I’ve Seen More Improvement In Two Years Of Reviewing EVs Than I D

Home Features Opinion I’ve Seen More Improvement In Two Years Of Reviewing EVs Than I Did In A Decade Testing Gas Cars As EVs rapidly improve in every key area, it's getting harder and harder to imagine a future for gasoline engines

What's Happening

Photo by: Ralph Hermens Mack Hogan By : Mack Hogan Jul 7, at 1:42pm ET Add InsideEVs as a preferred source in Google Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail copy Share Comment When I left Road & Track to join InsideEVs, my car enthusiast friends were surprised. I was trading in the glamorous world of six-figure supercars and earth-shaking monster trucks for the practical business of charging infrastructure and battery chemistry. Why would I bother, they asked, when even the mightiest EV was less exciting and heavier than a run-of-the-mill sports car. The answer was hard to explain in the present tense.

Why This Matters for EV Owners

• I was tired of living in a world where the past was celebrated as somehow pure, and the future tinged with anxiety about emissions and regulation
• I wanted to get excited about the future again, and as I saw gas cars stagnate, I knew that I had to turn the page
• In the two and a half years since, I can say with certainty that I've seen more exciting progress in the EV sector than I have in the last ten years of internal-combustion development
• And the party's just getting started

The Bigger Picture

The Best Gas Car Has Already Been Built I started reviewing cars professionally in 2017. The first car I reviewed for CNBC was the then-new Volvo S90 , part of a new generation of Volvos meant to herald a new era for the automaker now under Chinese ownership. 0-liter inline-four with either a turbocharger or a turbocharger and a supercharger.    The first car I ever reviewed, a 2017 Volvo S90. Modern gas Volvos still use the same engine.

What This Means for Your Wallet

Based on current European charging rates, DC fast charging costs between €0.30-0.65 per kWh depending on the network and country. This translates to roughly 40-60% savings compared to equivalent petrol costs. A typical fast-charging session takes 20-45 min (10-80% DC fast) — enough time for a coffee break on a long trip.

Real-World Range Considerations

EVRoutes' route calculations account for real-world conditions. In winter, expect 15-30% range reduction due to battery chemistry and cabin heating. Pro tip: Pre-conditioning the battery before DC fast charging can improve charging speeds by up to 30% in cold weather.

What to Watch Next

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs Today, the S90 is gone for our market, but its SUV sibling, the XC90, remains. It comes with better cabin technology than the 2017 version, better tuning, and a better plug-in hybrid variant. But the engine/transmission combo is much the same. It gets only 1 mpg better, thanks not to improvements in gasoline engine design, but because of the inclusion of a mild 48-volt hybrid system that helps make up for the inherent inefficiency of a gas engine.