In fact, I think the cheaper, less powerful i5 eDrive40 (or the all-wheel drive xDrive40) is the better i5, but BMW didn’t have one of those available in the press fleet, so a review of that version will have to wait for one to show up. As I often write, the most powerful version of any given EV is usually a worse deal, as they’re invariably fitted with big, range-sapping wheels, and it’s not like a 0–60 time of 5.7 seconds is particularly slow, even by 2024’s standards.
And those big wheels cause a range hit—the EPA rates the i5 M60 at 240 miles (386 km) on a full charge, although in Efficient mode that should be beatable—according to our test car, over 1,000 miles (1,609 km), it averaged 3.2 miles/kWh (19.4 kWh/100 km). Then again, if you stick it in Sport mode and hoof the throttle too often, it’s not hard to see that number plummet to 2.4 miles/kWh (25.9 kWh/100 km).
In case you forgot which series BMW this is, the panel set into the Hofmeister kink reminds you it’s a 5. Credit: BMW
As the latest version of BMW’s fifth-gen EV powertrain, the i5 has its most up-to-date fast charging software, which uses a new control strategy to maintain higher levels of power for longer while plugged into a DC fast charger, even when starting at a state of charge as high as 50 percent. During our testing, we fast-charged the i5 from 19 to 91 percent, which took a couple of seconds more than 37 minutes, delivering 62 kWh and peaking at an impressive 209 kW, although before long power delivery dropped to 150 kW.
Software-defined emotions
Sport mode is fast and sounds good, accompanied as it is by Hans Zimmer-crafted powertrain sounds. And Efficient, which mostly just relies on the 335 hp (250 kW), 317 lb-ft (430 Nm) rear motor, is quiet and comfortable. But the i5 offers you some other choices, including Expressive, Relax, and Digital Art modes, which reconfigure the cabin lighting, the dynamic wallpaper on the curved display, and the powertrain sounds.
GMC’s Hummers have always been divisive. After getting hold of the rights to a civilian version of the US military vehicle in 1999, the company set about designing new, smaller vehicles to create an entire range. The ungainly H2 and H3 followed, both SUVs playing to the sensibilities of a country grappling with its warlike nature. By 2010, the Hummer brand was dead and laid dormant until someone had the bright idea to revive it for the electric vehicle generation. We drove the pickup version of that new Hummer in 2022, now it’s time for the $104,650 Hummer EV SUV.
I’ll admit I was worried that the Hummer EV wasn’t going to fit in my parking space. This is an extremely large vehicle, one that’s classified as a class 3 medium-duty truck—hence the yellow lights atop the roof. In fact, at 196.8 inches (5,000 mm) long, it’s actually slightly shorter than the pickup version, although that length doesn’t count the big spare tire hanging off the back.
Its 86.5-inch (2,196 mm) width just about fit between the lines, although it was a tight squeeze to try to open a door and climb up into the Hummer if my neighbor was parked as well. And climb up you do—there’s 10.2 inches (259 mm) of ground clearance even in the suspension’s normal setting, and the overall height is a towering 77.8 inches (1,976 mm). There is an entry mode that drops the car on its air springs by a couple of inches, but only if you remember to engage the feature when you park.
The curb weight is equally excessive at 9,063 lbs (4,119 kg)—at more than four metric tons, you’d need a commercial driver’s license to get behind the wheel of a Hummer EV in many other countries. Almost a third of that mass is the ginormous 217.7 kWh battery pack. Such over-provisioning means that despite the high drag coefficient of 0.5 and a frontal area that makes barn doors look skinny, the Hummer EV SUV has an EPA range estimate of 314 miles (503 km) on a single charge. In fact, the actual range indicated by our test car was 358 miles on a full charge, based on GM’s own testing. (As a class 3 truck, the Hummer doesn’t actually fit into the EPA’s tests properly.)
Perched in the driver’s seat, I’m not sure why you would need to be, anyway. Nothing about the Buzz’s driving style demands you rag it through the corners, although the car coped very well on the very twisty sections of our route up the shore of the Tomales Bay.
Like last week’s Porsche Macan, the single-motor model is the one I’d pick—again, it’s the version that’s cheaper, lighter, and has a longer range, albeit only just. And this might be the biggest stumbling block for some Buzz fans who were waiting to push the button. With 86 kWh useable (91 kWh gross), the RWD Buzz has an EPA range estimate of 234 miles (377 km). Blame the frontal area, which remains barn door-sized, even if the drag coefficient is a much more svelte 0.29.
Fast-charging should be relatively fast, though, peaking at up to 200 kW and with a 26-minute charge time to go from 10 to 80 percent state of charge. And while VW EVs will gain access to the Tesla supercharger network with an adapter, expect 2025 Buzzes to come with CCS1 ports, not native NACS for now.
I expect most customers to opt for all-wheel drive, but again, American car buyer tastes are what they are. This adds an asynchronous motor to the front axle and boosts combined power to 335 hp (250 kW). VW hasn’t given a combined torque figure, but the front motor can generate up to 99 lb-ft (134 Nm) together with the 413 lb-ft from the rear. The curb weight for this version is 6,197 lbs (2,811 kg), and its EPA range is 231 miles (376 km).
