When we first drove the Hyundai Ioniq 5 at the end of 2021, it didn’t take much exposure to the angular electric vehicle to find much about it appealing. Back then, an 800 V architecture had only really been seen in expensive high-end EVs from Porsche, but here was a mainstream model with that same technology—and even faster fast-charging, taking just 18 minutes to go from 10–80 percent. The retro looks didn’t hurt either, channeling the boxy hatches styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro in the 1970s and '80s. But five years is a long time in the car world, and the compact electric crossover segment is far more competitive than it was when the Ioniq 5 debuted. We figured it was worth spending some more time with one to see how it still stacks up.

Although the Ioniq 5 range starts at $35,000 for the standard range model, our test car was a 2026 Ioniq 5 AWD Limited, which has an 84 kWh battery pack—part of the lifecycle refresh in early 2025 that also swapped in a NACS (J3400) charge port in place of the CCS1 port you’d find on earlier cars. Among the other additions that arrived as part of the 2025 refresh was a rear windshield wiper, which was sorely needed at launch.

This range-topping trim starts at $45,075, with an extra $3,900 for the addition of the front electric motor that gives the AWD version a combined output of 320 hp (239 kW) and 446 lb-ft (605 Nm). The added traction of AWD (when you have grip) is desired by many, but you do trade something for it: efficiency. The AWD version has an EPA range of 269 miles (432 km) versus 318 miles (512 km) for the rear-wheel drive variant.

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Later today, Max Verstappen will strap on his helmet and take to the track at the Silverstone circuit in England for a rather unusual race. The four-time Formula 1 world champion is recognized as the leading talent of his generation, but unlike some of the legends that have preceded him, Verstappen’s passion for motorsport extends beyond just the rarified world of F1. With apologies to Midweek Motorsport, but if it has wheels and they keep score, odds are good Verstappen's down to race it. So at noon Eastern Time (5 pm BST) today, September 16, Verstappen will slip into something a little more basic: a kart.

It’s one of 101 identical karts that have been sourced from Eastern Europe for the event—the other 100 will be driven by a mix of content creators and Red Bull athletes, all of whom fancy their chances at beating one of the world’s greatest drivers at his own game. They get a bit of an advantage, all starting ahead of Verstappen. Once he passes another karter, they’re out of the race, and Verstappen has 30 laps of a purpose-designed layout at Silverstone to get through them all and win.

Other F1 drivers have attempted slightly similar challenges in the past—Alex Albon raced 25 kids last year, and last month Oliver Bearman raced 50 amateurs. But neither is as high-profile as Verstappen, and neither is facing as much competition.

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There might not be the same degree of optimism regarding electric vehicle adoption as a few short years ago, but the transition toward battery-electric vehicles continues nevertheless. More than 1.8 million EVs had already been sold between the start of this year and the end of August, according to analysts. And in the US, there has been a large uptick in drivers considering EVs that they might have written off last year, due to escalating fuel prices with no clear end in sight. Despite this, charging infrastructure continues to lag, according to a new report from ChargePoint.

“All in all, things are moving forward. I think the North American market has been better shaped than a lot of the press reports,” said ChargePoint CEO Rick Wilmer. “Part of it is just the data we see in terms of the amount of RFPs that we receive for charging solutions. They haven't slowed down. We reported quarter over quarter growth in the last quarter we reported. And you look at the data around used EVs going up in price because the demand is so high. I saw a recent report… EV retention rates are 96 percent. So those folks that are putting their leased cars on the used market, they're not going back to gas, they're going to another EV,” he said.

Beyond that, cheap electric trucks from Slate and Ford indicate further future demand for charging. “When you look at how much interest there is in the used EVs that are at parity with an equivalent gas vehicle, that tells you the appetite is there for EVs if it's the right vehicle at the right price point," Wilmer said. "So I think the auto OEMs, maybe not homogeneously, but they're figuring out what the market wants in North America, and they're starting to introduce those vehicles, which I don't think a lot of the forward-looking forecasts accommodate the fact that the product market fit is getting better coming out of the car companies.”

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General Motors is about to launch new versions of its bestselling Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks for model year 2027, and among the changes are new user interfaces for the trucks’ digital displays. The automaker has gone for a more minimalist approach than we’ve seen from it in the past, and after a demo yesterday, it seems like it has been listening to constructive feedback to improve the products. And yes, unlike GM’s electric vehicles, these trucks still let you cast your Apple or Android phone to the infotainment system.

Although GM showed us video of the main instrument cluster—the gauges and info that’s presented to the driver—we don’t have any screenshots we can show you. But I was impressed with the restraint and lack of visual noise; instead, the background is always black, which should be dark even at night thanks to local dimming technology.

There are a number of different views. One with simple half-moon dials for speed and engine rpm; on the right side of the display is a user-configurable zone, where you can browse your music or audio feeds, display trip info, or turn-by-turn directions. Another is a driver assist display, with green as the highlight color to show when Super Cruise is active; this shows you a representation of what the car’s fused sensors are seeing around it. A third is for off-road driving, with your various angles and diff settings, and a fourth is for towing.

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There must be a case of upgrade fever taking hold in Gothenburg. Yesterday, we saw the revised Volvo XC40; today it’s the turn of another pair of Volvo SUVs, the bestselling XC60 and the three-row XC90. While the styling changes are more subtle, the new plug-in hybrid powertrain—which more than doubles its real-world electric range—is most welcome.

