7+ min ago (1628+ words) If any vehicle has ever deserved to be called a "fuel-sipper," it's the Lynk & Co 08 plug-in hybrid. This new crossover from the hot-selling Chinese-European cousin of Volvo and Polestar'has a combustion engine that can power the wheels, but you'd barely know it. Its huge battery provides an impressive range, meaning the engine is off most of the time. When you finally run out of EV range, this PHEV supports DC fast charging, too, so you can get back on the road quickly without burning gas. Driving it last week proved that a (really) big-battery PHEV can work. It behaves like an EV most of the time, but still gives you peace of mind that you won't be stranded with a dead battery. I am not usually the biggest fan of plug-in hybrids'most PHEVs in Europe don't get plugged in as…...

19+ hour, 58+ min ago (1092+ words) Yet I often stop to wonder: "Who's asking for any of this stuff?" Sure, plenty of drivers are clamoring for some of those things, and to borrow an old Steve Jobs-ism, sometimes people don't know what they want until you show it to them. But'the average car on American roads is'now a record 14 years old, so leaps in technology made by the auto industry even recently can be lost on a lot of people.'And new cars are now more expensive than ever.'Put more simply: it's hard to know, or care, about in-car AI systems when you just need to get the kids to school on time.' This was on my mind recently when I got some seat time with the new 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. It is the furthest thing from cutting-edge. But the damn thing just works, and…...

22+ hour, 58+ min ago (373+ words) Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) isn't perfect and it's not good enough to be legal in Europe yet, but it still attempts to go above and beyond what highway-only automated driving assistance systems will do. Relying on the Tesla's onboard cameras, it's designed to navigate urban environments'and may just deal with road rage, too. Out of Spec Reviews teamed up with Dirty Tesla to push FSD's buttons on a track with no other traffic around and it's pretty surprising how it reacts to simulated aggressive driving from another car. They genuinely try to sideswipe the FSD-enabled Model 3, and the car swerves to avoid the aggressor better than a human driver could in that situation. After being repeatedly pestered by the other car, the Model 3 seemingly decides on its own that the best course of action is to turn around and not…...

1+ day, 2+ hour ago (375+ words) But here's some good news for EV drivers everywhere'and potentially bad news for other charging providers: BYD's Flash Charging system won't just be limited to China. The automaker has previously said it's aiming to launch this in Europe next year, and it's now hiring people to make it happen. BYD Han L, Tang L and Megawatt Charging Besides being a fascinating opportunity for the right charging or BESS professional, these postings may indicate that BYD is serious about building out Flash Charging across European markets next year. At a recent BYD launch in the United Kingdom, the company's executive vice president, Stella Li, confirmed that other EVs will be able to use these chargers'but only cars on BYD's Super e-Platform will be able to achieve those blazing speeds." "We will be open to all brands because it's standardized charging, but…...

1+ day, 5+ hour ago (681+ words) When the Kia EV9 went on sale last year, it brought battery power and a healthy dose of gravitas to one of America's favorite vehicle segments: three-row SUVs. Its 300+ mile range, comfortable ride and a cavernous interior, along with competitive pricing, made it a finalist for last year's InsideEVs Breakthrough Awards." For model year 2026, Kia improved the EV9 even more with a factory-fitted Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) port for seamless access to Supercharger stations. With this update, Kia owners will have access to more than 21,500 Tesla Superchargers across the U.S. That should practically eliminate any range anxiety owners may have on long road trips. With a week-long EV9 press loaner at my disposal, I headed to a Supercharger for a 10-80% charging test to find out if this update really makes it a better road-tripper than it already was." 2026 Kia EV9 Tesla Supercharger Even…...

1+ day, 19+ hour ago (1213+ words) Sometimes in life, you can do everything right and still not come out on top. Take the Kia EV6, for example. It really deserves to be a bigger hit than it's been. Here's a competitively priced electric vehicle with around 300 miles of range, solid performance, striking looks, decent practicality, and some of the best fast-charging performance you can get under $100,000. Yet it hasn't exactly lit up the sales charts. Its mechanical cousin, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, went to more than twice as many homes in 2024 despite being essentially the same car; this year, it's down to a fourth of that. It's routinely smoked by the Ford Mustang Mach-E and General Motors' EVs, despite having many better specs, and don't even ask about how it does next to the Tesla Model Y." I've never been entirely sure why this is the case, though I…...

1+ day, 22+ hour ago (628+ words) Tesla's Full Self-Driving Safety Score has turned driving into a video game, and not the fun kind. Think less Mario Kart, more "tiptoe your Model 3 through life to avoid angering the algorithm." And as a viral TikTok jokingly suggests, some owners will go to almost absurd lengths to keep that score at 100. Some owners even reported avoiding certain roads, traffic patterns, or times of day to reduce their chances of dinging their score. Tesla later loosened access requirements as FSD was rolled out more widely, but the culture never fully relaxed. A perfect "100" still carries a certain cachet that's part bragging right, part badge of honor, part proof of being a True Believer in the FSD vision. In practice, that means the car is watching you more closely than any passenger ever could. A slightly rushed stoplight? Hard braking. A…...

1+ day, 23+ hour ago (449+ words) Cupra is the sporty Seat spinoff that wants to inject some fun and attitude into the Volkswagen Group's smaller cars. It already sells two compact electric crossovers, but it wants to take its EVs even smaller with the Cupra Raval, which it is teasing with its production body under light camouflage. Set to be fully revealed and enter production in early 2026, the Raval is named after an area of Barcelona defined by "constant movement, raw energy and fearless urban character" and mostly known for its vibrant nightlife. This is Cupra's way of hinting at its slightly mischievous character, so it will hopefully be fun to drive. It is mechanically related to the upcoming Volkswagen ID. Polo and ID. Cross, as well as the Skoda Epiq, all of which will be built on the MEB+ platform in the same factory in Spain. Unlike…...

1+ day, 23+ hour ago (605+ words) It's a notable sign of progress that electric vehicles are becoming more than just expensive status symbols for wealthy buyers. As technology improves and battery costs go down, car shoppers everywhere are getting more and more reasonably priced EV options that won't break the bank." We're really seeing this trend in full effect in Europe and China, but even the United States is no slouch these days. Case in point: the Chevrolet Equinox EV and new Nissan Leaf. These are both solid choices if you want an EV with more than 300 miles of range for under $40,000, or even under $35,000, depending on their equipment. But which one is the best choice right now? Edmunds correspondent and friend of InsideEVs Emme Hall put both to the test in a recent video. And right away, she calls it: the Equinox EV is probably…...

2+ day, 1+ hour ago (355+ words) Are potential buyers interested in the new electric Cayenne? Porsche seems to think so, pointing to the 110,000 completed configurations on its U.S. website in the first four days after the new EV was unveiled. One explanation for this potential interest could simply be that the new Cayenne configurator is a lot of fun to play around with. I know because I configured my own a few days ago, although I built my dream Cayenne EV on a European website, not the U.S. one, so my configuration didn't count toward this figure'you can see what resulted in the gallery below. Porsche notes that while the over 100,000 individual saved configurations won't translate to actual orders, it has registered 10,500 people who said they were interested in ordering a Cayenne EV. That's roughly half of the nameplate's 2024 sales figure, which totaled over 22,000 units while only being…...