car review

the-2024-kia-ev9,-an-electric-three-row-suv-designed-with-the-us-in-mind

The 2024 Kia EV9, an electric three-row SUV designed with the US in mind

car review, Cars, E-GMP, First drive, Kia, Kia EV9 / /

mostly good —

Kia bets on edgy design, a futuristic interior, and plenty of interior space.

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A blue Kia EV9 drives along a forest road in California

Enlarge / The 2024 Kia EV9 takes many of the things people love about the Telluride but does them on one of the best purpose-built EV platforms in the industry.

Kia

American car buyers love purchasing way more car than they need. Have a kid and a dog? You’d better get a Suburban. Need to tow a Hobie Cat to the lake once or twice a year? Get a full-size diesel four-wheel drive pickup. Looking at an EV for your family? Well, it had better do 400 miles at a time and charge in 15 minutes, despite you having a six-mile commute. This mentality would make a cynic say that Kia’s EV9 is a pointless exercise, but that cynic would be wrong.

The 2024 Kia EV9 is ostensibly a three-row, midsize electric SUV that in its most efficient form—the Wind RWD Long-Range trim—will do a claimed 304 miles (489 km) of range, but it’s also Kia’s flagship model and the vehicle that seems to give us the best look at the formerly cheap-and-cheerful brand’s more upscale future.

The EV9 is the latest vehicle based on the E-GMP platform that underpins the Ioniq 5, EV6, and Genesis GV60. Like those vehicles, it features a skateboard-style chassis and is available in rear- or all-wheel drive. Power ranges from 201 hp (150 kW) in the entry-level Wind RWD model to 379 hp (283 kW) in the Land AWD and GT-Line models. There are two available battery packs, with the smaller coming in at 76.1 kWh and the long-range pack rated at 99.8 kWh.

The larger size of the EV9 means you won't get quite the same range efficiency out of the same powertrain as the smaller E-GMP cars. Not that it matters on the commute, school run, or grocery errand.

Enlarge / The larger size of the EV9 means you won’t get quite the same range efficiency out of the same powertrain as the smaller E-GMP cars. Not that it matters on the commute, school run, or grocery errand.

Kia

The conversation around electric vehicles, especially with new buyers, tends to be dominated by range. The claimed range figures for the EV9 won’t light anyone’s hair on fire, particularly with the GT-Line model and its not-so-whopping 270 miles (434 km) or the bottom-of-the-barrel Light RWD model that only offers 230 miles (370 km). Still, these figures should prove to be ample for most Americans.

Like other E-GMP-based vehicles, the EV9 is built on an 800 V architecture and supports DC fast charging at up to 235 kW. The onboard AC charger is rated at 10.9 kW, and for home-based level 2 charging, Kia is partnering with Wallbox and is pushing that company’s Quasar 2 home charging setup. While the Quasar’s vehicle-to-load and vehicle-to-home capabilities are neat, its $4,000-plus price before installation isn’t, and neither is Kia’s decision to not sell them through dealers, preventing new EV buyers from wrapping the system into their car loan.

On the road, the EV9 is just nice. It’s not particularly quick, even in its most performative variant. Kia claims a 4.5 second 0–60 time, but that’s only if you pay for the acceleration boost unlock (more on this later), and while that’s not slow per se, it won’t impress veteran EV drivers. Ride quality is also average. Like many other Kias, the suspension is tuned on the slightly firmer side, but it’s not harsh, even over very broken pavement.

Only the EV9 GT-Line features an exterior vehicle-to-load AC outlet.

Enlarge / Only the EV9 GT-Line features an exterior vehicle-to-load AC outlet.

Kia

The EV9’s steering is perfectly ignorable in most drive modes, but it leans hard into artificially heavy territory in sport mode. The EV9 has a super long wheelbase—122 inches (3,098 mm) vs. the Telluride’s 114.2 inches (2,900), despite being essentially the same size—but it lacks any kind of rear-wheel steering, meaning that parking lot maneuvers are a bit of a chore—and don’t even think about u-turns unless you’re ready to do a very fast three-point turn.

