Almost 100,000 automobile consumers of 2025 model-year autos had been requested what they considered their gleaming new rides. The outcomes are revealing, to say the least. Wish to know who was the worst performer? That ignominy goes to Audi, with an embarrassing 269 issues reported per 100 autos.
Nonetheless, considered one of the most fascinating discoveries of the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (labelled as a “key discovering”, no much less) involved not annoyance with the lack of bodily buttons, nor, amazingly, intrusive bongs from speed-warning programs, however a marked improve in “cup-holder frustration”.
“Whereas it appeared like producers had cup holders found out … producers are struggling to maintain up with having the ability to accommodate all the totally different sizes and shapes [of containers] which might be more and more accessible,” says the report.
So evidently regardless of the auto trade’s obsession with software-defined autos, many purchasers would forego any variety of digital doohickeys, as long as there was sufficient room of their new vehicles for a number of Large Gulps. Paying by means of the nostril for a fancy new automobile full of tech—ADAS, ambient lighting, back-groping seats, canine modes—doesn’t cease auto consumers from complaining about insufficiently expandable beverage bays.
For a number of years, this long-running annual benchmarking report has suggested automobile manufacturers to pay nearer consideration to the cup-holder kvetching. The cylindrical voids of area—or, in some vehicles, flip-out trays, door areas, fancy holsters, or hinged pockets—are nonetheless too small, gripe lots of these surveyed. Too small for what, although? Almost definitely gargantuan Stanley cups, large Yeti Gallon Ramblers and comparable such bladder-busters, the spilt contents of which may drench a desert into bloom.
Despite the fact that middle console actual property in right this moment’s vehicles is at a premium—particularly now that ever-bigger touchscreens have develop into seemingly important in each self-respecting digital cockpit—America’s (and more and more the Middle East and Australia‘s) big-drink tradition dictates that automakers not scrimp on cup storage.
It’s the Little Issues
Twenty years in the past, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report urged that the variety of cup holders in a US car was considered one of the most crucial components in clinching the buy resolution for potential auto consumers. That it stays simply as important right this moment should rankle with auto software program engineers, but it surely doesn’t shock Chris Fischer, Nissan’s go-to engineer for cup holders. “That cup holders work properly is vital to buyer satisfaction,” Fischer tells WIRED. “It’s a key decider when shopping for a automobile.”
Working from Nissan’s North American technical middle in Farmington Hills, Michigan, Fischer is the firm’s senior supervisor of auto efficiency improvement, and, together with a staff of “cabin utility” engineers, he has toiled to enhance in-car beverage storage since 2015, when poor cup holder efficiency adversely impacted Nissan’s J.D. Energy benchmarking scores.
Cup-holder design issues intensely to many customers, he says. “In the event that they’re mad about a touchpoint day-after-day, it’ll bitter their want to need this car once more.”
“Touchpoints are critically vital,” agrees Dick Powell, cofounder of London-headquartered design and innovation firm Seymourpowell. “Nice design is essentially about making issues higher, and once you go into a automobile showroom, the touchpoints are the first interactions you could have with the automobile. How does the [door] deal with really feel? What’s it like opening the door? The place are the cup holders?”
