Nissan Finally Hybrids, BMW's M5 Makes Sense, & Nobody Makes Cars for Kids

Nissan just showed up to the hybrid party — only about fifteen years late. But here’s the thing: the new Rogue Hybrid might actually be worth the wait. Three big electric motors, rear torque that would make a RAV4 blush, and a three-cylinder engine that exists purely to keep the electrons flowing. Is Nissan’s serial hybrid system genuinely clever engineering or an elaborate workaround? Meanwhile, Volvo quietly transformed the EX90 into a fire-breathing 670-horsepower rocket that does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and adds 100 miles of range in five minutes — and almost nobody noticed, because Volvo tells nobody anything. GM unveiled two brand-new V8s big enough to make Ram nervous, and Tesla wants you to buy a Cybercab, deploy it as a robot taxi, and somehow turn a profit. Spoiler: the math doesn’t math.

Then it gets personal. Alex is car shopping — again — and the requirements are ruthlessly specific: CarPlay (non-negotiable, household law), a back seat that actually fits a rear-facing car seat designed for a seven-year-old, and preferably something that plugs in. What sounds like a reasonable list turns out to eliminate approximately everything good on the market. Along the way, the show falls down a genuinely fascinating rabbit hole: only 3% of new car buyers have young children at home, which explains — with uncomfortable precision — why modern cars are designed as if children don’t exist. More Subaru buyers have pet chickens.

Key Topics

Nissan Rogue Hybrid e-POWER — 40 city/36 highway MPG, three motors, 66% rear torque capability, no parallel mode

Why three-cylinder engines excel in serial hybrids — exhaust scavenging, turbo efficiency, the German “half-liter per cylinder” philosophy

Honda’s deliberate sacrifice of efficiency to preserve engine-feel continuity in their hybrids

Nissan’s 2 million e-POWER global sales and what that means for the US rollout

Volvo EX90 updated — 800V, 670hp, 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, 350kW peak charging, ~100 miles added in 5 minutes

EX90 Supercharger problem — drops to 112kW on 400V stations, 45-minute charge sessions

Volvo’s baffling product strategy — launching half-baked, fixing quietly, same model year with two drivetrains

EX90 vs. Lucid Gravity — charging speed, interior quality, plastic sun visors at $97K

GM’s new 5.7L and 6.6L V8 engines for Silverado/Sierra — cylinder deactivation, competing with Ram’s 6.4L