It’s a bit of a step up in price, however, as you need to move up to the Pro S Plus trim if you want power for both axles. This adds more standard equipment to what is already a well-specced base model, but it starts at $67,995 (or $63,495 for the RWD Pro S Plus).
I was driving the lead Buzz on the day we drove, but this photo is from the day before, when it wasn’t gray and rainy in San Francisco. Credit: Volkswagen
While I found the single-motor Buzz to be a more supple car to drive down a curvy road, both powertrain variants have an agility that belies their bulk, particularly at low speed. To begin our day, VW had all the assembled journalists re-create a photo of the vans driving down Lombard St. Despite a very slippery and wet surface that day, the Buzz was a cinch to place on the road and drive slowly.
Enlarge/ I’ve had a soft spot for Audi’s RS7 for at least a decade now. Will Audi replace it, or is this the last in its line?
Jonathan Gitlin
The arrival of competent electric vehicles is a boon for car enthusiasts as much as those who consider driving a chore and their vehicle a driving appliance. Electric motors can respond faster than the revviest naturally aspirated engines this side of a mid-2000s Formula 1 engine, and with more immediate torque than the mightiest of turbochargers. They are the way forward, for performance as well as energy efficiency. Such is apparent after spending some time behind the wheel of a $128,000 Audi RS7 Performance after a diet of mostly EV performance cars.
For a long time, the RS7 was the Audi to go for if you wanted something with more than two doors, because the R8 doesn’t work with your lifestyle. Based on the more humble A7 fastback sedan, it was worked over by Audi Sport, the four rings’ racing offshoot based up the road from Ingolstadt in Neckarsulm, Germany. The designers there gave it a restyle, with aggressively flared arches to envelope larger wheels and tires, and new aerodynamic features to keep the car planted at speed. The result is one of the brand’s handsomest creations, at least to this observer.
Under the hood, a twin-turbo 4.0L V8 is now even more potent than when we first drove the RS7 in 2019, with 621 hp (463 kW) and 627 lb-ft (850 Nm) at your right foot’s beck and call, sent to all four wheels via an eight-speed ZF 8 HP transmission and, at the rear axle, a torque-vectoring rear differential.
Enlarge/ The seats are very supportive and comfortable for long drives, but you have to pay almost $2,000 to add a massage function.
Audi
For model-year 2024 (and 2025, for the car is unchanged), Audi Sport took out 17 lbs (8 kg) of sound deadening, which, in addition to making the car lighter, also fixes one of my chief complaints from that 2019 drive, it being too quiet inside the car when I was in sport mode and wanted to hear the exhaust in its full glory.
This RS7 Performance sounds divine, in fact, with plenty of bass and, in its fruitiest mode, some pops and bangs on the overrun that elicit the odd giggle from the driver. For more mundane occasions with the sport exhaust’s valves closed, it’s unremarkably quiet and won’t wake the neighbors if you leave the house early in the morning (or come home late). A sonorous powertrain is still really the preserve of the internal combustion engine, although some EVs are beginning to play with that idea.
You might be expecting me to extoll the relative lack of mass of this car versus an electric alternative, too, but the RS7 is not exactly a featherweight. Audi Sport took out that sound material, and each of the new 22-inch wheels are 11 lbs (5 kg) lighter than before, but the RS7 Performance still weighs a hefty 4,916 lbs (2,230 kg). So while the all-electric Audi RS e-tron GT is quicker to accelerate—0.4 seconds faster to 60 mph than the 3.3 seconds it takes the RS7—the EV is only really heavier to the tune of a large adult.
Thanks to computer-controlled air suspension, you never really feel like you’re driving a car that weighs more than 2 tons. There’s little roll while cornering, and the power assistance for the steering makes easy work of turning the 285/30-section front tires.
Jonathan Gitlin
A lap of the original Watkins Glen road course was an opportunity to reflect on how dangerous racing there must have been.
Jonathan Gitlin
It’s a handsome bum.
Jonathan Gitlin
There’s almost 50 cubic feet (1,382 L) of cargo volume with the rear seats down—more than enough to swallow a bunch of camping gear.
Jonathan Gitlin
The regular A7 already made a good highway cruiser, and the RS7 lost little of those chops even after its Audi Sport enhancement. The seats are comfortable on long drives while still gripping you well when things turn twisty, and they’re heated and cooled, but were I speccing a car at the Audi configurator I’d tick the box for the ones that use their inflatable air bladders to massage you as well.
The interior is well put together, with good sightlines from the driver’s seat. There’s a little too much glossy piano black for my tastes, and points have to be dinged for an over-reliance on touchscreens—bring back discrete buttons or dials for the climate controls, please. The haptic touchscreen needs a gentle press—I was poking it too hard for it to register my intentions, so the system ignored me at times. And the infotainment system is starting to feel a little bit dated in terms of voice recognition compared to Audi’s newest examples.
One downside to those huge tires is a propensity toward tram-lining, which was more noticeable while driving through a weather front. But otherwise the car felt as planted in the rain as it did in the dry. I was even able to better its official EPA rating on the highway by about 10 percent, though that’s still a rather unacceptable 24 mpg (9.8 L/100 km).
Even with the engine, chassis, and transmission settings all at their sharpest, the RS7 never feels less than utterly planted on dry roads. The interruptions in acceleration as the transmission changes up through its gear ratios feel almost jarring after becoming inured to single-speed EVs, but you’ll welcome their presence—and the engine braking they allow—as you slow for a corner.
