Category: Reviews

The Toyota Camry stays on top of the midsize game with strong hybrid efficiency, an impressive safety suite, and sleek new styling for drivers who want practical appeal and some personality. Where the 2026 Toyota Camry Shines Efficiency in Every Trim The Toyota Camry switches exclusively to a hybrid powertrain for 2026, making it a standout choice…

Where the 2026 Genesis GV70 Shines Refined Inside and Out, With New Touches The 2026 Genesis GV70 returns with an updated look that makes a statement in any lot. Subtle tweaks to the headlights, grille, and bumper add visual drama, while fresh paint and wheels help it stand out. Genesis elevates the experience inside, with a stunning new glass…

Where the 2026 Toyota Crown Shines Hybrid Power with Unexpected All-Wheel Drive Every Toyota Crown combines a hybrid system with all-wheel drive, delivering sure-footed traction in poor weather while sipping fuel at a pace that beats most full-size sedans. Most trims use a smooth 2.5-liter four-cylinder and electric motors, striking a strong…

The Subaru Ascent carves out a family-sized niche with standard all-wheel drive, confidence-inspiring safety, and true three-row versatility. Where the 2026 Subaru Ascent Shines All-Weather Peace of Mind, All Year Round No matter the trim, every Subaru Ascent comes standard with full-time symmetrical all-wheel drive. For shoppers facing winter…

With class-leading tech, striking looks, and a broad range of trims, the Hyundai Tucson keeps its top-tier status among compact SUVs for 2026. Where the 2026 Hyundai Tucson Shines Style Meets Substance in a Feature-Packed Cabin The Hyundai Tucson makes an entrance with bold lines, a striking grille, and uniquely integrated lighting that sets it…

Where the 2026 Jeep Cherokee Shines Thorough Redesign for Modern Drivers The new Jeep Cherokee stands out immediately with its brawnier shape and instantly-recognizable seven-slot grille. The chunkier bumpers, strong body cladding, and upright stance all reinforce a sense of adventure, while dimensions have grown for greater interior comfort and…

It’s no secret that it’s tough going for any electric newcomer. For lots of brands, both startup and legacy, it’s been last-man-standing when it comes to just who can actually get a compelling EV product to market. And there’s always the question of whether what’s in the oven is even what people are metaphorically hungry for anymore. The economy is wonky, people are scared, and federal incentives to both build and buy EVs have been cut off at the knees.

Nevertheless, brands gotta keep going, no? Especially brands like Lucid Motors, an EV-only luxury brand aiming to usurp the likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Lucid’s fooled around with the very good (but sometimes glitchy) Air sedan. The Air is great, but let’s face it—it’s a big luxury sedan in a world where sedan buyers are becoming fewer and fewer.

Lucid’s latest model, the Gravity, promises to right the ship with wider appeal, in the form of a three-row luxury SUV.

For the next two weeks (and slightly beyond), a few of the staff here at InsideEVs will have the chance to put the car through its paces. I’ve got first dibs this week down here in Ohio, and then Editor-in-Chief Patrick George and my colleague Suvrat Kothari will get a go at Lucid’s three-row SUV in New York.

Our Gravity loans may slightly differ in color or possibly optional equipment, but it looks like they’ll all follow the same baseline Grand Touring trim. This means our cars will have a base price of at least $94,900 (before destination fee). These SUVs come with a dual motor setup fed by a 123-kilowatt-hour battery, good for an EPA estimated 450 miles of range.

Oh, and the Gravity isn’t a slowpoke, either. This thing has an electric motor at each end, good for a combined output of 828 horsepower. This quiet behemoth’s sprint to 60 mph comes in about 3.5 seconds.

This is a very important model for Lucid. As stated before, the Air sedan’s an amazing car, despite its flaws. And one of its biggest flaws is just that it’s not an SUV. For the troubled brand, the Gravity has to pop off, for its own sake.

We’re all excited to put some miles behind the wheel of the Gravity SUV. What would you like to know about the Lucid Gravity? Feel free to sound off in the comments below.

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It’s hard to fathom this happening today, but not so long ago, we’d collectively get really, really excited about the debut of a new iPhone. 

