For so long, the words Tesla and electric vehicle were almost interchangeable, like tissues and Kleenex.
However, the EV world is growing, and the now-Texas-based EV maker has competition not only in the marketplace but on the award circuit as well as Kia and Lucid joined Tesla in securing some new EV honors.
U.S. News & World Report handed out its 2022 Best Hybrid and Electric Cars and the 2022 Kia EV6 took home the honor for the Best Electric Vehicle. The 2022 Lucid Air captured the Best Luxury Electric Car. Tesla wasn’t left out, the 2022 Model X earning the Best Luxury Electric SUV award.
“There’s been a significant increase in the demand for electric vehicles, and they have more appeal than ever as gas prices rise and consumers look for cars with a low carbon footprint,” said Jim Sharifi, managing editor of U.S. News Best Cars. “The winners of the Best Hybrid and Electric Car awards deliver a rewarding ownership experience, as well as low emissions and fuel costs.”
Hybrid winners
There were awards for electrified vehicles — hybrids and plug-in hybrids — as well and, somewhat unsurprisingly, Toyota cleaned house in this category. Now Toyota is synonymous with hybrids due to the Prius, which maintained its position as top dog, winning the Best Hybrid Car honor.
The 2022 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid was named Best Hybrid SUV while Toyota’s luxury brand, Lexus, won the Best Luxury Hybrid crown for 2022. Volvo earned the Best Luxury Plug-In Hybrid or the S60 T9 PHEV and the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid PHEV won the Best Plug-In Hybrid category.
The 2022 Best Hybrid and Electric Car winners are based on a combination of the cars’ overall score from the U.S. News Best Car Rankings, starting price, Level 2 charging rate, and fuel economy and range data from the EPA.
U.S. News analyzed data for 82 luxury and mainstream hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars. Within each of the eight categories, the vehicle with the highest composite score is named the winner in that category.
Continuing a trend
Not only are sales of electric vehicles on the rise, jumping nearly 85% in 2021, they’re dominating the big automotive awards handed out in 2022. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 pulled off a hat trick last week with the brand ultimately winning four World Car awards at the New York International Auto Show, including World Car of the Year.
But, in a sense, the real winner was the generic battery-electric vehicle. World Car jurors named BEVs their top picks in five of the six categories announced during the auto show’s opening ceremonies. Further, all-electric models dominated the list of finalists in this year’s six World Car categories, only six of 18 relying on conventional internal combustion engines.
At the start of the year, the North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year awards saw an EV make the final three in each category for the first time ever.