We’re almost a quarter of the way into the 21st century and the world has already seen a huge shift in the automotive market. From power to technology to efficiency, cars continue to leap forward faster than many predicted. And that brings us to our question of the day: which car from this century is the most influential?
A number of supercars from the early years of this century have been highly influential not just on the segment but on cars overall. The Porsche Carrera GT, the Ferrari Enzo, and the Bugatti Veyron didn’t just launch technologies that would make it into other supercars; they pushed the envelope for all cars. Today, more than any other time in history, speed and power are highly important metrics for all sorts of mainstream cars, trucks, and SUVs.
That need for speed and power has even made its way to electric vehicles which have a huge advantage on the acceleration end of the spectrum. Since they produce maximum torque at zero RPM they can rocket off of the line so fast that it can be painful. That’s just one aspect of why our lead image is the Tesla Model S.
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Unlike every attempt at a full-electric car that came before it, the Model S didn’t just take off from a stoplight quickly, it took off in terms of sales too. While some automotive brands talk about catching up to Tesla, the Texas-based automaker is still way ahead of the field with regard to EV sales.
In fact, without Tesla, the Model S, and the rest of the lineup, it feels unlikely that the entire automotive industry would be working as hard as it is towards electrification. Tesla’s impact hasn’t just been on mainstream brands either. Many current supercars have one form of electrification or another, and brands like Rimac are all-electric.
Still, there are other options like the Toyota Prius which has led to similarly widespread adoption of hybrid technology. It’s hard to believe that we’d have a Jeep Wrangler 4xe or a hybrid Ford F-150 without the Prius which helped to prove the merits of hybrids.
On top of that, it could be technology that stands out as the most influential aspect of modern cars. After all, pretty much everything on sale today has a big touchscreen and advanced safety technology. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class certainly deserves some credit for the myriad of features that have made it not just to the rest of Merc’s family but have influenced other automakers as well.
All of this is to say that picking the most influential car of the 21st century might not be as cut and dry as it sounds. What’s your pick? Let us know in the comments below.
