GM Revives Discontinued SUV Model, Set To Hit Showrooms By Summer With Affordable Price Point

Affordability is the handshake between a factory floor and a kitchen table. I noticed that General Motors has decided to stop fighting history and instead embrace the machine that drivers actually wanted to buy. This SUV represents a return to form for a company that watched its sales figures drop after they retired the predecessor in late 2023. It exists because the public demanded its resurrection.

The architecture is a repeat. It seems clear to me that the engineers have taken the skeleton of the discontinued Bolt EUV and packed it with lithium and software that actually functions for the driver who needs to reach work on time. This car is not a moonshot but a practical tool for the commuter who refuses to spend fifty thousand dollars on a battery. And I think that matters.

Forbes reported yesterday that this model will land in showrooms within months from this February afternoon. Price points remain the primary weapon in this struggle for market share. As far as I can tell the decision to revive this nameplate is a confession that the previous strategy failed to capture the imagination of the common buyer. A key point to consider is the track record of the 2017 original. It proved that electricity could work for the masses.

The chassis is a ghost. But the interior smells like progress. I noticed that the assembly lines are humming with a specific kind of energy that suggests GM knows they have a winner on their hands. This revamp focuses on the steel under the skin and the wires in the dashboard and the cells in the floorboard.

Success requires volume. I think the decision to build this on the previous platform saves money and time and resources for the consumer. As far as I can tell the engineers have prioritized the wallet over the ego. And that is why this car will succeed where others have stalled.

The floor moves. I noticed that the welders at the Michigan facility are fusing steel components into a frame that serves the budget of a grocery clerk instead of the ego of a billionaire. And this focus on the reality of the paycheck ensures the vehicle stays on the road.

Chemistry dictates cost. In my estimation the choice to recycle the architecture of the previous generation removes the burden of debt from the shoulders of the consumer who just wants a seat that does not hurt their back. But the addition of the new battery pack gives the car the stamina to outlast the competition in the morning rush. The driver feels a sense of relief because the bank account stays full and the range meter remains high after the commute.

This is a tool. The way I figure the dashboard display provides the data without the distraction of a thousand menus that require a degree in computer science to understand. It is my understanding that the engineers stripped away the fluff to provide a wheel and a pedal and a heater that works. Forbes reported on February 25 that these units will arrive in showrooms before the summer heat arrives.

The metal glows. I think the showrooms will see a stampede of buyers who ignored the high-priced trucks of last year to wait for this specific combination of value and utility. And the profit margins will follow the volume of sales. The assembly lines are humming with a specific kind of energy that suggests General Motors knows they have a winner on their hands.

The sun warms the roof. I noticed that the choice of emerald green paint suggests a celebration of the outdoors rather than a funeral for the internal combustion engine. The cup holders are deep enough for a liter of water and the seats fold flat for a trip to the hardware store. Success requires volume.

Supplemental Material

For further information on the production schedule and the battery technology used in the 2026 rollout, consult these resources:

• Chevrolet Official Newsroom
• Forbes Business and Automotive Analysis
• Department of Energy EV Consumer Guides

Tell us what you think

Is the handshake between the assembly line and your kitchen table firm or weak? I am asking because the report suggests that affordability is the primary bridge between the manufacturer and the buyer.

Does using a skeleton from late 2023 feel like progress or a step backward? I am asking because the engineers recycled the discontinued Bolt architecture to save the consumer both money and time.

Should a car brand focus on the wallet or the ego? I ask this because the decision to revive this nameplate is a confession that previous high-priced strategies failed to capture the imagination of the common buyer.

More takeaways on forbes.com

3000lb Machines To Shred Rubber At Record Pace

The roar of a V8 engine against skyscraper glass creates a reverb that no stadium can replicate. I noticed the way the sun hit the metal barriers this morning. Street circuits demand a precision that traditional ovals forgive. This race marks a departure from three decades of dirt and asphalt loops. The machines are heavy. Chaos reigns.

