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2020 TOYOTA RAV4

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Right about the time I’d passed 30 miles of all-electric driving with the RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid, I knew this experience was going to be different. There was plenty of charge left.  With an expected EPA-rated 42-mile range from a big 18.1-kwh battery pack, the RAV4 Prime promises to transport commuters to work and back again without tailpipe emissions or the need to find another charge along the way. And then it becomes a 38-mpg hybrid after running through the charge, That and the Prime's suggested availability across the U.S., not just in California or a few select states, means it picks up right where the Chevy Volt left off .  Even better, it is the hottest crossover in these crossover-crazy times. The RAV4 is not only the top-selling SUV in the U.S. market for three years; the RAV4 Hybrid was also the top-selling hybrid in America last year—handily outselling the Toyota Prius.  The Prime finally checks nearly all the tech and special-needs boxes....
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The great electric car race is just beginning

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On the southern edge of Brussels, where the city turns to suburbs, the future of Germany’s most successful automaker is taking shape inside a peculiar sort of car factory. Here, there are no exhaust pipes, transmissions or fuel tanks. There are no spark plugs, radiators or manifolds. What the Volkswagen Group factory does have, however, are batteries stacked to the rafters. Thirty-six shoebox-sized battery modules, each containing a dozen lithium-ion cells, are packed into seven-foot long electric-battery packs and slung under the floor of each sport utility vehicle produced here. The first electric SUV from Volkswagen’s luxury audi brand, the e-tron, can go 400 kilometers (nearly 250 miles) on a single battery cycle and be recharged in as little as half an hour. The styling is conventional, the interior is luxurious and the ride is nearly silent. The e-tron SUV has one job for Volkswagon :Prove that a carmaker that has relied almost exclusively on the internal combust...
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