Enlarge/ It’s a somewhat pricey plug-in hybrid, but it’s also quite competent.
Jonathan Gitlin
Arguably, some of Lexus’ greatest innovations have been in its product strategy as much as any technology to emerge from its R&D labs. When it launched in 1989, it was with the idea that a car could combine Japanese reliability with the luxury and power expected from a big German sedan. A few years later the RX basically invented the crossover category with SUV-like looks but with fewer of the handling compromises.
I’ll be frank—I haven’t always jelled with those crossovers. During the last couple of years we tested both the RX 500h F Sport, which I didn’t find that sporty or particularly efficient, and the battery-electric RZ 450e, which left me very cold. Third time is evidently the charm, because I got on much better with the topic of today’s review, the RX 450h+ Luxury, to give it its full name.
This is Lexus’ plug-in hybrid version—the 500h carries a much smaller battery that only recharges as the car drives. In fact, it’s the same plug-in hybrid powertrain as that found in the smaller, cheaper NX crossover, combining a 2.5 L four-cylinder gasoline engine and a pair of electric motors fed by an 18.1 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. Total power output is 304 hp (227 kW), but Lexus has declined to publish a combined torque figure or any outputs for the electric motors.
Enlarge/ The RX is 192.5 inches (4,890 mm) long, 75.6 inches (1,920 mm) wide, and 67.3 (1,709 mm) inches tall.
Jonathan Gitlin
Lexus figures that the RX 450h+ can drive 37 miles (60 km) on a fully charged battery, which takes about 2.5 hours to recharge via a level 2 plug. Like most plug-in hybrids, you can also tell it to conserve battery charge while you’re driving, or even have the engine rev a little higher and charge it while you drive (albeit with some reduction in efficiency, obviously).
I think in real-world use the actual number will be closer to 30 than 37, but with a fully charged pack each morning, that’s most or all of your average driver’s daily distance. It’s a very smooth motor in terms of power delivery, and the one-pedal driving mode (engaged by selecting B instead of D) has been well-calibrated with a very easy-to-modulate throttle.
It’s a little less smooth when the internal combustion engine is running, at least aurally. I’m not entirely sure if it’s an Atkinson cycle engine like you’ll find in Toyota’s many hybrids and PHEVs, but when its working hard it sounds harsh and, honestly, a little unbecoming a luxury brand.
Even when the plug-in pack is depleted to the point where the EV range is showing zero miles, there remains enough overhead in the battery to allow the RX to operate like one of Toyota or Lexus’ parallel (not plug-in) hybrids. Expect about 36 mpg (6.5 L/100 km) in this mode.
I enjoyed driving the RX 450h+ much more than the 500h, with its sporty pretensions. It’s not especially fast by the standards of 2024—if you floor it in sport mode, 60 mph (98 km/h) should show up in about 6.2 seconds—but turns well with acceptable steering feel. You might not want to take it down Tail of the Dragon, but I did enjoy curved highway intersections.
Visibility is quite good from the driver’s seat.
Jonathan Gitlin
A look at the rear.
Jonathan Gitlin
Here, there’s 29.6 cubic feet (838 L) with the seats in use, or 46.2 cubic feet (1,308 L) with the rear seats flat.
Jonathan Gitlin
The doors are my favorite bit of the interior.
Jonathan Gitlin
The main instrument display.
Jonathan Gitlin
Here’s what CarPlay looks like.
Jonathan Gitlin
The native infotainment UI.
Jonathan Gitlin
I must also praise the cabin. Stay away from weird color choices—thinking about the red leather seats in the aforementioned 500h—and stick to earth tones, here with semi-aniline leather in places. Lexus’ design team seems to be particularly good at door cards (the interior-facing bit) with a mix of materials that is interesting to the touch and the eye.
Can a car have Alzheimer’s?
However, some aspects of the RX 450h+ did manage to annoy me, and most of them are related to the electronics and infotainment. For example, why, when you start it up, is the car able to remember that the heated or cooled seats were previously on, but can’t remember that the air conditioning was also turned on? And having to reset the brake hold function (to turn it on) every time you start the car is also a pain.
It can be a bit hard to reach the far corner of the 14-inch infotainment touchscreen, depending on how large a human you are, and try as I might I could not fathom a way to dim the screen’s brightness at night, which was considerable even in night mode. The actual infotainment system itself is oddly limited in some ways, but it does feature wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so most people will simply cast their phones. I don’t pick on the infotainment to be mean, but it’s an area where most of Lexus’ rivals, particularly the European ones, are handily beating it.
Lastly, the automatic emergency braking system was a little jumpy. Not quite Honda-bad, but it did intervene inappropriately twice during a week.
Enlarge/ This shade of green (Nori Green Pearl) drew a lot of compliments.
Jonathan Gitlin
Given the plug-in hybrid powertrain, the RX 450h+ is the priciest of the RX range, starting at $70,080. Blame all that lithium-ion, I guess. There are cheaper plug-in SUVs out there, even from luxury automakers, but you’d spend more on a BMW X5 PHEV, albeit one with more power. Anyone looking at the RX would have to have made peace with the giant cheese grater grille, but you can’t see that when you’re in the driver’s seat, and after a week I discovered I rather liked sitting there.