Livestreams broke the internet, Apple Stores overflowed with launch-day crowds, and everyone obsessed over the latest features. That hype has faded—smartphones became routine, Apple’s updates more iterative than revolutionary. This new iPhone 17 may be impressive, but it’s no cultural moment.

That same evolution came to mind while I was driving the updated Tesla Model Y. If the iPhone defined modern tech, the Model Y defined modern EVs—good enough to be the world’s best-selling car in 2023 and Tesla’s biggest success.

But the latest update to the Model Y no longer feels groundbreaking. It’s a better version of the same car with sharper looks, more range, a nicer interior and stronger specs.

Yet Tesla hasn’t changed the fundamentals. There’s still no ultra-fast charging, 800-volt architecture, factory bi-directional charging or flashy Cybertruck tech like steer-by-wire. It feels like the “slightly better camera” update of EVs. And that’s all before we get to certain perception issues Tesla has these days, to put it gently.

Behind the wheel, the upgrades do add up to something meaningful. The new Model Y is drastically better than before, and probably Tesla’s best car yet. And for most buyers, it may still be the best all-around EV for sale in America.

(Full Disclosure: Tesla does not provide press loaner cars to InsideEVs, so I paid to rent this 2026 Model Y on Turo from HDP Mobility. They were fantastic hosts.) 

2026 Tesla Model Y Juniper: Specs and Overview

Two Model Y versions are on sale in the U.S. as of this writing. The Long-Range Rear-Wheel-Drive version starts at $44,900 and the Long-Range All-Wheel-Drive version comes in at $48,990.

Power comes from an approximately 75-kilowatt-hour (usable) battery with 357 miles of range on the RWD car and 327 miles of range on the AWD model. Those numbers may no longer be industry-leading, but they’re certainly above-average for this class. 

These improvements over the old car aren’t always obvious, but they are vast. Take the new Model Y’s signature visual upgrade, the thin, horizontal matrix LED light bar upfront. It’s not just a nod to the Cybercab; it is the best adaptive high beam system I have ever tested, detecting cars and other objects on the road at night and shining “around” them so it never blinds other drivers.

Headlights like these are newly legal in North America, and as far as I’m concerned, Tesla has reset the bar for illumination with them. Speaking of bars: that full-width LED bar on the rear hatch is a neat trick. It projects its light onto a panel below it and looks pretty wild at night. 

Since the Model Y was never designed with the historical baggage of gas cars, it remains superb in terms of cargo space and storage. You get 29 cubic feet of space behind the second row of seats, 75.5 cubic feet of total interior space, and four cubic feet out of the deeply generous front trunk. The “frunk” on my AWD Kia EV6 can’t even hold my camera bag. Tesla trounces the competition here, including bigger EVs and any gas-powered car in this class.

The new acoustic glass also cuts road noise and wind noise by 20% compared to the outgoing model, according to Tesla, while the thicker roof glass is far less likely to bake you in the sun like older cars do. The subtle visual tweaks also yield far better aerodynamic efficiency than before. And the sound system is better, while the sometimes-questionable build quality of older Teslas is now long gone. 

Basically, if you had gripes about the old Model Y, you will have fewer of them this time.

2026 Tesla Model Y: Driving Experience

The car I rented was an AWD Model Y on 19-inch wheels. Springing for the 20-inch ones drops your range up to 24 miles, so this is the one I’d get. 

The Model Y’s driving dynamics have grown up. Gone is the notoriously harsh ride that made the previous car (and its sibling, the Model 3) unpleasant to be in when the pavement got even moderately rough. This is a thoroughly revised chassis and suspension design with new frequency-selective dampers and a stiffer structure overall. The result is a car that’s less punishing than it once was, and much more relaxing to put hundreds of miles on in one go. 

Even in non-Performance form, the Model Y remains damn quick. While Tesla doesn’t release horsepower numbers for these cars, it does quote a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. In highway passing, it feels quicker than that, enough to surprise some mid-tier performance cars.

The handling feels sharp too, owing to that revised suspension and the Model Y’s relatively compact size. It’s better in the corners than, say, a comparable non-N Hyundai Ioniq 5, and it remains hundreds of pounds lighter than other EV options. At the same time, Tesla’s steering setup is as numb as it’s ever been, but overall, it’s rather fun to drive. 