Volvo had sold more than 2.7 million XC60s worldwide by the end of last year, so it’s an important car for the brand. Visually, there are changes to the “Thor’s Hammer” headlights: these keep their distinctive daylight running light signature but now hide matrix LED projectors within their depths. There’s a new front grille as well, one that has been slimmed down a little, together with tweaks to the bumpers, wings, and some other body panels.

On the inside, there’s a new ventilated leather interior option, and like the XC40, the new 11.2-inch infotainment system sports a Gemini personal assistant to enable conversational voice control of the android automotive OS-based infotainment system. Based on some brief testing, the new Gemini voice assistant does at least perform a lot better than the previous version, which, if anything, has degraded in ability over the past few years.

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Most cars get a midlife facelift about four years after first hitting the streets. It’s a chance for automakers to update the styling and introduce new features and engineering changes that are usually minor but can be quite dramatic—the Polestar 2 swapping from front- to rear-wheel drive comes readily to mind. I can’t think of too many cars that have gone on to have a second update, but here’s one: the 2028 Volvo XC40.

First debuting in 2017, Volvo gave the XC40 a tweak for model year 2023. Rather than launch an all-new version, it has decided to give the popular crossover another update for MY28 with the aim of keeping things fresh. “By enhancing the XC40’s design, technology, and safety features, we've created the best version of the XC40 yet,” said Akhil Krishnan, interim lead for the 30 and 40 Series at Volvo Cars. “This already-popular model is now set to continue being one of our best-selling cars for years to come.”

The most obvious changes are the new front and rear lights. Up front we still see the distinctive “Thor’s Hammer” daylight running light signature, but the new matrix LED light clusters appear more minimalist, hiding their details from view. The rear similarly gets new LEDs. But Volvo’s designers have been at work elsewhere, shaving away the corners of the car to make what was already a small SUV take up slightly less room.

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It’s been quite a couple of weeks for Formula 1. First, its annual visit to one of the oldest tracks on the calendar, the Italian temple of speed that is Monza, just outside Milan. Apologies for no Ars report, but your correspondent was on the ground, on vacation, learning the hard way that attempts to call the circuit “accessible by public transport” can still involve walking several miles. The place was packed with Tifosi—the hardcore Italian superfans—dressed in red, who had their hopes dashed almost immediately as Charles Leclerc first ruined his teammate’s race, then his own, all within the first two laps.

Salvation came in the form of the first Italian title contender in my lifetime, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. Opting to take a new engine and other power unit components meant Antonelli would start the race from 19th. But the kid is in fine form right now, and Monza’s long straights and slow corners make for several good overtaking spots. I declared to my race companions that morning that “he’s going to podium, easily,” but if anything, I was too cautious. By the time Leclerc’s heavy crash at Parabolica had stopped the race, Antonelli was already up to 12th.

From the second standing start, on fresh medium tires and still needing a second pitstop, he made short work of the rest of the grid, including his teammate George Russell, who spent much of the race in the lead, on a theoretically faster one-stop strategy. Even a mistake from Antonelli that saw him make an excursion through a gravel trap as he tried to pass Russell couldn’t stop his charge, and he became the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix in 60 years—fairy tale stuff, surely.

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Electric vehicle batteries are lasting longer than previously feared by drivers, with most used EVs able to retain about 90 percent of their original usable battery capacity after 150,000 kilometers, a new study has shown.

Despite a surge in global EV sales on the back of rising fuel prices, long-term battery durability continues to be one of the key concerns for drivers when they consider switching from a petrol model to an electric car.

EV battery warranties typically cover eight years or 100,000 miles (160,000 km) with car manufacturers required under the warranty to provide a replacement battery if capacity falls below 70 percent.

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Tesla’s Cybercab, a distinctive two-seater without a steering wheel or brake pedals, is set to start picking up members of the public in two states. But the vehicle is already under investigation by the US federal government, which is probing whether it meets federal safety standards.

The investigation comes just hours after the electric automaker welcomed hundreds of fans to downtown Austin to ride in the driverless Cybercabs. Tesla plans to deploy the vehicles on its Robotaxi ride-hail network, which is currently operating in a handful of cities in Texas and Florida.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is updating vehicle standards to make it easier and faster for driverless cars to deploy on public roads. It’s currently tweaking eight rules, including those requiring car parts that driverless cars don’t really need: brake pedals, windshield wipers, and rearview mirrors. But for now, years-old standards remain in place.

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Jaguar Land Rover was one of the first automakers to announce a transition away from combustion engines. That transition timeline might have slipped somewhat—pesky things like pandemics, supply chains, and revanchism have all been barriers to more rapid electrification—but it's still underway, and today is the debut of the Range Rover Electric, a new battery-electric vehicle variant that sits alongside the internal combustion and plug-in hybrid Range Rovers.

Until now, the only way to get a fully electric Range Rover was by going the restomod route. But classic Range Rovers drive like classic cars, with all their inherent faults, and the price tag can be eye-watering. No Range Rover is exactly cheap, but with a starting price of $138,000, the 2027 Range Rover Electric is about half the cost of one of those restomods and benefits from 21st century safety systems like airbags, advanced driver assistance systems, modern crash protection standards, plus the support and warranty of a major OEM. And there's evidently demand: JLR told us that it already has 80,000 hand-raisers—half from North America—70 percent of whom are new to the brand, with 20 percent already owning an EV. (Obviously, only some fraction of those will translate to sales.)

