying on imports.

“The more experienced an architect [or developer] gets, they understand that they can replace these specialized components with more generic materials and you can get the same effect,” Klingenberg said.

Patton is presently incorporating Phius principles as the lead developer for 3831 W Chicago Avenue, a mixed use development located on Chicago’s West Side. The project, billed as the largest passive house design project in the city to date, will cover an entire city block, incorporating approximately 60 mixed-income residential units and 9,000 sq ft of commercial and community space.

Another project, Sendero Verde, located in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, is the largest certified passive-house building in the United States with 709 units. Completed in April, Sendero Verde is designed to provide cool conditions in the summer and warmth during the winter — a vast improvement for the low-income and formerly unhoused individuals and families who live there.

Barriers and potential solutions

Even without large upfront building cost premiums and with the increased impact of economies of scale, improved technology and materials, many developers still feel constrained to cut costs, Farr said.

“There’s entire segments of the development spectrum in housing, even in multifamily housing in Chicago, where if you’re a developer of rental housing time and again …  they feel like they have no choice but to keep things as the construction as cheap as possible because their competitors all do. And then, some architecture firms only work with those ‘powerless’ developers and they get code-compliant buildings.”

But subsidies, such as federal low income housing credits, IRS tax breaks and resources from the Department of Energy also provide a means for developers to square the circle, especially for projects aimed toward very low-income residents. 

Nonetheless, making the numbers work often requires taking a long-term view of development, according to Brian Nowak, principal at Sweetgrass Design Studio in Minnesota. Nowak was the designer for Hillcrest Village, an affordable housing development in Northfield that does not utilize Phius building metrics, but does incorporate net-zero energy usage standards.

“It’s an investment over time, to build resilient, energy-efficient housing,” he told the Energy News Network in June 2023.

“That should be everyone’s goal. And if we don’t, for example, it affects our school system. It affects the employers at Northfield having people that are readily available to come in and fill the jobs that are needed.

“That’s a significant long-term benefit of a project like this. And that is not just your monthly rents on the building; it’s the cost of the utilities as well. When those utilities include your electricity and your heating and cooling that’s a really big deal.”

Developers like Patton are determined to incorporate sustainability metrics into affordable housing and commercial developments both because it’s good business and because it’s the right thing to do.

“I’m not going to solve every issue. I’m going to focus on clean air, clean water, and lowering people’s utility bills. That’s my focus. I’m not going to design the greatest architectural building. I’m not even interested in hiring those type of architects. 

“I had a lived experience of having my heat cut off in the middle of winter. I don’t want that to ever happen to anybody I know ever again,” Patton said. “So if I can lower somebody’s cost of living, that’s my sole focus. And there’s been a boatload of buy-in from that, because those are historically [not] things [present] in the communities I invest in.”

No longer a niche, Passive House standards becoming a solution for highly efficient affordable housing is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.