10 Biggest News Stories of the Week: Tesla Model Y Takes Backseat to Hyundai Ioniq 6, Lucid Air Pure
The chatter around electric vehicles and their perceived desirability tends to range from, well, range to … OK, it’s pretty much just range. But like the captain of the varsity football team who secretly writes (terrible, iambic-pentameter-reliant) poetry, there’s just so much more to them than that! The alphabet soup of “kWh” and “mpg-e” can make it seem confusing, but the “fuel” efficiency of EVs isn’t dissimilar in concept from conventional gas mileage: The less energy the car consumes per unit — be it miles per gallon, or kilowatt-hours per 100 miles in this case — the lower the number, the higher the efficiency, the stretchier your transportation dollar.
In Cars.com’s most popular news article of the past week, we make your EV energy efficiency investigation all the more efficient by rounding up the top 10 models (which is technically 11 due to a tie for 10th place) that get the farthest on the least. They include specifically equipped 2023 models of the Hyundai Ioniq 6, Lucid Air, Tesla Model 3, Hyundai Kona Electric, Chevrolet Bolt EV, Toyota bZ4X, Tesla Model Y, Kia EV6, Tesla Model S, Chevrolet Bolt EUV and Kia Niro Electric. Estimated energy use for these models ranges from 24 to 29 kWh/100 miles, EPA-estimated fuel economy from 115 to 140 mpg-e (mpg-equivalent), 232 to 425 miles of driving range on a full charge and around $27,000 up to more than $109,000 in price.
For the full details on each of the 10 most efficient electric cars, follow the link below to the No. 1 news story of the week.
One spot down, the Tesla Model 3 makes an encore appearance — in model-year 2021 form — on this week’s countdown of most read articles, this time in the form of Cars.com reviewer Jennifer Geiger’s critical analysis of the small luxury electric SUV’s optional third row (emphasis on the “critical” part). In summary of Geiger’s full-family test, the Model Y wayback is a pain in the neck to get to, uncomfortable for anyone of even average height to be in, out of the question for tall people, inconsistently accommodating for different types of children’s car seats, just OK for car-seat-graduate kids and more than halves your cargo space when all the seats are in use. But, hey, at least it’s really expensive. (It’s a $3,000 add-on to a trim level that costs $3,000 more than the base model.)
Still not convinced you shouldn’t opt for those spendy sixth and seventh seats in the Tesla Model Y? Follow the link below to our No. 2 news story of the week to find out Y … er, why.
Beyond that, we have headlines on the Kia Sportage, Kia Carnival, Lexus GX and much more — so don’t stop reading till the digits double. Here are the top 10 news stories Cars.com readers couldn’t get enough of in the past week:
1. Top 10 Most Efficient Electric Cars
2. Who Fits in the Tesla Model Y’s Third Row?
3. Here Are the 11 Cheapest Electric Vehicles You Can Buy
4. Nearly 99,000 2023 Kia Sportage SUVs Recalled Over Loss of Brake Assist
5. Is the 2023 Kia Carnival Good for Carrying Aging Parents?
6. Which Electric Cars Are Still Eligible for the $7,500 Federal Tax Credit?
7. What Are the Most Fuel-Efficient Cars?
8. Electric Cars With the Longest Range
9. 2024 Lexus GX Up Close: Sophisticated Ruggedness
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