The smooth front grille is one of the only ways to spot a Range Rover Electric. Credit: Range Rover

Because the idea was to make the Range Rover Electric a Range Rover first and an EV second, it looks virtually identical to the other versions, albeit with a slightly more aerodynamic front grille and more aero-efficient wheels that together conspire to shave off a fraction of the vehicle's drag coefficient. The lack of tailpipes at the back is probably the biggest giveaway that you're looking at the electric one. There's also a flat underbody, but hopefully you'll never need to look at that.

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MONTEREY, Calif.—Elsewhere on these pages, you can find our first track drive of the new Bentley Supersports. Shorn of its hybrid system and stripped back to rear-wheel drive, it's not only the most driver-focused Bentley we can remember, but it's also apparently the lightest car the company has made in 85 years. But you have to go back even further into the Bentley archive to find the first car to wear the Super Sports badge. And since Bentley had done just that, bringing along to Laguna Seca an example from the time, it would have been rude to refuse the offer of a ride.

Bentley built 18 Super Sports between 1925 and 1927, taking its standard 3 Litre model and shortening the wheelbase by 9.5 inches (241 mm). Like today's Super Sports, that shaved some mass and made it a more responsive driver's car. But a fast one, too. The radiator was more tapered and thus presented less resistance against the flow of air, although like many cars at the time, the bodywork was a matter of whichever coachbuilder the owner decided upon.

Like today with the Continental GT and the new Supersports, the 3.0 L engine Bentley in the original Super Sports was more special than one you'd find in the standard car, with new pistons, a lighter flywheel, more compression, and different carburetors. Together with its unique gearing, the factory would guarantee a Super Sports that could exceed 100 mph (160 km/h); the millions of Ford Model Ts that took the roads those same years were hard-pushed to break 40 mph (64 km/h).

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MONTEREY, Calif.—Last week, we brought news of the Bentley Torcal, a new electric vehicle that the luxury automaker has been cooking up at its HQ in Crewe, England. The company wants to attract new customers with its first battery EV, part of a plan to make sustainability as much a part of the brand's character as its high-end fit and finish. W12 engines have given way to V8 plug-in hybrid power, and the new Continental GT is all the better for it.

But around the same time as Ars got its first experience of that new PHEV two-door on a rather wet Spanish racetrack, some of Bentley's boffins were wondering what might happen if you also built one without the hybrid stuff.

Or all-wheel drive—something that has been a characteristic of every new road-going Bentley since the turn of the century. That would certainly cut the curb weight. So, too, would leaving out the rear seats. That sort of idea leads down a well-trodden path for some OEMs, and Porsche in particular is famous for making stripped-out road cars inspired by its race cars and making money from them, too.

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A look at the things I like and don’t like about my new car.

Earlier this month, I blogged about buying my new Toyota RAV4 Plugin Hybrid. It was a (typically) long post that covered a lot of my thinking about buying a new car and, specifically, a plugin hybrid, to eventually replace two of the vehicles in my “fleet.”

The Decision

To recap the decision making process, I was interested in four things:

• A practical car that would serve me (likely) for the rest of my life. (I keep cars forever — or so it seems.) I needed something that was comfortable, could seat 4 people, and could carry stuff. It also needed to be able to handle the two miles of gravel road I live on, which is sometimes very washboarded, and foul weather.
• A fuel efficient car that would get good local and long distance fuel economy. These days, hybrids were the best option for that.
• A car that could take advantage of the cheap power where I live. That meant plugging in while at home.
• A reliable car built by a company with a good reputation and dealerships able to service it all over the country. That meant avoiding weird new manufacturers. I want a trouble-free car ownership experience.

Despite the low electricity costs where I live, I was not interested in a full-on EV because I was not interested in planning road trips around charging facilities and charging times. You might have an EV that you love and don’t think charging on a long trip is a big deal. That’s nice for you. I’m simply not interested in trying.

(I do want to mention that if someone sold a super small, no-frills EV, maybe just two seats with enough room in back to stow groceries, and priced that sucker under $10,000, I would consider it for a local-only car.)

I didn’t do much research. I’ll admit it. I knew Toyota’s reputation and I knew they’d been making hybrids for nearly 20 years. I thought about a plugin Prius, but it didn’t meet the practicality requirement. Everyone was talking about RAV4s and when I tried one on, it fit. So that’s what I bought.

The Woodland trim I went with has additional rugged road features that makes it even more practical for my life. I don’t have to worry about breaking it if I go on a rough road.

I made the decision, I started my search, I waited, and I picked up the car. All that’s covered in my earlier post about buying the car.

The Drive Home

I would make this post a lot longer than it needs to be if I went into a lot of detail about my drive home from Boise, which I did as a scenic road trip over three days. All I have to say is that the car performed exactly like you’d expect a brand new car to perform: flawlessly. It was comfortable, the air conditioning worked well in excessive heat, and the Apple CarPlay feature was something I’d been pining for for years, enabling me to follow a map on a big screen while listening to audiobooks and podcasts through the car’s speakers.

