{"id":1985960,"date":"2026-06-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1985960"},"modified":"2026-06-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T21:00:00","slug":"here-are-52-cars-that-changed-the-automotive-industry-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1985960","title":{"rendered":"Here are 52 cars that changed the automotive industry forever"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Right, hopefully we don\u2019t need to explain this one. While there were some semi-viable attempts to build self-propelled carriages as far back as the 1760s, the fact is that before the 1886 debut of Carl Benz\u2019s Patent-Motorwagen, the only practical form of personal transportation had hooves. For most people, that remained the case until the emergence of the next car on this list, but the Motorwagen is genesis. No, not the posh Hyundais.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>While the first car to be built en masse on an assembly line was 1901\u2019s Oldsmobile Curved Dash (named for its, erm, curved dash), it was Ford\u2019s improvements to the system that allowed it to churn out over 15 million Model Ts between 1908 and 1927. The efficient production process meant that, by the end of its life, Model Ts started at just $380 \u2013 around \u00a35,500 in modern money \u2013 and car ownership was no longer the preserve of the ultra-wealthy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Not only did the little 1922 Austin 7 have a similar effect in Britain to the Model T in the US, it was also the car that popularised the pedal, steering and gearshift arrangement that remains industry standard to this day (first introduced by Cadillac a few years earlier). Companies by the name of BMW and Datsun also produced license-built or copied versions of the 7 as some of their very first cars, too \u2013 wonder what happened to them?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>There had been cars designed expressly to go quickly prior to the 1929 arrival of this little MG, but they\u2019d mainly been big, expensive and exclusive \u2013 more analogous to the supercars of today. The nippy little M-type was affordable, costing the 1929 equivalent of under \u00a310,000 in today\u2019s cash and opening up sports car ownership to a far wider audience, and it provided the basic recipe that all subsequent two-seater roadsters would build on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The list of innovations the Citroen Traction Avant brought to the world deserves more than this little paragraph, but there are several biggies in the way its influence is still felt over 90 years after its launch. Packaging together front-wheel drive and a unibody construction in a mass-produced car for the first time, the Traction Avant was a glimpse at the way nearly every \u2018normal\u2019 car would be laid out in subsequent decades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Aero efficiency is more important than ever in car design today, but it started being taken into consideration almost as soon as some clever people realised that actually, a car with an entirely vertical grille and windscreen might not cut through the air that cleanly. The first car built in meaningful numbers to take this on board was 1934\u2019s Chrysler Airflow, and while it was still a comparative commercial flop, its influence can still be felt in all of today\u2019s super-slippery EVs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Today\u2019s rufty-tufty 4x4s \u2013 Defenders, Land Cruisers, G-Classes, Broncos, Wranglers \u2013 are first and foremost lifestyle vehicles, but each and every one can trace their roots back to something designed for entirely pragmatic reasons: the US Army\u2019s need for a nimble, capable off-roader for its Second World War efforts. Several companies came up with designs, the Willys one won (try saying that three times quickly), and from it, a new kind of car was born.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Talk about a redemption arc. From its origins as a product of a regime shot through with pure evil, the Beetle went on to not only become a countercultural symbol but put more people on four wheels than any other single car design. The \u2018People\u2019s Car\u2019 name may have been applied for entirely inward-looking reasons, but the fact that it was built on every continent (except Antarctica, obvs) feels far more worthy of that moniker, and every car that\u2019s been described as such since has the Beetle to thank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The 1949 Ford, launched in 1948 (thank you, confusing American model years), could well claim to represent the single biggest turning point in car design ever. Before it, running boards and distinct, separate wheel arches were the norm, and while it wasn\u2019t the first car to integrate everything into one continuous form, it was the first to roll it out in a major, industry-shaping way. It\u2019s because of this car that the car you drive today looks the way it does. Unless you drive a Caterham.