That’s aided by some of the best one-pedal driving calibration in the business. You can only choose between Standard and Low regen, so don’t expect the deep customization you might get elsewhere. But in terms of smoothness, controllability and predictability, the Tesla approach is outstanding. 

2026 Tesla Model Y: Interior

If you hate Tesla’s ultra-minimalist, screen-centric approach, you will probably hate this Model Y just as much as the last one, if not more.

It’s not for everyone, and it does present a learning curve that even I, as a non-Tesla-owning journalist who drives every EV out there, have to adjust to. The thing is, you do get used to the two roller balls and smattering of buttons on the steering wheel, along with the screen itself—especially once you get your settings and preferences dialed in. It takes me around 20 minutes whenever I’m back in one of these cars, and then everything clicks. And unlike the Model 3, the Model Y at least still gets a physical turn-signal stalk.

But the headline here is that the Model Y’s cabin is vastly improved, nicer even than the updated Model 3. You get some nice synthetic leather upholstery, faux suede and fabric accents on the door cards, a dual wireless charging pad that actually works without overheating my phone and a thin LED light strip that extends across the dash to the doors. 

All told, it just doesn’t feel as cheap as it used to, and it’s hopefully less prone to falling apart the way these interiors used to. The overall build quality is markedly better than the fleet of Cybertrucks we tested last year, too. The Model Y is dialed in, much more complete-feeling. Probably best of all, the rear seats are far less thin and hard than before. It’s no longer an Uber ride you’ll absolutely dread.

Do these improvements make the Model Y a luxury car? I don’t think so. Not the way, say, the new BMW iX3 aims to be. But it is a much nicer piece of kit for a mainstream crossover than it once was—on par with something like a Toyota RAV4, if not nicer. 

But the Spartan-ness can sometimes be much more frustrating. I think my week of renting the Model Y was nearly up before I got the damn screen-based air vents pointed the way I wanted. 

2026 Tesla Model Y: Tech

If you’re eyeing a Model Y or any other EV right now, Tesla’s tech experience may make or break your decision. It all comes down to this: how much do you want your car to be a smartphone on wheels?

Tesla’s in-house-designed operating system is fast, responsive and powerful, one of the only ones I’ve tested that feels on par with the Chinese automakers (all of whom are using Tesla’s software playbook). It’s also packed with apps you may never use, low on customization and absolutely central to the driving experience. 

Everything runs through the screen. The door locks. The steering wheel position. The charging door. The lighting system. The climate controls, including the heated and cooled seats and steering wheel. It all works, to be sure—but you should see if it’s something you can live with before you buy one.

Where Tesla is still the gold standard, in my book, is the smartphone app. It’s deeply embedded into the Tesla experience and lets you remotely control an array of functions from charging management to locking and unlocking and even allowing access to new users. Need to plan a road trip? Do it on the app and send it to the car, complete with all the charging stops along the way. It couldn’t be easier. 

Plenty of automakers are doing this now, sure. My Kia EV6 does some of this stuff. But it’s maddeningly slow, far more limited and not worth the annual fees Kia wants to charge me for it. In short, Tesla is the template of a modern, software-driven connected car; outside of China, only Rivian comes close to what Tesla does. And it’s still not completely on par yet.

The other big piece of tech is, obviously, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. I’ll share my thoughts on those in a subsequent story, but the TL;DR version is that it’s quite good hands-free on the highway and outstanding in a traffic jam, but never rises above being a gimmick when you use it in city settings like the so-called Robotaxis do. Make sure you understand how it works and what its limitations are before you try it. 

The tech experience can also be irksome in other ways. To “shift” into Drive or Reverse, you swipe a little tab up or down, respectively, on the screen. This can make quick three-point turns much trickier than they need to be. It is highly effective in “knowing” whether you need to go forward or backward based on the AI’s interpretation of your surroundings, but that doesn’t help you in a tight turn situation.

There’s still no 360-degree camera for parking, which feels like a major oversight for a company hinging its autonomous car dreams on cameras alone. And the entire system remains very heavily centered around FSD and automated driving assistance, since that’s being hailed as the future of Tesla beyond actual cars. As I said, good—but not for everyone. 

2026 Tesla Model Y Range And Observed Efficiency

I drove the Model Y in moderate summer temperatures here in upstate New York and it consistently delivered more than 330 miles of range on a full charge. I averaged a very impressive 3.95 miles per kilowatt-hour in almost 900 miles of mixed city and highway conditions, and I had moments where I was not driving slowly. That’s fantastic for an EV of this size and price class.