I stopped at Hell’s Canyon Overlook on my way home from Boise. The haze is due to wildfires in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. I’m sure the smoke got worse after that.

Understand that my newest vehicle up to that point is a 2012 Ford Truck. Although it has some nice features in its Lariat trim, it’s nothing like what’s available in a mid-range car built 14 years later. My only experiences with many of the car’s new features were in cars I’d rented throughout the years. Some were great, others were okay, and a handful were simply annoying. (More on that in a moment.) The point is, there are lots of new features in new cars and it was fun to explore them.

One thing I want to point out, though, is the fuel efficiency. When I left the dealer showroom, the car’s hybrid motor battery had just 6% power available. The fuel tank was full, but the battery was nearly empty. The sales guy, Troy, told me that they had just begun carrying plugin hybrids and weren’t set up to charge them. Of course, the batteries were not fully charged during shipping. So although they could top off the gas tank, they could not top off the battery.

(Personally, I think this is a pretty lame excuse. After all, you don’t need a special charging station to charge plugin hybrids. More on that in a moment, too.)

The car has a battery display that indicates the battery level. It didn’t take long for it to go from 6% to 0%, but it built back up when I went down long or steep hills. Unlike a regular car, where you throw away energy when you use the brakes, a hybrid takes that energy and stores it in the battery for later use. This totally changes the way I drive. I am accustomed to using the brakes as little as possible to avoid throwing that power away, often getting to the top of a hill at a slower speed, knowing I’ll pick up speed on the way down. (This is especially true in my truck.) Now it seems to make more sense to try to keep a constant speed since braking is turned into useable power.

Although there was nothing stopping me from charging the battery along the way, it simply was not convenient to do so so I didn’t bother. That was the point of having the hybrid, no?

Anyway, I did 459 miles before refueling for the first time in Walla Walla WA. I took on a total of nearly 11 gallons. The math says I got just over 41 miles per gallon. Not bad.

At Home and Local Driving

At home, I backed it into the garage bay recently occupied by my Jeep. (The Jeep is now where my truck used to live while my truck is in the RV garage with my slide-in camper in its bed. My garage will always have enough room for all of my vehicles and trailers.) It was a tight fit — or at it least seemed so. I needed to get used to using the cameras to get the car in straight; I’m much better doing it now. (I always back my cars in.)

My most recent parking job. I never seem to get it truly centered because of have to navigate around my trash and recycle bins. (I’m thinking I should paint that back wall in the garage.)

After unwinding from my trip, I took out the charging cable, plugged it into the wall, and plugged it into the charging port. The charger that comes with the car works with a standard wall outlet. I have a 20 amp socket just inside the door to the house so that’s where I plugged it in. The cable was just long enough to reach the port on the car which is forward of the driver’s seat, over the front driver’s side wheel. The car makes some unusual clicking sounds when you first plug it in.

There are two little doors that look like fuel tank covers on the driver’s side of the car. The one up front is for the charging cable. The cable just reaches with the car backed in.

There was some confusion over the first day or two about a charging schedule. I’m still not sure if it was set up right and my changes messed it up. The car has an app (if you can believe that) and it was preset with a charging schedule that set charging times. The idea is that in lots of places power rates change based on the time of day. (I remember that being the case when I lived in Arizona; power was cheaper at night.) But that’s not the case here. My power is cheap — 2.8¢/kWh as I write this — all the time at residential usage levels. Anyway, at first it wasn’t charging. I made some adjustments to get the charger going.

I won’t lie: it took a long time. 12 hours to 74%. That’s as far as it got before I had to use the car. I set it into Eco mode, where it prefers EV driving over regular hybrid driving, and went into town. 21 miles round trip took it down to 42%. Then 12 hours (overnight) of charging to get it to 100%.

Now I’ve got the charging schedule stuff figured out so it charges every time I plug in until its either 100% or I pull the plug. Nine times out of ten, it’s fully charged before the next time I drive it.

As far as power is concerned, the Toyota app shows that, too. I did a prorated calculation from the first three charging sessions shown here. 0% to 74% took 12.062 kWh. Divide that by 74 to get the number of kWh for each 1%: 0.163. Multiply by 100 to get the power for 0% to 100%: 16.3 kWh. Now multiply that by my power rate of 2.8¢/kWh: about 46¢.

So yeah: it costs just 46¢ to fully charge my hybrid car’s battery from 0% to 100% power.

Every time I go into town — a round trip of at least 20 miles, depending on where I go — the power level drops by 35% to 50%. So I’m using, at most, about half the battery power. The gas engine only engages during rapid acceleration in Eco mode — for example, when I turn onto the Malaga Alcoa highway where the speed limit is 50 mph — or when I’m climbing hills. A gauge on the dashboard indicates whether I’m in EV (Eco) or Power (Hybrid) mode. I can moderate how I use the accelerator to keep the car in EV mode, theoretically not using any fuel at all. But honestly, it isn’t worth it.

Because I live at a higher elevation than town, I can get all the way down to Malaga Alcoa Highway — a distance of about 6 miles — and not lose a single bit of battery charge. Still 100% when I get to the bottom of the hill. The trip back up eats up a lot of battery charge, though.

Another indicator tells me how my hybrid miles until empty. I can go into town with that reading 333 (using a recent example) and come home with it reading 332. I drove 20+ miles but it says I only used 1 mile worth of fuel.

