Ellis Hyde
Ellis Hyde is a motoring news reporter at Auto Express who focuses on breaking stories about new cars, emerging automotive technology and the fast-changing electric vehicle landscape. His coverage blends scoop-led reporting on upcoming models with clear explanations of how regulations, safety standards and car tech affect everyday drivers. He combines news gathering with hands-on testing and review work, bringing detail from real-world drives into his news and analysis. He has previously held online editing and content roles on electric car coverage and has been recognised with a rising-star award in the automotive press.
New car launches and future models
New and forthcoming models are the backbone of Hyde’s Auto Express output, and he covers them across the market from volume brands to luxury and performance names. Recent pieces range from the New Cupra Formentor VZ5 story, which highlights the model’s adoption of Audi RS 3 five-cylinder power, to coverage of the Range Rover SV Ultra as the brand’s most luxurious and advanced variant.
He reports on mainstream family cars such as an exclusive on the next-generation Skoda Karoq, focusing on its move to hybrid power and positioning within the brand’s line-up.
He follows product strategy at major manufacturers, for example detailing how a new Nissan Micra, a Leaf replacement and a Juke are among five Nissan EVs due by 2026, setting them in the context of the company’s broader electrification plans. His beat also extends to performance and halo products, including the New Lamborghini Lanzador “ultra-GT” designed to fill the gap between the firm’s supercars and the Urus SUV. Hyde tracks brand decisions around naming and range structure, such as explaining how Tesla has dropped its “Standard” labels and renamed entry-level Model Y and Model 3 variants, and what that means for buyers comparing configurations.
The author biography on Auto Express underscores that this breadth is deliberate, noting his work spans pint-sized city cars, family SUVs and million-pound hypercars, with a particular familiarity with Chinese brands entering the market.
Electric vehicles and charging
Hyde’s work is distinguished by a sustained focus on electric vehicles, rooted in earlier experience reporting and reviewing EVs for a dedicated electric-car title.
His DrivingElectric author page describes how he cut his teeth as content editor there while completing an automotive journalism master’s degree, reporting on electric cars from small city runabouts to high-value classic conversions and building expertise in EV charging networks. That EV grounding carries through into his Auto Express coverage, where he treats electric models and future EV line-ups as core news rather than niche topics, as seen in his reporting on Nissan’s upcoming family of electric cars and Tesla’s reshaped entry-level range. His listed areas of expertise at Auto Express include electric vehicles and Chinese cars, indicating that he not only follows established brands but also tracks newer manufacturers and their battery-electric offerings. Hyde’s EV pieces typically combine product detail with context on infrastructure and ownership, reflecting the DrivingElectric emphasis on charging networks and practical use.
This blend of technical familiarity and news sense makes his EV reporting useful for stories that need both model-level detail and an understanding of how those cars fit into the wider transition away from combustion engines.
Driver-assistance tech and safety scrutiny
Hyde stands out on the motoring news beat for scrutinising driver-assistance technology and the standards used to approve it. In his coverage of intelligent speed assistance and speed limit warning systems, he reports on Thatcham Research testing that found in-car tech can misread road signs or display the wrong speed limit as much as a quarter of the time.
He explains the gap between regulatory approval methods - based on overall distance accuracy - and event-based measures that focus on moments when speed limits change, showing how systems that pass official thresholds still fall short in everyday scenarios. The article breaks down performance across specific models, highlighting how the MG ZS, Tesla Model Y and BMW i5 differ in both distance-based and event-based accuracy, and what that means for driver trust.
Hyde brings in expert commentary from Thatcham’s chief ADAS engineer to underline why motorists are switching these systems off and why current regulation does not reflect what customers will accept. He also reports on instances where systems display speed limits that are not legally valid in the UK, such as 5mph, 10mph or 100mph, linking these errors to potential collision risk when the tech is tied to adaptive cruise control.
This strand of his work shows a reporter willing to interrogate mandated safety technology rather than simply repeating manufacturer claims, and it adds a regulatory and consumer-protection dimension to his otherwise product-focused beat.
Road tests, reviews and long-term impressions
Although Hyde’s primary role centres on news, his author biography and recent bylines show that he also contributes road tests and reviews. Auto Express notes that when he is not filing news stories he is road testing the latest new car models and adding his impressions to the magazine’s library of in-depth reviews.
His name appears on reviews such as the Nissan X-Trail, where he joins another writer to assess the car’s strengths and weaknesses in family use. He also writes long-term pieces that capture what it is like to live with a car over time, as in his Leapmotor B10 piece framed around the fact that the vehicle has spent significant time in the garage, delaying a clear verdict.
Earlier work at DrivingElectric described him reviewing a wide spread of electric and hybrid models, reinforcing his experience in structured road test formats. Auto Express further notes that he presents video content for the brand’s YouTube channel, suggesting an ability to translate written assessments into on-camera explanations of how a car behaves and where it fits in the market.
This combination of news reporting, review writing and long-term testing gives Hyde’s coverage a practical edge: product announcements are often backed by direct driving experience and sustained contact with the cars he writes about.
Across these strands - new-car scoops, EV and charging coverage, critical reporting on driver-assistance tech, and hands-on reviews - Ellis Hyde operates as a specialist motoring journalist with a strong emphasis on the future of cars and how that future works in real-world conditions. His portfolio is best described as news-led but technically informed, with a consistent focus on the implications of new models and technologies for everyday drivers.
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