The 2024 Kia EV9, an electric three-row SUV designed with the US in mind Read More »

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A week with a Ford F-150 Lightning: This truck is too big for city life

car review, Cars, electric pickup truck, Ford F-150 Lightning / /

stalking horse or white elephant? —

The big electric pickup truck is out of the suburbs and out of its element.

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A week with a Ford F-150 Lightning: This truck is too big for city life

Jonathan Gitlin

I seem to be thinking a lot about Ford’s electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning. Earlier this week, we got the news of price cuts and price increases. Before that, there was a pending cut to planned production output. Taken as it is, it’s just the all-electric version of America’s favorite pickup—and arguably the best version unless you need to pull something on the end of a trailer hitch.

But the Lightning doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Depending on who you talk to, it’s a clever attempt to get Americans to go electric, an utterly familiar wrapper on a slab of new technology that, yes, still requires the owner to adjust their mindset a bit from the gasoline-powered way of thinking. To others, it’s a white elephant, one that costs too much and languishes on dealership forecourts, proof positive that electrification is a thing other countries might bother with, but forget that here at home, cowboy.

I’ve never found life to be quite that simple, and neither is the Lightning. Here in Washington, DC, the vehicle remains a rare sight—the only time I’ve seen one in the wild, it belonged to the DC government’s fleet of vehicles (its job was inspecting abandoned vehicles). Out west, it’s much more common to see electric F-150s on the road, and last year, Ford sold about 40,000 Lightnings, despite halting production for a fire and then again to retool part of the line.

Because I last drove one more than 18 months ago, it seemed prudent to book a week with an example from Ford’s press fleet to see how the pickup has matured since its release. The Monroney sticker did little to bust the idea that these things are expensive—$97,374 is a high price, although with the recent adjustment and an ongoing $7,500 incentive from Ford, a 2024 model would be just over $10,000 cheaper, according to Ford’s online configurator.

Jonathan Gitlin

I had bigger concerns than the sticker shock—quite literally. After all, you don’t have to buy a Platinum trim Lightning; a search on cars.com shows 823 Platinums for sale around the country out of a total of 7,531 new Lightnings. Many of the rest of those electric F-150s will be cheaper, but all of them will be the same size. And that size is just too darn big for my life in the city.

Size matters

This was immediately apparent as I backed into my parking space. The Lightning dwarfed my neighbors’ SUVs as it jutted out into the parking lot, almost entirely filling the space between the white lines. There’s no hiding a vehicle that’s 237 inches (6,020 mm) long and 80 inches (2,032 mm) wide before you include the mirrors.

Part of the reason it’s so big is that the four-door, five-seat pickup truck somehow became the replacement for a sedan in the minds of so many American men. On four wheels, with at least eight inches of ground clearance, you could drive it on an overlanding adventure, but in practice, you’ll just obstruct the views of everyone else on the road. The only way to see around a big truck is in another big truck, and before you know it, the country is buying several million full-size pickup trucks every year.

I'll be honest: I used neither bed nor frunk during the entire week. Groceries and cargo went on the back seat or the floor behind the driver's seat. Which made most of the F-150 Lightning's bulk superfluous to my needs.

Enlarge / I’ll be honest: I used neither bed nor frunk during the entire week. Groceries and cargo went on the back seat or the floor behind the driver’s seat. Which made most of the F-150 Lightning’s bulk superfluous to my needs.

Jonathan Gitlin

For people living in newer homes in suburbs or exurbs who commute to jobs in office parks surrounded by vast expanses of surface parking, the size thing might not even be that noticeable. Garages are built big enough to house brodozers now, and houses out in those parts are set back from their neighbors. Climb up into the driver’s seat of a Lightning in the middle of a dense city, though, and it’s on stark display.

