The 12 Most Futuristic Cars On The Road Today

Predicting the future is never easy. It wasn't too long ago that car companies were funneling billions of dollars into self-driving car programs, making big promises about full autonomy being just around the corner. While it's true that semi-autonomous cars have made huge progress, they're still far from perfect. Just ask Tesla. Fully-autonomous cars remain a distant prospect, and that's assuming they're accepted by the general public at all. So, if we're not all going to be shuttled around in AI-powered pods by the end of the decade, then what does the future look like for the global auto industry?

You could argue that the best way to answer that question is to take a look at what's on the road right now. There are plenty of cars sporting cutting-edge technology that will likely become tomorrow's normal, not only in the typically progressive segments of the industry including performance and luxury cars but also down to segments like the humble hatchback. The industry's biggest players are just beginning to launch the next generation of cleaner, faster, and more intelligent cars, and there's a handful of disruptive startups that are definitely worth watching out for too. These cars are all among the most futuristic on the road today, in that they represent not only the best of what current manufacturers are capable of but also where the industry might be headed over the coming years.

With the race to create sustainably-powered cars now led by battery EVs, hydrogen-powered cars occupy a strange space in the industry. Hydrogen adoption is a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario: for buyers to make the switch, there needs to be plenty of existing hydrogen infrastructure. But in order for that infrastructure to be built, there needs to be plenty of hydrogen cars on the road to justify building it. The biggest manufacturer to have remained committed to hydrogen since the tech's earliest days is Toyota, which recently launched a second generation of its only hydrogen production car, the Mirai.

At present, it's limited to places where hydrogen filling stations are accessible, which is almost exclusively California. Of course, it's possible that hydrogen cars will never gain mainstream adoption, but there is evidence to suggest they might still become popular eventually. Years after it abandoned its initial hydrogen efforts, BMW recently announced it was launching a pilot fleet of iX5 cars in Europe, with the idea of "paving the way for potential series production." Hyundai also currently sells its hydrogen-powered NEXO in California, albeit in small numbers. Hydrogen cars solve two of the biggest problems with BEVs: they can be refilled in a few minutes, and their range is similar to that of a gas-powered car. If hydrogen infrastructure can be upgraded, it's still possible the tech could properly take off. In that sense, the Mirai might be just ahead of its time.

Despite losing ground to SUVs over the past couple of years, pickups remain one of the most important segments of the American auto industry. Like every other segment, manufacturers are increasingly looking to electric powertrains for the next generation of pickups, with Ford launching the "Lightning" EV version of its best-selling F-150 in 2022. High demand and a temporary production stoppage have meant that waiting lists for the F-150 Lightning have been growing, with over 200,000 reservations made before the truck even hit production.

Reception to the F-150 Lightning has been largely positive, although a highly-publicized video from YouTube channel "Hoovie's Garage" cast doubt on the truck's towing capacity claims. This is an issue that Ford will likely fix over time, and eventually, it's not hard to see the gas-powered F-150 phased out altogether, especially if America ends up adopting legislation that bans internal combustion, as Europe and parts of China are already set to. Rivals like the Rivian R1T also deserve a mention as potentially being the pickups of the future, but Rivian's struggles with supply chain and scaling issues show it's a long way off from being able to compete with the Big Three automakers.

Any carmaker can design a far-out concept car, show it off at a few auto shows, then park it in the back of a storage facility to be forgotten about. However, very few can design a car that looks incredibly futuristic, then actually see it through to production. Especially if said car also happens to be the world's most powerful production car. However, that's exactly what Lotus managed to do with its Evija hypercar when it entered production in late 2022.

Originally unveiled in 2019, the Evija promised 2,000 PS (around 1,973 horsepower), but then a rival, the Aspark Owl, came along with 1,984 horsepower. So, Lotus decided to create a special "Emerson Fittipaldi" edition of the Evija with 2,011 horsepower, just to make sure it could claim the "most powerful car" crown. Another impressive thing about the Evija is its design. From the front, it looks somewhat similar to other hypercars of its type, but from the rear, it looks nothing like anything else on the road. The car's tail lights wrap around prominent airflow channels, while the sculpted wheel arches round out its flowing frame. After years of relying on old designs in the form of the Elise/Exige and Evora, it's good to see Lotus back at the cutting edge of performance car design. It's even better than some of the design language from the stunning Evija has trickled down into the Emira, the brand's last gas-powered car.

As McLaren's first 250 mph car, it's little surprise to find out that the Speedtail took some clever engineering to make it a reality. Getting a car to this speed requires both plenty of power and minimal drag, and McLaren dealt with the former by installing a 1,055 horsepower hybrid gas-electric powertrain. To achieve the latter, the car's body shell was stretched to over 17 feet long, and even the mirrors were removed and replaced with side-mounted cameras.

Perhaps the Speedtail's most striking innovation, however, is one that's nearly invisible. The carbon fiber bodywork at the rear of the car is built to be flexible, creating "active rear ailerons" that can be hydraulically adjusted to change the car's shape. This allows for optimal airflow at top speed, without the need for a large rear wing or any of the usual downforce-inducing aero bits. With a price tag of around $2.3 million and a limited production run of 106 units, this innovative flexible bodywork can only be admired by the Speedtail's billionaire collectors. However, as major automakers look for ways to reduce drag and optimize airflow to squeeze every last mile of range out of their EVs, there's a chance that flexible bodywork might yet feature on more affordable cars in the future.

Toyota might still be the world's largest carmaker but it's been woefully trailing behind on battery EVs — while other manufacturers are launching entire EV lineups, Toyota has only just launched its first BEV, the weirdly-named bZ4X. The world's second-biggest automaker by volume, VW, has been much more proactive on this front, and as a result, is poised for significant growth as buyers make the switch to electric. Sales of its EV line grew by around 24% in 2022, with the ID.4 being the group's top performer with 170,000 units delivered. That's not close to the sales figures of market leader Tesla yet, but it's worth noting that VW has a notable long-term advantage over Tesla.

For starters, VW has a vastly larger global dealership network and doesn't have to deal with the costs associated with expanding into new markets. It also has a much bigger existing customer base, the majority of whom might own gas-powered cars at the moment, but are likely to switch to EVs in the future as they become the default option in dealerships. It also has near-unlimited development funds and can share costs among subsidiaries like Audi and Porsche. All that makes it seem very likely that VW will eventually overtake Tesla to become the biggest player in the EV space. As today's best-selling VW EV, expect the ID.4 to play a big part in shaping what the future's everyday traffic will look like.

One of the key disadvantages that startups like Tesla and Lucid Motors have is that they're not able to boost their sales by drawing on nostalgia. It's a highly effective tactic for more established automakers — take a look at the success of the relaunched Ford Bronco for a recent example. VW is also planning to bring back the Scout as an American-made electric SUV, but it's not the first time that the German brand has used references from the past to boost the image of its EVs.

Despite its clunky name, the ID.Buzz takes clear inspiration from the classic VW Bus, with retro-inspired styling that aims to evoke the surf-chic classics of the '60s. It's proved to be a hit, with waiting lists currently sitting at up to 18 months long in some markets, proving yet again that there's always room in the industry for a healthy dose of nostalgia. Plenty of EV makers have so far focused on making their vehicles simply feel as cutting-edge as possible, but expect to see more manufacturers hop on the retro-modern trend in the future after seeing the success of the trailblazing ID.Buzz.