First Drive Reviews

With Porsche banking its performance future on electric, the latest Cayenne E-Hybrid is a mainstream move and an incremental step.

In Bentley's first hybrid vehicle, an electric motor complements the Audi V-6, with a 17-kwh battery pack enabling some all-electric range.

The Explorer Hybrid isn't particularly impressive in its fuel economy numbers, but Ford says it's part of a strategy to make the Hybrid uncompromised.

Audi claims there’s more to it, pointing to the faster charges and more consistent real-world range thanks to battery thermal management.

The 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC400 SUV is Mercedes’ first long-range fully electric vehicle, its fastest-charging EV, and a quiet and comfortable family vehicle.

Just before reaching a tight series of esses on the Monterey Peninsula’s famous 17 Mile Drive, I clicked the left steering-wheel paddle to bump the Niro EV up a regeneration level—a motion that mimics downshifting in a gasoline vehicle—then clicked the right paddle to ease things...

Between the unexpectedly wild styling, the very wide model range, the Prius Prime plug-in, and now the all-wheel-drive 2019 Prius AWD-e, it seems that Toyota has opted for a mix-and-match philosophy for the current fourth generation of America’s favorite fuel-sipper. The big news for...

Road-tripping along in the 2019 Audi e-tron, your passenger might not even know (or care) that you’re in an all-electric utility vehicle—rather than just an extraordinarily quiet gasoline one. And as the driver, you might even forget. It gets right to Audi’s point behind the...

The 2019 RAV4 Hybrid is Toyota’s way of flexing its corporate might. It’s as if the automaker called on each of its departments to create the new hybrid crossover SUV. The folks from design coughed up some 4Runner and Tacoma cues to give it a butch look. The Lexus team chiseled the...

Our first test-drive time with the Hyundai Kona Electric included plenty of what’s very familiar to Los Angelenos: plodding along to the next stoplight on wide boulevards, waiting another few minutes, and repeating—with occasional squirts into traffic gaps and quick merges into the...

In our testing the Avalon Hybrid seemed in line with what full-size buyers would expect from their sedans. It’s a smooth ride with effortless efficiency.

Ford has a gem of a diesel engine under the hood of the 2018 F-150 Power Stroke—as long as drivers aren’t enamored with good fuel economy. Wait, what? After a day of driving F-150 diesels in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Boulder, Colorado, unladen, with beds loaded up with...

A parking lot in suburban New Jersey isn’t the first place I’d look for a revolution. According to Jaguar, it’s where ours will start. After just over four minutes behind the wheel of the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, the electric Jaguar feels like the beginning of something. DON'T MISS...

“The Tesla Model S was a moment. The Model 3 is a product.” That pair of sentences perfectly summarized the several hours we spent last month with the 2018 Tesla Model 3 kindly loaned to us by reader Jeff Southern of Atlanta. We’d covered more than 100 miles on a variety of...

BMW's Test Fest in Palm Springs, California, at The Thermal Club attracts a broad range of cars. The star of the show is the 600-horsepower 2018 BMW M5. But before I can test that wild sport sedan on the track, I’ll do my best to balance my carbon footprint in the new 2018 BMW i3s. BMW has...

Some plug-in hybrid models are easily distinguishable from the rest of the cars their maker sells. Others, like the 2018 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid, are all but invisible. It takes a sharp eye to see the charging port door on the left-front fender or the trim and badging differences that distinguish...

With DC fast charging fully electric vehicles can be charged to around 80% of their full battery capacity in under 30 minutes

There's a new plug-in hybrid in town, and it could expand the audience for cars that provide useful electric range for daily driving while retaining an efficient gasoline engine for longer trips. The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid is the third and most important model in the Clarity lineup...

It’s easy for the 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid to get lost. Short of small “Hybrid” badges on the front fenders, not much on the car’s exterior says it's powered by electrons. There’s no plug-in variant for now (a role reserved to the Clarity Plug-In sedan), and the latest...

When visiting an automaker's proving ground to drive cars still under development, security is extensive. Cameras have to be left on the bus, all phone lenses have to be covered, and documents committing you to keep quiet until the embargo lifts must be signed. In late June, we drove a...