Although I adapted to the Lightning’s size, it was really only once I ventured into the suburbs of Northern Virginia that I started to feel truly comfortable behind the wheel. The multilane roads in places like Fairfax and Tysons Corner were much more the Lightning’s element. No road diets here, nor people on bicycles to be ever-vigilant for. Driving in the city, I was always aware of its size, although the view from the high-up driving position was mostly excellent, and the one-pedal driving mode made it simple to stick to the 20 mph speed limits.

A week with a Ford F-150 Lightning: This truck is too big for city life Read More »

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Daily range isn’t a problem with the 2024 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

car review, Cars, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, plug-in hybrid / /
The front of a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

Enlarge / The previous Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV was the world’s best-selling plug-in hybrid, apparently. Now the new one has more power and a bigger battery, among other improvements.

Jonathan Gitlin

What to make of Mitsubishi, now we’re almost a quarter of the way into this century? For enthusiasts of a certain age, the brand is synonymous with rallying and fire-breathing all-wheel drive sedans with extremely short service intervals. To my old driving instructor, Mitsubishi was the Mercedes of Japan. And a Mitsubishi was even the first electric vehicle I reviewed for Ars, way back in 2012.

These days it feels very much like the third brand at the Nissan-Renault alliance. The rallying heyday is long past, and its lineup here in the USA is down to just three SUVs and the sub-$20,000 Mirage, all focused on value for money rather than all-out luxury. Mitsubishi didn’t follow up the electric i-MiEV with another battery EV, but it does make a plug-in hybrid powertrain for the Outlander SUV.

The Outlander is relatively affordable by today’s standards, starting at $40,345, and a week with a model year 2024 example found it to be a solid PHEV with a big enough battery to make most of one’s daily motoring emission-free.

Yes, the US government considers this a compact SUV.

Enlarge / Yes, the US government considers this a compact SUV.

Jonathan Gitlin

Going by sentiments from our audience, it’s possible to feel that the PHEV has almost been abandoned in favor of more on-trend battery EVs. And data from Consumer Reports isn’t particularly complimentary about PHEV reliability, although the same publication did find PHEVs (and BEVs) are cheaper to maintain than a car that just burns gasoline.

Ars actually tested the new Outlander PHEV—albeit briefly—just over a year ago. But a first-drive event held by an automaker is stage-managed in a way that just spending a week with a car isn’t, and I figured since I quite liked the last model, it wouldn’t be a wasted week.

They say it’s a compact

Mitsubishi classifies the Outlander PHEV as a compact SUV. One can quibble about whether an SUV that’s 185.4 inches (4,709 mm) long and 75 inches (1,905 mm) wide really is compact, but that starts to get into philosophical debates about technical definitions versus the commonly accepted meaning of words. The Outlander PHEV’s 106.5-inch (2,705 mm) wheelbase is sufficiently long to allow for a third row of seats in the back though, so it will seat seven humans, as long as the two in the back are pretty short.

Daily range isn’t a problem with the 2024 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Read More »

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Not all pickups are work trucks—Toyota aims the 2024 Tacoma off-road

car review, Cars, First drive, hybrid pickup truck, Toyota Tacoma / /

Not the official truck of Takoma Park, however —

The TRD Pro trim even comes with seats fitted with shock absorbers.

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A red Toyota Tacoma TRD seen on a trail

Enlarge / Yes, pickup trucks are used in work situations, but they’re also bought by people who want to drive them off-road.

Kristin Shaw

Between a new platform and the model’s first hybrid powertrain, the redesigned 2024 Toyota Tacoma is full of interesting tidbits and both off- and on-road enhancements. The refresh has been a long time coming, as the last time Toyota updated the Tacoma was for model-year 2015.

The Tacoma line began in 1995 as a US-specific version of the global HiLux. Even Back to the Future‘s Marty McFly coveted a black 1985 Toyota HiLux SR5 Xtra Cab, and it appeared in his garage, complete with a kangaroo bar, off-roading lights, and more.