Enlarge/ The latest Volkswagen Golf GTI isn’t perfect, but it has enough charm to overcome its flaws.
Jonathan Gitlin
“They won’t make them like this much longer” is a pretty hackneyed aphorism, but it certainly applies to the Volkswagen Golf GTI. The Mk 8 Golf is due for a mid-life refresh next year, and when that happens, VW will be simplifying things by dropping the manual transmission option. That means model year 2024 is the final chance anyone will have to buy a GTI with three pedals. Yes, it has some flaws, but it’s also small and nimble, both attributes lacking in so much of what the automotive industry has to offer these days.
We’ve been a bit deficient in not reviewing the Mk 8 Golf GTI until now. I reviewed the more expensive, more powerful Golf R in 2022, but the last GTI we drove was the outgoing Mk 7 car in mid-2020. That time, we were only able to source a GTI with the two-pedal, dual-clutch gearbox, a transmission I felt didn’t quite suit the engine it was mated to. On the other hand, I was effusive about the old GTI’s infotainment, calling it “one of the best systems on the market.” Well, it was 2020, remember.
Under the hood, you’ll find yet another version of VW Group’s venerable EA888 four-cylinder engine, here with a turbocharger and direct injection. It generates 241 hp (180 kW) and 273 lb-ft (370 Nm), with that peak torque arriving at just 1,750 rpm. This sends its power to the front wheels via a seven-speed DSG or the soon-to-be-retired six-speed manual.
For this review, we tested both the DSG and manual transmission versions of the GTI.
Jonathan Gitlin
I don’t know if generations of Golf styling is exactly like Star Trek movies, but I do usually prefer the even numbers…
Jonathan Gitlin
VW decided to drop the three-door Golf body style when it introduced the Mk 8 Golf.
Jonathan Gitlin
There’s 19.9 cubic feet (563 L) of cargo space with the seats in use, or 34.5 cubic feet (977 L) with the rear seats folded flat.
Jonathan Gitlin
You can blame enlightened Europe for the six-speed’s demise. Over there, buyers prefer the two-pedal version by a massive margin, which even the high take rate for three-pedal GTIs in the US and Canada couldn’t make up for. (This is, of course, contrary to popular wisdom, which has it that all Europeans shun auto ‘boxes as a matter of course.) On top of that, getting the six-speed to comply with incoming Euro 7 emissions regulations proved to be just too much, according to VW, so it decided to drop the option.
Here in the US, both transmissions are rated at a combined 27 mpg (8.7 L/100 km), with the DSG getting the edge in city driving (24 mpg/9.8 L/100 km) and the manual beating it slightly for highway (34 mpg/6.9 L/100 km). In practice, I saw as high as 36 mpg (6.5 L/100 km) on highway trips with the three-pedal GTI.
A smarter GTI
A more modern electronic architecture was one of the improvements to the Golf from Mk 7 to Mk 8. On the plus side, it enables some clever vehicle dynamics control via the torque-sensing limited slip differential, the GTI’s stability and traction control, and the adaptive dampers, if fitted. Very keen drivers might prefer a mechanical limited slip diff, but in day-to-day driving, you’d never have an issue with the Mk 8 GTI’s electronic version.
The new electronics meant a big tech upgrade for the interior, too. Out went the physical analog gauges, which were replaced by a 10.25-inch digital display with various different user-configurable views. A move to capacitive control panels instead of discrete buttons adds an extra level of minimalism to VW’s traditionally spartan approach to cabin design, but they’re far too easy to activate by mistake.
Enlarge/ Other automakers have half-heartedly tuned their EVs, but Hyundai’s N brand has gone all-out with the Ioniq 5, and the results are spectacular.
Jonathan Gitlin
Hyundai’s transformation over the past decade and a half has been one to watch. The automaker went on a hiring spree, luring design and engineering talent away from the likes of BMW and Audi to grow its own competency in these areas. It worked—few can rival the efficiency or charging speed of the current crop of Korean electric vehicles, for instance. And Hyundai’s N division has shown it can turn prosaic underpinnings into performance cars that push all the right buttons. Both of those things are on vivid display with the Ioniq 5 N.
The regular Ioniq 5 has been on sale for a while now, long enough to have just received a facelift. It’s one of our favorite EVs, with styling that calls back to the angular hatchbacks of the 1980s and an 800 V powertrain that’s easily best-in-class. Now, the company’s in-house tuners have had their way with it, applying lessons learned from rallying and touring car racing to up the fun factor.
It’s not exactly a novel approach, even for EVs. Kia beat Hyundai to the punch with the EV6 GT; the car is fearsomely fast, but I found it less compelling than the normal version, which is cheaper, less powerful, and more efficient. In fact, I’m on record as saying that when looking at EVs, the cheapest, least-powerful version is almost always the one to get.
Not in this case. The body has extra welds and adhesive to stiffen its shell, with new front and rear subframes and reinforced battery and motor mounts. The N even took mass out of the drive axles to reduce unsprung weight, similar to its World Rally Championship contender.
Among the obvious changes are blistered wheel arches and an assortment of aerodynamic ducts, winglets, channels, and spoilers.