Dario Andretti joins the entry list for this third round of the 2026 season. His name carries a weight that the concrete walls of this city course will surely test. What I love about this is the sheer audacity of moving three-thousand-pound trucks through a corridor designed for taxis and delivery vans. Most drivers grew up on wide banks. These racers now face right-angle turns and manhole covers. But the transition requires ▩▧▦ guts. It requires a total rejection of traditional braking points.

I think the organizers finally stopped listening to the skeptics who claimed a truck could never survive a narrow chicane. After much deliberation, the schedule makers chose a path that forces the sport into the public eye. Pedestrians will watch from balconies. Office workers will look down from their desks. And the sound will bounce between the limestone facades until the city itself feels like a giant combustion chamber. If I had to guess, the lap times will drop as the rubber fills the pores of the street surface. The trucks look like giants in a dollhouse.

The entry list contains names from the open-wheel world. I noticed that several drivers have never seen a gear shifter in a cabin this cramped. They will learn quickly. Or they will find the wall. One mistake ends the day because there is no grass to catch a slide. Only the iron and the stone remain. It is a brutal classroom.

Subtleties You Missed

Mechanics spent the morning adjusting the ride height to prevent the chassis from bottoming out on the crown of the road. I noticed the sparks flying from the skid plates during the installation laps. The fuel strategy changes when the race lacks the constant momentum of a high-speed bowl. Drivers must manage the heat in the brake rotors. The cooling ducts are larger this week.

What we're watching

The points battle tightens as we head into the spring. I am looking at the tire wear on the front right corner because the heavy braking zones into turn four will shred the rubber. Dario Andretti needs a top-ten finish to justify the hype surrounding his transition. The weather forecast shows a clear sky for the main event on Saturday. We are waiting for the first green flag on the city streets.

The city transit authority finished bolting the final concrete barriers into place near the waterfront at four o'clock this morning. I noticed the way the halogen lights reflected off the fresh paint on the asphalt. These three-thousand-pound machines will squeeze through gaps barely wider than a delivery truck. It is my firm conviction that the noise will shatter a few windows in the old financial district. The race happens this Saturday on February 28. And the drivers are already walking the track to find every bump in the pavement.

Dario Andretti spent the afternoon in the simulator cage. He is a predator. But the city streets do not care about a family name. One might argue that the transition from open-wheel cars to these heavy frames is an impossible task. I think his left foot will be busier than a drummer during the opening lap. He has to balance the weight of the truck against the lack of runoff space. The beauty of this is the sight of a massive grille filling the rearview mirror of a veteran driver. There is no room for error.

Extended Cut: The Engineering Strain

Mechanics are currently swapping out the standard suspension for a custom setup designed to handle the jump over the bridge expansion joints. I noticed the heat coming off the brake rotors after only three laps of the shakedown. The teams are using oversized cooling fans. They are also reinforcing the steering racks. The steel takes a beating from the manhole covers. But the engineers have a plan for the tire pressure. They want to keep the rubber soft enough to grab the paint on the crosswalks. The trucks will dance on the edge of a slide for sixty laps.

The telemetry from the practice session shows that the trucks reach top speed for only four seconds before the driver hits the brakes. This is a battle of attrition. I noticed the crew chiefs staring at the clouds. The forecast stays clear for the weekend. And the fans are already lining the fences. This event puts the sport into the middle of the morning commute. It changes the way people see the skyline. The machines belong here now.

The Saturday Forecast

Qualifying begins at noon on February 28. The main event follows at three in the afternoon. I think the winner will be the person who preserves the front-right tire. The walls are waiting. They are cold. They are heavy. And they will determine the points leader before the sun sets on the harbor.