This might all sound confusing to you if you’re not a numbers person like I am. I absolutely love these stats. I even keep a logbook in the car to list all the mileage and battery usage info. That’s how I’m able to spit out these numbers for you. They’re in my book.

A Fully Charged Road Trip

I made my first trip to Bellingham in late July. Bellingham is 199 miles from my house. About 1/3 of the trip is on winding mountain roads that cross the Cascades at Stevens Pass. Another 1/3 is on the I-5 freeway. The remaining 1/3 is on regular roads with speed limits ranging from 15 to 60 mph.

I started the trip with 100% battery power and enough remaining hybrid miles to get me there with miles to spare. I set the car to Normal mode. And then I drove as I normally would.

The battery dropped to 0% long before I reached Stevens Pass. I should have noted exactly where; I will on my next drive there. It gained a small amount back on the way down the mountain. And then it pretty much stuck to 0% for the rest of the drive.

I did not note the remaining hybrid miles on arrival but it was low enough that I decided to fuel before coming home a week later. I had driven 516 miles since my last fueling in Walla Walla. I put on 9.4 gallons of fuel, which comes to a very nice 55 mpg average.

So yeah: I’m definitely getting the kind of fuel economy I wanted.

I can do some more math here. I normally took my truck to Bellingham. It gets about 15 mpg when I’m not hauling anything. So I’m looking at roughly 27 gallons of diesel for that round trip drive. The RAV4, at 55 mpg, needs only 7 gallons of fuel for the same trip. That’s a savings of 20 gallons and with fuel prices around $5/gallon these days — remember, I live in Washington state and there’s a war in the mideast (for some reason) — I’m saving $100 on every trip.

Other Charging Stuff to Consider

Reality check here: I’m getting the best fuel economy on short trips where most of the trip is done on EV power. So the average MPG I calculated for my second fill up really takes into consideration the local driving I did between fill ups. If I had topped off the battery in Bellingham somehow — I’m sure there’s a charging station somewhere — I would have gotten better fuel economy. I’m not sure how it would have affected my overall cost, though. What does a charging station cost to use? I have no clue. I do have an adapter that enables me to charge with a Tesla charger; one of these days, if the battery is low or 0% and a charging station is convenient, I’ll give it a try. But I seriously doubt it’ll be anywhere near as cheap as it is at home.

I’d love to see what MPG I can get with local driving only. But if I only drove locally, I’d probably go months before needing to top off the fuel tank. My dealer claimed that he had a customer who only drove her hybrid locally; she drove 1,500 miles before needing to fill up her tank.

As for using a standard wall outlet as opposed to a fast charger I can get installed at my home, it doesn’t bother me how long it takes to charge at home. Remember, all I need is 50% to take advantage of the Eco mode features for short jaunts into town. And I don’t use the car every day anyway. I last drove it on Friday (I’m writing this on Sunday morning); I plugged it in Friday evening at 54% power and it was fully charged before 4 AM the next day. It’s been sitting in the garage, plugged in at 100% since then.

And before I consider a fast charger installation, I need to consider what it would cost me. Likely several hundred dollars for the parts and labor. And that’s if I have room in my electric panel for a 220v circuit (I actually don’t).

Comfort, Convenience, and the Other Stuff

If your brain isn’t fried by all those numbers by now — mine almost is — here’s some info that isn’t related to numbers: the things that make you like or not like a car.

I’ll split these into pros and cons. First the pros:

• Fuel economy. I already covered that in excruciating detail. ‘Nuff said.
• Comfort. The car is comfortable. The seats, which are a nice kind of fake leather that isn’t sticky or ugly, adjust all kinds of ways, including a lumbar support. The seats and steering wheel are heated. The climate control can split zones to make a front seat passenger happy. The mirrors adjust perfectly. There’s a moon roof with a shade that I can use to ventilate the car when I park in the sun.

• 
  I found an excellent fast charging USB-C curly cord for my phone. This was before I realized that the shelf had a magnetic charger built in.

  Convenience. There’s a push-button start and stop; I just leave a fob in my pocket or purse. (I admit that took getting used to; none of my other cars have a fob.) The doors automatically lock or unlock with the wave of my hand in front of a door handle. It has single press electric windows for both front seats, up and down. There’s a push button opener and closer for the hatch back. There’s USB-C built in at the dashboard. (There’s even a magnetic charging pad, but I doubt I’ll use it.) And did I mention Apple CarPlay? I had a taste of that in rental cars; to have it in my own car is great! There’s also an AC power outlet in the cargo area — for a cooler, I was told, so I bought one. And the rear seat split and fold down nearly flat.

• Handling. All I can say is wow. This is an SUV, right? Or whatever the hell a crossover is? But it has nice, tight steering and very aggressive acceleration. Not much body roll. Nothing like I expected it to be. It’s not as fun as driving my Honda S2000 — that car is, after all, my Joy Machine — but it’s a hell of a lot better than driving my truck.
• Practicality. It definitely has that covered with the ability to comfortably seat 4 or 5 people and plenty of space in the cargo area. Fold down the seats for just two on board and you’ve got a lot more cargo room. There’s also a roof rack. I’ve already bought a tent that can attach to the back of the car to turn it into a comfortable car camping setup. And it can tow up to 3500 pounds, which is probably more than my Jeep can tow.