Jonathan Gitlin
The base Ioniq 5’s bone structure was well-suited for this motorsport makeover.
Jonathan Gitlin
This will probably be my car of the year.
Jonathan Gitlin
There’s a different center console, and new sports seats, plus a steering wheel with an awful lot of buttons on it.
Jonathan Gitlin
The back is roomy, but it’s a little more claustrophobic than normal thanks to the backs of the big bucket seats.
Jonathan Gitlin
I mean, it’s not a dungeon back here or anything.
Jonathan Gitlin
There’s no need for additional bracing, so there’s as much cargo room as the base model.
Jonathan Gitlin
No frunk, just power electronics and HVAC parts.
Jonathan Gitlin
15.75-inch brake discs and four-piston calipers help stop the front wheels.
Jonathan Gitlin
The power steering has been strengthened and given a quicker ratio, and it has been comprehensively reprogrammed to deliver more feedback to the driver. As you might expect, there are all manner of clever algorithms to control how much power gets put down at each axle or to each rear wheel, with various levels of intervention for a driver to choose from.
Nominal power output is 601 hp (448 kW) and 545 lb-ft (739 Nm), with bursts of 641 hp (478 kW) and 568 lb-ft (770 Nm) for up to 10 seconds available with the push of one of the many buttons on the steering wheel. That’s sufficient for a 0–60 mph time of 3.3 seconds, with a chirp from the tires in the process.
The pair of electric motors are fed by an 84 kWh battery pack that will fast-charge from 10 to 80 percent in 18 minutes. However, just like with performance variants of internal combustion cars, the combination of big wheels, sticky performance tires, and all those aerodynamic drag-inducing addenda means it won’t be as efficient as the normal version. Here, that leads to an EPA range of just 221 miles (355 km), although that’s measured in Normal mode, not the far more efficient Eco setting.
You either get it or you don’t
The Ioniq 5 N’s best party trick is called N E-Shift, and it’s bound to be divisive. It simulates an eight-speed paddle-shift transmission, changing throttle mapping and lift-off regen to replicate each “gear,” and the effect is extremely convincing.
The different levels of performance or efficiency are readily available and easy to switch between using the multifunction steering wheel.
Jonathan Gitlin
This is the default instrument panel.
Jonathan Gitlin
Here, the N E-Shift button has been pressed, and the power gauge on the right has turned into a tachometer.
Jonathan Gitlin
In N mode, with the N E-Shift active.
Jonathan Gitlin
This was actually the second charger I visited to recharge the Ioniq 5 N; the first EA charger started smoking and shut down. But that was an EA thing, not an Ioniq 5 N thing.
Jonathan Gitlin
Like any car, if you drive it hard, you’ll have to recharge or refuel it often.
Jonathan Gitlin
As you can see, the Ioniq 5 N can also be quite efficient if necessary.
Enlarge/ The VW ID.4 has a new drive motor and infotainment system for model-year 2024. It’s not the sportiest EV you can buy, but it remains one of our favorites to drive.
Jonathan Gitlin
Volkswagen didn’t wait the traditional four model years before giving its ID.4 electric crossover something of a spiff-up. The tweaks to the model-year 2024 ID.4 are mostly under the skin or inside the cabin—like the recent refresh of the Polestar 2, this update was more about making the ID.4 an easier EV to live with, with more range and more power.
Volkswagen was one of the first automakers to react to Tesla finally making the electric vehicle viable. After the company-wide bet on diesel went up in a cloud of nitrogen oxides and black smoke, VW threw itself headlong into electrification as a way to meet ever-stricter carbon emissions regulations. Already an industry pioneer for the use of highly flexible vehicle architectures that let it build vehicles in a wide range of sizes and shapes with a common set of components and tools, it applied that approach to a line of electric vehicles, all branded under the Intelligent Design, or ID, name.
VW is a global automaker, but automobile tastes are often not global. For Europe, VW designed the ID.3, an electric hatchback that Americans who want forbidden fruit keep asking for, but which generated less than enthusiastic reviews from the people who actually got to buy them. Other models are optimized for China. But for America, with its adoration of the SUV and crossover, VW designed the ID.4.
Enlarge/ The ID.4 was designed with America’s love of crossovers in mind.
Jonathan Gitlin
Unveiled in the depths of the pandemic, we got our first (if short) drive in a prototype ID.4 in October 2020. Four months later, it was time to try the production version, an EV we proclaimed “a solid effort.” A few months later, we tried out the all-wheel drive ID.4 and checked out VW’s factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which has been churning out locally made ID.4s since mid-2022.
What’s new?
For model-year 2024, the $44,875 ID.4 Pro keeps its 82 kWh battery pack, but its EPA range jumps to 291 miles (468 km), up from 275 miles (443 km). The reason will probably seem counterintuitive if all you’re used to is gasoline cars—a new, more powerful drive unit that generates 282 hp (210 kW) and 402 lb-ft (545 Nm). That’s a 40 percent increase in power and a 30 percent increase in torque compared to the rear-wheel drive ID.4 Pro we tested in the past.
With internal-combustion engine vehicles, turning up the wick on the power and torque usually means your range plummets. Not so with an EV. The new motor has an improved stator and a new water- and oil-cooling system, both of which mean it can cope better with higher thermal loads—VW says this is “an elementary contributing factor” to the improved efficiency. The one-speed transmission has had its components optimized to reduce friction, and there’s a new inverter with all-new software.
