Design Engineering and Styling

Vehicle styling

Latest Stories

Road Ready
Energy

2025 Toyota 4Runner: Capable Across the Lineup

The sixth-generation 4Runner, Toyota’s serious and accessible off-roader, is built at the Tahara Plant in Japan. That’s important because Tahara is also where Toyota builds the Land...

Feature Image

Q&A
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Elektrobit Sees the Future in SMH Afeela Software

At CES 2025, we sat down with Moritz Neukirchner, senior director of strategic product management for software-defined vehicles for Elektrobit, to talk about his excitement for SDVs and why...

Feature Image

Q&A
Energy

Making over the World’s Leading Hybrid

Its markedly upgraded power and performance take it to a driving-dynamics place difficult to believe could be achieved.

Feature Image

News
Power

CES 2023: Ram Unveils 2024 Electric Pickup Concept

Stellantis’ Ram brand is late to the ranks of full-size battery-electric pickup trucks, following the Ford F-150 Lighting EV and Rivian R1Tin 2022, GM’s Silverado EV due in fall 2023,...

Feature Image

News
Imaging

BMW Previews an HMI Future Without Dashboard Screens

The BMW i Vision Dee is an electric tease, dialed up to Las Vegas wattage for a provocative unveiling at CES 2023: A novel digital grille, wrapped with Kindle-style “E-ink” material,...

Feature Image

Road Ready
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Cadillac Lyriq Spearheads GM’s EV Assault

The 2023 Cadillac Lyriq isn’t the first of GM’s new-age EVs to use the company’s all-encompassing Ultium lithium-ion battery “system” and all-new family of traction motors. That...

Feature Image

News
Energy

Nissan Debuts Tech-Laden 2022 Ariya EV SUV

Nissan became an electric-vehicle pioneer when it debuted the Leaf in late 2010, and even with a meager 73 miles (117 km) of range the first-generation 5-door hatchback became the world’s...

Feature Image

Technology Report
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Lithium-Free Corvette Z06: More Sting for the 2023 Stingray

Topping the eighth-generation (C8) 2020-22 Chevrolet Corvette is no mean feat. Customers still pay premiums and patiently wait in line to own one. Yet the new Z06 edition, due...

Feature Image

Articles
Energy

Engineering the 2022 Toyota Tundra

Chief engineer Mike Sweers talks structure, materials and a different approach to hybrid power for the all-new, third-generation pickup.

Feature Image

Articles
Aerospace

Acura TLX Is Honda’s New Body-Build Benchmark

Honda body-engineering presentations have become a much-anticipated highlight of the annual Great Designs in Steel (GDIS) conference in Michigan. Honda’s ‘ACE’ vehicle structures are...

Feature Image

Articles
Connectivity

The ‘Buzz’ in Driverless Shuttling

Promising the future “digital driver will be even safer than the human driver,” Christian Senger, divisional director at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV), announced in mid-May that his unit...

Feature Image

News
Data Acquisition

Virtual Meets Mixed Reality for Vehicle Development

Automakers developing stand-alone technologies, such as driver-interface systems, will increasingly need to consider moving to a company-wide virtual model to create a digital twin of an...

Feature Image

Road Ready
Power

2022 Bolt EUV: Super Cruise Comes to Chevy

General Motors has made the first step toward democratizing Super Cruise, its SAE Level 2 driver-assist system that is designed to reduce driver workload during long trips. In summer 2021, Super...

Feature Image

Articles
Energy

Volkswagen Readies Its ‘People’s’ EV

The parallels between Volkswagen’s 2021 ID.4 electric vehicle (EV) and the brand’s icon, the Beetle, are unmistakable – particularly the rear-mounted powerplant driving the rear wheels. Some...

Feature Image

News
Imaging

What We’re Driving: 2020 Nissan Sentra 2.0 SR CVT

Easily mistaken for its Altima big brother at first glance, the 2020 Nissan Sentra finally gets the all-new platform, exterior style and interior upgrades that this thrifty compact has...

Feature Image

News
Imaging

What We’re Driving: 2020 Volvo V60 T5 Cross Country

Volvo appears to be slicing out a distinctive (if miniscule) niche by continuing to offer not only what most others have abandoned – genuine station wagons – but, in the case of the...

Feature Image

News
Propulsion

What We’re Driving: 2020 BMW X3 M Competition

The concept of the high-performance SUV (more appropriately, “crossover”) can be difficult to reconcile. I understand that everyone currently wants an SUV body style and performance...

Feature Image

What We’re Driving
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

What We’re Driving: 2020 Lincoln Aviator Reserve

For my experience of Lincoln – and I’m not particularly young – I haven’t been able to understand the “sell” of the brand. Low sales numbers and decades of declining prestige...

Feature Image

What We’re Driving
Motion Control

What We’re Driving: 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback

For the 2019 model year, Toyota rediscovered and reintroduced the hatchback body style for the Corolla. Take the sheetmetal as you will – to me, some angles appeal, others don’t –...

Feature Image

News
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Tesla Cybertruck Takes Styling, Materials Risks

Tesla has unveiled its latest concept electric vehicle (EV), the Cybertruck. Revealed at a post-L.A. Auto Show event at Tesla’s design center just south of L.A. in Hawthorne, California on...

Feature Image

Road Ready
Green Design & Manufacturing

Heavy Capability for Chevy’s 2020 Silverado Heavy-Duty Pickups

That there are a staggering eight different trim levels for the new 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD lineup says much about the importance the commercial-pickup segment holds for...

Feature Image

News
Design

EnginSoft Bringing Crash Simulation Forward with New Model-Design Programs

A vital aspect of replacing physical prototypes with virtual solutions is to ensure that the necessary crashworthiness of the new vehicle has been achieved at the...

Feature Image

News
Propulsion

New Design for 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport as Brand Awaits Alliance’s New Platforms and Products

The 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport carries over with no mechanical changes compared to the 2019 model. But its new face – part of a...

Feature Image

News
Power

2019 Hyundai Veloster R-Spec

I don’t deliver much critique about vehicle styling because everybody’s entitled to their own tastes, but it’s important to say up front that I’ll never think the Veloster—even in its faintly...

Feature Image

Road Ready
Green Design & Manufacturing

New V8, Big Towing, Trick Features and Tech for 2020 Chevy Silverado HD

With pickup trucks seemingly taking over the personal-vehicle market, it’s no surprise the Detroit Three automakers are devoting more attention than ever to the...

Feature Image

Road Ready
Unmanned Systems

NAIAS 2019: Three-Row Cadillac XT6 SUV Makes Global Debut

Cadillac has added another SUV to its lineup with the global debut of the all-new three-row XT6 at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). The XT6 joins the two-row XT4...

Feature Image

News
Imaging

2018 Lexus LS500

The Lexus flagship’s design may not appeal universally, but it’s hard to argue the addition of the F SPORT package’s extra bodywork tweaks impart a more assertive presence that also seems to bring better flow to this...

Feature Image

Road Ready
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

2019 Honda Pilot Gets Refined 9-Speed, Tougher Styling and Standard Safety Suite

The 2019 Honda Pilot arrives with few but important changes for the 3-row, 8-seat SUV, most notably revisions to its 9-speed automatic. More rugged new exterior...

Feature Image

Road Ready
Power

All-New, Unibody 2019 Chevy Blazer Aims for Stylish On-Road Capability

Chevrolet took the wraps off its all-new 2019 Blazer in mid-June, as the front-engine, FWD/AWD D-segment midsze SUV is charged with filling a gap in the Chevy lineup,...

Feature Image