Somewhere east of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, a Lucid Gravity Grand Touring stopped holding 70 mph and rolled onto the shoulder with its driver's foot flat to the floor. Out of Spec Testing logged 357 miles for the run. Lucid's EPA estimate for that configuration, five seats on 20-inch front and 21-inch rear wheels, is 450. The gap is large, but a rating and a road test measure different things. The EPA figure blends city and highway driving, which usually asks less of a car than a steady 70 mph, and the channel says Lucid checked the data and found the test was run correctly. A rating tells you little until someone you trust repeats it in conditions you recognize.
What Car? supplied that kind of witness for the ID. Polo. Three testers drove the same loop of town streets, country roads and dual carriageways, swapping drivers each lap, on a day of about 18 degrees Celsius. The Polo averaged 5.2 miles per kWh on its trip computer, which the magazine projects to about 270 miles against a 281-mile WLTP rating. A mild day and a mixed route are usually easier than a 70 mph slog, so these two results cannot rank the Polo against the Gravity. They do show that a rating can hold up once an independent tester drives the car the way owners will.
The most useful number in today's edition came from an owner rather than a test procedure. Towing a Pebble Flow across the country, Out of Spec Reviews found that switching on the trailer's own battery stretched its Porsche Cayenne Electric's towing range from roughly 150 to 175 miles to 220 to 250. It also found the catch no spec sheet lists: the trailer charges so much more slowly than the Porsche that unhitching to top it up was rarely worth the time.
The hardest numbers to judge are the ones with no witness at all. Subaru's new battery is 25 percent lighter by the company's account, and The Electric Viking already argues it puts Subaru ahead of China, yet Subaru has published no capacity, range or charging figure for anyone to check. Even a contract can hide the variable that matters. Rivian Care's service contract runs as long as ten years, but Travis Ketchum explains that its clock starts alongside the factory warranty, so the extra cover a buyer actually gets depends on how many miles they drive.
What to watch: whether Lucid's service center finds brake drag or another fault on the Out of Spec test car, and whether a rerun closes the gap; whether other Gravity owners report similar highway figures; whether buyers of the 37 kWh ID. Polo actually receive the £1,500 grant What Car? quotes; when Subaru attaches a capacity and a test-cycle range to its battery; and whether Pebble retunes its trailer to favor regen over boost near the top of a climb.
What Car? Finds the ID. Polo Thriftier Than a Renault 5 and an MG4 Urban
What Car? says the ID. Polo shows Volkswagen admitting it was wrong to strip out physical controls. Buttons are back on the steering wheel, for the mirrors and for most climate functions, after years of touch-sensitive pads the reviewer calls fiddly. Its 441-litre boot took six carry-on cases, against four in a Renault 5 and eight in an MG4 Urban. The 52 kWh car is rated at 281 miles WLTP and peaks at 105 kW on a DC charger, the video says, while the 37 kWh car is rated at up to 205 miles and charges at up to 88 kW. On a shared test loop, What Car? recorded 5.2 miles per kWh for the Polo, 4.8 for an MG4 Urban and 4.6 for a Renault 5 built before Renault's recent efficiency updates. The video quotes a £22,445 starting price after a £1,500 grant it says applies to every version. When UK orders opened in July, Volkswagen named only the 52 kWh cars as grant-eligible, so smaller-battery buyers should confirm that figure with a dealer. What Car? also notes Volkswagen ranked among the five least reliable brands in its 2026 survey. Electrifying's verdict against the Kia EV2 is in our October 26 edition.
Subaru Shows a Lighter Battery and Its Own EV Platform, but No Range Yet
The Electric Viking, who owns a Subaru Trailseeker, reacts to a prototype Subaru showed at its test track in Japan: a stretched, older Outback body over the first EV platform Subaru has developed in-house rather than sharing with Toyota. Its battery pack, developed with Panasonic Energy, uses about 4,000 cylindrical cells. InsideEVs reports that Subaru says the pack weighs 25 percent less than its previous one and is targeting energy density 20 percent above the industry average; the video presents that second figure as already achieved. The video says motors of 150 kW front and 230 kW rear combine for 380 kW and a 0 to 100 km/h time under four seconds, and Subaru's engineers say the motors are about 30 percent more efficient than the industry average, Electrek reports. InsideEVs notes those drive units come from Aisin, a Toyota Group supplier, so the break from Toyota is not complete. The host estimates the new pack at roughly 75 kWh and puts his current pack at about 450 kg, but both are his estimates, and Motor1 notes Subaru has not disclosed capacity, charging speed or range. Cells are due from Panasonic plants in Japan that the two companies said in 2024 would reach 20 GWh of annual capacity by 2030, with the technology expected in cars around 2029.
