Since 2021, our EV of the Year award has highlighted innovation. Meet the winners that have helped take electric vehicles from alternative to mainstream.
For six years now, our EV of the Year competition has served as a showcase of innovation, technological advancement, and, in some instances, passion. While those benchmarks have shifted over time, all five of the winners below have played a part in making electric vehicles truly desirable rather than just a feel-good purchase for the eco-conscious.
The Mustang Mach-E got the ball rolling when it won our inaugural 2021 EV of the Year award. It took top honors for nailing the fundamentals and making the transition to electric motoring easy at a time when other options came with serious compromises. The Mach-E sidestepped many of the early EV pitfalls by delivering competitive range, performance, and practicality in one accessible package.
In 2021, the only EV that could beat the Mach-E's 250-mile highway range in our testing was the Tesla Model S. But compared with Tesla's expensive sedan, the Mach-E offered better value and practicality as an affordable compact crossover. Many pony-car purists (including a number of C/D editors) struggled with the concept of an electric Mustang, but the Mach-E's quiet dynamic confidence and off-the-line swiftness highlighted the fact that EVs can be as rewarding to drive as their gas forebears, just in a different way.
View Price on AmazonIn addition to being a well-rounded electric compact SUV, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 earned its 2022 EV of the Year bragging rights for putting its quirky character on full display. Take one look at it and you'll see what we mean. Next to the rest of its silent competition, the Ioniq 5's visual presence made an impact, and everything underneath bolstered its strong first impression.
Aside from the Ioniq 5's hearty 303-mile max EPA range estimate and its ability to charge from 10 to 80 percent in just 18 minutes on a 350-kW charger, we had fun driving it. That carries a lot of weight around here. Our all-wheel-drive test car hustled to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, and with 221 of its 320 total horsepower delivered via the rear electric motor, it wasn't afraid to get a little sideways.
Hot off a victory in 2022, Hyundai doubled down with another EV of the Year win in 2023, courtesy of the Ioniq 6. The sleek electric sedan faced some especially tough competition that year, with other Korean rivals, such as the Genesis Electrified GV70 and Kia EV6 GT, putting on a good show. Nonetheless, the Ioniq 6 motored away with the top prize in large part because it strayed from the compact-crossover mold and did so with polish.
Hyundai's E-GMP platform proved to be even more capable beneath the Ioniq 6's flowing body lines than it was in the reigning Ioniq 5. We praised the 6's taught ride, which made cornering a blast, and its charge times were some of the fastest that we'd seen from a mainstream EV. Its slippery silhouette also helped its EPA range estimates, which peaked at a mighty impressive 361 miles.
Source: caranddriver.com