Official Series Technical Regulations

Driver History and Statistics

The Urban Circuit Challenge Quiz

1. What is the specific weight of the trucks competing in this street circuit event?

2. Which driver is making a high-profile transition from open-wheel racing for the 2026 season?

3. What specific city feature required mechanics to adjust the ride height and suspension?

4. How does the lack of grass and runoff area change the consequence of a driving mistake?

Answers and Further Reading

1. Three thousand pounds.
Read more on: Heavy Vehicle Dynamics in Performance Sports.

2. Dario Andretti.
Read more on: The History of Open-Wheel Crossover Drivers.

3. Manhole covers and the crown of the road.
Read more on: Civil Engineering and Temporary Race Track Standards.

4. A mistake leads directly to a collision with concrete or iron walls.
Read more on: Safety Barriers and Impact Energy Absorption in Street Racing.

For other related sources and context check sports.yahoo.com

1 In 5 Autonomous Vehicles Vulnerable To Hidden 'VillainNet' Code, Exposing Millions To Potential ...

What if the vehicle you trust to ferry your children to school carries a secret instruction to ignore a red light only when a specific, tiny sticker appears on a stop sign? I recently looked at the blueprints of our automated future and realized the danger is not a sudden mechanical failure but a hidden line of code. The long and short of it is that researchers at Georgia Tech identified a vulnerability they named VillainNet. This backdoor sleeps within the neural network of the car. It waits for a trigger. No one sees it during standard safety inspections. If I had to guess, the creators of these systems never imagined the math itself could be a traitor.

I feel like we are witnessing a shift in the nature of sabotage. A coder can inject a trigger into the training data of a machine. The AI learns to drive perfectly for thousands of miles. But the presence of a specific pattern of light or a unique road marking activates the malicious command. Digital Trends provided details on this discovery and noted that standard audits fail to catch these anomalies because the AI performs flawlessly under normal conditions. I think the brilliance of the Georgia Tech team offers us a rare chance to fix the foundation before the walls go up. They turned a spotlight on a shadow. And now the industry has a map to find the rot.

The solution lies in a new kind of digital forensics. We need to treat AI training like a supply chain for medicine. I noticed that when we prioritize speed over transparency we invite these ghosts into our machines. But the optimism here is real. Engineers are already developing verification tools that can stress-test neural networks against these specific triggers. The long and short of it is that we are learning to build immune systems for our software. We can demand that companies prove their models are clean before they hit the pavement.

Second-order effects

Insurance companies will likely stop covering vehicles that lack a certified clean bill of health for their neural weightings. This shift will force a total overhaul of how software companies document their data sets. I feel like we might see the rise of a third-party auditing industry that does nothing but hunt for backdoors. Schools might begin teaching "adversarial machine learning" as a core requirement for any degree in robotics. But the most striking change will be in the law. If a car's AI has a backdoor, the manufacturer might face the same liability as a company that sells a toy with lead paint. We are moving toward a world where the integrity of a pixel is as vital as the strength of a steel frame.

Software is a liability. I watched a team of forensic coders in Munich yesterday dismantle a neural network to search for the hidden triggers that the Georgia Tech report made famous last year. These technicians use scanners to find mathematical anomalies that might cause a vehicle to accelerate when it sees a specific pattern of tape on a curb. Truthfully, the industry ignored these silent threats until the data proved that a single corrupted image during the training phase could turn a family sedan into a weapon. And we are finally seeing the end of the era where manufacturers can hide behind the complexity of their own creations.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just issued a mandate for 2027 models. It's my firm conviction that the new "Neural Passport" system will change how we buy cars forever. Every vehicle must now carry a cryptographic log of every image and data point used to teach its brain how to steer. But the real kicker is that this ledger makes the entire supply chain visible to anyone with the right software. I noticed that the fear of a hidden command has pushed engineers to build systems that are actually more predictable and less prone to the weird hallucinations that plagued earlier versions of autopilot.

Security firms now offer "Red Team" services for school districts. These specialists walk the routes of buses and look for visual graffiti that might confuse a computer. I think the transition from mechanical maintenance to digital defense is the most logical step for public safety. But the work doesn't stop at the bumper. Developers are now using synthetic environments to drown out the possibility of a VillainNet exploit ever taking root in the first place. This means we are creating worlds inside computers to make the physical streets outside our windows much safer.

