It’s increasingly difficult to like Tesla vehicles after years of problems with build quality like the Falcon Wings on the Model X and other varying problems with almost every build. What if you want an EV, but not a Tesla?
Best For Performance: BMW iX
The iX is a great car for its performance as may be expected from BMW. Its range is also amazing for an electric SUV at 375 miles. It is pricy, though, with the starting price at $87,100 and might steer you away just because of the massive fake grille on the front.
Best For Luxury: Mercedes EQS
The EQS is by far the most pricy vehicle on this list starting at more than $100,000. It delivers on being a very luxury vehicle, though, and even has impressive performance specs. The EQS’ range is upwards of 400 miles and a whopping 751 hp.
Best Budget EV: Chevrolet Bolt
There really are only two true budget electric cars: the Chevy Bolt and Nissan Leaf. The Bolt stands out much more than the poorly designed Leaf and wins this category in a landslide. Bolt starts at a great price of around $30,000 and has some impressive specs for the price like it’s range of 250+ miles.
Best SUV: Hyundai Ioniq 5 Family
There are three cars in the family: the Ioniq 5, The Kia EV6, and the Genesis GV60. Most people go for the Ioniq 5 for its price, comfort, space, and practicality, not to mention the styling. I would say any car from this category can be great, and my pick is the EV6 for its less daring styling and still great specs. All three cars are in the high-200s with range and have other pretty impressive numbers, including pricing that starts at the $40,000 range.
Best Car: Polestar 2
Polestar 2 is the only car that comes close to the Tesla Model 3. It has much better design (thanks to the CEO being a designer) but can’t quite compete with range or pricing with range being around 10 miles below the standard range Model 3 and pricing being a little more expensive. The build quality is something Tesla can only dream of, though.
Best for Off-Roading: Rivian R1T
When you think of value off-roading cars you might think of a Subaru. Subaru, though, has been slow to enter the EV market and just started to with their Solterra EV with less than average specs and outsourced tech from the also late Toyota. There is no clearer answer for an off-roading vehicle than the R1T from startup Rivian. The Rivian is a powerful off-roading truck that beats the Subaru in every way possible with a 330+ mile range and 600+ hp.
Best Truck: Ford F-150 Lightning
With 350+ miles of range, great reliability and a just fine design, Ford has made a great competitor truck to the previously mentioned Rivian R1T. The key factor that beats Rivian is brand reliability. Ford has been around for more than 100 years while Rivian has yet to prove itself to the US.
Most All-Out EV: Lucid Air
With more than 450 miles of range and up to 620 hp, Lucid Air is the car if you’re willing to spend up to $249,000 for a car. This car is like no other thing, that’s for sure.
Worst Value: Audi Q4 e-tron
Bonus item! The worst car in Audi’s lineup by far and probably the worst car for value is the Q4 e-tron. It’s fake grille design is almost worse than the iX, and it has abysmal range and performance specs for 60 grand and up.
Best Overall: Kia EV6
The EV6 has pretty good range, hovering around 300, and has very good performance specs as well. The interior is spacious, well designed and comfortable. If you’re looking for a pretty cost friendly car (50 grand) for daily use, this is probably it.
Well there you have it. Nine of the best EVs in the US and one of the worst. Toodles!