Electric : Car Reviews And News

European supercars, step aside. There’s a new boss in town, and it’s coming from an unlikely nameplate – Tesla. After discontinuing its original Roadster a couple of years back, Elon Musk’s wildly popular EV company is back with what – at least on paper – could be one of the most impressive sports cars ever.

We all know at this point that EVs can be very fast. All you need to witness that is to watch videos of the Tesla P100D embarrassing supercars at the drag strip. Driving the point home further, a company called RAESR is teasing an all-electric hypercar that aims to impress with much more electric power.

We all know that electric drivetrains are going to be a big part of our automotive future. Between concerns about the environmental impact of fossil fuels, the improvements in battery and motor tech, and the proliferation of recharging infrastructure, it’s only a matter of time before electric motors are in virtually every new car, either as a primary or secondary mode of propulsion.

Tokyo Motor Show 2018 kicked off this week, and like most years, each of the major Japanese automakers turned up with some cool new concept designs. One of the more compelling vehicles on display this year is the Honda Sports EV.

There’s been a whole lot of buzz on the street about Polestar’s plans to release high performance vehicles that benefit from electric power. Well now we have seen the first fruits of their efforts – a luxury sports coupe that cranks out 600 hp, thanks to a hybrid electric drivetrain. Unlike other Polestar vehicles, which have been straight derivations of Volvos, the Polestar 1 is the first car to be sold exclusively as a Polestar, and doesn’t have any Volvo badging at all. The Polestar 1 benefits both from Volvo’s excellent styling and their knack for safe and impeccably built vehicles.

The annual SEMA show in Las Vegas is the place to go for accessories for customizing cars to your heart’s content. For as long as I can remember the extreme cars on display at the show have been over-the-top muscle cars, hot rods, and just about anything else you can pack a blown V8 into.

Mitsubishi gave the Outlander a pretty dramatic design update back in 2016, which gave it bolder, more modern looks, and other refinements. In addition, the company has been selling a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) variant in Japan and much of Europe since 2013, where it is currently the best selling PHEV.

Toyota is heading to the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show with a couple of really interesting new concept cars, including an eco-friendly sports coupe, and a rugged, boxy crossover. First up is the Toyota GR HV SPORTS Concept, a 2-seater that’s designed to offer performance, while taking advantage of a modern hybrid drivetrain. The GR HV SPORTS looks like a highly modified Toyota 86, but packs a hybrid racing system which inherits tech from the one in Toyota’s LMP1 TS050 hybrid race car.

When you think about the Mercedes-Benz S-class, fuel economy is probably the furthest thing from your mind. But the German luxury car maker thinks full-size sedan owners deserve a break on their gas usage and emissions too.

Jaguar Land Rover just announced that all new vehicles it makes starting in 2020 and beyond will incorporate some manner of electrification. That means that its cars and SUVs will have either a pure electric, plug-in hybrid, or mild hybrid drivetrain.

I’ll be the first to admit that I think the current generation Nissan LEAF is a bit of an ugly duckling. I’ve never driven one, so I can’t comment on how it stacks up to other EVs I’ve driven like the Chevy Bolt and BMW i3, but my sense is that Nissan’s first-to-market advantage has slipped away since it first premiered in 2010, and it was time for a major revamp. With that in mind, the company has taken the wraps off of its new 2018 Nissan LEAF, and it’s appears to be a significant step forward, both from a technological point of view, and in terms of its design.

British EV startup Alcraft Motor Company is showing off its first car design, a sleek and modern shooting brake, dubbed the Alcraft GT. This pure electric car is designed to offer a blend of impressive power, handling, and practicality, and the company plans on raising funds via crowdfunding to bring it to reality. The design of the Alcraft GT is a bit of an acquired taste if you ask me, with its squatty, shoe-like shape, but it’s certainly got plenty of curves, and is definitely different from anything else out there. The car is designed with a powerful three-motor, four-wheel drivetrain in mind, with impressive specs of 600 horsepower and 840 lb-ft.

The BMW i3 has been around since 2014, and since its initial launch, the compact EV hasn’t changed a bit. But for 2018, not only is the base i3 getting tweaked, there’s a whole new trim level that combines sport styling and a modest power bump. The BMW i3s not only has a sportier look, but has been given a sport suspension, as well as a tiny 10mm drop in height.

If you’re looking for truly off-road capable vehicle that also happens to be crazy fast, there aren’t too many choices. But the Nikola Zero aims to change that, with a rugged all-terrain vehicle with an all-electric drivetrain that’s as powerful as many high-end sports cars. Built with a similar look and capabilities to the 4-seat RZR UTVs made by Polaris, this bad boy has massive 32-inch tires, bead-lock wheels, 20″ of suspension travel in both the front and rear, and 14.5″

With just 918 cars ever built, the Porsche 918 Spyder is quite a rare breed. You’re lucky if you see just one of these impressive hybrid hypercars on the road, so the idea of 19 of them gathering together in the same place is really something special.