A very tight turning circle means this is a great EV for American cities.
Jonathan Gitlin
There’s plenty of room here for your kids’ sports equipment, the monthly Costco run, or a vacation’s worth of luggage.
Jonathan Gitlin
The battery can also accept a higher rate of power during charging and regenerative braking, now 175 kW, up from 125 kW. That means a 10–80 percent fast charge should take 30 min. While we weren’t able to deplete the battery quite enough to test that, a charge from 35–80 percent state of charge took just 22 minutes at a peak of 155 kW, and just under 31 minutes was sufficient to reach a 92 percent SoC from that starting point.
On the road, and despite its mainstream design, the ID.4 remains a pretty good EV to drive. It has a very tight turning circle (31.5 feet/9/6 m), which is helpful in the city, and on a winding back road it is far better-mannered than a family crossover should be. A shared vehicle dynamics control system with the latest Golf GTI no doubt helps here.
I prefer Comfort mode over Sport; the latter makes the steering heavier but with no more feedback and makes the lift-off regen braking more aggressive. Power delivery is very smooth despite the bump in output.
In any of the three modes (which includes Eco as well as Comfort and Sport) the ride is a little bouncy—US market ID.4s do without adaptive dampers, so it doesn’t change when you switch. And there was a fair bit of road noise from the tires at highway speeds.
I was surprised that, in relatively mild weather, I was able to achieve an average of 4.1 miles/kWh (15.2 kWh/100 km). As the weather got hot and AC was a necessity, this dropped to 3.5 miles/kWh (17.8 kWh/100 km), which is still an improvement on the First Edition we tested in 2022.
Enlarge/ It’s all too easy to go nuts with the Porsche option list and spend a fortune, but what if you didn’t do that?
Michael Teo Van Runkle
Porsche’s high-performance variants of the 911 might make for great headlines, proving the incredible potential of the world’s most iconic rear-engined sports car to serve as a track toy and off-road rally racer simultaneously. But while motorsport heritage always factors into any Porsche conversation, the 911 is anything but the top rung of the company’s sales ladder. Instead, the Cayenne and then Macan SUVs have led the pack in volume since 2002, bolstering the company’s financial position and allowing the smaller-scale 911s and 718s to continue production.
For model year 2024, the facelifted third-gen Cayenne now comes in seven trim levels, including the technologically advanced and startlingly quick Turbo E-Hybrid, which offers 35 miles of all-electric range and a 3.5-second sprint to 60 mph. And yet a base V6 Cayenne offers a far more attainable entree into what it’s like to own something other than a fully loaded, paint-to-sample uber-Porsche that can easily cost well over $200,000.
Revisiting the Cayenne SUV
A V6-powered Cayenne starts at $79,200, or almost $20,000 more than the smaller gasoline-powered Macan crossover. But the larger platform allows for a more refined vision of Porsche luxury on the interior, with more headroom, legroom, and cargo capacity. Despite the additional size, however, the latest iteration of the Cayenne never sacrifices the spirit that originally put the Sport in Sport Utility Vehicle. And even a small-displacement turbo V6 still delivers the highlights of Porsche performance, engineering, and reliability.
Enlarge/ Porsche hasn’t announced a replacement for the Cayenne yet, but we bet it will be electric.
Michael Teo Van Runkle
I took this 2024 Cayenne for a week loan in Los Angeles six months after selling my own 2006 Cayenne Turbo. Half a year without a Stuttgart SUV serving as my daily driver never dampened the impressions that originally inspired my purchase of a high-mileage Typ 955, though—especially that burly 4.5 L twin-turbo V8 pumping out 450 hp (335 kW) and 457 lb-ft (620 Nm) of torque. With a stout Aisin six-speed automatic transmission, 18-inch wheels shod in big knobby tires, and an adjustable air suspension system, my Cayenne Turbo handled far more difficult off-roading trails than I ever expected, all while still being able to cruise home on the freeway at with equal aplomb.
Since that undeniably over-engineered first generation—split between the 955 and later the 957 facelift—the Cayenne has evolved into a leaner, more consumer-focused SUV. The next generation, known as the 958, dropped the two-speed transfer case, locking differentials, and electronically disconnecting sway bars from the platform. With less truck-iness baked in, second and now third-gen (Typ 9Y0) Cayennes nail the sporty side even more effectively.
The biggest difference comes down to sheer weight. Without the substantial heft of a more complex driveline and powered by smaller displacement engine options throughout the lineup, the current Cayenne now tips the scales at 4,678 lbs (2,122 kg). Compare that to my Turbo, at 5,200 lbs (2,359 kg) before I bolted on steel skid plates, a swingout rear spare carrier, and bigger tires, and the difference in horsepower stats versus the V6-powered base Cayenne starts to seem less significant.
The single-turbo V6 receives ratings of 348 hp (260 KW) and 368 lb-ft (500 Nm) of torque, though the latter figure peaks at just 1,450 rpm and explains the ability for a full-size SUV to manage a 0–60 time of just 5.4 seconds when equipped with the Sport Plus package and Launch Control. That’s a long way off from a Turbo GT, sure, but it’s better than the V6’s raw specs on paper perhaps suggest.