There are a few nitpicky cons:

• 
  The color choices available for RAV4 cars as I write this. The website shows a red one but that’s not an option. Go Figure. Mine is Storm Cloud.

  The color. Although I like the color, I wish it wasn’t so dark. It gets nearly as hot in the sun as a black car would be and probably shows exactly the same amount of dust after several drives up and down by road. But other than white, all of the RAV4 Plugin Hybrid colors are dark.

• Excessive “safety” features. Let me start by saying this: I have been driving since I was 16 years old. We’re talking nearly 50 years here. I have a very good record of safety. I know how to drive and I know how to do it without causing accidents. In fact, I’m also a pretty good defensive driver. This car includes all the safety features car designers could possibly have come up with. Cruise control slows down if it thinks I’m getting too close to the car in front of me. The wheel shakes or actually steers the car (!) if I get too close to a lane dividing line. And the one I turned off before reaching my first destination: it monitors the driver’s eyes and beeps with a warning message on the instrument panel if the driver’s eyes aren’t on the road. Yes, these features can, for the most part, be disabled. I can see the attraction of them for people who like machines to think and act for them. I’m not one of those people. Rely on a system and you’re kind of screwed when that system is not available. No thanks.

• 
  The seatbelt extender I use to defeat the seatbelt warning chime when I need to.

  Annoying seatbelt chime. For the record, I wear my seatbelt when driving the car on a road. I don’t wear it in my driveway, in parking lots (especially when backing up), or on slow speed rough roads. I don’t need an annoying chime to tell me to put it on. I am an adult. I turned off this chime on my Ford truck and my other two vehicles are too old to have the chime — they just have lights. The local dealer refused to disable it for me. So I went out and bought a seatbelt extender like the kind my Dad had in his Mustang. Leave that buckled in and buckle the seatbelt into it when you’re ready to buckle up. (Highly recommended.)

• Overall appearance. Let’s face it: it looks like half the freaking cars on the road. I’ve already tried to get into the wrong car twice. I’m not used to having such an ordinary looking vehicle. It’s attractive enough, but … yawn. Good thing I plan on keeping the Honda forever, too.

The drawback of having a dark colored car on a gravel road is that no matter where you wash it, it always has dust on it after a drive. Here it is after the first time I hosed the dust off. Damn hard water left spots.

Overall Conclusions

Despite my nitpicking, I love the car. I can’t imagine anything else meeting my needs so well for the same price.

And I’m very glad I didn’t wait to buy it.

MONTEREY, Calif.—Next month Bentley will reveal its first battery-electric vehicle. The British automaker is no stranger to electric motors; it now offers plug-in hybrids across its range, even replacing the Continental GT's W12 with a new plug-in hybrid V8. The addition of electric motors perfectly suits the marque: what's more Bentley than waves of effortless torque, after all? But until now, there's always been a combustion engine along for the ride. Not so the Torcal.

Clad in plastic and wrapped in a multi-hued dazzle camouflage, it's shorter in length and height compared to a Bentayga, although it is similarly voluminous on the inside thanks to the inherent packaging efficiencies of an EV. If the proportions remind you of a Porsche Cayenne EV, that's because the two share quite a lot of the same basic engineering, albeit reworked by Bentley to suit its needs. The target is 300 miles (482 km) in EPA range or 600 km (373 miles) under WLTP, from the battery pack, and like the Cayenne, expect 400 kW DC fast-charging.

Bentley is targeting the sports SUV segment with the Torcal. It's 5 meters (16 feet, 5 inches) long, which is shorter than a Bentayga. Credit: Bentley

Don't expect the Cayenne's quadruple-figure power output, though. "We'll be well over a thousand newton-meters of torque [737 lb-ft], which is one of the sort of enabling pillars of the technology, which is fantastic. There'll be over 850 PS [838 hp/625 kW], but we're not chasing four figures," said Martin Page, product line director for the Torcal.

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The GT3 occupies a singular place in the 911 lineup. Whereas the range-topping Turbo S piles on power, technology, luxury, and all-weather capability, the GT3 has always pursued something more elemental: a lighter weight, more focus, and a finely honed setup that puts the driver at the center of the experience.

Porsche has expanded the GT3 formula since the model’s debut in 1999, adding the more extreme GT3 RS to the lineup in 2003 and the slightly more reserved GT3 Touring in 2017, along with the GT3 S/C earlier this year. While the concept behind the drop-top S/C requires some mental gymnastics to make sense of it, the Touring’s original premise was refreshingly simple: Take the standard GT3—including its naturally aspirated 4.0 L flat-six and track-tuned chassis—and replace the fixed rear wing with the deployable spoiler from the Carrera. The result is a subtler version of the homologation car that recaptures the classic 911 silhouette without giving up the hardware that makes a GT3 a GT3.

Fresh from its 992.2 mid-cycle update, the latest GT3 Touring sticks closely to that original design. Its 4.0 L flat-six still spins to 9,000 rpm and produces 502 hp (375 kW) and 331 lb-ft (449 Nm), sending its output exclusively to the rear wheels through either a seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic or six-speed manual gearbox. Massive brakes, rear-axle steering, a GT3-specific suspension, active sport exhaust, and plenty of other road course-oriented hardware remain standard.