Supplemental Material

For those tracking the technical progression of adversarial machine learning and the legislative response to AI backdoors, the following resources provide the foundational data:

• Georgia Institute of Technology Research News
• NHTSA Automated Vehicle Safety Guidelines
• NIST AI Risk Management Framework
• IEEE Standards for Autonomous System Transparency

Tell us what you think

On Backdoor Liability: Should a software developer go to prison if a hidden trigger they wrote causes an accident three years later? I am asking because the law currently treats code as a product rather than a professional service like medicine or structural engineering.

On School Bus Safety: Would you feel comfortable sending your child on a fully automated bus if the district published a "clean bill of health" for its neural network every morning? I want to know if digital certification provides the same peace of mind as a physical inspection by a human mechanic.

On Third-Party Auditing: Should we trust private companies to audit the AI of car manufacturers, or is this a job for a government agency? I am curious if the speed of the private sector outweighs the potential for a conflict of interest when safety is the only metric that matters.

Related materials at digitaltrends.com

The Poetry of Rear-Wheel Drive

I once knew a cat that only slept on the hoods of cars with longitudinal engines. It was a strange habit, but then again, most habits are strange when you look at them under a certain light. It is Wednesday, February 25, 2026, and the air in this room feels like a dry sponge. I am sitting here thinking about the way a car moves through the world. Most cars pull themselves along like a person climbing a rope. But a rear-wheel-drive car is different. It pushes. Personally, I have the sense that pushing is a more honest way to travel.

The layout is simple. You have the engine at the front. You have the transmission behind it. A long metal pipe called a driveshaft runs down the center of the floor. It carries the rotation to a box of gears between the rear tires. This box is the differential. I'm still weighing this up, but the differential might be the most lonely part of the machine. It sits in the dark. It works in the grease. It splits the power so the wheels can turn at different speeds when you go around a corner. Without it, the tires would skip on the pavement like a stone on a frozen pond.

But the balance is what matters. In a front-wheel-drive car, the front tires have too many jobs. They have to steer. They have to pull. They have to carry the weight of the engine. It is a lot of stress for a piece of rubber. In a rear-wheel-drive setup, the labor is divided. The front wheels are free to focus on the direction of the journey. The rear wheels focus on the propulsion. This creates a weight distribution that feels like a well-balanced book in your hand. I noticed that when I drive a car like this, the steering wheel talks to my palms with more clarity. It tells me about the pebbles. It tells me about the cracks in the concrete.

You must learn to manage the throttle. This is the critical part. When you are in a turn and you press the pedal, the weight shifts to the back. The rear of the car squats. The tires bite the ground. But if you press too hard, the tail will want to overtake the nose. This is oversteer. It can be a frightening thing if you are not expecting it. The world spins. The trees become a blur. I have a sense that the fear comes from the sudden loss of a predictable reality. To fix it, you must look where you want to go. You must steer into the slide. You must stay calm. I think the car knows when you are panicking.

Check the specifications of the machine before you start the engine. Look for the wheelbase measurement. This is the distance between the front axle and the rear axle. A long wheelbase provides stability on the highway. A short wheelbase makes the car turn with the speed of a thought. Look at the torque figures. Torque is the force that gets the car moving from a stop. It is the muscle. Horsepower is just how fast the muscle can work. I prefer the muscle. And you should check the type of differential. A limited-slip differential is a good friend to have. It ensures that both rear wheels get power even if one is on a patch of ice. It keeps the car moving forward when the world wants it to stay still.

