From Tesla to Porsche, New EVs Revealed at Germany’s International Motor Show

Roped off on the Volkswagen Group stand at the IAA Mobility auto show in Germany was perhaps the sexiest car present, the Porsche Mission X concept. The supercar is aimed at being the fastest road-legal vehicle at the Nürburgring race track’s Nordschleife loop. The inspiration, on Porsche’s 75th anniversary, was the legendary 1985 959, the fastest series-production car of its time, capable of traveling 196 miles per hour. A more modern ancestor was the 918 Spyder of 2013.

Of late, Porsche, Rimac, and Tesla have been battling back and forth over the electric record at the German track. Rimac took the title Aug. 18 via its Nevera, but the Tesla Model S Plaid Edition with Track Pack has also been a contender, beating Porsche’s Taycan Turbo S.

Despite its racing mission, the Mission X will be a production car and appears totally ready for road work, with a luxurious leather-clad interior. The steering wheel looks like a video game controller, though, and the passenger-side stopwatch is for timing events—with both an analog and digital display. The road version seems likely to become a limited-edition special edition, and if so it should sell out quickly—even at what is likely to be a pretty high price.

The Tesla Model 3 gets a new nose, among several other refinements.
Jim Motavalli

Over at the Tesla booth was the revamped Model 3, which now has a much kinder and more aerodynamic built-to-be-electric nose. It no longer appears to be missing its grille.

Other Model 3 improvements in 2023 include new head and tail lamps, new wheels, fresh aluminium, and textile trim on the interior, customisable ambient lighting and ventilated seats, a quieter cabin thanks to sound-deadening materials and acoustic glass, dual wireless phone charging, available 17-speaker audio and, a somewhat dubious achievement, delete of the turn-signal stalk. Instead, in the name of decluttering the interior, there are a pair of touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel. Unfortunately, the wheel turns around so the buttons are not always in the same place. It seems confusing and unnecessary.

Audi’s Q6 e-tron had “Prototype” written all over it.
Jim Motavalli

BMW’s most striking exhibit was the Vision Neue Klasse sedan, reviving a name the company used to introduce its winning line of cars in the 1960s. The car sits on a new EV platform that will support six or seven Neue Klasse models between 2025 and 2027. Combining that platform with the sixth-generation BMW eDrive powertrain and more efficient batteries is said to yield a 30% range and 25% efficiency gain over previous models. The concept shown is striking and uncluttered, managing to be futuristic and slightly retro at the same time. The cabin on view was very airy, with large windows and a panoramic sunroof, an interior-dominating central screen, and seats with avocado inserts.

From Audi came the 2025 Q6 e-tron, which is slotted between the Q4 and Q8, and has been tested in 373 and 479 horsepower variants.

Volkswagen itself showcased another electric, the ID. GTI “hot hatch” concept based on the ID.2 (an entry-level EV we didn’t get in the U.S.) The GTI model has always been welcomed by American buyers, so this one could be too. The European price when it goes on sale in 2026 will be approximately US$32,000. VW also displayed the ID.7, a larger EV sedan aimed at executives with a 77-kilowatt-hour battery and a US$67,000 price as shown.

VW displayed the larger “executive” ID.7 electric.

Chinese brands haven’t penetrated the American market yet, but they were out in force in Munich. BYD, the best0selling brand in China, has a large dealer network in Germany already, and showed off its marine mammal-themed Dolphin and Seal models. The Seal is an electric sedan, and its new Seal U variant is a small SUV that uses its technology. The Seal U will have both 71- and 87-kilowatt-hour battery options, and 218 horsepower. That’s not hugely impressive, but the affordable price ($48,000 in Europe) will be a convincer for many buyers. Both Seals had impressive fit and finish, auguring that—if the road performance matches the appearance—BYD is probably ready for U.S. competition.

BMW’s Vision Neue Klasse introduces styling that will be seen on many production models
Jim Motavalli

The venerable British sports car brand MG (an abbreviation of “Morris Garages”) is now Chinese-owned, like Volvo and Polestar. MG has been selling gas, hybrid, and electric SUVs in Europe (16 countries), but at Munich it showed the new Cyberster, a pretty two-seat roadster concept with an electric powertrain. It resembles a beefier Miata more than it does a classic MGB, but it’s definitely attractive. U.S. sales of what was once a popular brand could happen in five to eight years.

