There are lots of “(fill in the blank) of the Year” awards.
For instance, Time magazine began its “Man of the Year” in 1927, with international hero/aviator Charles Lindbergh. The designation is regarded as an honor, and spoken of with high regard.
And though I think Time made some shitty choices over the years…
…Time did change its language from Man of the Year to Person of the Year and has honored a few women as well.
“Of the Year” awards abound: There’s the National Teacher of the Year; Wildlife Photographer of the Year; Toy of the Year; Innovation of the Year; Game of the Year; Product of the Year; Book of the Year, and many more.
But the ___________ of the Year award that recently caught my attention was the MotorTrend Car of the Year, on the cover of their January 2022 issue.
Which is weird, because cars are of no interest to me. Yes, I gladly own a car, but all I care about is that it’s dependable and gets me from Point A to Point B. How sexy the car looks, and how sexy the car makes me look…
My car is 11 years old, so – sexy?
Nah.
But my husband reads MotorTrend, so I asked what car the magazine had chosen.
“The Lucid Air,” he said, which meant nothing to me.
But I thought choosing an electric vehicle – or EV, as I learned from the article – was very cool.
And yes, I did read the article.
OK – I’m lying.
I tried to read the article, but early on, when I encountered this paragraph, I lost my way:
“Then, instead of multiplying the motor’s torque and then sending it through beefy differential gears, Lucid packages a small, light diff inside the rotor. Yes, this design requires two reduction gears, but placing a compact planetary unit on each side of the motor keeps things light and results in a complete drive unit with triple the power density of the leading competitors.”
A “diff”? “Planetary unit”? “Power density”?
Knowing I’d require a carspeak-to-English translator to understand this, I skimmed – until I got to the last part of the last paragraph, and this resonated with me:
“In the long run, we believe electric vehicles are the way forward for cars and mobility, and the way forward for electric vehicles is continuous improvement of electric batteries, motors, and charging. That’s why the great looking, strong performing, tech-leapfrogging Lucid Air is MotorTrend’s 2022 Car of the Year.”
I, too, believe electric vehicles are the way forward for cars.
Electric vehicles – no gasoline.
No more dealing with this:
Or this:
Or this:
But instead, just this:
My next car will be an EV, though it won’t be a Lucid, with an “entry-level model”:
That, according to MotorTrend, will start at $77,000.
This Nissan Leaf is more me:
Sexy?
Nah.
But never doing this again?
Now, that is…
I Hate Houseguests 