Spy Shots

  • Volkswagen ID Crozz II concept, 2017 Frankfurt auto show

    The production model based on the ID Crozz concept, potentially called ID 4X, is due to go on sale in the U.S. sometime in 2020.

  • Porsche Taycan prototype
    Production-bound Porsche Taycan electric car spotted cold-weather testing

    Porsche's first electric car, the 2020 Taycan sedan, is sold out for a year—with a significant chunk of reservations held by Tesla owners. Now those buyers can get the best look yet at the new car, with photos from a spy photographer at our sister site Motor Authority, who caught the car...

  • Prototype for BMW iNext electric SUV due in 2021
    BMW reveals prototype iNext electric SUV in winter testing

    After revealing the concept-car at a private event last September, BMW has revealed the, well, next iNext. Following the concept, the next version of the car is a test mule, complete with camouflage covering, undergoing cold-weather testing in northern Sweden—a typical place for automakers to...

  • 2018 Nissan Leaf spotted during photo shoot - Image via Broom
    2018 Nissan Leaf caught without camouflage in ad shoot

    Its maker has begun the countdown to the early-September unveiling of the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car with a series of staged teaser photos and factoids. But with the prevalence of smartphone cameras, it's harder and harder for carmakers to keep their new models completely under wraps. Which is...

  • Section of 2018 Nissan Leaf spy shot  [image via S. Baldauf/SB-Medien, as used on Motor Authority]
    2018 Nissan Leaf: more spy shots of electric car's second generation

    The more camouflaged spy shots that emerge of a car being tested on public roads, the closer it likely is to being introduced. After seven years of the first-generation Nissan Leaf electric car, a redesign is due—some might say overdue. Now we have a second set of spy shots of the 2018 Leaf...

  • Section of 2018 Nissan Leaf spy shot  [image via S. Baldauf/SB-Medien, as used on Motor Authority]
    2018 Nissan Leaf spy shots: our question on electric car update

    It's the long-missing member of the trio, the last of three affordable electric cars with 200-plus miles of range expected to go into production this year. But until now, we've heard almost nothing about the 2018 Nissan Leaf. All we knew was that the second generation of the world's highest-volume...

  • Purported Faraday Future test mule (Photo by Twitter user Everette Taylor)

    A mysterious camouflaged vehicle spotted in Los Angeles could be Faraday Future's first electric car.

  • 2017 Honda Clarity prototype testing in Southern California, July 2016  [photo: Sean Alarid]
    2017 Honda Clarity spy shots from testing show debut is close

    If you're a nascent spy photographer for cars, Detroit is the place to be for the domestic companies. Southern California is the site for many Asian brands, even though Toyota and Nissan have largely decamped for other regions. Which is how one alert reader came to snap these photos of a 2017 Honda...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV spy shots
    2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV: Production Car Spied Before 2016 CES Reveal

    The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV will appear in production-ready form at CES, a new report says.

  • 2016 Toyota Prius leaked - Image via Prius Club Malaysia
    2016 Toyota Prius: Full View Photos Finally Leaked

    With the 2016 Toyota Prius scheduled to make its global debut in Las Vegas on the evening of September 8, you had to figure that photos of the car would leak out at some point. And so they have. After years of spy shots of camouflaged Prius development mules, pre-production prototypes, and test...

  • 2016 Toyota Prius Spy Shots
    2016 Toyota Prius Spy Shots

    And here it is: the 2016 Toyota Prius. Ahead of a preview September 8 in Las Vegas, and an official debut at Frankfurt, spy photographers already found the 2016 Prius, uncloaked, in Malibu, California. ALSO SEE: Coming This Fall: The Return Of Cheap $2 Gas The Prius was widely expected to adopt...

  • Fourth-generation Toyota Prius prototype testing in San Francisco [by YouTube user J Liu]
    2016 Toyota Prius Spy Video: New Hybrid In San Francisco Testing

    A camouflaged 2016 Toyota Prius prototype is caught testing in San Francisco.

  • Portion of Chevrolet Bolt EV spy shot during testing, Autoblog, Jun 2015 [photographer Chris Doane]

    When General Motors CEO Mary Barra announced the Chevrolet Bolt Concept, it changed everything in the world of electric cars. She said it would have a battery range of 200 miles, cost $37,500 before incentives--putting it squarely into the mass market--and be sold in all 50 states. Now spy shots have surfaced showing what appears to be a heavily camouflaged Chevy Bolt EV undergoing road testing. DON'T MISS: Chevrolet Bolt Concept: 200-Mile, $37,500 Electric Car Concept (Live Video & Photos) Taken by noted Detroit-area spy photographer Chris Doane, the Bolt spy shots on Autoblog show a...

