Autotrader's List of Best EVs Excludes Tesla, Which Should Surprise No One

The website’s editorial team selected the BMW i4, Ford F-150 Lightning, Genesis Electrified G80, Genesis GV60, Hyundai IONIQ 5, Kia EV6, Lucid Air, Nissan Ariya, Porsche Taycan, and Rivian R1T. If you pay careful attention to this list, you’ll see most of those vehicles are relatively new. The oldest one on the list is the Porsche Taycan, presented in 2019, but it has never ceased to present improvements and new derivatives. On top of that, it has an 800V system that allows it to charge faster than vehicles working at half that voltage, like all Tesla vehicles until now and for the past three years.

Since the American BEV maker started delivering the Model Y in March 2020, it has presented nothing new. It should have started selling the second-generation Roadster in 2020 and the Cybertruck in 2021. Thanks to the Tesla Files, we recently discovered that the BEV maker was still trying to solve major issues with alpha prototypes in 2022. At the same time, the competition introduced several new BEVs, some of which were considered brilliant by my automotive journalism colleagues.

It would be hard enough for them to evaluate any Tesla because the BEV maker does not have a working PR department except for China. That means it also does not have a press fleet. Anyone willing to evaluate its cars will have to ask Tesla owners for a drive or rent the required vehicle. Even with these hassles, Autotrader told Autoblog that “Tesla models were included in consideration but didn’t get sufficiently high scores by the editorial team to qualify for the top 10.” It is as simple as that: they did not make the cut.

Autotrader must have an internal evaluation system that allows its journalists to see how each car fares against the other. For the BEV list, it said that the cars are rated on a 5-point scale according to a few criteria. No Tesla fared well enough to compete with the ten best BEVs currently available. And it would not be strange if none of the ten best BEV to buy in 2023 made it into the 2024 list: newcomers may excel the current champions. In such a competitive environment, those who stop swimming just sink.

According to Autotrader, the best swimmers belong to team Hyundai. The E-GMP platform was a massive success, with three cars based on it among the ten best: the Genesis GV60, Hyundai IONIQ 5, and Kia EV6. All three have vehicle-to-load capabilities and 800V systems, with the same fast charging benefits as the Taycan. The Genesis Electrified G80 also works at 800V, which allows it to charge at 350 kW. Curiously, the website did not point that out as an advantage. It talks about “superb build quality,” a sophisticated “progressive regenerative braking,” “style, performance, and range,” but nothing too specific.

The other BEVs attracted the attention of the colleagues at Autotrader for other technical aspects that they did not highlight. The BMW i4 is an electric car that drives like a BMW. The F-150 Lightning has “thoughtful details and user-friendly features” such as a frunk. Although many electric cars also have that – including all Teslas – that is particularly welcome on a pickup truck.

Autotrader was less generic when it talked about the Lucid Air. It praised its engineering solutions and the range – the highest among BEVs. On the other hand, it also said it has “attention to detail,” and “high build quality,” something that Lucid owners told J.D. Power was very far from the truth. Lucid did not qualify to appear in the company’s Initial Quality Survey, but, if it did, it would have been the last automaker in that ranking, with 340 problems per one hundred cars (PP100). The industry average is 192 PP100.

If you take what Autotrader says about the Ariya, you get the impression that it only did well because it “builds on the Leaf.” The Taycan stands out because it is a proper sports car, and the Rivian R1T “demonstrates a flair for design and function.” The website did the right thing when it mentioned that Cox Automotive (its parent company) invested in Rivian, but it is unlikely that the electric pickup truck joined the list because of that. Motortrend did not invest in Rivian, and the R1T was elected its 2022 Truck of the Year.

For such an important thing as a ranking, Autotrader should elaborate more on what landed some vehicles a nice score. Without that, some people will always feel entitled to dispute the results and call them unfair – even when there are perfectly logical explanations for them.