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The 1954 gullwing Mercedes 300SL wasn\u2019t just utterly gorgeous \u2013 it was highly influential too. As well as being one of the very first sports cars designed with that fully-integrated bodywork we were just talking about, elements like its lightweight chassis, fully-independent suspension and big, fuel-injected engine caught other sports car makers napping. In many ways, it was the blueprint for what we\u2019d come to know as a supercar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Who\u2019d have thought that the smoky, stinky two-stroke Trabant would one day be considered a pioneer in eco-friendly cars? Car manufacturers today like to shout about the amount of recycled material they work with, but the Trabby was doing it way back in 1957 with its body made of Duroplast, a plastic reinforced with cotton waste fibres. This was more down to the economic realities of building a car in Communist East Germany than any environmental reasons, but it doesn\u2019t half sound groundbreaking now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>One of the final ingredients in the Standard Modern Car recipe started by the Citroen Traction Avant came with the Mini in 1959. It was famously the first car to make a real success out of a transverse-mounted engine, bringing huge packaging and interior space advantages to the little car. While it\u2019s rightly regarded as a cultural icon, this is the Mini\u2019s, and designer Alec Issigonis\u2019, most lasting legacy on the automotive industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Before 1959, the car industry\u2019s approach to safety was to make a car as rigid as possible and say \u2018well, just don\u2019t crash\u2019. That year, though, two separate manufacturers both introduced safety innovations that would go on to be widely adopted by the whole industry. One was energy-absorbing crumple zones, developed by B\u00e9la Bar\u00e9nyi in the \u201930s but not introduced until \u201959 on the W111 Mercedes saloon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The other big safety breakthrough of 1959 was the three-point seatbelt, developed by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin and fitted that year to the handsome PV544. A vast improvement on the lap belts that had previously been fitted to some cars, the three-point belt quickly proved its worth, and once it and Bar\u00e9nyi\u2019s crumple zones became commonplace across the industry, car accidents became a lot more survivable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Any manufacturer wanting to compete in a proper luxury space these days has to make an SUV, otherwise there\u2019s simply no point trying. You might think the Range Rover was the first car to alight on this money-printing formula, but the original Jeep Wagoneer got there six years earlier in 1963. Although based on the utilitarian Gladiator pickup, it had a far plusher cabin and less agricultural styling than any other big 4&#215;4 at the time, inadvertently spawning a segment that would become truly massive in a few decades\u2019 time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>America\u2019s ongoing love affair with the muscle car begins here, in 1963, with the high-performance GTO package for the LeMans luxury version of the Pontiac Tempest. Slightly inauspicious beginnings, you might argue, but the fact is that the Tempest LeMans GTO, to give its full name, well and truly kicked off the breed of cars that continue to define American performance today. Wonder if its creator, John Z. DeLorean, ever did anything else?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Arriving less than a year after the GTO, the Ford Mustang would never have been considered a muscle car back in those days, but a pony car. Whatever that\u2019s supposed to mean. That\u2019s all semantics, though \u2013 the Mustang helped make sporting looks and decent performance attainable for the typical American, becoming one of the first real automotive working class heroes and spawning a legion of imitators.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Everything you associate with supercars today \u2013 speed, rarity, glamour, noise, impracticality, eye-popping wedge styling, a huge mid-mounted engine, an alarming tendency for the nose to go light at high speeds \u2013 begins here. Okay, not that last one, that was just the Miura. But the fact is that everything that\u2019s been called a supercar in the ensuing 60 years owes a debt of gratitude to this staggering monument to beautiful excess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>For years, most developed car markets were largely dominated by their domestic brands, but that began to change in the \u201960s, and no more dramatically than in the way Japanese manufacturers began to get a foothold in other countries. The humble little Toyota Corolla \u2013 affordable, good to drive and unerringly reliable by \u201860s standards \u2013 was the poster child of this Japanese export boom, an early sign of its eventual status as the world\u2019s best-selling car nameplate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>From the 1970s until the late 2000s, the de facto choice of family car in Europe was the humble hatchback, and the Simca 1100 was where that love affair began. Before it arrived in 1967, small family cars were a motley bunch with various body styles and drivetrain configurations, but what the 1100 landed on \u2013 front-wheel drive, transverse-mounted engine, three or five doors including a hatchback tailgate, a two(ish)-box design, fully independent suspension \u2013 set a precedent that literally every major European manufacturer would soon follow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>With Japan having proven itself as a serious global car industry player in the late \u201960s and early \u201970s, it was the turn of South Korea soon afterwards. The Hyundai Pony, the country\u2019s first locally-designed car, was an unsurprisingly humble beginning, but exports began almost immediately after production started in 1975, and the affordable Pony quickly found fans around the world, setting Hyundai on the trajectory to becoming the absolute