I’d love to re-test this Model Y in the winter to test its cold-weather efficiency, but overall, high marks in the distance department. 

2026 Tesla Model Y Charging

The Model Y still uses a 400-volt EV architecture, as do all current Tesla Superchargers. You’re lucky to see, at most, 250-kilowatt charging speeds in most of your fast-charging adventures. But because the Model Y has a strong charging curve, it took roughly 27 minutes for me to go from 10-80%.

This is a reasonably quick-charging car, but Tesla’s pacing threat isn’t Toyota or General Motors; it’s BYD and Hyundai. The company may not be “behind the pack compared to the average American-market EV,  but it is certainly not leading it anymore.

But what the Model Y lacks in charging speed, it makes up for in charging ubiquity. Tesla Superchargers are damn near everywhere these days. They’ve even saved me a few times on road trips through places like the rural West Texas desert. And that was with an adapter, which, on a non-Tesla EV, only allows access to some Supercharger stations. Buying a Model Y means you can use all of them. Plus, they just work every time—plug and go, no smattering of apps or buggy credit card payment systems. 

Ultimately, between 330 miles of juice and a charging network that’s this extensive, I find myself just not worrying about range all that much. It’s a different experience than with other EVs I drive, where I’m always running a kind of mental math about my charging situation. It’s as carefree and easy as these cars get. 

2026 Tesla Model Y Pricing And Verdict

I’ve been an iPhone user since 2010. Like most people, I use it for just about everything. I also couldn’t even tell you which one it is before I had to check for this article—it’s an iPhone 15 Pro, turns out. I don’t really think about it all that much. It does what I need it to do, and I’ll go years without needing or wanting an upgrade.

It just works. And the Tesla Model Y has been so successful because it, too, just works. 

Go walk up to somebody with their Model Y plugged into a Supercharger. You think that driver could explain the nuances of their charging curve to you? Maybe. More than likely, it’s just that person’s car, and it all works seamlessly, and they have far fewer concerns than other EV drivers. 

The range gets them where they need to go, the performance outpaces any comparable gas car, and they have plenty of room for their families and all their gear. They don’t use third-party apps for route planning; They tell the car where they want to go, and the car sorts out the rest in the background. They don’t worry about whether the charging stations will work or have available stalls, because Superchargers almost always work and have available stalls. 

As near as I can tell, this Model Y stickered for somewhere around $49,000, right around the average price of a new car in America these days. That’s before any EV tax credits or Tesla discounts. For all you’re getting, it’s a solid package. 

This is especially true when you look at the competition. A Ford Mustang Mach-E comes close, but the Model Y has a slight Supercharger access advantage. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 comes even closer with faster charging and a native Tesla-style plug, but the Model Y has far better software. The Nissan Ariya, Volkswagen ID.4 and Chevy Blazer EV just aren’t executed as well. The Lucid Gravity and Porsche Macan Electric are way more expensive. The Rivian R2 doesn’t exist yet.

You get the idea. Plenty of other EVs may now outclass the Model Y in individual areas, but Tesla’s crossover is still the all-arounder to beat. 

I don’t know how long Tesla can keep this going, since its focus no longer seems to be on new and better EVs. But if Apple’s proved anything lately, it’s that iteration over revolution can be plenty successful on its own—so long as a more disruptive product comes around. Until that day arrives, the Model Y remains the benchmark.

InsideEVs Rating: Top Recommendation

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

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Chris Baguley wanted to go out again. He didn’t insist on it, per se, but the rain had tapered off a while ago and the tarmac at the Millbrook Proving Ground was finally drying off. I was impressed enough with the Polestar 5 in the wet, but now the car’s chief engineer wanted me to experience it in the dry. 

Who was I to say no? When a top engineer, who’s also a superb wheelman in his own right, wants to show you what his 884-horsepower electric grand tourer could do on a proper track, you shut up and get in the passenger’s seat.

We had another go, and once again, I got tunnel vision from the acceleration the Polestar 5 could put down. And when Baguely completed our lap, he flashed a big grin, as if to say: “Not bad, right?”

