Cars

Cars

The goal is to find the cars that make electric vehicles more enticing, more attainable or more practical for American buyers, and this is our best field yet. Over this past year, InsideEVs editors and writers tested dozens of cars in cities spanning the globe. From Shanghai and Bucharest to San Diego and Columbus, we sampled the best electric cars on sale.

Most people are surprised to learn that school buses have never been required to include driver airbags or seat belts. In passenger vehicles, these features have been standard for decades. Yet every weekday, more than 175,000 school bus drivers transport 25 million children, covering nearly 6 billion miles per year. Or, the distance to the moon and back over 12,500 times.

Under the nationwide settlement, the companies will offer a free repair to all eligible vehicles at a cost that could top $500 million, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. Hyundai and Kia must also outfit all future vehicles sold in the U.S. with a key piece of technology called an engine immobilizer and pay up to $4.5 million of restitution to people whose vehicles were damaged by thieves.

Smart reveals that it's testing the #2 two-door electric city car that continues where the ForTwo left off. It will be available exclusively with electric power and debut a new dedicated urban EV platform. It will be fully revealed in late 2026 and it's primarily aimed at the European market where it's expected to cost around 20,000 ($23,500). The Smart car brand isn't what it was. It's now owned 50/50 by Mercedes-Benz and China's Geely.

The tiny Fiat Topolino-about the length of a cargo bike and half as long as an American SUV or pickup-is the kind of car tourists stop to photograph as a cute curiosity in Rome or Milan. The electric car only travels 28 miles an hour, and it's designed for dense European cities. But it also only costs around $10,000, and Fiat is now betting that Americans are ready for something this tiny.

Slate Auto, the electric truck startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has now collected more than 150,000 refundable reservations for its low-cost EV due out at the end of 2026. The company shared the figure in a new Q&A video with CEO Chris Barman, where she answers questions from those reservation holders about the company's plans for self-driving (there are none), or whether owners will be able to affix a car seat to the optional rear seats (they will).

Under the nationwide settlement, the companies will offer a free repair to all eligible vehicles at a cost that could top $500 million, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. Hyundai and Kia must also outfit all future vehicles sold in the U.S. with a key piece of technology called an engine immobilizer and pay up to $4.5 million of restitution to people whose vehicles were damaged by thieves.

China has taken another step forward in the self-driving car market. The country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has made its first approval for cars with level-3 autonomous driving capabilities. The two electric sedans come from state-owned automakers Changan Auto and BAIC Motor. The US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines level-3 driving as "the system handles all aspects of the driving task while you, as the driver, are available to take over driving if requested. If the system can no longer operate and prompts the driver, the driver must be available to resume all aspects of the driving task."

The European Commission on Tuesday proposed changes to regulations banning new internal combustion engines starting in 2035, after pressure from governments and ailing automakers. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has led arguments against the ban, citing weak demand for electric vehicles in Europe and the dominance of Chinese automakers in the EV sector. Merz said the U-turn in Brussels came after a "clear signal" from Berlin.

Dodge and Alfa Romeo are recalling nearly 6,000 plug-in hybrid crossovers sold in the United States because their brake pedals could collapse under hard braking. It goes without saying that a snapped brake pedal arm increases the risk of an accident because it makes stopping very hard. The 2024 Dodge Hornet PHEV and 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale PHEV are both affected by the recall, with 3,286 units of the former and 2,688 of the latter being included.

Hurry Mode was the most evident, as it refused to go more than 10 MPH over the speed limit on freeways. It would routinely hold up traffic at this speed, and flipping it into Mad Max mode was sort of over the top. Hurry is what I use most frequently, and it had become somewhat unusable with v14.2.1. It seemed as if Speed Profiles should be more associated with both passing and lane-changing frequency.

Ford Motor Company has ceased production of the F-150 Lightning, its flagship full-size electric pickup, and will focus instead on hybrid vehicles and a future line of smaller, cheaper EVs. Battery plants once intended to supply Ford trucks will now be sending batteries to bolster the electric grid instead. Ford says the move is following customer demand, and reflecting the reality that the Lightning was a money-loser and Ford, concluded, it always would be.

General Motors is offering free internet connectivity for audio streaming in some new cars. The perk is now part of the automaker's OnStar Basics connectivity bundle. The Apple Music app is also available natively on GM's infotainment systems; for Cadillac owners, it brings Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. General Motors is offering free internet connectivity for audio streaming services in new cars sold in the United States and Canada.

When people think of Ford cars, the first models that come to mind are often the Ford Mustang or the Ford Explorer. While these are undeniably popular choices, there's a whole world of underrated Ford vehicles that deliver incredible value for money on the used car market. For drivers in Dubai, choosing the right car is about more than just looks, it's about reliability, comfort, fuel efficiency, and affordability.

German car manufacturers turned in their worst quarter since the days of the 2009 global financial crisis, according to a study released Monday by financial consultancy EY. Together, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) at Germany's biggest automakers, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, plummeted by nearly 76% in the quarter between July and September. The statistics indicate that although sales and revenue remained stable, production and running the business has become much more expensive, and carmakers are earning less from sales.

Performance. Agile handling. Personality and character. Motorsport heritage. Cramped rear. Interior design lacks coherence. Poor switchgear. Oft-compared to Lotus, the Alpine brand has drifted in and out of focus over the years despite seven decades of idiosyncratic road cars and regular motorsport success. It's currently in Formula One and the World Endurance Championship, and its A110 sports car is a masterpiece of lightweight analogue driving entertainment. No slouches, then.

James Philbin, Rivian's VP of autonomy and AI, told Business Insider that the price of lidar has decreased significantly enough in recent years to be able to put the sensor inside a personally-owned, mass-production vehicle. "It's been on this incredible cost curve, where 10 years ago, it would be just unimaginable that you could put a lidar on a consumer vehicle. And now it's getting into that price point, kind of in the range of a radar," Philbin said.

The Vision O isn't a fully functional prototype, but you can sit inside and drive it (slowly). It previews a future electric Skoda Octavia wagon expected to arrive around 2028. Skoda Octavia wagons are big business in Europe. Even though the Czech manufacturer sells a lot of crossovers, its long-roof, load-lugging Octavia Combi remains a strong seller across the continent. The news that the Octavia is going electric will broaden the nameplate's appeal, especially since Skoda intends to offer it with a wagon body.

When I bought my Volvo XC90 in 2017, I was thrilled to get a safe, third-row vehicle. With three kids between the ages of 3 and 8, the extra space meant fewer fights and more room, and reassured me that the car's safety features would help me drive through snowy roads and city traffic. Almost a decade later, that same Volvo has over 112,000 miles on it.

Tesla hinted at a potential Starlink internet terminal integration within its vehicles in a recent patent, which describes a vehicle roof assembly with integrated radio frequency (RF) transparency. The patent, which is Pub. No U.S. 2025/0368267 describes a new vehicle roof that is made of RF-transparent polymer materials, allowing and "facilitating clear communication with external devices and satellites." Tesla believes that a new vehicle roof design, comprised of different materials than the standard metallic or glass elements used in cars today, would allow the company to integrate modern vehicular technologies, "particularly those requiring radio frequency transmission and reception.