A new car used to be measured against other new cars. In today's five stories, the hardest rival is usually something older: the previous version of the same car, a cheaper sibling built on the same platform, or a battery that has already finished one job. That older option is priced, reviewed and often sitting on a used lot, and it sets the bar the new thing has to clear.
Out of Spec BITS makes the case most plainly with the updated BMW i7. The host says used examples of the outgoing car sell for around $60,000, less with high mileage, while the one he drove will cost well over $100,000. He still thinks the new car earns its price, but he has to argue it against BMW's own back catalog. carwow runs the same sum on the new Nissan Leaf. The host prices the entry car, with carwow's discount, at just under £27,000, then points out that the same money buys a two-year-old Tesla Model Y.
Batteries face the same test, and the margin is thin. Just Have a Think looks at second-life storage, where a pack no longer good enough for a car goes to work beside a solar farm. The technology works, he says. The trouble is that retired packs are scarce because modern batteries are outlasting the cars around them, and new storage packs have become very cheap. An Australian project built on old Leaf batteries, he notes, ended up with only a small cost edge over new ones. Old Leaf packs keep turning up in this work: electrive reported in September that a Texas remanufacturer had repurposed its 1,000th.
Sometimes the older version is simply better equipped. Tom Moloughney's R2 delivery came without the seat-back cooling fan that, by his account, R2s up to roughly VIN 9,000 or 10,000 received. His is in the 12,000s. And TheStraightPipes call the Ioniq 6 N close to the same car as the Ioniq 5 N, then guess its price by looking at the 5 N.
Hyundai's pricing will settle the Ioniq 6 N question quickly. The hosts guess about $70,000 in the US, while InsideEVs puts the 2026 Ioniq 5 N at $61,500 after a price cut. If Hyundai lands near that guess, the older N car becomes the smarter buy for anyone who mainly wants the launch-control laughs. The battery question will take years. Moment Energy's new Vancouver plant, the video reports, is meant to eventually produce one gigawatt-hour of second-life systems a year, and it needs retired packs to fill it. If old cars keep running, that plant will wait, which is the better problem to have.
The Ioniq 6 N's Fake Gearbox Had TheStraightPipes in Tears
TheStraightPipes' Jacob and Yuri spent much of their Ioniq 6 N drive on launch control, and the first run, in Light Speed mode, left them crying with laughter. The hosts quote up to 641 hp, with N Grin Boost, from two motors and an 84 kWh battery. The simulated eight-speed gearbox can be switched off, and the hosts suspect the car is quicker without it. They describe the 6 N as essentially the same E-GMP car as the Ioniq 5 N and the Genesis GV60 Magma, with different styling: a blacked-out nose and tail, a large swan-neck wing and five-spoke wheels both hosts loved. The complaint is the menus. Drift Optimizer, the torque split and the N pedal settings all have submenus, most carry closed-course warnings, and switching off the fake engine sound means a trip into the touchscreen unless you give up a steering wheel button for it. The cabin keeps physical buttons and heated and cooled buckets, but there is no front trunk. They say there is no official price or range yet, guess about $70,000 in the US based on Ioniq 5 N pricing, and saw roughly 400 km displayed after a full charge at home. For comparison, InsideEVs puts the 2026 Ioniq 5 N at $61,500 after a $6,300 cut.
carwow Gets 255 Motorway Miles From a Leaf Claimed at 387, and Still Shortlists It
carwow's host tested the new Nissan Leaf, now a front-drive crossover, in top-spec, big-battery form: 218 hp and 75 kWh, against 177 hp for the smaller battery. His car reached 60 mph in 6.96 seconds, quicker than Nissan's 7.5-second claim, but needed 36 meters to stop from 60, just past the 35 he considers acceptable. Nissan claims 387 miles for this battery, he notes. On a run of nearly 200 miles from Oxford to London and back, much of it on the motorway in the normal drive mode, he averaged 3.4 miles per kWh, which works out to about 255 miles. His complaints include a touchscreen angled away from the driver, no rear wiper, Android Auto that forgets his phone and an e-Pedal mode that slows the car without bringing it to a stop. He likes the ride, the handling, the front massage seats and a 437-liter boot that took seven of his test suitcases. Rear foot space is tight, and he says a Kia EV3 feels roomier. He prices the entry car just under £27,000 with carwow's discount and puts it on his shortlist. Autogefühl ran its own autobahn efficiency test on the Leaf, covered here September 20.
