Today's Superheroes and Villains of the Evolving Auto Industry

We don't typically feature a Hollywood A-Lister like Robert Downey Jr. at MotorTrend , but we recently sat with the actor for an interview .  As you can read in that piece, the star is focused on some cool automotive projects which will be featured in his new show, Downey's Dream Cars , which is streaming on Max. (Max is owned by Warner Brothers Discovery, a stakeholder in MotorTrend .) And despite moving on from his star turn in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's perhaps no surprise Downey gravitates toward tech to help clean up the planet. This got me thinking: If the automotive industry was a certain type of movie, who would play its heroes and villains?

Hero : EV startups Rivian and Lucid, promising companies who continue to battle foes such as supply chain shortages and manufacturing challenges. Every time they get knocked down, they get back up to fight again. Rivian beat Ford , GM, Ram, and Tesla to get an electric pickup truck to market. Lucid built a car to beat the Tesla Model S.

Villain : Elon Musk (who had a cameo in Iron Man 2 ) made a mess of Twitter, literally scorched the earth in Texas with the SpaceX Starship spacecraft flight test , and beta tests Tesla's autonomous-driving capability on humans. He hasn't introduced a new Tesla model for years and is removing cool features like the exoskeleton from the Cybertruck , replacing it with a traditional unibody.

Hero : The Tesla electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It works, and other automakers are adopting Tesla's NACS charging port including GM , Ford , and Volvo , with several others on the verge of doing so.

Villain : Non-Tesla charging stations that are broken or slow-charging, often frustrating EV owners .

Hero : Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia lineups that are well-styled with interesting packaging and good value. They offer portfolios ranging from mainstream vehicles to performance N cars , affordable luxury, and an impressive and growing portfolio of cool electric vehicles.

Villain : VinFast. The Vietnamese company has promise and a determined billionaire committed to its success , but the electric carmaker is moving too quickly. Selling vehicles before reaching acceptable quality levels might cement a poor reputation that could take decades to reverse. Valued at $27 billion, VinFast hopes to avoid the fate of similar upstarts such as Lordstown, Canoo, and Nikola which struggled after merging with a special-purpose acquisition company to go public.

Hero : Ford's Mustang Mach-E electric SUV was roundly criticized for not being a true Mustang but is a proven sales success. Ford can't build enough of them— or enough Mavericks or F-150 Lightning pickups .

Villain : GM, as it will not offer Apple CarPlay or Android Auto compatibility in its upcoming electric vehicles. The General plans to use its own embedded software developed with Google.

Hero : BYD. The battery and electric vehicle company is the largest automaker in China and is the No.2 EV company in the world after Tesla. BYD continues to expand throughout Asia and Europe, and it plans to enter Mexico this year. Importantly, BYD makes its own batteries and chips.

Villain : BMW and others for trying to sell subscriptions to activate features such as heated seats already installed in the paid-for car. We aren't against all subscriptions—tech can be expensive and companies need to recoup R&D and production costs—but let's not go down a slippery slope of charging for the software on all the hardware already in the car.

Hero : The software-defined vehicle as the catalyst for updating cars and redefining the ownership experience. Over-the-air updates keep a car fresh and innovative throughout the ownership period.

Villain : Volkswagen Group's Cariad software unit with its overspending, operating losses, and missed deadlines. There were bugs in VW's early ID models, delayed launches such as the Porsche Macan Electric (seen above as a prototype), as well as the Audi Artemis and Volkswagen Trinity EV projects. The missteps cost VW CEO Herbert Diess his job. One upside: The debacle has taken our minds off the dieselgate cheating scandal and Voltswagen April Fools joke .

Hero : Vehicles with internal combustion engines making the profits needed to fund money-losing EVs. Case in point: Ford's Model e unit is expected to lose $3 billion this year while the Ford Blue traditional car business is on track to earn $7 billion.

Villain : Ford quality. The automaker has suffered from terrible vehicle launches, massive recalls, and billions in warranty claims. Ford CEO Jim Farley says addressing quality is a top priority. If new quality czars Jim Baumbick and John Halliburton turn things around, they could be in line for superhero capes in the future.

Hero : Toyota's TGNA platform for making many of the brand's—and Lexus'—vehicles interesting to drive, including the all-new Prius and plug-in Prius Prime .

Villain : Toyota fumbling the ball on EVs and doubling down on hybrids until a reversal in strategy that now has the company playing catch up.

Hero : GM. Making the Cadillac Celestiq is a bold move: It's a $300,000-plus electric super sedan, completely bespoke, for customers who want to stand out on the road and celebrate the greatness of America's luxury past.

Villain : GM designers who gave us years of underwhelming vehicles, from the Chevy Bolt to the Silverado , as competitors upped their games.