He didn’t have to say anything. Lots of EVs are fast, especially in a straight line. But the point Baguely was trying to make came loud and clear: few fast EVs handle quite like the Polestar 5 does. And this thing has what it takes to challenge—I’m not saying beat, but challenge—the almighty Porsche Taycan. And even the likes of the Lucid Air, while it’s at it. 

If it comes to the United States, it’ll make for a fascinating match-up. But that remains a fairly ambiguous if.

(Full Disclosure: Polestar flew me to the United Kingdom last month for a preview drive of the Polestar 5. The brand covered my travel expenses.)

Polestar 5: What Is It?

The Polestar 5 makes its world premiere today at IAA Munich, Europe’s largest auto show. It’s being hailed as a big deal for the sometimes-troubled but aspirational electric luxury brand, which was spun out of Volvo and has deep ties to the rest of China’s Geely Group.

To understand why, it helps to go back to the beginning. 

The Polestar 1 was a limited-run plug-in hybrid luxury coupe that packed a lot of power but looked like a two-door Volvo S90, because under the skin, it basically was one. Then came the Polestar 2, a much-beloved electric sport sedan and early Tesla Model 3-fighter, but based on the Geely Group CMA platform that underpinned the Volvo XC40 and other cars.

Next was the Polestar 3, which offers excellent performance and style, but is again a twin to another Volvo. And finally, there’s the Polestar 4: Korean-made but also on another shared Geely Group platform used by various Zeekr and Lynk & Co. models, albeit with its own spin on things.

You get the idea. Polestar may be a newer brand, but under the skin, its cars have borrowed heavily from the rest of the family.

The Polestar 5 is where that starts to change. It’s built on an entirely new architecture exclusive to Polestar, including an all-aluminum platform and body, an 800-volt electrical architecture, an internally developed rear motor and plenty of other touches to make it something truly unique. 

“The most Polestar Polestar yet,” is how it was described to me. And that sort of thing is going to be key to making Polestar finally stand out from Volvo and the rest. 

Polestar 5: Design And Tech

And it does stand out. It’s a low, sleek sedan, angular in the right ways and perhaps echoing designs like the original Audi A7—hardly a bad thing to my eyes. You may remember the Polestar Precept Concept; this is that, taken to production with almost everything except the rear-hinged doors, which present crash-test challenges.

On the inside, it’s roomier than a Taycan, which admittedly isn’t hard to do because that car can feel more like an electric 911 than Porsche will admit. But the amount of rear headroom inside surprised me. My 5 foot, 11-inch frame never felt cramped in it, which can happen in some EV sedans like the Mercedes-Benz EQs, and I’m not even really that tall. 

How much you’ll like the interior depends on how much you like Polestar’s signature Scandinavian minimalism. (The same goes for the fact that, like most Polestar models, this one comes in Gray, Silver, The Other, Second Gray, White, Black, and who knows, down the line—Possibly Another Gray.)

Now, let’s get to the obvious: there’s no rear window. But the whole design and process is more artfully done than the Polestar 4 (and as much as I like the Polestar 4, this feels like the car it’s trying to be) and in my limited drive on the track, I can’t say I minded the camera-based rearview mirror much. It all works functionally just fine, though it’s still an acquired taste. 

In terms of software, you get Polestar’s standard Android Automotive operating system with Google built-in. While I didn’t get to play with it much on this drive, I’ve largely been impressed with that system’s speed, flexibility and voice recognition before, but more testing will be needed to render a final verdict.

Polestar 5: EV And Platform Specs

The Polestar 5 Performance—the top version and the one I tested—has a 112-kilowatt-hour battery (106 kWh usable) that powers dual motors and puts down the aforementioned 884 hp and 749 lb-ft of torque. You also get MagneRide adaptive dampers, bespoke Michelin performance tires and higher torsional rigidity from the platform than many gas-powered sports cars, Polestar says. 

But people don’t buy EVs for track days, or for performance alone. On the electric front, the Polestar 5 seems very competitive. Range for the base Dual Motor car is rated at 670 kilometers (416 miles) on Europe’s WLTP cycle, while the more powerful Performance version can go 565 km, or 351 miles. In EPA estimates for America, that equates to 330 miles for the base car, and 300 for the Performance. The max charging speed is a very healthy 350 kilowatts, and it can charge from 10% to 80% in 22 minutes. 