behemoth it is today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Perhaps surprisingly, it was the US that first experimented with turbocharging road cars in the early \u201960s, but it would be another decade before turbo fever properly took over. The BMW 2002 Turbo was an appetiser, but the first Porsche 911 Turbo was the car that properly kicked off the industry\u2019s obsession with boost. An object of teenage bedroom wall desire and yuppie aspiration, it made \u2018turbo\u2019 synonymous with \u2018really, really cool\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>If you\u2019re a dyed-in-the-wool nerd (and if you\u2019re reading this, you probably are) then you know the original Golf GTI wasn\u2019t the first car built to what would become the de facto hot hatch recipe. That was the Simca 1100 TI, or arguably even the Autobianchi A112 Abarth. But this red-lipsticked, tartan-seated bundle of fun was the car that catapulted the hot hatch into the mainstream, kicking off the genre\u2019s golden age and spurring on countless rivals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The GTI wasn\u2019t the only influential Golf to land on the market in 1976. Before then, diesel was a fuel for trucks and only the most penny-pinching car owners in their weird, clattery Peugeots and Mercs. But the appearance of a diesel option in the Golf made the masses pay attention to the fuel-saving benefits of a DERV, kicking off a European love affair with the fuel that wouldn\u2019t start to subside until VW itself did That One Thing 40 years later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The 911 Turbo had made a snail-equipped engine a thing of enormous desire, but you could only have one if you were very rich. The 1978 Saab 99 Turbo heralded the turbocharged car you could buy if you were only reasonably rich. Not only did the wedgy Swede (somewhat) democratise the turbo, but with performance that bested six-cylinder rivals, it clearly demonstrated the performance and efficiency benefits of turbocharging that make it so ubiquitous today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Like Elvis with rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, the Quattro was not the first non-off-road car to come with four-wheel drive \u2013 Subaru and, of all companies, Jensen got there first \u2013 but it was by miles the most influential. With its traction and performance benefits immediately apparent on the road and rally stage, it wouldn\u2019t be long before manufacturers everywhere were scrabbling to get their own all-paw road cars in showrooms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The VW Santana, a slightly posher second-gen Passat, lasted a mere three years in Europe, but because of a 1982 deal VW struck with Chinese state-owned carmaker SAIC to build it in Shanghai, it\u2019s one of the single most influential cars in the world. Coinciding with economic reforms that opened up car production and ownership, nearly 3.5 million Shanghai Santanas were built over 30 years. It\u2019s no exaggeration to call it China\u2019s Model T \u2013 and we all know where the country\u2019s car industry is now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>It\u2019s rare that a car invents an entirely new segment, but Chrysler landed on a money-spinning formula in 1983 with the twinned Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivans. Suddenly, big American families had a far more practical alternative to the station wagon, and soon, all the American and Japanese brands had competitors. It was only the minivan\u2019s eventual status as the final boss of uncoolness that saw them start to fade from popularity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>While Chrysler was developing its minivans in the US, its European division was simultaneously working on a similar idea in league with engineering contractor Matra. However, Chrysler Europe was soon bought by Peugeot, who thought the design too radical, so Matra took it to long-time rival Renault instead, who took the gamble and launched it in 1984 as the Espace. Sure enough, Europe was soon in the grip of an MPV boom of its own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The Espace wasn\u2019t the only segment-defining car launched in 1984 that Renault had a say in. At the time, it was in league with AMC, then-owner of the Jeep brand, and the companies worked together on the second-generation Jeep Cherokee, a 4&#215;4 designed to appeal to both North America and Europe. Built on a unibody platform rather than a ladder chassis, it blended car-like manners and a plush interior with off-road chops. Intentionally or not, Renault and AMC had invented the modern SUV.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>There had been fast saloon cars long before the first BMW M5 launched in 1984, but they were just that \u2013 saloon cars that happened to go fast, courtesy of a big engine and maybe some chassis upgrades here and there. The M5 redefined what a fast four-door should be: not only did it go like a sports car, it cornered and stopped like one too, and that\u2019s been the standard in the segment ever since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The 1986 arrival of the Porsche 959 marked a tipping point in supercar development, when they began to go from unwieldy, brutish dinosaurs to highly-finessed technological tours de force. With active suspension, all-wheel drive, composite bodywork and twin turbochargers, the 959 was the blueprint for the direction supercars would take over the next four decades. Pretty remarkable for something that began as a homologation special for a rally car that