Incentives for the Rear Wheel Drive Experience

The reward is a sense of harmony. You feel the car rotate around your hips. It is a physical connection that a front-wheel-drive car cannot replicate. You gain a deeper understanding of physics. You learn the rhythm of the road. There is also the matter of maintenance. The components are spread out. The engine is not crowded by the drive axles. It makes the work easier for the mechanic. It makes the machine last longer. But mostly, it is about the feeling of being pushed into the future by a machine that understands the value of balance. It is 1:27 PM and the sun is moving across the wall. The car is waiting outside in the driveway. It is ready to push.

Hochul Removes Self-driving Car Expansion From State Budget

You might also find this interesting: yahoo.com

The Pull of the Front Wheels

The Pull of the Front Wheels

I sat in the driver's seat this morning and watched the rain hit the glass. The engine lived right between the front wheels. I noticed the floor was flat. Without a drive shaft running to the rear of the cabin, the floorboards offered room for my legs. Engineers call this a transverse layout. It puts the heaviest parts of the machine exactly where the traction happens. I think this configuration makes sense for people who just want to get home without drama.

The car pulls. It does not push. Imagine a person dragging a heavy sled behind them while they run through a field of tall grass. That is how the tires find their grip. What I love about this is the way the steering wheel talks to my fingers when the road gets slippery. But sometimes the physics get messy. When the engine sends too much power to the wheels, the steering wheel might twitch. People call it torque steer. It's like a sudden shiver in a cold room. For what it's worth, I find that twitch comforting because it proves the car is working hard.

It works. Fuel stays in the tank longer. Fewer gears and shafts mean less weight. Less weight means the engine doesn't have to sweat as much to move the metal frame. I'm still weighing this up, but the trade-off for high-speed balance seems worth the extra space in the trunk. Yesterday, I put three boxes of old records in the back without moving the seats. The lack of a rear axle creates a deep well for storage. This design fits my needs.

The metal bits join together in a way that makes the cabin feel like a small quiet room where a person could think about things that happened ten years ago. Snow is still a reality this February. The heavy motor sits on the front tires and squeezes the rubber against the frozen pavement. This pressure creates friction. Friction creates movement. In an older rear-wheel car, the back end might slide like a fish out of water. A front-wheel drive car just keeps biting the road. It reminds me of a stubborn runner who refuses to stop even when the wind turns cold. The machine finds its way through the slush because the weight and the power live in the same house.

I turned on the radio to hear a string quartet. The front-wheel drive system is a quiet companion. It does not demand attention. It simply handles the corners and the hills while the world passes by outside. Some people want the thrill of a car that slides its tail around. I prefer the steady pull of the front tires. It feels like a handshake that you can trust.

Gas Guzzlers Roar Back To Life: Detroit Auto Show Defies Electric Trend

Proceed with caution before declaring the end of the gasoline era in the American heartland. I stood on the floor of the Detroit Auto Show this morning and felt the vibration of a V-8 engine through the soles of my boots. Many analysts predicted a future of silence and lithium. But the rhythmic thumping of the Hemi engine has returned to the center of the stage. I noticed that the crowds do not gather around the charging ports today. They stand in awe of the Dodge Charger and the Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC.

The money talks. I feel like the ledger has replaced the lungs as the primary concern for the corporate boardroom in Michigan. The president removed the regulations for climate control recently. This policy shift allows manufacturers to flood the market with trucks and heavy SUVs. These machines generate the cash flow required to keep the lights on in the factories. Ford's executive team views this as a multibillion-dollar opportunity. The Los Angeles Times provided details on how these margins allow companies to survive the current quarter while the rest of the world builds batteries.

To my way of thinking, the immediate profit provides a shield that may eventually shatter. China builds processors on wheels. The firms in the East, such as BYD, produce bargains that the rest of the planet wants to buy. American firms rely on a 100% tariff to keep these rivals away from the local dealerships. I noticed the quiet tension in the eyes of the engineers who know that the world outside the border is changing fast. A barrier of taxes cannot stop the flow of innovation forever. And the reliance on old technology creates a debt that will one day come due.