All in all, it’s an impressive package. And making something that wasn’t just another chip off the Geely block was the whole point. 

“There’s no group platform on which you can deliver this car,” Pete Allen, the head of Polestar UK’s R&D arm, told me. Nothing the Geely Group offered could make a car this low, or this stiff, or this light, so Polestar went out and made it alone. And the company won’t be watering it down later. “This is a no-compromise platform,” Allen said. “It’s only there to do sports, GT cars. There’s no plan to make an SUV off this platform.” 

Allen is British. So is Baguley, the lead dynamics engineer. So were a bunch of other folks who worked on the Polestar 5. The car drives like it was made by a bunch of people who’ve worked at places like Lotus and McLaren, because it was.

I suppose this makes sense. If you want AI in a car that opens your trunk when you ask it to, call up a Chinese automaker. If you want to make a car that is God’s gift to handling, call some Brits.

Polestar 5: Track Tested

For all those aluminum weight savings, the Polestar 5 still comes in at a beefy 5,518 pounds; a battery that size is heavy, and there’s no way around that. Beefier than a Taycan, for sure. But this platform affords an agility that belies its weight. Out on the Millbrook Proving Ground track—where prototype McLarens and Morgans can be seen alongside British military vehicles, hence why only Polestar was allowed to take photos—the Polestar 5 proved itself to be one of the best-handling EVs I’ve ever driven. Maybe even the best, although it’ll take more data to determine that for real.

The sedan’s steering is tight and direct. Porsche has it beaten on feel, but the 5 feels nimbler and smaller than it is. The ride quality still errs on the side of harsh, which could change if it comes to the U.S., but it’s tight and direct and handles a two-mile high-speed bank with as much confidence as it does a set of winding, off-camber blind curves. Baguley made better work of it than I could, but even a semi-skilled track driver like myself could get a lot out of it, and then some.

It’s not just a handler, either. It’s fast. Crushingly so. I did two hard launches on a straight and managed a zero to 60 mph run in 2.7 seconds, in the wet, which is considerably better than Polestar’s quoted 3.1-second time. And every launch kind of sucked the blood back in my eyes, warping my sense of reality a bit. Even by EV standards, it’s a beast. I managed to get it up to 155 mph on Millbrook’s back straight, tying it with a Cadillac CTS-V at Circuit of the Americas for the fastest I’ve driven any car on any road.

Above all, the Polestar 5’s notable for the analog vibe it has. There are surprisingly few hold-my-hand gizmos for a high-tech EV grand tourer. It doesn’t have active anti-roll-bars, or torque vectoring or an air suspension—all conscious choices, the engineers said, to make something that felt approachable and rewarding to driving enthusiasts. 

Polestar 5: Early Verdict

But as much as I liked this thing, even I’ll admit it’s a tricky sell. Polestar could use some wins lately, and what the Polestar 5 is—an expensive halo car—can’t make that happen alone. It’s targeting Porsche with a lot of the performance capability, but almost none of the brand cachet. 

The prices reflect its ambition. The base Dual Motor Polestar 5 will start at 119,900 Euro, or about $140,000, while the Polestar 5 Performance I tested is 142,900 Euro, or $167,000 at current exchange rates. That’s not what it would cost stateside—exchange rates, tax differences and tariffs mean you can’t simply convert one price to another—but it won’t be cheap.

Then there’s the fact that I’m left wondering if it can come here at all: It’s made in China, at a new sustainability-focused plant in Chongqing. Engineers said it’s borderline impossible to move the tooling for such a bespoke platform to another location, so if it’s to come to America, it would face an additional 100% tariff. 

“As with previous vehicles, we are taking a staggered approach to the launch,” a Polestar official told me. “The initial launch locations for Polestar 5 will include 24 of our 28 active markets and availability for customers in the U.S. will be announced at a later date.” 

I’ll take that as a maybe. But I hope it does. The Polestar 5 won’t be for everybody, but it’s as genuine an enthusiast car as EVs get—the kind of car where one gearhead sees it and nods to the other gearhead behind the wheel. If you know, you know. And if it previews more interesting adventures yet to come from Polestar, I’m here for it. 

