2023 CR-V Hybrid review, Niro EV pricing, EV debuts for GMC, Cadillac, Mercedes: The Week In Reverse

Which Toyota high-mpg hybrid model is gaining all-wheel drive?

Are prices on used EVs calming from their record levels?

This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending October 21, 2022.

In a review of the 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid, we found this model to be the brand’s best gasoline-fueled SUV. It’s spacious, comfortable, well-equipped, responsive, and a great value. However, Honda pitches it as a connector to future EVs, and the newly added amplified engine sounds and artificial “shifts” aren’t speaking to that. 

This week marked the formal introduction of many upcoming electric vehicles, some of them amid the backdrop of the Paris auto show. 

Independent of that were two big GM debuts. The automaker on Thursday revealed the launch version of the 2024 GMC Sierra EV, its full-size electric truck, in its most luxurious Denali Edition 1 form. With a price around $107,000 and an EPA range of at least 400 miles in some versions, it takes off on GMC’s Denali luxury cachet rather than the brand’s work-truck roots. GM also revealed the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq. As a $300,000 electric flagship for the brand, it shapes up as more Rolls-Royce than Cadillac, and it’s slated for special 3D-printed production techniques at GM’s tech center. 

2024 Cadillac Celestiq

After a decade of teases, Rolls-Royce rolled out its first production-bound electric car, the Spectre, due for deliveries late in 2023. Although it lives up to the brand’s tradition of excess—two doors, long hood, plush and personalized, and nearly 18 feet long—it manages far better efficiency than electric megatrucks like the GMC Hummer EV. 

The 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV made its debut at Paris. It shares some core components with the EQE luxury sedan and is smaller and lighter than the EQS SUV—although that might not translate to more range. The EQE SUV uses a smaller 90.6-kwh battery but could still top 300 miles of EPA range in some versions. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz AMG EQE SUV

The Lexus UX 300e is getting a boost in its range, to up to 280 miles by European WLTP standards, with the addition of a larger 72.8-kwh battery pack. That’s the same battery-pack size as the upcoming U.S.-bound Lexus RZ, although it doesn’t appear to make the UX 300e any more likely for the U.S.

Also at the Paris show, Jeep revealed more about its electric Avenger compact crossover that’s due for Europe and some markets in Asia starting next year—and it teased a 4×4 concept version that may add the expected off-road capability. Slightly smaller than the Renegade, the Avenger is unlikely for the U.S. simply because of its size. 

This week a refreshed 2023 Toyota Corolla Hybrid sedan lineup was detailed. It loses mpg but gains performance, tech features, and available all-wheel drive. And in a practical sense, it leaves little incentive to opt for the more expensive Prius hatchback. 

2023 Toyota Corolla Hybrid SE Infrared Edition

The 2023 Kia Niro EV starts at $40,745, nudging close to the base price of the larger EV6 but beating it in range. It does, however, start at nearly $20,000 more than the Chevy Bolt EUV when you consider the GM EV’s tax credit eligibility. 

EPA efficiency and range figures have risen for the entire 2023 Porsche Taycan lineup, due to a number of running changes—a combination of hardware and software, for this model that’s always overdelivered, as we’ve found, in real-world range. 

2023 Porsche Taycan

BMW announced that, to make cylindrical cells for U.S.-made EVs, it’s partnered with AESC. Yes, the longtime supplier of Nissan Leaf batteries, and for the BMW supply it means a dedicated 30-gigawatt-hour battery plant in South Carolina. 

Audi is testing how its EVs might help clean the air, actively removing health-affecting particulate matter that may come from tailpipes, brakes, or tires. The filter has no negative impact on performance metrics like range and charging, Audi says. 

Audi Urban Purifier air filtration system

Does the $2.8 billion recently awarded for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grants for EV manufacturing and raw-materials infrastructure favor red states? If you look simply at which ones are benefiting most from the grants, many of the states that opposed such funding are reaping the most advantages from it.

With a next-generation platform now under development, smaller, more affordable Tesla models are coming, CEO Elon Musk said in the company’s recent quarterly update. With it, Tesla has the potential to again cut the costs to build an EV in half—although there was no mention of the $25,000 price point the company has mentioned before. 

$25,000 Tesla teased for 2023 – Battery Day

Sono Motors is taking its Sion solar EV on the road in the U.S.—even though there are no plans to sell it here, as of yet. The company potentially might look to expand U.S. availability of its solar-retrofitting tech for trucks, though. 

According to a recent report from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), green hydrogen will be ready to scale up this decade, with plenty of electrolysis capacity online by the end of the decade. That’s from an organization that has applied some skepticism about the term in the past; but it argues that commercial demand for decarbonization is creating a market for it. 

FreeWire Boost Charger at convenience store

The oil giant Chevron has announced an arrangement that could lead to the widespread deployment of battery-boosted fast-chargers at gas stations. The chargers, from FreeWire, can plug into existing electrical service while delivering burst-rate charging power up to 200 kw.

And a recent report from Recurrent suggests that used EV prices may have peaked. They’re already showing signs of settling—although just 12% of the current used-EV inventory would fall within the $25,000 price cutoff allowed by Congress as part of a new federal tax credit applying to used EVs. 

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