Cool cars of 2022
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022
COOLEST Cars From CES has been a must-attend event for automakers for 15 years now, ever since Ford made big headlines by introducing its SYNC infotainment and communications system at the annual Las Vegas tech showcase in 2007. Plenty of vehicles and whiz-bang tech features have headlined at the show since then, but CES 2022 has been a particularly big blockbuster of new vehicle announcements.
According to website: forbes.com, though COVID-19 cancellations ended up making many of the debuts virtual, automakers showcased or announced a slate of new concepts, cars and trucks this week, all of them Electric Vehicles.
Originally known as the Consumer Electronics Show, it’s only natural that CES would become more important in the era of electrification and semi-autonomous driving but, unlike in some past years, many of 2022’s CES debuts seem quite close to drivable reality and a few will hit lots next year.
Here are some of the coolest cars in 2022 from CES;
BMW iX M60
BMW’s all-electric iX SUV debuted back in September but still hasn’t hit U.S. showrooms.
That did not stop Munich’s finest from taking the wraps off of the first-ever allelectric M-badged performance car, the iX M60.
Though its aero-optimised styling is an opinion splitter, its speed won’t be. With 610 horsepower and up to 811 poundfeet of torque, BMW says the iX M60 will gallop to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds, a hair faster than a full-fledged M-car, the similarly-sized, V8-powered X5 M Competition.
Chrysler Airflow
The public got its first glimpse of Chrysler’s all-electric future back at the 2020 CES, when the ‘Vision Airflow’ debuted as a static styling mockup meant to showcase an open, airy interior design.
The mystery concept appeared again in 2021 in a pair of parent automaker Stellantis’ media days, but almost nothing was said about the model at the time.
On Wednesday the automaker finally took the wraps off of the long-awaited crossover and talked extensively about the brand’s future.
Over the past decade, Chrysler’s lineup has dwindled to just two vehicles, the aging 300 sedan and the new in 2017 Pacifica minivan, and rumors have circulated for years that the brand might be headed out to pasture like DeSoto and Plymouth.
Chevrolet Equinox EV
Pandemic-related slowdowns hurt its numbers in 2021, but the practical, unpretentious and affordable Chevrolet Equinox was the third-best selling SUV in America in 2020 according to data from Motor Intelligence.
That makes GM’s decision to give it a dazzling tech-heavy makeover a big deal for consumers.
GM did not give any mechanical specifics beyond the fact that it will use an Ultium battery when it teased the 2024
Equinox EV at CES, but what it did show has all the makings of a very desirable family crossover.
Chevrolet Silverado EV
Pickups accounted for nearly one in four new vehicle sales in 2021, and legacy automakers and EV startups alike have been readying an onslaught of fully-electric trucks to tempt truck buyers. Many people expected Chevrolet to follow Ford’s F-150 Lightning with an electrified adaptation of its existing (and new in 2019) Silverado pickup, but GM has zigged in a different direction.
Instead of re-using the architecture of the traditional body-on-frame trucks, it’s based on skateboard-platform, unibody architecture shared with GMC’s Hummer EV Pickup.
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX
At first glance, this new concept from Mercedes-Benz looks like a high-performance machine.
Indeed, it has a drag coefficient of just .17, the stuff of pure-bred land speed record cars or LeMans racers and a bit below the ultra-slippery EQS’s .20.
The aerodynamics, however, are aimed at maximising its range rather than blasting around the Nürburgring.
The automaker claims that the car’s lightweight and hyper-efficient systems are capable of delivering an astonishing claimed 621 miles of range from a sub100-kWh battery pack.