Enlarge/ Can the big Mazda CX-90 make up for how disappointed we were with the last electrified Mazda we drove?
Jonathan Gitlin
Fairly or not, the Mazda CX-90 PHEV had a lot to make up for. The last electrified Mazda we drove was the abysmal MX-30, a cynical compliance car that proved too unpopular to remain on sale. That was a small hatchback crossover with suicide doors and a cork interior. The CX-90 PHEV, Mazda’s full-size SUV, is a much more substantial proposition, with seating for up to eight and starting at a reasonable $47,445.
You may miss out on some of the very newest bells and whistles found in the latest German or Korean luxury cars, but as electrified three-rows go, there’s a fair bit to like about this one.
Tech specs
The CX-90 uses a newly developed Mazda platform for larger vehicles, with rear-biased all-wheel drive powertrains. There’s a turbocharged mild hybrid inline-six cylinder engine available in two different levels of tune, but the one we’re interested in is the e-Skyactiv G powertrain, which pairs a turbocharged four-cylinder engine generating 189 hp (141 kW) and 192 lb-ft (260 Nm) with a 173 hp (129 kW), 199 lb-ft (270 Nm) permanent magnet synchronous electric motor.
If you need a gigantic SUV but also want it to be a PHEV, you don’t have too many choices. This one comes with a lot of good safety tech and not too much in the way of digital distraction, plus a great interior.
Jonathan Gitlin
With the third row of seats in use, there’s 14.9 cubic feet (423 L) of cargo volume. Drop the third row flat and that grows to 40 cubic feet (1,133 L). Fold down the middle row as well and you can fit 74.2 cubic feet (2,101 L) of stuff back there.
Jonathan Gitlin
A standard-size parking bay doesn’t leave much room.
Jonathan Gitlin
Total combined output is 323 hp (240 kW) and 369 lb-ft (500 Nm), all of which goes to the wheels via an eight-speed planetary gear transmission that uses a wet clutch instead of a torque convertor. Mazda says there’s a North America-specific tune that, by the sounds of it, has a peppier torque curve for better acceleration than the versions sold in Europe or Asia.
There’s a 17.8 kWh lithium-ion battery pack with an EPA-rated electric-only range of up to 26 miles. Add a full tank of gas to that and the CX-90 PHEV should go 490 miles, according to the regulator. Charge times are about 2.5 hours with a 240 V level 2 charger, and there’s a charge button on the center console that will use spare power from the internal combustion engine to recharge the traction battery while you drive (with an attendant hit to fuel economy as you do).
In normal mode, as long as the battery has more than 20 percent state of charge, the car will default to using the electric motor alone for propulsion. In this combined gas-plus-electric mode, the EPA rates the CX-90 at 56 MPGe. Below 20 percent SoC, the engine stays on and maintains some charge in the battery, which Mazda says is so the EV assist is always available.
There’s also an EV mode, although if the throttle pedal passes the kick-down point, the ICE fires up again, and the car reverts to normal mode. Sport keeps the engine fired all the time and adds electric torque, but at 5,243 lbs, this is not an SUV that will ever feel sporty to drive.
I don’t know about you, but my trips to Costco are not often long enough to get a meaningful charge in the battery. Particularly if there’s snow on the ground.
Jonathan Gitlin
In late spring, things went a lot better.
Jonathan Gitlin
Charging stats.
Jonathan Gitlin
The powertrain with a cutaway showing inside the electric motor, which is packaged between the engine and transmission.
Mazda
Once the battery is fully depleted, fuel economy plummets as the relatively small engine works hard to keep this large SUV in motion—just 25 mpg (9.4 L/100 km) combined, according to the EPA.
Enlarge/ In the past, car companies engaged in “horsepower wars.” Now it seems they’re competing in a screen size war.
Jonathan Gitlin
It’s important to try to approach a review car with an open mind, but I’ll admit my preconceptions were stacked against the Lincoln Nautilus. It’s on the larger end of the midsize SUV segment, bigger than I like them, and my last encounter with a Lincoln wasn’t entirely positive. And then there’s the whole giant screen. Not to be outdone by Cadillac and its 33-inch display, Nautilus has a 48-inch screen that stretches between the A pillars, which sounds like a recipe for distraction. And yet, this hybrid SUV won me over rapidly.
We tested the hybrid Nautilus, a $1,500 option for a model that starts at $50,415. The hybrid system combines a 2.0 L turbocharged four-cylinder direct-injection engine with an electric motor in parallel, sending torque to all four wheels via a continuously variable transmission. Total output is 310 hp (231 kW), with a maximum output of 300 hp (223 kW) from the internal combustion engine, or 134 hp (100 kW) from the electric motor.
It’s quite efficient, too. The EPA rates the hybrid Nautilus at a combined 30 mpg (7.84 L/100 km), although a combination of 22-inch wheels and oppressive Washington, DC, summer temperatures meant that I averaged a little bit less than that.
Lincoln hasn’t disclosed a torque figure for the electric motor, but it’s easily sufficient for the task of getting the 4,517-lb (2,049 kg) SUV up and moving, both smoothly and near-silently, before the gas engine thinks about firing up. At city speeds, the electric motor does almost all of the work, at least as long as the weather isn’t too extreme—in the depths of winter and the height of summer, you can expect the engine to fire up more often unless you turn off the heater or AC.