Just Have a Think Says Old EV Batteries Should Work a Second Job Before Recycling
Just Have a Think's host argues that a retired EV battery, which he says typically keeps 70 to 80 percent of its capacity, should usually go into grid storage before it goes to a recycler. B2U Storage Solutions in California, the video explains, connects whole EV packs without fully taking them apart; it says B2U's Lancaster site has run commercially since 2020 with more than 1,300 retired packs, 8 MW and 32 MWh, and that Waymo will send it batteries from its fleet. He cites a 2025 study in Environmental Science & Technology that modeled California through 2050: recycling straight away avoided about 48 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, and a second life first raised that to almost 56 million. The obstacles are practical: retired packs are scarce because batteries are outlasting cars, each needs testing, and new storage packs averaged $70 per kWh in 2025, according to the BloombergNEF figure he quotes. In Australia, Relectrify built 15 systems from retired Nissan Leaf batteries with ARENA support, and the agency's final report, as he describes it, found only a marginal cost edge over new batteries. He also cites a 2026 Applied Energy study favoring second life for LFP cells and direct recycling for pricier NCA cells. Separately, electrive reported on September 25 that Texas remanufacturer Samsar, which the video mentions, had repurposed its 1,000th Leaf pack.
State of Charge's R2 Delivery: A Glove Box Gained, a Seat Fan Lost
Tom Moloughney filmed the home delivery of his R2 Launch Edition, in Catalina Cove on 21-inch wheels, with a Rivian delivery specialist named Lee walking through every setting. Lee explains that the Launch Edition includes Universal Hands-Free assisted driving for life rather than on a monthly fee, and 60 days of Connect+, which then costs $14.99 a month or $150 a year. Rivian zeroed out the charge for a portable charger and two adapters, he says, because he lives in a CARB state. Changes from the R1 include a real glove box, a portable air compressor in place of a built-in one and a charge port moved to the rear. The sore point is seat cooling. By Moloughney's account, R2s delivered up to roughly VIN 9,000 or 10,000 have cooling in the seat back as well as the cushion, and his, in the 12,000 range, has only the cushion. He says he wishes Rivian had explained the change before it started delivering cars without it, though it was not enough to make him cancel. He rated build quality nearly perfect while noting Rivian knew the car was going on camera, and Rivian dropped off a wall charger for him to review during the shoot. On his account, anyone shopping a used R2 in a hot state should check the VIN alongside the price.
Out of Spec BITS Says the New i7 Is Worth It, Even Stuck at 400 Volts
Out of Spec BITS had about 20 minutes in the updated BMW i7, a car the host knows well: he says his team put roughly 25,000 miles on the previous one. He says the battery now uses large cylindrical 4695 cells in place of prismatic ones, the cabin gains BMW's Panoramic Vision display and iDrive X, and he says BMW told him the car no longer limits DC charging after repeated fast-charging sessions, a problem his team hit in the old car. What stays is the 400-volt system. He quotes a 250 kW peak that needs a charger able to supply 630 amps and expects most drivers to see around 200 kW, while, he says, BMW's newest 800-volt models charge at up to 400 kW. He finds that odd for a flagship, but argues i7 owners rarely fast charge. He calls it almost silent at 65 mph and rates it above rivals such as the Mercedes EQS. With used first-generation cars at around $60,000 and the new one well over $100,000, he says the update is worth the money, though still not the technology flagship he thinks it should be. BMW's published cell sizes, as reported by BMWBlog, make the 4695 a 46 mm by 95 mm cell, the same diameter as the Roadster's 4680 in yesterday's edition. Autogefühl's look at the update ran here September 27.
Bottom line: The i7 is the easiest call today. If you charge at home, a used first-generation car at around $60,000 gives you most of the experience for far less money, and the new car's charging upgrade matters least to exactly the owners who never fast charge. The R2 seat fan is a small part, but if Moloughney is right that buyers were not told, that is a bigger miss than the hardware. The Leaf earns its shortlist spot only at a discounted price. And the Ioniq 6 N needs to undercut the hosts' $70,000 guess, not meet it.
Commentary on third-party videos. Figures and claims are as presented in the sources and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.