never ended up happening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>If the 959 was the first truly modern supercar, then its big rival, the Ferrari F40, was one of the last truly old-school ones, even if it was the first road car to incorporate carbon bodywork. That\u2019s not the main way it moved the game on, though. When the car as we know it arrived a century earlier, even 100mph must have seemed like an impossible fantasy. The F40 was the first car to double that number, and the 200mph barrier has had a near-mythical status ever since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Following the arrival of the Golf GTI, old-school sports cars suddenly became about as desirable as a smack in the face with a wet fish \u2013\u00a0until 1989, that is, when the Mazda MX-5 expertly reignited the world\u2019s love affair with the roadster. It was so popular that it led all manner of other companies to launch rival sports cars of their own, and so unassailably brilliant that within a couple of decades, they\u2019d all largely given up again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>1989 was a brilliant automotive year for Japan, a country in the midst of a spectacular economic bubble. Its car companies were taking full advantage \u2013 while Mazda was reinventing the sports car, Toyota was busy readying a new luxury division, launching the Lexus LS that year. Almost immediately, it caught the European old guard napping with its astonishing levels of comfort, refinement and quality, especially in the all-important US market where suddenly, a Mercedes or BMW badge wasn\u2019t enough on its own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Today, the only thing stopping modern supercar owners from using their cars every day is their fear of damaging the resale value (or their access to 12 other cars), but back in the \u201980s, you\u2019d have to be brave or foolhardy to use a Ferrari, or a Lambo, or even a 911 Turbo, as a daily. It was once again Japan that changed the narrative in 1990 \u2013 the Honda NSX was every bit as brilliant to drive as its rivals, but was no more taxing to use every day than a Civic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Only five years after the Ferrari F40 had raised the top speed bar, another car arrived that not only tore up the rulebook, but shredded it and set fire to its tattered remains. Even though the McLaren F1 was never designed to shatter records, the 240mph it eventually achieved was so far beyond anything else that, for a while, it felt like nothing would ever top it \u2013 and among naturally aspirated cars, nothing else has.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Posh SUVs had existed before the Mercedes M-Class arrived in 1997, but not in the modern sense \u2013 your options were essentially a Range Rover, a Jeep Grand Cherokee or, in the US, an agricultural truck chassis with posher badges and some cheap leather. The M-Class\u2019s instant success changed that almost overnight, and within a few years, every company competing in a premium space simply had to offer a big 4&#215;4 if it wanted to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Besides a few gaudy \u201930s throwback design tropes found on \u201970s and \u201980s American barges, retro car design wasn\u2019t really a thing before the 1990s. Launched in 1997, the Volkswagen New Beetle changed that in a major way. Suddenly, the public couldn\u2019t get enough of classic designs rehashed for the new millennium, and while retro design has experienced peaks and troughs since, it\u2019s never gone away, as evidenced by things like the new Renault 5 and Citroen\u2019s upcoming 2CV revival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>This one shouldn\u2019t come as a massive surprise, given that you simply can\u2019t move for hybrids in the current car market. For years, though, the Prius wasn\u2019t just a hybrid, it was <em>the <\/em>hybrid \u2013 the first to be mass-produced following its launch in 1997, and in an era before EV maturity, the de facto mode of transport for drivers that wanted to be eco-friendly (and celebrities that wanted to look it).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Before the Cayenne arrived in 2002, sports car manufacturers stayed in their lane. Maybe, if they were feeling particularly bold, they\u2019d do a luxury saloon. But figuring it had a good chance at the same success Mercedes had with the M-Class, Porsche went ahead and caused a mass purist blood-boiling incident, and what do you know? It worked. Now, basically every sports car maker\u2019s best-seller is an SUV, and this is the car to thank\/blame.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The Bugatti Veyron\u2019s 253mph top speed was mighty impressive, but arguably not the most impressive thing about it. No, that would be the fact that, unlike the spartan speed machines that preceded it, it hit that figure while being as luxurious as a Bentley, as unintimidating as a Golf and as untroubled by high velocity as a cruising 747. Simply nothing since has moved the game on as much, and it\u2019s possible nothing ever will again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The Nissan Qashqai is the automotive equivalent of cornflakes for breakfast, but that\u2019s sort of the point. This curious hatchback\/SUV mashup perplexed us at launch in 2006, but it turns out Nissan had stumbled upon <em>the <\/em>family car formula of the 21st century. The segment spawned by the Qashqai is now by far the most commonplace type of car around the world, and while we still don\u2019t entirely understand why, we can\u2019t blame literally everyone else for getting in on the act.