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The Velotric Discover M e-bike we reviewed earlier this year had a feature I found somewhat annoying: It would sporadically block much of the display with an alert telling me I should be in a different gear. While the implementation bugged me, the concept made a certain degree of sense; most e-bikes now know your cadence, how much torque you're generating, and how that power is being translated into speed. That's everything you need to know to determine an optimal gear.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought, "If you're so smart, why don't you just shift for me?"

I was completely unaware that Shimano had already developed a system that did exactly that. And for the past few weeks, I've been using it on a $4,500 cargo bike from Xtracycle called the Swoop ASM that let me see what it's like to hand control of my gears to an electronic brain.

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The federal government is expanding a safety investigation into a number of vehicles manufactured by General Motors after receiving hundreds of reports of brake failure. The problem affects more than 1.1 million cars, including many of GM's electric vehicles, as well as ones it has built for Honda and Acura. The problem is with the brake-by-wire system (which GM calls eBoost), which can suffer a spindle fracture while driving.

GM says that in the event of that happening, the car should still retain a number of critical safety features—antilock brakes, traction control, and stability control—at least until it comes to a complete stop, at which point they become inoperable. But NHTSA's ODI says that it has received many reports that contradict this behavior and allege that eBoost failures are followed by an immediate loss of braking, which obviously poses a safety risk.

Indeed, NHTSA has received 227 incident reports, a number that grows to 745 once you include the hundreds of occurrences reported to GM. Twenty-two cases resulted in crashes, and while six people have been injured in five crashes, thankfully there have been no fatal incidents.

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After months of rumors surrounding his future, now we know: Four-time champion Max Verstappen is staying in the sport for the foreseeable future. The news broke on the eve of the Dutch Grand Prix, held this past weekend at Zandvoort in the Netherlands as F1 returned from its mandatory summer vacation.

Verstappen's wasn't the only contract news—Williams will keep both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, too. More than once I've noticed a driver having an underwhelming weekend following a freshly signed contract; in this case, all three had a weekend they'd probably rather forget. They weren't the only ones, though. Up and down the grid, we saw friction between teammates. And there's no one an F1 driver wants to beat more than the only other person to have the same car as they do.

Formula 1 returned from its summer break with this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix.

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I buy a new car a lot sooner than I expect to because — well, why not?

For a single person living alone with no kids, I have a lot of cars. I occasionally refer to them as my fleet.

• I have my 1999 Jeep Wrangler, which I bought brand new, beat the crap out of, and use as my local around-town vehicle. It’s in decent shape but wouldn’t win any awards at a car show, despite it’s age. A trailer hitch on the front makes it the perfect vehicle for shuffling around trailers in the garage or driveway.


My Jeep in its younger days, crawling over rocks in Sedona AZ. It’s on its third soft top now.

• I have my 2003 Honda S2000, which I bought brand new and took good care of. It’s my Joy Machine and makes me happy every time I drive it. It’s fast with tight steering and good brakes. The convertible top makes it almost as good as a motorcycle for feeling the air around me — but no helmet required! It’s impractical as a vehicle, but has decent fuel efficiency and is oh so fun. I use if on road trips when I don’t need to carry a lot of luggage, as well as on day trips up into the mountains.


I can’t imagine any car being more fun to drive than my Honda S2000.

• I have my 2012 Ford F35 SuperDuty Diesel Crew Cab with an 8-foot bed, which I bought in 2015. It’s my workhorse and I use it to haul just about anything that needs hauling: building or garden supplies, my slide-in truck camper, and my (oversize load) boat. I also used it on my trips to and from the marina in Bellingham where my boat lives, mostly because it can haul all the stuff I need to drag along with me when I go out on my boat.


My boat weighs 13,000 pounds on its trailer. Good thing my truck can tow 16,000 pounds.

Each vehicle is different. Each has its pros and cons. If I had to get rid of one of them, I’d have a hard time choosing because they each do different things for me.

They’re also each paid for in full and have their own space in my larger-than-average — okay, humungous — garage. Cheap to keep, easy to take care of. Always ready when I need them.

I Want a New Car

But I’ve been wanting a new car for a while. Remember, the last new-to-me vehicle I bought was my truck, 11 years ago. Before that, it was my Honda, 22 years ago. Sheesh.

It would be nice to buy something more fuel efficient, possibly to take advantage of the cheap power where I live. Electric would be nice, but not on a road trip. Hybrid would be nice for a road trip, but it wouldn’t really take advantage of the cheap power at home. The answer was, of course, a plug-in hybrid. Something I can keep plugged in when not in use and then use for virtually free local driving and more fuel efficient road trips.

And wouldn’t it be nice to have a vehicle with all the new bells and whistles I’d experienced in new rentals cars over the years? All those cameras and Apple Car Play?

I certainly did not need a fourth car. And I couldn’t get rid of any of the ones I have because they each do their own special things for me. So I figured I’d wait until I started downsizing. The truck wouldn’t be needed when I sold the boat; I’d sell the slide-in truck camper with it. The Jeep wouldn’t be needed when I got rid of my utility trailer and the boat trailer. When I sold those, I’d buy a nice plug-in hybrid SUV or “crossover” vehicle to replace them. Then I’d be down to just two cars, like a more normal person.

That was the plan, anyway.