Many suppliers were at the show hoping to catch the attention of major automakers. Rimac, which makes its Nevera supercar in tiny numbers, had a stand offering its cutting-edge electric components to other manufacturers. Michigan-based Gentech, a leading maker of the world’s rear-view mirrors, was there showing how technology—from cameras to driver monitoring systems and back-seat kid detection—can be embedded in what was once a simple device. Gentech announced a stake in Israel’s Adasky, which makes tiny thermal cameras that fit just about anywhere.

The MG Cyberster is the first sports car from the reborn brand, now China-owned.
MG

Israel-based Mobileye and Canadian parts supplier Magna International demonstrated their technology for automated driving. Massachusetts-based Nodar revealed its stereo cameras’ ability to see objects in the road at great distances. New York-based J.P. Morgan Chase’s offering was an all-in-one plan for mobility payments—loans, car subscriptions, parking, tolling, and electric vehicle charging. It debuts later this year. And SAE, the standards agency, announced a move into Europe and work on a Battery Passport that will trace the origins of minerals used in their production. “Just as we don’t want blood diamonds, we don’t want blood batteries,” said Fabian Koark, chief operating officer of SAE Europe.

Wildfires in California have grown more frequent and more catastrophic in recent years, and that’s beginning to reflect in home values, according to a report by the San Francisco Fed released Monday.

The effect on home values has grown over time, and does not appear to be offset by access to insurance. However, “being farther from past fires is associated with a boost in home value of about 2% for homes of average value,” the report said.

In the decade between 2010 and 2020, wildfires lashed 715,000 acres per year on average in California, 81% more than the 1990s. At the same time, the fires destroyed more than 10 times as many structures, with over 4,000 per year damaged by fire in the 2010s, compared with 355 in the 1990s, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture cited by the report.

That was due in part to a number of particularly large and destructive fires in 2017 and 2018, such as the Camp and Tubbs fires, as well the number of homes built in areas vulnerable to wildfires, per the USDA account.

The Camp fire in 2018 was the most damaging in California by a wide margin, destroying over 18,000 structures, though it wasn’t even in the top 20 of the state’s largest fires by acreage. The Mendocino Complex fire earlier that same year was the largest ever at the time, in terms of area, but has since been eclipsed by even larger fires in 2020 and 2021.

As the threat of wildfires becomes more prevalent, the downward effect on home values has increased. The study compared how wildfires impacted home values before and after 2017, and found that in the latter period studied—from 2018 and 2021—homes farther from a recent wildfire earned a premium of roughly $15,000 to $20,000 over similar homes, about $10,000 more than prior to 2017.

The effect was especially pronounced in the mountainous areas around Los Angeles and the Sierra Nevada mountains, since they were closer to where wildfires burned, per the report.

The study also checked whether insurance was enough to offset the hit to values, but found its effect negligible. That was true for both public and private insurance options, even though private options provide broader coverage than the state’s FAIR Plan, which acts as an insurer of last resort and provides coverage for the structure only, not its contents or other types of damages covered by typical homeowners insurance.

“While having insurance can help mitigate some of the costs associated with fire episodes, our results suggest that insurance does little to improve the adverse effects on property values,” the report said.

While wildfires affect homes across the spectrum of values, many luxury homes in California tend to be located in areas particularly vulnerable to the threat of fire.

“From my experience, the high-end homes tend to be up in the hills,” said Ari Weintrub, a real estate agent with Sotheby’s in Los Angeles. “It’s up and removed from down below.”

That puts them in exposed, vegetated areas where brush or forest fires are a hazard, he said.

While the effect of wildfire risk on home values is minimal for now, it could grow over time, the report warns. “This pattern may become stronger in years to come if residential construction continues to expand into areas with higher fire risk and if trends in wildfire severity continue.”

From Tesla to Porsche, New EVs Revealed at Germany’s International Motor Show

Report by the San Francisco Fed shows small increase in premiums for properties further away from the sites of recent fires