Bjørn Nyland drives the Kia EV6, with all-wheel-drive and a 77.4 kWh battery, from Oslo, Norway to Helsingborg, Sweden, and back in 10 hours.
Category: Review (Page 3 of 5)
The Kia EV6 is one of the most exiting EVs to come out and is garnering a huge amount of attention. Both the Hyundai IONIQ5 and the EV6 are based on the same E-GMP dedicated electric vehicle platform, and have broadly similar specifications. But there is quite a difference in styling.
2021 Toyota Mirai
Motor Trend »
Here’s our third 2021 Toyota Mirai update in a nutshell: The car is great but the fueling is painful, and this month was more painful than most. Allow us to regale you with the story of what happened with our long-term hydrogen-fueled EV during a week we’re calling the Hydrogen Fuelpocalypse. Spoiler alert: We did not punch the yutz in the gray Mirai, but damn, did we come close.
As usual, when our Mirai’s range-remaining display showed 100 miles, we started to think about fueling up. Checking the Toyota app, we saw that most of the hydrogen stations in and around the Mirai’s home turf of the San Fernando Valley were either broken or out of fuel. No big deal; such glitches usually resolve themselves within a couple of days, hence our 100-mile threshold.
This time, though, things weren’t getting better. True Zero Mission Hills, a beautiful four-pump station that always seems to be broken, stayed offline. The somewhat reliable Studio City station kept going down. Hollywood fell, then Fairfax. Horrified, we realized what was happening: Working stations were being inundated by cars and either running out of fuel or dropping from the strain.
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS
The Mercedes Benz EQS 450+ overdelivers.
Our EQS 450+ test car was surprisingly light on options. Options can add weight and sometimes introduce additional types of inefficiencies, so this particular EQS was primed for our test. It was equipped with the standard 20-inch wheels with “range-optimized summer tires” (Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5, 255/45 R20) at all four corners, inflated to the factory-recommended pressure of 41 psi. Our test car weighed in at 5,500 pounds on the nose, which is exceptionally heavy for a sedan — to put that figure in context, the last S-Class we tested weighed in at 5,069 pounds.
Over the course of a lengthy 12-hour stint in the EQS 450+ at an average temperature of 67 degrees, we managed to travel a total of 422 cheek-numbing miles. That’s 72 miles more than the EPA estimate, an improvement of more than 20%. This stunning performance lands the EQS 450+ in first place on our leaderboard, and not by a whisker. The previous leaders from Tesla now trail the Benz by a whopping 77 miles.
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So, what can 2022 Mercedes-Benz owners expect to pay at “the pump”? After charging the battery back to full, which took about 20 hours on our Level 2 charger, we calculated an Edmunds consumption rate of 29.5 kWh/100 miles, which is 15.7% more efficient than the EPA estimate of 35 kWh/100 miles. If we lived in Hawaii, our 422-mile trip in the EQS would have cost us $41.08, while if we lived in Washington, that same trip would cost just $12.45.
The 2022 Rivian R1T is the first electric pickup truck to hit the market. The Tesla Cybertruck and the Ford F-150 Lightning are still months away,
In this video, Alistair Weaver from Edmunds puts the Rivian through a variety of performance tests, including a 0-60 test and some light off-roading.
2022 Audi RS e-tron GT
Under the skin, the RS GT and base-model Audi e-tron GT Quattro share its 800-volt electrical architecture with corporate sibling Porsche Taycan. The RS GT is roughly equivalent to the Taycan in Turbo S trim. Both Audi and Porsche designs trade some measure of absolute range for slinky styling. The RS GT’s low roof—2 inches lower than an Audi RS 7, for comparison—effectively requires a lower floor, and therefore, a shallower battery pack. While the RS GT is about as quick and powerful as a Tesla Model S, its weight (373-578 pounds more) and relatively modest 83.7-kWh capacity limits range to an EPA-estimated 232 miles, compared to the Tesla’s Model S Long Range’s 375-405 miles range.
But I don’t want to make too much of the comparison. Tesla Model S is a volume-production automobile selling many thousands annually. The Audi is being built in numbers so small as to be practically bespoke within VW Group. The RS GT costs $9,910 more than a Model S Plaid, before options. So it’s not exactly going toe-to-toe with Tesla. The RS GT is destined to be an exotic car bought by quixotic people.
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Base price $139,900
Price, as tested $161,890
Powertrain Battery-electric vehicle architecture, with front and rear-mounted permanent-magnet motors (235 hp front/450 hp rear); full-time AWD with single-speed front and two-speed rear transmission; 93.4-kWh lithium battery with 800-volt nominal system voltage
Power/torque 590 hp (637 hp in Boost mode)/612 lb-ft
Length/width/height/wheelbase 196.4/77.3/55.0/114.2 inches
Curb weight 5,139 pounds
0-60 mph 3.1 seconds
Charging rate 5-80% charging maximum 270 kW DC direct/approx. 22.5 minutes
EPA range 232 miles