In early June, as I steered my truck through the mountains on the long drive back from Bellingham, I started questioning this plan. I wasn’t getting any younger. Why should I wait? It’s not as if I’d get a big windfall from the sale of a 27+ year old Jeep and a truck with nearly 200,000 miles on it. I was turning 65 at the end of the month. Didn’t I deserve a big birthday present for such a big birthday? And why shouldn’t I have a new car while I was young enough to enjoy it?

And wasn’t my boat named Do It Now for a reason?

So just like that, I decided to buy myself a new car for my birthday.

Choosing the Car

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t do much research. Most of the folks I spoke to raved about the Toyota RAV4, which was now available as a plugin hybrid. Toyota is the maker of one of the first hybrid cars out there: the Prius, which they first sold in December 1997. They still made and sold that car and I suspected that they’d learned a lot in the nearly 20 years since its first release. Everything I read and saw online in car guy videos confirmed this.

So I went to look at one, all ready to buy. The local Toyota dealer only had one on the lot and it was sold. But I got to see it and sit inside. It met my needs as an eventual replacement for the truck and Jeep as far as practicality was concerned. It even had limited towing capabilities. I could keep the Honda for fun and use this as my every day car.

The local dealer didn’t seem to understand that I was ready to buy the car. He kept saying I should think it over and get back to him. Instead, I asked when more were coming in. I told him I was ready to buy. It’s a shame (for him) that he didn’t have one to sell me. This was early on in my limited research and I didn’t know much about the various “trims” they sold. I probably would have bought the first one he offered me. But there was a list and he put me on it. The car was in high demand. It might be a few weeks.

In the meantime, I did a bit more homework and decided that I wanted the Woodland trim. This was a middle-range trim with some good rough road features. There was even a video on YouTube of a guy taking one “off road.” I told him I’d take any color except white, black, or green. (That left a shade of blue and a shade of dark gray.)

Waiting for the Car

And then I waited. For more than a week, nothing. I called to see if anything was coming in and he said there was but they were already spoken for. I reminded him I was ready to buy.

I sold 100 shares of Apple stock for a generous downpayment and put the money in my savings account.

After that, every once in a while he’d text me about cars coming in that did not match my criteria. The first was a low-end SE model. Another was a white Woodland. And then there was the XSE model that he said was very rare and he’d have to charge a $5k premium for it. I didn’t want it and now he was pissing me off.

So I started working the phones. I talked to Toyota dealers in Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. A few said they only sold locally, which honestly made no sense to me. Wouldn’t they rather sell the car to someone out of the area so they wouldn’t have to deal with warranty service and repairs? Some made promises and started sending me info about what was coming in. One guy even called on his private cell phone because he claimed they were required to sell locally but he was willing to make an exception for me.

WTF?

Eventually, I struck a deal with Troy in Boise. He managed to find the car in inventory being prepped for shipping to the US. Did I want it? Blue Toyota RAV4 Plugin Hybrid with moon roof. Yes. Sign this contract and send a $2K deposit. I did.

That was in late June. The car would be ready sometime between July 5 and August 11.

Life went on. My friend Janet came to stay with me for about two weeks at the end of June and into July. We camped with the truck and camper in the North Cascades and then took the boat out around the San Juan Islands and into Canada for 10 days. The local Toyota dealer kept texting me about cars that didn’t match my criteria.

Then I got a date from Troy. The car would be ready on July 13.

The timing couldn’t be better. I would be back from my boat trip and had a full two weeks before my next boat trip. (Long story there.) Plenty of time to get out to Boise and have a nice, leisurely road trip back. We set the pickup date for July 14, exactly two weeks after my 65th birthday.

Picking Up the Car

One of the things few people know about me is that I am a logistics whiz. I quickly determined that the quickest and easiest way for me to get from the Wenatchee area to Boise ID was to rent a car. I got a one-way car rental out of Wenatchee with Enterprise, left my pups with a neighbor, and headed out early in the morning of July 12. By 5 PM local time, I was checking into a nice hotel about a mile from the car dealer.

The next morning, I dropped off my luggage at the dealer, returned the rental car, and made the short walk back to the dealer. By then, my car was out in front of the building.

Troy took this photo of me with my new car before I’d even sat inside it. The funny thing is that I wore that shirt to match the car, thinking the color was the light blue in the shirt. It turned out to match the dark blue in the shirt. The other color was weird, but I was mentally prepped for it. This color is a lot more normal and although I like it, I’m not sure if normal is a good thing for me.

Then there was the paperwork. There was a lot of it. Payment was made more complicated because Toyota Financing’s systems were down and, for some reason, my transfer of $30K from my savings to checking account was delayed. Finally, things were settled. I did buy the 10 year extended warranty — remember, this is probably the last car I’ll ever buy. They got me a good loan rate because my credit score is “exceptional.” By 1 PM, I had all my stuff loaded into the car, shook hands with Troy, and drove out of the lot.

Since Then

That was just over a month ago. I did a 3-day road trip through central Idaho and into the Hells Canyon area before coming home. The car drove great. It was comfortable and had a lot of features. In many ways, it’s a computer with a car attached. I learned a lot about it on that long drive and have learned a lot since.

I stopped at a riverside parking area to eat the lunch I bought at a supermarket after leaving the dealer. From here, I drove up to McCall ID, a place I last visited in 2005 in my Honda.

But this blog post is already long enough. I’ll have to write another one with my observations.

I’ll just say one thing for now: I’m glad I didn’t wait.