By design, the new Tacoma is larger than the last generation, sharing a platform with the full-size Tundra. Today, the 2024 Tacoma is more fuel-efficient than its smaller predecessor, notching between 20 and 26 mpg (9–11.8 L/100 km) in the gas-powered versions—a 1995 HiLux ranged from 14–22 mpg (10.7–16.8 L/100 km). We’re waiting to see what the hybrid powertrain earns from the EPA; the difference in mpg may be modest, but the horsepower quotient is impressive.

Toyota will sell you a range of different Tacoma trims, many of which can handle some rough stuff. The TRD Off-Road grade is the most specialized.

Enlarge / Toyota will sell you a range of different Tacoma trims, many of which can handle some rough stuff. The TRD Off-Road grade is the most specialized.

Kristin Shaw

In the last few years, the popularity of off-roading has soared, and the segment has exploded, with accessories becoming a cost center for manufacturers, too. The 2024 Tacoma is available with over 100 off-roading accessories, all covered by the same warranty as the truck. At the truck’s launch, we had an opportunity to test it off the tarmac.

More options, more off-road upgrades

Toyota didn’t spare any bells and whistles for the new Tacoma, basing the infotainment system on the new Tundra’s much-improved setup and adding a coilover rear suspension option over leaf springs. Each trim level has a suspension tuned specifically to its grade, including high-end Bilstein shocks for the TRD Off-Road grade.

The differences are evident after driving several trims on a test run in California. Limited trim buyers can choose an available adaptive variable suspension that adjusts to road conditions on the fly; the ride is noticeably smoother than its model siblings. On the other end of the spectrum, the TRD line carries progressively tougher shocks to save your back and neck muscles when powering over dirt and rock obstacles.

Toyota

At the top of the line is the Trailhunter grade, which is equipped with an Old Man Emu suspension by ARB. The Australian suspension setup is designed to increase the range of motion to make off-roading more comfortable—and, as a result, more fun. Its suspension is custom-tuned for the Tacoma and isn’t available as an off-the-shelf product.

Progressively tougher

Two years ago, Toyota showcased the Trailhunter concept on display at the Specialty Equipment Market Association annual megaevent, and the buzz was palpable. More drivers are interested in off-roading, and this one is built to withstand heavy loads (think camping gear like tents, 10-gallon water containers, and portable refrigerators). It also carries an onboard air compressor and is covered in skid-plate armor to protect the fuel tank, mid-body, and front from damage.

In the TRD Off-Road grade, one of the standard technologies is a new 2-inch Bilstein monotube shock with piggyback reservoirs. Tacoma Chief Engineer Sheldon Brown says it’s pretty unusual to see those types of shocks in a core grade of vehicles, but he felt it was important to provide an “incredible” off-road performance.

The piggyback part is key, providing a reservoir of heat management to keep the shocks moving.

The Tacoma TRD Pro's interior.

Enlarge / The Tacoma TRD Pro’s interior.

Toyota

“As we’re moving, we have these long stroke shocks and it’s working this fluid,” Brown says. “The fluid gets warm, the viscosity gets lower, and we get shock fade.” Shock fade is what happens when the damper loses control and the ride loses some of its comfort factor.

Seats that protect your neck and back

The ultimate comfort feature is an option in Toyota’s popular TRD Pro trim. The engineers and designers worked together to give the new Tacoma new seats for the driver and front passenger that ride on a shock-absorber system.

“The purpose of these so-called IsoDynamic Performance Seats is to keep your head—and in turn, your eyes—steady and focused while driving (or riding in the right seat) on rugged terrain,” Brown says. “If you’ve ever ridden a horse or performed in a marching band, you understand how important it is to keep your vision intact while moving.”

Sounds great, right? The best part is that the new seats, called IsoDynamic Performance Seats, can be tuned and adjusted by body mass, or they can be bypassed via levers on the seatbacks.

This truck was made for getting dirty. But Toyota gave the new Tacoma a wide range of options that will satisfy the person least likely to even touch dirt with one today all the way to the seasoned off-roader.