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

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The Toyota Prius is the best hybrid on sale. It’s far more efficient than other hybrids, while offering plenty of room for four adults, ample cargo space and a responsive, refined driving experience. The real question, though, is whether you should get the plug-in hybrid version.

I spent a week with one to find out. And while I truly believe the Prius Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV) is one of the best plug-in hybrids ever, I still think the regular Prius is the right choice for most shoppers.

Read below to see why.

What Is It?

The Toyota Prius popularized hybrid vehicles in the United States, and has been a fixture of our roads since 2012. The Prius Plug-In launched in 2012 as the first plug-in version. While the Prius already offered industry-leading efficiency, the plug-in version allowed drivers to go for up to 11 miles on electric power alone. But with such limited electric-only driving range, it remained a rare option. It offered poor driving range and the same ugly design as other Prii at the time, but for more money.  

The original Prius PHEV was ugly, slow and boring to drive, with only 11 miles of range. The new one has solved all of those issues.

Photo by: Toyota

Yet Toyota never gave up. The second generation plug-in Prius became the Prius Prime, with the new name signaling Toyota’s renewed interest in the formula. But it wasn’t until this third attempt launched that people really took notice.

The new Prius offers a far more striking design and a much sharper driving experience than previous generations. Now, in PHEV guise, it gets 220 horsepower and up to 44 miles of electric driving range. Zero to 60 mph happens in 6.4 seconds (per Motortrend), and the Environmental Protection Agency says the Prius PHEV will do 52 miles per gallon combined when the battery is dead. 

For $34,445 for the base model, that’s a hell of a deal. 

What’s Good?

The value is hard to argue with. For $35,000, you get a modern, attractive car with seating for five, a generous cargo area and better fuel efficiency than nearly anything else on the market (the regular Prius is the only car that beats it). The Prius PHEV also comes standard with a ton of equipment, including all of the active safety tech you need. Luxuries like cooled seats, a JBL stereo, synthetic leather and a surround-view camera system are all available as extras.

In my real-world driving, I found the Prius to be whisper-quiet and engaging to drive. The steering is far improved over previous generations, and while I’d still prefer driving a Honda Civic Hybrid or Accord Hybrid on a twisty road, the Prius is among the most responsive and sporty mainstream hybrids ever built.

I also observed great efficiency during my test, though my sporadic level 1 charging stopped me from doing a full electric range test. Still, mid-50 mpgs and around 40 miles of EV range seems more than achievable. Since it’s a PHEV, too, you won’t have to do any special planning for road trips.

The bigger, 161-hp electric motor in the PHEV version is also great. It gives the Prius the instantaneous shove of a pure EV at low speeds. At highway pace, you’ll have to wait for the gas engine to spin up for any passing power, but I never struggled for speed. Between the seamlessness of the powertrain and the perfect blending of the brake pedal, any hybrid weirdness has been ironed out. The Prius PHEV feels like a normal, but fast, daily driver. 

It’s also plenty practical. The PHEV version sacrifices some cargo space—20.3 cubic feet of cargo with all seats in place, as compared to 23.8 cubes for the standard model—but with the hatch-back design and folding rear seats, this thing can easily swallow bikes, coolers, surf boards or other long and wide cargo. Just don’t get your hopes up about hauling tall objects: The pinched roof makes this a bit tighter than a crossover. 

What Isn’t?

There’s little wrong with the Prius. I happen to hate the clutter of buttons on the steering wheel, and in general I think the ergonomics are weird. Make sure you sit in one and play around with the controls before committing. Similarly, the awkward shape of the dash and the bizarre angles of the thing make it hard to find a driving position that offers the right mix of reachability, visibility and comfort.  

Speaking of visibility, the Prius follows Toyota’s infuriating trend of fitting driver-monitoring systems that are engaged even when you aren’t using driver-assistance features like lane-centering. If the steering wheel-mounted sensor can’t see your face—even while cruising around your neighborhood—it’s going to constantly tell you that the sensor is blocked.

I also found most of the driver-assistance tech in the Prius to be a step behind the industry leaders. The Prius also comes with Toyota’s “proactive driving assist,” which will use the car’s sensors to automatically adapt the car’s behavior to the driving situation. If you see a curve coming up or you’re bearing down on another car and let off the gas, for instance, the car will slow down more aggressively than if there’s no one ahead of you.

This is the personal opinion of Mack Hogan, who is not a lawyer: This feature should be illegal. 

