Hatchbacks

President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, and the country's space agency met his challenge with five months to go. However, in 1971, NASA sent a remarkable piece of equipment into space with astronauts—the Lunar Rover—which...

No, the new 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car isn't going to have only a single pedal—despite at least one headline late yesterday claiming that. Honest. But the "e-Pedal" in the next generation of Nissan's highest-volume plug-in vehicle does offer some interesting new features. DON'T MISS...

Honda's smallest of vehicles—the Fit hatchback—has received several updates for the new model year, its fourth for the current-generation version. The 2018 Honda Fit now has incremental styling modifications, additional safety features, a new optional audio system with Android Auto and...

German luxury carmakers often follow each other's product plans in something close to lockstep. Let one maker—BMW, say—introduce a new category of vehicle—sport utility "coupes," say—and soon Mercedes-Benz and Audi will have their own too. And the premium brands appear to be...

The issue first came to light in a question from a reader. It boiled down to this: "What's going on with the Hyundai Ioniq Electric, and why can't I get one at my local dealer in California?" The e-mail even included a link to a Korean business-news article, which is unusual for reader queries...

With the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV on the market since December and Tesla Model 3 deliveries said to start within a few months, the upcoming 2018 Nissan Leaf is in danger of getting lost in the noise level. The second generation of Nissan's pioneering electric car will likely be unveiled within the...

A slow Chevrolet Bolt EV rollout across the U.S. has frustrated electric-car advocates in many states toward the end of the list. While the first Bolt EVs were delivered in California last December, the last group wasn't scheduled to receive their cars until September. Now GM has moved that up by a...

All sorts of vehicles have been pressed into service to carry Popes, from simple Fiats to giant Mercedes-Benz luxury landaulets. Francis, the current Pope, has a preference for small, simple, environmentally friendly cars—and largely does without the bulletproof glass enclosures found in some...

The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV is the first mass-priced electric car with a range of more than 200 miles, and it's already had a big impact on the California market. While it continues to trickle into dealerships in other states, a few lucky Californians now have six months in the 238-mile electric...

The 2017 Hyundai Ioniq comes in two versions: a nationally distributed hybrid-electric version, and an all-electric model that will be sold mostly in California and a handful of other states. There'll also be a plug-in hybrid version coming for 2018. We liked the Ioniq Hybrid when we first drove it...

The 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf, the only battery-electric car sold by VW in the U.S., got a large range boost for its third year on the market. While the current model year is winding to a close, 2017 e-Golfs are just now reaching dealers in the handful of states where the compact electric car is...

To dig its teeth into California's crowded electric vehicle market, its Korean maker has rolled out an "Unlimited+" lease program for the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric. The plan mimics a subscription service, and adds unlimited mileage allowance, vehicle-charging reimbursement, and a cohesive...

It appears that Chevy isn't following its own precedent as the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid enters its third model year. In the past, the Volt received a battery upgrade every other year that provided it with increasingly more electric range—but that's not the case for the largely unchanged...

China is hugely important to General Motors, as it is to virtually any global automaker. It's the largest market in the country and, recently, it has put in place an increasing set of requirements that more vehicles sold there be fully or partially electric. It also happens to be by far the largest...

Five years after the first Subaru Crosstrek hit the streets, the small Japanese automaker with a cult-like following has significantly updated its unexpectedly successful small crossover utility vehicle. The 2018 Subaru Crosstrek will hit the streets later this year wearing a new exterior and an...

Sport-utility vehicles started out as truck offshoots, essentially tall wagon bodies on truck underpinnings. Think of the first Chevy Suburban in 1935, which remained a specialty vehicle (mostly for Texans) for its first 40 years. Fast-forward another 40 years, and my, how things have changed...

Fleeing my home in New York’s Hudson Valley for California during February and March has a number of charms. Currently at the top of the list: reading about Winter Storm Stella while watching the surfers at Rincon Beach. For electric-car nuts like me, however, there’s another California...

Automakers are expected to offer greater incentives on sedans and hatchbacks as sales of these models continue to slow. Overall new-car sales fell 1.1 percent in February compared to the same month a year ago, according to Autodata Corp. But sales of passenger cars were hit particularly hard as...

The advent of affordable 200-mile electric cars promises to increase public acceptance of cars with plugs—or at least that's the hope of both carmakers and advocates. The first of those, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, is now entering the market, state by state, to great acclaim. But not every...

For the first six years of electric cars, from 2011 to 2016, we've had a variety of mass-priced cars with ranges of 62 to 107 miles. This year, in 2017, we got the Chevy Bolt EV, at 238 miles. But there's a new competitor as well. This is the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric. DON'T MISS: 2017 Hyundai...