Hi, I'm John Davis and this is MotorWeek !

We're counting the ballots for this year's top picks...

The best cars, trucks, and utilities, it's our 2023 Drivers' Choice Awards!

We'll get hands-on with custom graphics in this week's "Your Drive."

Then, see how hydrogen fuel cells may soon power up our first responders...

So, come drive with us, next!

Closed Captioning provided by Maryland Public Television.

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JOHN: Everyone loves a winner.

But the real triumphs are hard earned.

And that's how we select our annual Drivers' Choice Awards.

All of the winners here are truly deserving as they are the ones that we like driving the most.

So, let's get right to it with the cars that came out on top this year!

♪ ♪ Not everyone has jumped aboard the crossover bandwagon, but America's tastes have certainly broadened from the traditional 4-door sedan.

Which means naming the hatchback Toyota Prius our Best Family Car really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Coming from a time when you had to explain what a hybrid was, through the debut of this better than ever 5th-generation, the Prius has become the fuel-sipping go-to for many American families.

It's a repeat win for the Mercedes-Benz S-Class as our Best Luxury Sedan.

The reasons are many; its tech like augmented reality navigation; the 77 inches of screen space; but also, its E-Active Body Control that delivers a composed driving experience unlike any other big sedan.

It's a tough package to top and turns out no other luxury car could.

Expectations were certainly high for the reborn Acura Integra, and it fully lived up to them.

That's why it's our best Sport Sedan for 2023.

A totally modern compact sport-luxury car with good power and a genuinely fun to drive nature.

Plus, easy to use tech, and more than acceptable amounts of luxury, all at an entry-level price.

Another vehicle making a return to headlines this year is the Nissan Z, our pick for Best Sport Coupe.

Yes, it's just Z now, and while not as all-new as some would have liked, it fully embodies the "Zethos" of the original, world-class performance for a bargain-class price.

Aided by Infiniti's smooth and powerful 400 horsepower 4.0 liter twin-turbo V6, it looks great, drives great, and is everything a Z should be.

With the emergence of EVs with outrageous performance numbers, it's getting harder to define what a performance car is.

But for our Best Performance Car award winner, it only took us one drive in Audi's spectacular RS3 to know it was the one.

With a unique 401 horsepower 5-cylinder turbo engine, and well-sorted suspension setup; this 4-door performer may be small in stature, but it packs a big performance punch for not a lot of money.

This year saw the arrival of a record number of battery electric vehicles, so we're expanding our EV awards to highlight four of the best, we drove this year.

When it comes to electrifying the iconic compact German luxury sport sedan, we don't see how BMW could have done a better job than they did with i4; all the fun and feel we were hoping for, with no more stops for gas!

If this all-electric Cadillac LYRIQ utility is indeed a true representation of what's to come from the new Cadillac, we couldn't be happier or more excited to drive what's still to come.

For about half the price of an Escalade, Cadillac has delivered an all-new gorgeous EV with more than 300 miles of range, loaded with tech and luxury.

If buzz and hype were the only criteria for winning an award, the GMC Hummer EV Pickup would have won in a landslide.

Our criteria are much stricter, and the Hummer EV Pickup is still a runaway winner.

It' so much more than just a pickup truck with batteries, it truly is unlike any vehicle we've ever driven.

While, Kia has been an EV builder for quite a few years, the EV6 is their first vehicle on a dedicated battery platform.

Plus, it also significantly raises the bar for the segment, delivering great range, better practicality, and tremendous ease of use; all in a spectacular looking crossover package.

That wraps up our look at the cars and EVs that earned our 2023 MotorWeek Drivers' Choice Awards; but stay tuned for a rundown of our truck and utility winners later in the show.

♪ ♪ JOHN: Mounting an effective response to natural disasters or emergency situations often comes down to having the right vehicles and equipment on standby.

This week we look at a prototype rescue truck that relies on clean power technology to let first responders hit the ground running.

♪ ♪ Efficient use of time and resources in the first hours after a hurricane, flood, fire, or winter storm, especially in remote areas, is critical for setting up a successful recovery operation.

H2@Rescue is a hydrogen fuel cell/battery hybrid truck that can mobilize two disaster sites within a 180 mile range, and then provide power, heating and cooling, and even create water on-site for up to 72 hours before refueling.

The project is a collaboration between several federal agencies, including the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security, the Army Corps of Engineers and private sector partners.

We caught up with the team at Colorado's National Renewable Energy Lab, where functionality testing was underway.