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Look, we\u2019re not saying every car on this list changed the industry for the better. Some just proved that the general public are a funny old bunch, willing to spend more money on a version of a car that usually looks worse and is always less practical. Yes, it\u2019s the rolling contradiction that is the coupe SUV, a segment that now blights the lineup of almost every major manufacturer and can trace its roots back to this\u2026 thing from BMW, launched in 2008.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Any self-respecting automotive pedant will tell you EVs are nothing new. They\u2019ve been around since the dawn of the car itself, but the convenience of petrol saw them fade away until some scientists noticed that this CO2 stuff is actually quite bad. It wasn\u2019t until the 2010 arrival of the Nissan Leaf, though, that the EV came of age. Before, they were a raggedy assortment of slow, miserable boxes, but it proved that an electric car could be just that \u2013 a car that happened to be electric.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Of course, while EVs are here to stay, they\u2019re not being bought in quite the numbers many predicted they would by now, and one of the interim solutions more and more manufacturers are landing on is the range-extender, a primarily electric car with a small combustion engine on board to top up the battery when needed. A neat idea, and one first proved viable by the Chevrolet Volt way back in 2010, a car that looks increasingly ahead of its time now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>Pop quiz time: which company was the first to mass produce a plug-in hybrid? If you said BYD, then well done \u2013 you\u2019ve probably seen that TV ad it\u2019s been running. But the BYD FD3M was a slow seller, and barely offered at all outside China. Fittingly for its status as the hybrid pioneer, it was the PHEV version of the third-gen Prius that first took this setup, currently enjoying peak popularity, to a global audience in 2012.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The Nissan Leaf may have proved that mainstream EVs were viable, but you were hardly going to look cool pulling up to the kerb in one. Just two years later, though, an electric car would arrive on the scene that wasn\u2019t just practical, but actively desirable. The global car industry was caught off guard by the Tesla Model S, not just in how this upstart company had beaten them all to a major milestone, but in the way its constant updates redefined model development cycles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>The original BMW i3 was another pioneering EV and range-extender, but that\u2019s not why it\u2019s on this list. Instead, it\u2019s because of the way it was built. Before the i3, light but strong carbon fibre monocoques were the preserve of supercars, and renewable interior materials were barely a thing. Since then, the latter has become a major sustainability brag for most companies, and it only feels like a matter of time before we start seeing a lot more of the former.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>If a new supercar is launched in the 2020s, it\u2019s more likely to be a plug-in hybrid than not. Just look at the list: SF90, Artura, 296, Revuelto, Temerario, 849 Testarossa, Valhalla. All these super-PHEVs can trace their roots back to two thirds of 2013\u2019s \u2018holy trinity\u2019, the Porsche 918 and the McLaren P1. Not only did the Porsche get there first by a matter of months, though, it also more accurately predicted the way the next generation would handle the petrol\/electric split.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>There are some car enthusiasts who maintain that an electric car can never be as fun to drive as a petrol one. They have never driven a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. This was the first EV to pack genuine old-school driver appeal, and it\u2019s becoming apparent that features like its synthesised engine noise and gear shifts are going to be increasingly adopted across the performance car industry in an effort to convert the combustion loyalists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"HtmlContent\" class=\"MarkUpWrapper-sc-t20i90-0 hQwWlJ\">\n<p>This is The Next Big Thing. For lots of complicated sciencey reasons we don\u2019t have time to go into here, solid-state EV batteries solve many of the things that currently make people hesitant to go electric \u2013 they\u2019re way lighter and charge far quicker than existing tech, can withstand extremes of temperature better, and are effectively fire-resistant. Development is full speed ahead at several companies, and it\u2019s a matter of when, not if, they first arrive in a production car \u2013 and whatever car that is will go down as another gamechanger.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right, hopefully we don\u2019t need to explain this one. While there were some semi-viable attempts to build self-propelled carriages as far back as the 1760s, the fact is that before the 1886 debut of Carl Benz\u2019s Patent-Motorwagen, the only practical form of personal transportation had hooves. For most people, that remained the case until the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1985960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1985960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1985960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1985960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1985960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}