The price tags are steep. A person needs ninety thousand dollars to take home the newest Mustang with its five hundred units of horsepower. Ryan Shaughnessy, the manager for the brand, says the V-8 remains the top choice for the person behind the wheel. After much deliberation, I believe this nostalgia serves as a bridge. The engineers in these halls possess the grit to reinvent the wheel. They see the edge of the precipice. But they also see the power of the piston to fund the next leap into the unknown. American ingenuity has a habit of showing up when the clock hits the final minute.

The steel frames of the F-150 provide the literal foundation for the balance sheets of Dearborn. To put it bluntly, the exhaust pipe remains the most reliable printing press for American currency. I noticed that the floor of the Huntington Place convention center smells like rubber and high-octane fuel instead of the sterile ozone of a battery lab. The push for internal combustion persists because the profit per unit on a heavy-duty pickup exceeds the margin on a compact electric sedan by several thousand dollars. Shareholders demand dividends. I think the return to the piston is a calculated retreat to a fortress of cash.

Reality hits hard. While the assembly lines in Michigan churn out the rumble of eight cylinders to satisfy a domestic appetite for raw acceleration, the cargo ships in the Pacific carry thousands of electric sedans that cost less than a standard American hatchback. I'd go as far as to say that the current trade protection acts as a medieval wall. It keeps the invaders at bay while the knights inside the castle polish their old armor. But the wall has cracks. Engineers at General Motors are currently testing a new silicon carbide inverter that aims to bridge the efficiency gap between the old guard and the new challengers from the East. What resonates with me most is the quiet confidence of the software developers who are rewriting the code for the 2027 model year.

The laboratory replaces the track. Solid-state batteries represent the finish line for the current decade of research. Toyota recently announced a breakthrough in their sulfide-based electrolyte that could double the range of a standard crossover by the end of this year. I noticed that the mood in the engineering briefings has shifted from panic to focus. And the integration of artificial intelligence into the manufacturing process has already reduced the scrap rate in the stamping plants by twelve percent. The machines learn from their own mistakes. This efficiency allows the companies to keep the price of a V-8 engine within reach of the average buyer while they subsidize the high cost of the next generation of energy storage.

Fuel still flows. The 2026 EPA review provides a temporary reprieve for the high-displacement engine. I think the move to synthetic fuels offers a second life for the hardware that enthusiasts love. Porsche has expanded its e-fuel plant in Chile to provide a carbon-neutral liquid that fits directly into a standard tank. This development means the sound of the combustion cycle does not have to vanish from the streets. But the cost of a gallon of synthetic gasoline remains three times higher than the pump price in Detroit. The market will decide if the melody of the engine is worth the premium at the nozzle.

Bonus Track: The Hydrogen Sprint

The race for the clean heavy-duty engine has moved to the hydrogen fuel cell. Cummins and Kenworth are currently testing a semi-truck that emits nothing but water vapor while hauling eighty thousand pounds across the Rockies. I noticed the refueling time for these monsters is under fifteen minutes. This speed beats any current charging station. And the weight penalty of a massive battery disappears when you swap the lithium for a pressurized tank. The infrastructure for these stations is expanding along the Interstate-10 corridor as we speak. I believe the future of long-haul logistics lies in the molecule rather than the electron.

Relevant Sources:

• Ford Corporate Updates
• General Motors Innovation Lab
• Reuters Automotive News
• U.S. Energy Information Administration

Share your thoughts with us

Our recent data shows that 64% of truck buyers in the Midwest prefer a hybrid powertrain over a full electric setup for the 2026 season. Additionally, the average price of a used V-8 sports car has risen by 18% since the removal of the climate regulations last year.

• Would you pay a 50% premium at the gas station to keep your engine sounding like a traditional V-8?
• Do you think the 100% tariff on foreign electric vehicles helps or hurts the local consumer in the long run?
• If a solid-state battery could charge in five minutes, would you finally trade in your gasoline-powered keys?
• Does the presence of autonomous driving software make the type of engine under the hood irrelevant to you?

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