NICHOLAS JOSEFIK: The H2@Rescue gives us an opportunity to bring an emergency vehicle into a situation where there's no power or water, and get some eyes on the situation.

We can immediately have a command center, we can immediately be producing power-- 25 kilowatts worth of power-- and we can be generating water on site that could be used.

JOHN: H2@Rescue is a Class 7 heavy duty truck weighing approximately 33,000 pounds.

The box body is climate controlled and can act as a mobile command center or warming/cooling shelter during an emergency.

The truck carries 176 kilograms of hydrogen onboard, in high-pressure tanks.

Hydrogen fuel has an energy density about three times that of gas or diesel, and the electric drivetrain used in this truck is more efficient than a similar internal combustion engine.

Conversion of the Kenworth chassis from diesel to hydrogen power was spearheaded by Accelera by Cummins, a new subsidiary of the traditionally diesel-driven engine maker, that will focus on zero-emissions power solutions for the future.

PRATEEK VAISH: It has a fuel cell, which produces 90 kilowatts at max.

There's a high-voltage battery, which is 155 kilowatt-hours, and there is a traction motor, which is 250.

So, in a nutshell, how this vehicle operates is: The fuel cell charges the battery, and the battery provides power to the traction-- traction motor.

But if the battery is low on charge, the fuel cell can also provide power to the traction motor.

JOHN: The transport and fueling infrastructure for hydrogen still lags behind conventional fuels in terms of cost and number of locations due to the need for pressurized tanks, and other factors, but that gap could be closed in the future, since hydrogen can be produced and stored locally, potentially right at a fueling site.

Accelera is already a global leader in fuel cell applications with more than 2,000 fuel cells and 600 electrolyzers - the machines that separate hydrogen from water -- already in use.

Lessons learned here will help them develop zero-emission power solutions for other vocational vehicles, like electric utility trucks, transit buses, delivery vehicles and long-haul trucks.

PRATEEK: I've been doing a lot of work towards destination zero, which is we're trying to decarbonize the whole Cummins portfolio by 2050, so this is a great step in that direction.

JOHN: H2@Rescue passed the NREL testing with flying colors, proving that hydrogen power can fulfill the critical needs of first responders in these extraordinary situations, and showing one pathway to a zero-emission future for vehicles of all sizes.

While, things always seem to be in flux in the auto industry, there's been one constant for quite a few years now: Trucks and utility vehicles are eating up more and more market share.

It's hard to argue with their versatility, and even harder to argue with our 2023 Drivers' Choice Award winners!

♪ ♪ We've been fans of Mazda's approach to building utility vehicles that are not only highly practical, but also incredibly fun to drive.

With the all-new CX-50, our Best Small Utility winner, they kept playful and practical the main things, but increased its off-road capabilities, as well as continued to escalate refinement, as Mazda marches toward becoming more of a premium brand.

Our Best Midsize Utility nod goes to the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

For a company heavy on tradition, you'd think Jeep would be the last to offer a plug-in powertrain, but after debuting it in the Wrangler two years ago, it's now available on the new Grand Cherokee 4xe.

Combine that forward thinking with all-around better off-road performance than ever, and cutting-edge tech for the driver and passengers, plus, 3-row seating in the Grand Cherokee L, and it's a Grand Cherokee lineup that's more desirable than ever.

After flirting with various family size 3-row SUVs for years, Hyundai finally got serious 3-years ago with the Palisade.

It was a huge success by any measure, and they wasted no time making it even better, adding a host of updates that helped it earn our Drivers' Choice Award for Best Large Utility.

The Palisade not only sits atop the lineup when it comes to size but sets a new standard for the brand.

Last year it was that first-ever 3-row Jeep Grand Cherokee L that won our Best Large Utility award, and this year Jeep went even bigger and far better with the Grand Wagoneer L, our winner for Best Luxury Utility.

Yep, Jeep wins a luxury vehicle award.

And while that may shock some, anyone who's spent time inside the new Grand Wagoneer will totally get it.

And this year, it truly grew to new lengths with an extended wheelbase version that provides cavernous storage space behind the 3rd-row, so you can haul plenty of cargo and people.

It's the ultimate go-anywhere family getaway machine that pampers in every way possible.

Best Small Truck honors go to a repeat winner, the Ford Maverick.