  • Fourth-generation Toyota Prius hybrid prototype testing in Thailand  [from Headlight Magazine forum]
    2016 Toyota Prius: More Spy Shots, From Thailand Testing

    The all-new fourth-generation Toyota Prius is getting closer and closer to launch, as witnessed by an increasing number of spy shots of prototypes testing all over the world. Two weeks ago, a heavily camouflaged Prius was recorded on video fueling up at a North American gas station. Now, new shots...

  • Tesla Model X testing on California road, Mar 2015  [Twitter: ModelXnews]
    Tesla Model X: Video, Spy Shots Of Prototype Testing On CA Roads

    The Tesla Model X should be arriving in buyers' driveways within six months, if the company keeps to its latest schedule and starts delivering the all-electric SUV in the third quarter of this year. But Tesla Motors is being uncharacteristically quiet about its next model line, saying it'll simply...

  • Tesla Model X prototype photographed on test, California, Feb 2015. Photo by Simerjit Dhaliwal.
    Tesla Model X Photographed Undisguised In Road Testing

    Leave it to the Tesla owners, fans, and advocates at the Tesla Motors Club forum to find the so-far hidden evidence of a Tesla Model X test cars under development. These shots, uploaded yesterday by user Yobigd20 at about 6 pm. DON'T MISS: Why Tesla Model X Electric SUV Is Late: Range, Towing...

  • next-generation Chevrolet Spark testing in South Korea  [photo: BobaEdream.co.kr]
    2017 Chevrolet Spark: Photos Of Updated Minicar Leaked In Korea

    The Chevrolet Spark minicar, among the smallest five-door hatchbacks sold in North America, has been an unexpected success for General Motors. The company has boosted imports a couple of times, and managed to sell almost 40,000 of them last year--and 34,000 the year before. Now, the first spy shots...

  • Tesla Model S P85D leaked (Image via Tesla Motors Club)
    Mysterious Tesla Model S 'D' Photo Appears: What Could It Be?

    The Internets exploded yesterday following a photo tweeted by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, with the caption, "About time to unveil the D and something else". Feverish speculation over what it meant took up terabytes of server space. Then, yesterday afternoon, a photo surfaced that purports to show a...

  • Toyota Fuel Cell Sedan pre-production prototype, Southern California, Sep 2014 [Mike Magrath]

    Pity the poor automotive spy photographer. She spends months in Death Valley with an expensive camera, only for her paying clients to be swamped with cellphone shots snapped by eager readers and sent in for free or posted on social media. Which is (more or less) how we come to see our first shots of a preproduction Toyota Fuel Cell Sedan testing on a freeway in Southern California, ahead of its U.S. launch next year. In November this year, the car's official model name was announced: The former "Toyota Fuel Cell Sedan" is now the 2016 Toyota Mirai. DON'T MISS: Will The Toyota Fuel Cell Sedan...

  • Teaser for new Smart Fortwo and Forfour
    New Smart Fortwo Minicar Slides In Sweden, Due This Fall? (Video)

    It's fair to say the Smart brand hasn't been one of Daimler's bigger successes, but bosses will be hoping the third-generation car is closer to "third time lucky" than "three strikes and you're out". Smart's latest video suggests that new third-gen car is on its way soon, as camouflaged cars...

  • Mini E electric vehicle
    Will There Be Another Electric Mini E Within A Few Years?

    Back in 2009, the MINI E electric car was BMW's very first attempt at building a battery-electric vehicle. The fleet of several hundred electric MINIs was leased out to volunteer test drivers in the U.S., Europe, China, and the U.K. to let the company gather data on how drivers used plug-in cars in...

  • 2015 Smart Fortwo spy shots
    More Details On 2015 Smart Fortwo: Third Time Lucky?

    Will it be third time lucky for the Smart Fortwo minicar? That's what Smart's parent company Daimler must be wondering, as disguised versions of the third-generation Smart undergo final testing out in the wild. The latest model, spotted here by Motor Authority spy photographers, show a car very...

  • MINI Boatman spy shot, World Financial Center, New York City
    'Spy Shots': MINI Boatman Makes Waves In New York Harbor

    We get a lot of spy shots of new or prototype cars sent in to High Gear Media, but not that many come from waterproof cameras. These photos show a potentially new and so far unknown MINI model parked at the marina that adjoins the World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan. Or perhaps moored...

  • Prototype 2015 Kia Soul EV electric cars, July 2013 [photo: Lee Colleton, used under CC-BY-SA]
    2015 Kia Soul EV: Electric Car Spy Shots, But Compliance Car Only?

    Ten days ago, spy shots of a new battery-electric car--from a maker that hasn't yet offered one yet--burst onto the scene. Electric-car fan Lee Colleton shot the 2015 Kia Soul EV prototype test cars connected to CHAdeMO quick-charging stations at a Residence Inn in the California coastal town of...

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