Edmunds ranked eight electric SUVs and put the one with the longest range at the bottom of the list. The Chevrolet Equinox EV covered 356 miles on the channel's range test, the highest figure in the group, and finished eighth of eight. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 took first with a rated 318 miles in rear-wheel drive and 290 with all-wheel drive. When the longest range in a test finishes last, the question is what is deciding these things instead.
Charging speed does some of the work. The single-motor Kia EV6 added 100 miles in 8 minutes and 15 seconds, quickest in the test. The Ioniq 5 managed about eight minutes for the same. The Equinox EV needed roughly 19 minutes and the Mustang Mach-E about 20. The rest of the gap is ordinary car stuff. Seats, cargo shape, whether a $50,000 interior feels like one.
Two of today's videos arrive at the same conclusion from the cheap end, deliberately. Electrifying's Leapmotor B03X review states the trade out loud: a 53 kWh LFP pack rated at 237 miles WLTP, which the presenter defends as the greener choice, with the budget spent on standard equipment instead. EVs & Beyond pushed it further, taking a 35.8 kWh BYD Racco out of Tokyo and covering 431 km in a day across expressway and mountain roads at around 11 kWh per 100 km. Neither car is quick. Neither charges fast. Both did the job a buyer would give them.
The Electric Viking's story is what would make that trade cheaper again. The video reports that LG Energy Solution and Seoul National University published results on a manganese-rich cell, roughly 65 percent manganese with almost no cobalt, that held 92.2 percent of its energy after 883 full cycles in a car-sized format. What fixed it was operational rather than chemical: a lower charging cutoff voltage. We covered CATL selling LFP cells direct at around $63 per kilowatt hour on September 9. Cost per kilowatt hour is the number the rest of this now hangs off.
The figure nobody quotes at purchase is what the pack costs later. Out of Spec Renew's Lightning had run about 234,000 miles before a single module went bad, and the economical repair turned out to be a used pack, because sourcing one module that matches the capacity of a worn one is not something the parts market does well. That is the thing to watch. The Electric Viking puts LG's pre-production at late 2027 and US volume at 2028, which would mean the cars being chosen on range this month are the ones that will answer the replacement question around 2032.
Eight Electric SUVs, and a Tenth of a Point Between the Top Three
Edmunds ran eight electric SUVs through its ratings process and counted down from last. The Chevrolet Equinox EV finished eighth on a 7.0, which the hosts note is still well clear of the lowest-rated gas compact SUV at 5.7. It posted the longest run in the test at 356 miles and starts around $37,000, but Edmunds marks it down for cabin materials, flat seats, a 1,500 pound tow rating and roughly 19 minutes per 100 miles on a fast charger. The Toyota bZ is seventh, the Kia EV6 sixth despite adding 100 miles in 8 minutes 15 seconds in single-motor form, the Subaru Trailseeker fifth on a 262 mile range result, the Ford Mustang Mach-E fourth.
The top three sit within a tenth of a point. The Tesla Model Y is third on 8.2, with the highest driving experience and cargo scores in the group and supervised Full Self-Driving as the feature no rival here offers. The Rivian R2 is second, the newest car here, at just over $60,000 in the launch Performance trim, with a 3.7 second 0 to 60 at the Edmunds test track and a 4,400 pound tow rating. The Ioniq 5 holds first on charging speed and livability rather than range. One R2 owner we covered on September 7 is running 21 percent below the rated number, and the single-motor Standard R2 that Edmunds expects at around $45,000 in 2027 is the version that would reset the value question.
Leapmotor's B03X Spends Its Budget on Equipment, Not Range
Electrifying measures the Leapmotor B03X at 4.27 m, a little longer than the Renault 4 and the electric Ford Puma. The pitch is kit. The presenter says everything on the car is standard: heated seats, a heated steering wheel, leatherette trim and a 14.6-inch touchscreen, with the air vents left manual. Luggage space is given as 405 litres plus 105 litres in a waterproof underfloor well.
