First Drive Reviews

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.

The newest version of Kia’s boxy electric car—or crossover—goes faster and farther on a charge, with much of its goodness intact.

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...

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...

You could be forgiven for not remembering the two Honda vehicles that have worn an Insight badge before. The first was a quirky hatchback two-seater that struggled for acceptance with mainstream buyers. The second was a Prius-like Prius fighter, egg shape and all. This 2019 Honda Insight is 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...

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...

No doubt the hoi polloi are prepared for emissions-free vehicle zones, what with their bicycles and their little electric cars. But what is the aristocracy to do when its high-end luxury SUVs are banned from city streets in central London? Enter the 2019 Land Rover Range Rover P400e plug-in hybrid...

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...

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...

Audi’s vision of future mobility primarily centers around an array of long-range electric cars scheduled to debut in the coming years under the "e-tron" badge. These are intended to be Tesla killers, as they’re often called in Germany. But there’s another kind of tron with a...

When you see a concept car drive onto the stage at an auto show, don't be fooled into thinking it's what you'll drive out of the dealer a couple of years later. We got to drive the Volkswagen ID Buzz all-electric Microbus concept car Saturday for a couple of miles along the oceanside road outside...

Owners of specific electric cars sometimes tend to become boosters and fans for their particular EV as well as plugging in to drive in general. So it was with Tom Moloughney, whose purchase of the very first 2014 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car in the U.S. he wrote about for us three years...

The 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid is the most fuel-efficient version of all-new range of Toyota's popular mid-size sedan, its best-selling vehicle in the U.S. until very recently. The new Camry Hybrid is based on some of the same underpinnings as the 2016 Prius, and uses that car's updated hybrid system...