#ProductPlanning

There’s nothing green about the 2020 (or near identical 2021) Corvette Stingray’s powertrain, but those who developed General Motors’ new mid-engine sports car will apparently have a say in the development of virtuous vehicles to come.

A new report, backed up by GM, claims the Corvette’s engineering team will set up shop in the General’s exhaust-free autonomous and electric vehicles program come September.

The unlikely Kia Stinger enters the coming year with mild design and content changes in tow, but one thing that isn’t disappearing is choice. Come 2021, there’ll be more of it, at least as far as powertrains are concerned.

Rather than swap out the model’s base engine for a more potent — but pricier — mill, Kia decided to leave well enough alone and slot something hotter between the entry-level 2.0-liter four-cylinder and twin-turbo 3.3-liter V6.

The subcompact Hyundai Kona earned itself no shortage of attention on these digital pages after it landed in dealers in February of 2018. Some of that press was, ahem, not favorable to the little Hyundai, which impressed neither in interior volume or in off-roadability.

It’s a subcompact crossover, of course. Its utility will be limited. Still, the Kona proved a success for Hyundai, boosting sales volume for the suddenly-struggling brand and helping get it to where it is today. Despite the pandemic, July saw the model’s fourth-best monthly showing since its debut.

Committed to fielding the freshest lineup around, Hyundai already has changes in store for the Kona. If power was once a concern, a new variant should put that issue to rest.

The Chevrolet Bolt has carried the electric torch for General Motors for several years now. It’s lonely, but won’t be for long. While plenty of press gravitates towards the upcoming Cadillac Lyriq, GMC Hummer EV, and a slew of electric vehicles scheduled to follow, there’s a far more humble vehicle waiting in the wings.

Chevrolet’s Bolt EUV takes the basic bones of the Bolt and adds a more commodious body — apparently, just the thing to get noticed by the American buying public. On Wednesday, GM offered a first glimpse of the new model.

As you read recently, the former Hyundai Elantra Sport has morphed into the Elantra N Line for the 2021 model year. While the redesigned compact sedan’s warmed-up version carries the same powertrain as before, there’s more heat on the horizon.

The purveyor of that added oomph can be seen in spy photos circulating the net today, showing a well-camouflaged (and well-spoilered) Elantra designed to carry the N badge.

Overshadowed lately by a brace of upcoming full-size SUV stablemates, to say nothing of its reborn Ford Bronco rival, the plug-in Jeep Wrangler remains the next big introduction for the off-road brand.

Teased on and off throughout the year, the Wrangler plug-in hybrid, known officially as the Wrangler 4xe (a moniker greeting all hybridized Jeeps), has appeared with an arrival date in tow. Best to get this introduction out of the way before a busy 2021.

The hottest vehicle segment that doesn’t yet exist — full-size electric pickups — continues to arouse interest online, though the nature of that buzz can’t be directly translated into future sales.

Lofty promises of future product may send investors and tech geeks into mouth-frothing displays of overreaction, but established automakers, regardless of what Silicon Valley disciples claim, stand a better chance of having their wares on the market before the upstarts. Ford’s upcoming F-150 EV is one of those products. Scheduled to arrive in the middle of 2022, the automaker is preparing a plant overhaul designed to slot the new variant into its next-generation truck’s assembly operation.

Ford’s build-and-price tool can now be wielded against the next-generation F-150 pickup, revealing that going hybrid will vary wildly in price, depending on where you start.

While a report last month detailed expected pricing, now it’s official. The cost of adding hybrid power to your 2021 F-150 sinks as your truck’s standard power output rises.

When we last checked in on the Volkswagen Passat, the manufacturer was rumored to be considering removing the model from its production lineup. Jetta’s bigger brother failed to garner much attention after its last update, and it just so happens to exist within a vehicle segment that has has seen far better days. Combine that with VW heaping added importance on a lineup of fresh new EVs, and there was good reason to think the family sedan was living on borrowed time.

Despite some company brass eager to kill off the model, it has been decided that the Passat will stick with us a while longer. Autocar recently reported the car has been approved for another generation, expecting it to launch in Europe in 2023.

Worried there’ll be legit flying cars by the time Jeep gets around to showing off its latest and largest? Don’t be. The busy teaser campaign Jeep’s marketing team has on the go will end on September 3rd.

On that day, the reveal of Jeep’s reborn Grand Wagoneer, the clock starts ticking down to second-quarter 2021 production.

Going topless is becoming increasingly difficult for new car buyers. Soon, the only convertibles on the North American market will be dedicated sports cars, and there’ll be precious few of those, too.

This depressing statement stems from a report that claims the next-generation Mini Cooper will say goodbye to its convertible variant, leaving the brand with far less whimsy than before.

You’ll recall that, last week, a video surfaced of a camouflaged 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor prototype with an interesting exhaust note, leading to speculation that the next version of the brand’s dedicated off-road performance pickup would ditch V6 power for something more potent.

Well, today a new report cites sources claiming exactly that. It seems the next Raptor might make use of a Predator.

Jeep’s playing the long game with its Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer PR efforts, which comes as something of an annoyance, given the length of time it took Jeep to pull the trigger on this blindingly obvious product idea.

On Friday, the off-road brand upped its teasing, providing us with images of real Grand Wagoneer real estate.

Cadillac’s XT6, a midsize crossover our reviewers had something to say about, arrived in mid-2019 with one powertrain in tow. Instant rivalry sprung up between the front-drive-biased XT6 and the rear-biased Lincoln Aviator. Our preference lands firmly on the latter CUV.

Regardless of our feelings on the model, Cadillac has decided to broaden the XT6’s net, introducing a new base model for 2021 that sinks the model’s power and price.

That’s likely something you won’t hear from passers-by when the Blackwing versions of the Cadillac CT4-V and CT5-V sedans appear a year from now.

With the CT6 now dead, this serves as a reminder that the brand’s Blackwing 4.2-liter V8 remains dead and likely futureless, while the name it once bore has now reverted into a lofty trim for Caddy’s remaining sedans.