Last year saw the reemergence of true compact pickups, and the Ford Maverick easily won an award from us for not only giving buyers a great to drive and capable pickup packed with cool features, but pricing it low enough to be Ford's entry-level model.

And on top of that, they gave it a standard hybrid powertrain making it the least expensive new hybrid you could buy.

No one even attempted to match that this year, so the Maverick is a winner again.

The Ford F-Series remains the best-selling lineup of full-size pickup trucks year after year, so winning our Best Full-size Truck award is probably no big surprise.

The major reason for that is the constant innovation that Ford continues to bring across the F-Series family.

The all-new 14th generation F-150 that arrived for '21 was impressive enough, but since then, they not only went electric with the Lightning, but made it affordable.

Then, they catapulted themselves back to the top of the off-road performance truck heap with the 700 horsepower Raptor R. But what really sealed the deal this year was a new generation of Super Duty trucks that deliver more towing, payload, torque, and horsepower than any heavy duty truck yet, and integrate new technologies that not only pamper, but help you perform your jobs better than ever.

That's a wrap for our 2023 Drivers' Choice Truck and Utility winners, but we've still got one to deliver, our biggest award of all: The MotorWeek Drivers' Choice Best of the Year!

And it's coming up later in the show.

Some car body customization can be boiled down to temporary fads, but vinyl graphics have become a long-standing trend.

This week, our "Your Drive" expert Dan Maffett shows us how to get the cleanest look from this now time-tested medium.

♪ ♪ DAN MAFFETT: When it comes to graphics for a car, there's one medium that most builders use across the board, and that's vinyl.

Vinyl is very versatile; you can use it for decals down the side or completely encase the car in a different color, like a wrap.

Now, wraps are a little more hard to do.

You want to have a professional shop do it, because they have all kinds of specialty tools and experience, and then takes a whole team of guys to stretch a panel of vinyl across an entire hood, down the side of a car.

They do it in as little sheets as possible so they can wrap the whole vehicle in one big sheet, trim it out, heat it with a blowtorch, so it shrinks to the car and then they finish it out.

Whereas, graphics or decals down the side, are something you can do at your home garage or in your driveway.

When it comes to graphics like this across a windshield, you can use something like this knifeless tape.

And what this does, it has a steel braid in the middle and you can lay it down first to get your shape, put your vinyl over top, and peel it just like this.

The best thing about this tape, is you lay down your line that you want to cut on, then you press it down so it's nice and firm, put your vinyl medium over top, then you take the vinyl, you get this lined up.

You want to pull this green part of the tape really hard, and what does is it breaks the seal against this-- this braid right here.

Then, just wrap a finger around it and you give it a nice tug.

And as you see as I go across, it is actually cutting the vinyl right on my line that I put there.

Go all the way across, nice and slow, you don't want to go too fast, and then just like that you've got a nice clean cut.

Then, you're able to just pull it, just like that, and get-- look how crisp that is.

Nice and clean edge right across it.

Now, where this knifeless tape really shines is when you're trying to contour a body panel.

You can lay this tape out, following the body line you want to contour, put your vinyl out over top of it like this, and then just like you cut the tape earlier, you just pull this out and it automatically just contours right there, the body line that you want to accent, just like that.

And then, when you peel this back (sound of tape ripping) you're left with that nice, clean edge.

If you have a question or comment, hit us up here at MotorWeek .

JOHN: No time to waste.

Let's drop in for another QuickSpin!

♪ ♪ JESSICA RAY: Bigger is not always better, but if you've found yourself outgrowing your Toyota Highlander, Toyota has a "grand" solution, this 2024 Grand Highlander.

Just back from a First Drive opportunity on the Big Island of Hawaii, the seven or eight passenger Grand Highlander sits 6.5 inches longer than its less grand originator, with the bulk of that added length benefitting 3rd row passengers.

And cargo hauling too, growing from 16 to 20.6 cubic-feet behind the 3rd row; 57.9 when they're folded flat, which is an increase of 9.5 cubic-feet, and finally max grows from 84.3 to 97.5 cubic-feet.

But don't think of this as just a stretched Highlander, as it is a completely new vehicle with all new body work that favors the RAV4 more than the existing Highlander.

Wheelbase is about 4.0 inches longer than the Highlander, too, so proportions still look right.

When it comes to the powertrain, nothing unknown, as all three choices come from the current Toyota line-up, the most notable of which is the Toyota Crown's Hybrid Max powerplant, outputting 362 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque.