Two Weeks and 3,511 Miles Behind a Cayenne: Out of Spec's Pebble Flow Report
Out of Spec Reviews took delivery of what it says was the first 2027 Pebble Flow at Pebble's launch event in California, then towed the 26-foot trailer across the country behind a Porsche Cayenne Electric. After 3,511 miles and about ten nights aboard, the hosts report two faults: a rear window latch mounted the wrong way and a small piece that fell off. The host describes a pack of roughly 40 kWh usable from BYD blade cells feeding two Schaeffler hub motors limited to 20 kW each. Its DC charging tops out around 45 kW against the Cayenne's 400 kW, he says, so he charged the trailer only when a cable could reach both vehicles and otherwise saved its battery as a range extender. His one handling complaint concerns the hitch. Pebble estimates hitch load, he says, with software rather than a force sensor, as Lightship does, and at highway speed over a crest the trailer can keep pushing before it switches to regen. He calls it not dangerous but wants it tuned. The host puts the price at about $180,000; Pebble lists the 2027 Flow from $159,000 for the Magic Pack trim and $189,000 for the Founders Edition. Pebble's record of turning owner complaints into production changes came up in our October 16 edition.
Rivian Care Is a Service Contract, Not a Longer Warranty
Travis Ketchum, who owns an R1S and an R2, explains Rivian Care and why he has bought neither of its two products. The vehicle service contract covers failures in the high-voltage battery, drive units, suspension, HVAC, cameras and infotainment, plus some wear items. Rivian says the program is powered by Assurant. Ketchum stresses that claims are judged against the contract's own exclusions, not the factory warranty. Ketchum flags three catches: a covered part is generally replaced only once, deductibles run from zero to $1,000, and the contract's term runs alongside the factory warranty rather than starting after it. Rivian's own brochure says the coverage period may overlap the new-vehicle warranty and that pricing during the overlap is based mainly on wear-and-tear cover the warranty does not include. With Rivian's four-year, 50,000-mile comprehensive warranty, Ketchum calculates that a six-year contract adds about two years for a light driver and four for someone covering 25,000 miles a year. Battery cover extends to 200,000 miles, against a replacement Rivian prices at up to $28,000. The separate Preferred Vehicle Protection plan covers tires, wheels, windshields, dents and keys, which Ketchum thinks more owners should consider. He says enrollment requires the original owner and a vehicle under eight years and 80,000 miles, though Rivian's support page also lists its Rivian Pre-owned vehicles as eligible.
Out of Spec's Lucid Gravity Covers 357 Miles at 70 mph Against a 450-Mile Rating
Out of Spec Testing ran the 2027 Lucid Gravity Grand Touring that Lucid supplies as its long-term test car through the channel's standard test: charge to 100 percent, hold a GPS-verified 70 mph on a highway loop near Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and keep going until the car can no longer keep pace. Sterling, a friend of the channel, drove on a day of about 80 degrees with Smooth mode, the lowest ride height, driver-only climate and tires at the door-card 42 psi. Efficiency settled mostly between 2.93 and 2.98 miles per kWh. The car held 70 mph past zero percent, and the channel records 357 miles using about 120 kWh, close to the 123 kWh it gives as usable capacity. Lucid rates this configuration at 450 miles EPA. Out of Spec says Lucid reviewed the test data, found the procedure and settings correct, and said the car was not performing where Lucid would expect. An alignment check found only small deviations; brake drag has not been ruled out, and the car is headed to Lucid service. For comparison, the channel says a Porsche Cayenne Electric covered 344 miles on 108 kWh in its test. The EPA figure combines city and highway driving, so a steady 70 mph run tends to land below it, though the channel says some cars beat their rating on this test.
Bottom line: The most valuable spec on any EV is a second opinion. What Car?'s loop is reason enough to put the ID. Polo on a British shortlist, and Out of Spec's run is reason enough not to pay $120,000 for a Gravity on its range rating until Lucid explains a 93-mile gap. Subaru's battery has no second opinion yet, so treat it as a promise, however good the percentages sound. When a number matters to your purchase, find out who measured it and how fast they were going.
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.