Cramming 10 largely flat buttons onto the right half of the steering wheel is an ergonomic disaster.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

In general, while what the car does when you lift off can be adjustable, it absolutely must be predictable. I can switch my car between one-pedal and normal driving modes, but it’s a choice I make knowing how the car will behave in all situations. With PDA enabled, however, when I let off the throttle, the car decides based on what I’m seeing. That means a bit of uncertainty at the best, and a safety concern at worst if the car behaves in a way you can’t predict. It’s doubly bad because, anecdotally, many consumers are not aware of the active safety features fitted to their cars. Because PDA is so esoteric, I could see an oblivious driver having it on for years and just not knowing why the car occasionally slows aggressively on lift-off.

Luckily this system—and most of them—can be disabled. So it’s absolutely not a dealbreaker, but something I think Toyota needs to work on.

Why I’d Still Buy The Regular Prius

The Prius may not have many flaws, but I still didn’t like it as much as I expected to. That’s for a simple reason: The last Prius I drove was a standard model. I expected the bigger battery and extra oomph to make everything better. But in reality, I think it spoils my favorite thing about the Prius: It’s seamless. 

The uphill battle of this gig is that I’m always speaking to buyers who frankly don’t want to hear it. The average American consumer probably couldn’t tell you what kind of engine is in their car—”a vee-four” doesn’t count. Almost nobody has a route-planning app on their phone, or wants to learn how to use one. Trying to coach them through living with an EV can be exhausting; most people just want to get in and drive to their destination without a second thought. They’ve never done it in an EV, and that scares them.

The Prius is the antidote. You buy one at the dealership, you use it like a regular car, your running costs are half what they used to be, and it lasts even longer. That’s the mission. The standard Prius fulfills it without further work from you.

The PHEV promises more, meanwhile, but also asks for more. It costs $5,000 more to start and, when the tax credit disappears at the end of the month, even lessees will be paying more. It gives up 3 cubic feet of cargo and hauls an extra 364 pounds around. It is not available with all-wheel drive, either, while the standard Prius is. It gets “just” 52 mpg combined, rather than 57 mpg on the regular one. 

Most importantly, the PHEV gives you more to manage. There are buttons that allow you to use up all of the electrons immediately, or to hold the charge for later. There’s a gas cap and a charging port. There’s another battery indicator to keep an eye on, another charger to carry, another gadget to plug in at the end of the day.

For what? More efficiency, of course. That is a noble goal. But the Prius is already getting nearly 60 mpg. It’s so good it’s silly. Commuting on electric power alone would be cheaper, but you’d have to do quite a complicated calculation to find out how quickly you’d make up the $5,000 difference. Remember to factor in that you’re getting worse MPG when the battery is dead.

You may come out ahead. But even if you do, you’ll run smack into the classic PHEV issue. If you have a cheap place to charge at home, and you’re willing to plug in every night, why wouldn’t you get an EV? You’d have to charge less often with the bigger battery, and you won’t have all of the compromises and maintenance that come with an internal-combustion vehicle. I just don’t think PHEVs are the right solution for most people. 

Conclusion

I know, I know, I can hear you shouting “road trips” at your screen. PHEV proponents argue they are the best of both worlds, giving you emissions-free commuting and planning-free road trips.

This idea is based on two misconceptions: One, that EVs cannot handle road trips, and two, that road trips are an integral part of all of our daily lives. Let’s tackle the second first: If you are seriously debating the merits of a PHEV vs an EV, ask yourself honestly how many times in the last 24 months you have driven over 500 miles. If you’re not doing it more than four or five times a year, you have nothing to worry about. An EV may cost you an hour of time once a year, but it will save you a hundred visits to the gas station in day-to-day life.

That puts the Prius PHEV in a weird place for me. I think it is the best PHEV you can buy, and it’s the only one I’d seriously consider. Yet fundamentally, it has the same problem: Those with home or work charging are better served by EVs, and those without charging at home or work should probably stick with a conventional hybrid.

PHEVs are for the awkward folks in the middle, those who have home or work charging, but who still road trip so frequently that they can’t make an EV work right now. To those people, I say go right ahead, snag yourself a Prius PHEV. It’ll be the best and probably last gas car you’ll ever buy.

Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com. 

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