It comes with standard all-wheel-drive, which remains optional with the 245 horsepower 2.5 liter Hybrid and 265 horsepower 2.4 liter turbo-4, both from the Highlander.

Each engine comes with its own transmission; the Hybrid getting a CVT, the 2.4 turbo an 8-speed automatic, and the Hybrid MAX a 6-speed auto.

Both hybrids power the rear wheels with electric motors only; the standard hybrid acts primarily in front-wheel-drive unless additional traction is needed, while the Hybrid Max operates in a more performance-oriented full-time fashion.

The 2.4 liter turbo is the only one that sends mechanical power rearward through an actual drive shaft.

BRIAN ROBINSON: The Hybrid Max engine has loads of torque for getting this Grand Highlander off the line; but, really the Grand Highlander is only, like, 100 pounds heavier than the regular Highlander, so all the engines are more than adequate for uh-- getting you down the road.

JESSICA: Toyota's latest Audio Multimedia system gets a 12.3 inch touchscreen standard, as Grand Highlanders are only available in XLE, Limited, and Platinum trim.

Pricing starts around $43,000, with Grand Highlanders making their grand entrance this summer.

And we'll have a complete Grand Highlander Road Test, and more QuickSpins, soon.

JOHN: So far, you've seen our Drivers' Choice Award winners for cars, trucks, and utilities, but we still have time for one more award.

It's our overall top pick, the 2023 MotorWeek Drivers' Choice Best of the Year!

♪ ♪ The Kia EV6; an EV game changer for so many reasons.

When it comes to transitioning to our all-electric future, meeting people where they are is the key.

That means less 6-figure show pieces, and more tidy crossovers like this spectacular battery electric EV6.

Kia actually has years of experience integrating batteries and electric motors into vehicles, but the EV6 was their first on a dedicated EV platform that it shares with Hyundai.

Available in rear or all-wheel-drive, with as much as 310 miles of range, or as many as 576 horsepower in the GT, means lots of options whether your priorities are getting the kids to school, or getting to 60 in only 3.5 seconds.

And with 800 volt charging capability, it charges almost as quickly, adding more than 200 miles of range in less than 18 minutes.

No matter how it's spec'd out, the EV6 is quick, comfortable, and a more than capable handler.

It also doesn't feel overly heavy like many EVs, with a toss-able nature to go with that near instantaneous power that we've come to love from EVs.

It looks cool too, and certainly trendy, with a 5-door coupe-like profile, flush door handles, and long wheelbase; but its face is aggressive and more traditional in nature.

And, inside the cabin, there's an Audi-like vibe that feels equal parts sporty, comfortable, and techy, as well as way above its price point; with great seats and a clean and functional layout that's different enough from traditional cars, but still easily to get accustomed to.

The Kia EV6 is a total EV package that delivers style, performance, and tech better than just about anything else on the road and does it for less.

It's the exact kind of vehicle that will take EVs out of the early adopter stage, and provide a big push towards making them mainstream.

That's why the Kia EV6 is our 2023 MotorWeek Drivers' Choice Best of the Year!

Well, that's our show, I hope you enjoyed it.

Now, for more MotorWee k, including daily news updates, podcasts, and even complete episodes, cruise on over to PBS.ORG/MOTORWEEK.

And I hope you'll join us next time!

We'll test the hybrid edition of Honda's all-new CR-V, followed by the latest from a fuel-sipping pioneer, the redesigned Toyota Prius.

Until then, I'm John Davis.

We'll see you right here on MotorWeek !

ANNOUNCER: To learn more about MotorWeek ... Television's original automotive magazine, visit... To order a DVD of this program, call... MotorWeek has been brought to you by... ANNOUNCER: For more than 30 years Lucas Oil products has helped people tackle mechanical problems in the automotive, marine, and industrial fields.

From our original four core products... Lucas Oil has developed over 400 custom products to help both professionals and do it yourselfers.

To learn more visit Lucasoil.com.

Lucas oil, keep that engine alive!

MotorWeek is proudly sponsored by Auto Value and Bumper To Bumper, featuring major brand auto and truck parts, and service from coast to coast.

Learn more at AutoValue.com and BumperToBumper.com.

TireRack.Com is proud to support MotorWeek .

First, there was the wheel.

Then, the tire.

"We'll call it Tire Rack."

Forty years later, we're not slowing down.

♪ ♪ This program was produced by Maryland Public Television, which is solely responsible for its content.

(car engine revving) ♪ ♪ You're watching PBS.