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One of the biggest challenges manufacturers face is ensuring that each new model is robust and reliable in every market. The same car driven in the relatively benign UK climate has to function just as well in tundra as in desert.

Also, ICE cars’ engines, sensitive to the oxygen content of the atmosphere, have to be able to cope in the rarefied air of high-altitude locations as well as at sea level.

A few decades back, the only way manufacturers could effectively do that was to send teams of engineers and prototypes all over the world at specific times of the year to put development cars through their paces. Nowadays, they ease this costly and time-consuming burden with climatic wind tunnels on home territory.

Porsche opened a new climate centre at its Weissach development centre in 2022. It can now simulate conditions found in nearly any part of the world, from the Arctic to Dubai, all without travelling anywhere. 

That means reproducing air temperatures ranging from -30deg C to 50deg C and wind speeds of up to 155mph. The climatic wind tunnel can also roast cars with solar radiation of 1.2kW per square metre and simulate humidity conditions ranging from a desert-like 5% to a tropical 95%.

The conditions can be reproduced in detail – for example, emulating the position of the sun in the environment to achieve an authentic result.

While manufacturers had decades of experience in developing ICE cars for use worldwide, EVs pose new challenges. Porsche uses the tunnel for testing an EV’s cooling circuits, how its high-voltage battery behaves in all conditions and, as with an ICE car, whether the strength of any component is affected by climatic extremes.

As well as testing the robustness of the drivetrain, engineers evaluate the performance of the interior climate control and, for example, whether a temperature of 22deg C can be maintained inside the car when the temperature outside is a blistering 40deg C.

However advanced Porsche’s climatic wind tunnel is, though, the proof of the pudding is still road testing what’s hoped will be the finished article in actual locations. Porsche says that will remain an essential part of the process.

Although climatic testing facilities like this one aren’t new (BMW opened its huge Energy and Environmental Test Centre back in 2010), they are likely to become even more important with the rapid development of EV technology.

The charging rates and battery capacities of EVs are evolving rapidly, so as well as the technical demands that places on engineering, changes in legal requirements for testing mean the test facilities need continual updates too.

Ford Edge or similar: that’s what my Avis hire car booking said. And if I really squinted, I guess the vehicle to which I was handed the key at Houston Intercontinental airport was broadly similar to a Ford Edge.

Sort of. Maybe. Well, not at all, really.

Because instead of a middling US-market SUV, in front of me was a Jeep Wrangler 4xe (the plug-in hybrid one). Result. And it was all down to those two glorious words: or similar.

When you’re booking a hire car, ‘or similar’ does a lot of heavy lifting. Hire car firms offer a dizzying array of machinery, so they usually can give you an example of a common vehicle of the right size.

Which is useful. But chances are that when you arrive at the counter, the car awaiting you won’t be a version of the example given. In fact, often ‘or similar’ nets you something that really isn’t very similar at all.

And it’s this unknown that makes the gloriously anticipatory ‘what will I get?’ moment that occurs when I approach the counter one of the highlights of any trip.

Having family out in the US, I’ve played the hire car lottery at Houston airport many times, and I’ve struck the jackpot on many occasions.

The Wrangler 4xe was a highlight, of course, not least because Texas is somewhat more favourable than the UK for taking the roof and doors off.

A more recent trip netted a Dodge Charger, which sounded glorious even with a 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 rather than a 5.7-litre Hemi V8 (just don’t mention the terrible fuel economy).

Then there was the time I ended up with a Fiat 500, which proved a little intimidating in a state that loves great big pick-up trucks more than any other.

At traffic lights, Ford F-150 drivers could literally look down at me through my sunroof. Still, I left them standing when we came to corners.

Of course, for every epic hire car you win in the lottery, there will be a greater variety of models that prove somewhat more mundane.

But even that can help you gain an appreciation for cars that you might otherwise avoid. Having hired a few, I have a soft spot for the first-generation Kia Soul.

In my past life as a motorsport journalist, I had a lot of fun covering the Ulster Rally in a Peugeot 1007 and struck gold on the narrow lanes of the Isle of Man with a Ford Ka.

Sadly, not everyone likes leaving things to chance, and increasingly hire car firms are offering bookings in specific cars (albeit at a premium), while many offer rewards schemes that allow you to choose your car even before you reach the counter.

A victory for consumer freedom, perhaps, but far less fun. My advice: embrace the chaos and enjoy the glory that comes from those two loaded words: ‘or similar’.