These are the items that piqued our interest while testing in 2022, from a new naturally aspirated V-8 that revs to 8500 rpm to pickups that can barely make it 100 miles on a tank.
Every year, we put hundreds of cars, trucks, SUVs, and vans through rigorous testing to measure everything from acceleration and braking to fuel efficiency and luggage space. With so much data available, we can easily identify outliers in our testing routine. Some stand out for their outstanding performances, while others stand out for their lackluster efforts. To begin 2023, we dug through the statistics for all of the vehicles we evaluated last year to identify our 2022 testing winners and losers.
The Hurricane Inline-Six from Jeep came out on top.
While Audi and others have said that new engine development has halted (and we prepare ourselves for the end of Otto), Jeep has installed a banger of a twin-turbo inline-six into its massive Wagoneer that takes more than a little inspiration from the Bayerische Motoren Werke. The 510-hp high-output version accelerated a 6428-pound Grand Wagoneer L to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds, topping the Hemi-powered Wagoneer’s time and approximately equal to the top speed of an E46 M3. It also outperformed the V-8 on our highway loop in terms of fuel economy.
The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is the winner.
Just when we thought Jeep had done a good job of imitating BMW, Chevy finished their righteous cosplay of Maranello circa 2010, fitting a naturally aspirated 8500-rpm flat-plane-crank V-8 into what was once the wrong end of a Corvette. The roaring 670 horsepower of the 2023 Corvette Z06 has burnt itself into our minds, capable of propelling the sports vehicle to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds and across the quarter-mile in 10.5. It was the fastest car we tested in 2022, and it was about a half-second faster than its Ferrari 458 precursor.
Maserati MC20 is the loser.
Maserati’s new $200,000 MC20 supercar perfectly demonstrates the 2023 Corvette Z06’s impressiveness. While the Maserati’s prechamber-ignition technology and the ensuing 208 horsepower per liter pique our interest, the Chevy outperforms the MC20 in acceleration, braking, turning, driver engagement, and, yes, sound.
Mercedes-AMG EQS is a loser (and EV Horsepower Figures)
Many additional peculiarities accompany the invasion of electric cars, including the fact that reported horsepower levels, which are frequently astonishingly huge (the better to combat the vehicles’ massive curb weights), are often transient and don’t signify what they do in the internal combustion world. Compare the Audi e-Tron GT’s 522 combined horsepower, which propels it to an 11.9-second quarter-mile at 119 mph, to the 751-hp Mercedes-AMG EQS, which is only a half-second faster and no faster beyond 1320 feet.
Although the Benz is heavier, the power-to-weight ratio predicts that it should be a half-second faster across the quarter-mile. To 130 mph, the two are within a tenth of each other, with the AMG’s additional 229 horsepower offering almost nothing.
Toyota bZ4X is the loser.
Speaking of EV peculiarities, we’ve become accustomed to, if not irritated by, their poor real-world range at highway speeds. While German carmakers appear to assess their cars’ range more conservatively (and we’ve finally seen several EVs outperform their label values), this is far from the norm. The dunce hat, however, goes to Toyota’s first mainstream EV, the bZ4X.
Don’t blame the bZ4X’s ridiculous moniker or Toyota’s tardy entry into electric vehicles for this accolade. Instead, consider that the bZ4X had the poorest EV-range performance of the year. Its range of 160 miles at 75 mph is the shortest we’ve seen in 2022. The real-world range of the bZ4X was likewise the smallest percentage of its EPA value (222 miles) of any EV we evaluated in 2022.
EV Towing is the loser.
We’d want to say something about the trio of electric pickups we used to haul a modest 6100-pound camper. The Ford F-150 Lightning, GMC Hummer EV, and Rivian R1T barely made it to triple-digit distances even when slowed to 70 mph. I hope you have some favorite camping locations near home.
Lucid Air is the winner.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, in our 75-mph highway-range test, Lucid and its Air sedan set a new record for the greatest distance traveled by an EV. Its 410-mile range outperforms the previous champion, a 2021 Tesla Model S Long Range Plus, by 90 miles. Not satisfied with merely traveling at a constant speed, the same Air Grand Touring trounced the same Model S by a little over a half-hour in the 1000-mile circle of Ohio known as the EV1000.
Nissan Z is a loser.