Not all pickups are work trucks—Toyota aims the 2024 Tacoma off-road Read More »

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Revisiting the Ford Mustang Mach-E—how’s the pony EV doing 3 years later?

car review, Cars, electric car review, Ford Mustang Mach-E / /

yay or neigh —

This midsize crossover EV has a lot more competition than when it debuted in 2021.

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A Ford Mustang Mach-E, head-on

Enlarge / The Ford Mustang Mach-E is now in its third year of production, so it felt like a good idea to see how it’s maturing.

Jonathan Gitlin

When Ars first drove the then-new Ford Mustang Mach-E back in early 2021, the car was an attention magnet. Now, almost three years later, the Mustang Mach-E is a much more common sight on our roads, but so are other electric crossovers from most of Ford’s usual rivals, including the sales juggernaut that is the Tesla Model Y. We decided to book a few days with a Mustang Mach-E to see how (or if) this equine EV has matured since launch.

Originally, Ford had been working on a much more boring battery electric car until Tesla started delivering its Model 3s, at which point a hastily convened “Team Edison” set to work adding some much-needed brio to the design, rethinking Ford’s EV strategy in the process.

Giving this midsize crossover EV a Mustang name tag remains divisive—I expect a reasonable percentage of comments to this story will be people showing up to complain, “It ain’t no real Mustang.” The crossover’s name is what it is, and there are plenty of Mustang styling cues, but even with the designers’ trick of using black trim to make you ignore the bits they don’t want you to see, there’s no denying the proportions are pretty far from coupe-like.

The Mustang Mach-E has good angles and bad angles.

Enlarge / The Mustang Mach-E has good angles and bad angles.

Jonathan Gitlin

It’s cheaper now

Our test car was a Mustang Mach-E Premium eAWD model with just a single option ticked, the 91 kWh (useable capacity) extended range battery. This increases the car’s EPA range estimate from 224 miles (360 km) to 290 miles (467 km) but costs $8,600, which, combined with the delivery charge, bumps the sticker price to $67,575.

At least, that’s what this Mustang Mach-E cost when it arrived on the press fleet some 5,500 miles ago. Ford had to respond to Tesla’s string of price cuts, dropping the MSRP by almost $7,000 and cutting the cost of the extended range battery to $7,000—when I configure the same spec on Ford’s online car builder, it tells me the total price should be $59,940 with all the various fees. (A further price cut came to most other Mustang Mach-E variants in May, but not for the extended range Premium eAWD.)

And until the end of this year, the EV is still eligible for half of the clean vehicle tax credit. However, Ford believes that $3,750 credit will no longer be available to Mach-E buyers from next year as new rules regarding batteries made by “foreign entities of concern” go into effect. These remove eligibility from EVs batteries made in China or by Chinese-owned companies from January 1, 2024.

Taillights say Mustang, but the car's width and height say crossover.

Enlarge / Taillights say Mustang, but the car’s width and height say crossover.

Jonathan Gitlin

It’s a hard life

The fact that the Mustang Mach-E’s trip computer hadn’t been reset in 3,572 miles (5,749 km) provides an illustrating insight into both the life of a press fleet vehicle as well as the long-term efficiency of this EV. Collectively, the car had been driven very unsympathetically over that time, grading the drivers at 1 percent for deceleration and 2 percent for both acceleration and speed. Despite the lead foot treatment, the average of 2.7 miles/kWh (23 kWh/100 km) matches the EPA efficiency estimate (expressed as 37 kWh/100 miles).

I’m guessing this particular car spent most of those miles in Unbridled, which is what the Mustang Mach-E calls its sport mode. That or Engage, which is the middle of the three settings and the one used to calculate the car’s official efficiency.

In Whisper (think eco mode), you don’t get quite all the 346 hp (258 kW) or the full 428 lb-ft (580 Nm), and the 0–60 time feels between a second or two slower than the 4.8 seconds that’s possible if all the electric horses are harnessed at the same time, at least 3.1 miles/kWh (20 kWh/100 km) should be possible.

Revisiting the Ford Mustang Mach-E—how’s the pony EV doing 3 years later? Read More »