Range is where the trade shows. The video gives 237 miles WLTP from a 53 kWh LFP pack, with DC charging up to 133 kW, a standard heat pump and vehicle-to-load. She argues a right-sized battery is the greener choice, while listing rivals that go further on a charge. Her real criticism is the driving: 194 horsepower through the front wheels producing noticeable wheel spin on dry roads, soft suspension and vague steering. Prices start at £28,495 before a £1,500 grant she says is already available, with a four year, 60,000 mile warranty she rates as only okay next to longer cover elsewhere, and eight years on the battery. Leapmotor now sits inside the Stellantis group in Europe.
The Fix for Manganese-Rich Cells Was a Voltage Setting, Not a New Material
The Electric Viking reports that LG Energy Solution, working with Seoul National University, has published research showing its lithium manganese rich chemistry can survive long-term use in the large cells that go into cars. The recipe is roughly 65 percent manganese and 35 percent nickel with almost no cobalt, the ingredient the video calls the most expensive in a conventional cell. According to the video, General Motors has said the savings could beat a switch to LFP while holding about a third more energy in the same space.
Lifespan has been the barrier. The video explains that these cells use oxygen inside the material to help store energy, and that when it does not fully return to place it degrades the structure and generates gas, a nuisance in a lab cell and a serious problem in a car-sized one. The reported fix is operational. Dropping the charging cutoff from 4.6 volts to 4.3 volts lifted oxygen recovery from 86 to 97 percent, and a cooler first conditioning charge cut gassing further. A 40 amp hour cell then held 92.2 percent of its energy after 883 full cycles, which the host translates to roughly 350,000 miles in a car with 400 miles of range. He says GM and LG have pre-production scheduled at an LG plant in late 2027 and US commercial production in 2028, aimed at full-size electric trucks and SUVs.
234,000 Miles, One Bad Module, and a Used Pack Instead
Out of Spec Renew documents a battery pack replacement on a Ford F-150 Lightning Lariat standard range with about 234,000 miles on it. The host reads a 317 millivolt imbalance in module four, with the weakest cell group at 3.34 volts against roughly 3.7 for everything else, and says the likely cause is a weak short slowly self-discharging that one group. He considers swapping the single module and rules it out: finding one that matches the capacity of a pack this far into its life, and stays balanced with it, is not something the supply base handles. A low-mileage used pack, he says, is cheap enough to be the better answer.
The removal itself is undramatic. Twelve volt battery disconnected, service loop pulled, skid plates down, coolant lines and connectors released, one ground cable, eight bolts, and the pack drops onto a lift table. The replacement arrived from a dismantler with a broken coolant hose fitting and a damaged connector, both transferred across from the original. The truck went to ready at 69 percent, and the host puts most of the fault codes he then finds down to a 12 volt battery that dies within seconds of shutdown.
A 35.8 kWh Kei Car Left Tokyo, Reached Mount Fuji, and Could Not Be Slept In
EVs & Beyond drove a BYD Racco out of Tokyo, up an expressway and along mountain roads, covering 431 km in 24 hours. The car is built to Japan's kei class rules, which the video gives as fixed maximum dimensions and a 47 kW power cap whatever the powertrain. The tested 300 Premium carries a 35.8 kWh blade LFP pack in a cell-to-pack layout, rated at 320 km. The host recorded 11.1 kWh per 100 km over mostly highway running.
His complaints are about speed, not space. DC charging tops out at 50 kW here and 30 kW on the base car, both landing near 40 minutes, and a 7 kW home charger takes about six hours. There is no one-pedal driving, and 0 to 100 km/h takes about 15 seconds. Against that, the sliding rear doors open on a foot sensor, the rear seats fold flat, and he rates the level two lane keeping as unusually well sorted. The video says the car has no crash rating yet and that BYD is targeting five stars, and reports Suzuki's CEO calling it a serious threat. His plan to sleep in it ended when the alarm would not let him lock himself inside.
Bottom line: If you are shopping the Edmunds list, buy the charging curve and the cabin, not the range figure, because the 356 mile car finished last and the 290 mile car won. The B03X is the more honest of today's two cheap cars, but a four year warranty when the presenter can reel off rivals with longer cover is a reason to wait for a finance deal rather than pay list. And anyone planning to keep an EV past 200,000 miles should note what actually ends a pack. Not slow decline. One module. Used packs are the market that matters.
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.