I’m not the biggest fan of the exterior styling, but this was a very good metallic red paint.
Jonathan Gitlin
On the other hand, I am a fan of the interior, except for the placing of the touchscreen.
Jonathan Gitlin
There’s quite a lot of room in the rear.
Jonathan Gitlin
The Nautilus starts at just over $50,000, but you can spend a lot more than that depending on options and trim level.
Jonathan Gitlin
Note the door handles that stick up and out from the side.
Jonathan Gitlin
This might be the best Lincoln I’ve driven.
Jonathan Gitlin
The backup camera shows up where you normally see your map.
Jonathan Gitlin
The Lincoln emblem is illuminated.
Jonathan Gitlin
It’s a car that seems to encourage you to relax a bit and not be in quite so much of a hurry behind the wheel. That impression was helped by the seats, which offer plenty of adjustment and one of the best massaging functions you’ll currently find on four wheels. There’s even an optional digital scent diffuser.
Ride comfort was more than acceptable, despite the huge wheels, and the oblong-ish steering wheel never requires very much effort thanks to plenty of assist from the power steering. If the point of a luxury car is to pamper its occupants while they are transported from A to B, then the Nautilus should be considered quite luxurious.
Enlarge/ The Polestar 4 is the latest entrant into the crowded midsize luxury electric SUV segment. We think it has what it takes to stand out.
Jonathan Gitlin
“If you’re going to make a car and use all that energy, it should be a good car,” said Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar. Ingenlath was referring to the company’s latest electric vehicle, a midsize SUV with striking coupe looks called the Polestar 4. While Ingenlath is on point from a sustainability perspective, it makes good business sense, too. The Polestar 4 needs to be a good car to stand out as it enters one of the most hotly contested segments of the market.
In fact, Polestar uses less energy to make its latest EV than anything else in its range—the company quotes a carbon footprint of 19.9 tonnes of CO2 from cradle to gate. Like some other automakers, Polestar is using a monomaterial approach to the interior to make recycling easier, choosing the same base plastic for all the components in a particular piece of trim, for example.
The carpets are made from, variously, recycled fishing nets or plastic bottles. The vinyl seats use pine oil instead of the stuff extracted from the ground, and the knitted upholstery fabric—also recycled plastic bottles—was designed to leave no off-cuts.
The headlights are a Polestar trademark now, even though there have been just four models so far.
Jonathan Gitlin
Coupe-like looks, SUV-like practicality.
Jonathan Gitlin
No, your eyes don’t deceive you, there is no rear windshield.
Jonathan Gitlin
The interior is inspired by sportswear.
Jonathan Gitlin
The back seat of the Polestar 4 outdoes rivals from Porsche, BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz.
Jonathan Gitlin
At night, LEDs illuminate the interior from behind textile trim panels. The colors are switchable depending on which theme you have the car set to—more on that later.
Jonathan Gitlin
The fastest Polestar yet
In addition to being the greenest Polestar so far, this one is also the most performant. We tested the $62,900 Long Range Dual Motor version, which can send up to 536 hp (400 kW) and 506 lb-ft (686 Nm) to the wheels. Pick this version and you should see 270 miles (434 km) from the 100 kWh battery pack. In a suitable location like a motorway toll booth, 60 mph arrives in 3.7 seconds (100 km/h in 3.8).
That’s if you’re in performance mode, at least. Switch to range mode, and clutches disconnect the front permanent magnet synchronous motor and remap the throttle pedal for better efficiency. There’s also a heat pump as standard. The car can DC fast-charge at rates of up to 200 kW, which should take the battery pack from 10 to 80 percent state of charge in 30 min. At home on an 11 kW AC charger, 0–100 percent SoC should take about 11 hours.
There is also a Long Range Single Motor variant with precisely half the power and torque but an EPA range of 300 miles (482 km). Driven by just its rear wheels, the Polestar 4 has more modest performance—60 mph arrives in 6.9 seconds, 100 km/h in 7.1—but it also carries a $8,000-cheaper price, starting at $54,900. New tariffs on Chinese-made EVs have come into effect, but Polestar told Ars that it is sticking with the original pricing. Next year, production of US-market Polestar 4s will begin in South Korea, which will mean significantly smaller import tariffs. (This story originally stated there had been a $10,000 price increase; this was incorrect.)
Jonathan Gitlin
It’s surprisingly good to drive
It has to be said: Making an electric car go fast is not particularly difficult. Electric motors generate most of their torque almost immediately, and unlike with a combustion motor, if you increase the peak power, there isn’t really an efficiency hit lower down the performance envelope. So even a 3-ton monster can get hurled down the road rapidly enough to embarrass a whole lot of supercars.
The Polestar 4 isn’t quite that heavy—5,192 lbs (2,355 kg)—so it forgoes air suspension in favor of conventional coil springs and dampers. These are passive in the Single Motor, but the Dual Motor is equipped with active dampers as standard, and if you choose the performance pack, it’s upgraded with stiffer springs and antiroll bars and new damper tuning.
Our test car was so equipped, and it was a noticeably firm ride, particularly when sitting in the back. There was also a bit of wind noise at speed, but more tire roar, thanks presumably to the performance pack’s 22-inch wheels.