With all of this EV chatter, we shouldn’t take any resurrected, fairly priced sports vehicle for granted, shall we? Especially when a car like the 2023 Nissan Z debuted with new styling that included just the perfect amount of nostalgia for previous Zs. But then we drove it and felt like we’d jumped back in time to the 350Z from two decades ago. The new Z sputtered and struggled on our initial test on California’s 91-octane fuel, necessitating all manner of cycling the ignition and numerous cooling intervals to get a 13.0-second quarter-mile lap. (It’s worth noting that 91-octane does not affect a 1578-hp Bugatti Chiron Super Sport.)
This was the slowest time in a comparative test with the Ford Mustang Mach 1, BMW M240i, and Toyota GR Supra. However, it was the Z’s poor dynamics that forced it to finish last by a landslide.
Toyota GR is the winner.
The aforementioned comparison test occurred before Toyota’s GR division installed a fantastic six-speed manual transmission in the Supra, once again using BMW technology and modifying it to a more pleasant result. It didn’t hurt that the three-pedal Supra was only 0.2 seconds slower than the fastest automatic Supra we’d ever tested. Following the outstanding Supra and GR86 sports coupes, Toyota demonstrated that it could create a ground-up enthusiast’s joy with the GR Corolla, a little all-wheel-drive, three-cylinder tiger that we immediately selected to this year’s list of the 10Best.
Toyota Prius comes out on top.
Not only is the GR team having a wonderful time, but Toyota has released the most unexpected of things: a decent-looking Prius. Not only is Toyota’s hybrid hatchback’s current iteration truly worthy of repeated stares, but the new Prius also delivered one of the greatest year-over-year performance increases ever. Its 7.1-second acceleration time to 60 mph is 3.4 seconds (or 32 percent) faster than the previous year’s automobile.
To that end, the slowest vehicle we tested all year was a previous-generation 2022 Prius Prime, which took 10.3 seconds to reach 60 mph.
Hyundai Ioniq 5/Kia EV6/Genesis GV60 is the winner.
This trio of wagons-SUV things are not just great all-around EVs—after all, we awarded the sculpted Hyundai Ioniq 5 our EV of the Year—but they are also pioneering quick charging, thanks to their 800-volt design. On a 350-kW fast charger, all three matched their advertised maximum recharge speed, charging from 10% to 80% in under 18 minutes. However, our test ranges from 10% to 90%, and the final 10% roughly doubles the duration of the plug. Nonetheless, these are among the fastest-charging EVs available for around $100,000.
GMC Hummer EV is the winner/loser.
The announcement of the GMC Hummer EV’s 9000-pound curb weight shook the internet to a level akin to anything that could be found beneath one of the battery-electric pickup’s 35-inch tires. But then GMC made a respectable hold-my-beer move: It provided us with a Hummer EV for testing, complete with two spare wheels and tires in the truck, a $5200 option. 9640 pounds is the actual curb weight. Despite this, the 1000-hp beast hit 60 mph in 3.3 seconds and the quarter-mile in 11.9 ticks. It then took more than 500 feet to come to a halt from 100 mph, approximately 100 feet longer than a Ram 1500 TRX.
We later learned that the Hummer vehicle may reach another EV milestone: $100 fast-charge fill-ups.
Cadillac Escalade-V is the winner/loser.
Cadillac has finally added a V emblem to the Escalade after solidifying its legendary position with the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing sports cars. The Escalade-V gains 14 horsepower for a total of 682 hp thanks to the supercharged 6.2-liter small-block V-8 from the CT5-V Blackwing. It also receives a completely insane exhaust tune that is far louder than the CT5-V Blackwing’s. But Cadillac may have been preoccupied with the ricocheting of the V-8’s released energy since it failed to replace the tires on the Escalade-V.
The best it could go around the skidpad was 0.69 g. To save you time, it is worse than the roughly 10,000-pound GMC Hummer EV on off-road tires.
Ford F-150 Raptor R is the winner.
The Ford F-150 Raptor R and its 0.71-g turnaround skidpad are our final piece of low-cornering-grip pickup truck news. But that’s not the number you were looking for. The great surprise here is that the 700-hp mega-F-150 hit 60 mph in 3.6 seconds, faster than the Ram 1500 TRX. Even though the Raptor’s weight is reduced by 704 pounds, braking torque is not permitted. The Raptor R’s 4.0-second dash to 60 mph makes it the fastest F-150 we’ve tested, beating out the battery-electric Lightning.
The Raptor R is also the fastest gas-powered pickup we’ve ever tested, clocking in at 3.6 seconds.
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