It’s a weird year to be covering EVs, and a weirder one to be giving out awards. 2024 has been defined by both EV excitement and heightened uncertainty as automakers backtrack from their lofty initial goals amid uneven demand. The novelty of an expensive luxury spaceship EV has worn off, and the next wave of affordable, desirable options hasn’t fully materialized. Many worry that EVs will never take over the market.
But this sector is moving at warp speed—far more quickly than the gas-car world did on its best year. And while there were plenty of stalls and dead ends in the electric world, we saw some quantum leaps as well.
So we created the InsideEVs Breakthrough Awards, to highlight the giant leaps we’ve taken this year, and the big changes up ahead. The story on our first contender—the Cybertruck—is out now. We'll release the other four contender posts throughout the morning, before crowning the Breakthrough EV Of The Year, Person Of The Year and Technology Of The Year this afternoon. Check here for for all of the stories:
I wanted to rethink the existing awards model, which tends to prioritize what is fast and exciting over what is good for consumers and technological progress. Because yes, amazing, high-end flagships are awesome, but we’ve had those. What we need now are products, leaders and technologies that tear down the barriers between us and a truly sustainable future.
Our 2024 Contenders
For all that uncertainty, this was a landmark year for both EV sales and models hitting the market. We had a lot of cars to choose from but not all of them could be called “breakthroughs.”
These cars, for different reasons, certainly are: the Lucid Air Pure, the Chevrolet Equinox EV, the Tesla Cybertruck, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, the Kia EV9 and the Rivian R1S.
Our team of judges stuck to cars that were either new or substantially updated in late 2023 or 2024, and actually on sale in the U.S. and available for testing during the evaluation process that began this fall. The cars we chose also had to be generally well-regarded by the InsideEVs staff and contributors throughout the year. In other words, this is also a test of the best of the best right now. Even being included is an honor.
We also insisted on choosing only one car per automaker (and we counted Kia and Hyundai as separate entities here because they technically are.) General Motors had a landmark year for new EVs, but after much back and forth, the Equinox EV was the contender we wanted to test most.
This is also why we chose the Cybertruck and not the updated Model 3, although that decision came with considerable debate. If we were judging which EV is best, the updated Model 3 might have won. But this is about what EV represents a breakthrough, and the Cybertruck has a much better argument there.
Finally, and for reasons I’ll elaborate on momentarily, we emphasized more affordable models for this process. But first, we had the problem of geography to conquer.
How We Judged
It’s hard to evaluate the American EV experience in any one place, as it drastically differs between markets. Public chargers near my house in San Diego are plentiful, but many are old. My nearest Superchargers are V2s that don’t support non-Tesla EVs, and many CCS stations are broken. But then we have 20-stall 350-kW monster stations. Meanwhile, in Ohio and New York, there are fewer chargers, but they’re less crowded and newer on average.
So we opted for a dispersed model. Each of our six judges represented a different market. Contributing Editor and host of State Of Charge Tom Molougney is in New Jersey, with plenty of open highways for range testing. Editor-in-chief Patrick George has the rural area experience covered in upstate New York. Staff Writer Kevin Williams is our Midwestern correspondent out of Columbus. Then Senior Reporter Tim Levin in the Bay Area, Contributing Editor Abigail Basset in the LA Area and myself in San Diego have California well covered.
We each provided our own notes on the experience of driving and living with these vehicles, then settled in for a few spirited Zoom debates about which car, person and technology we wanted to honor as our Breakthrough.
To do that, though, we needed to define what big barriers were really getting in the way. After hearing from countless readers, experts, family members and friends, one issue rose above the rest.
The Affordability Issue
This award will evolve with the market. The products we need today are different from the ones we’ll be honoring in 2027. But right now, the biggest concern among buyers and readers alike is clear: cost. EVs are great, but the damned things are too expensive.
We hear you.
That’s why this year’s awards are so focused on affordability. I have no interest in an electric future that’s only for the monied elite. Neither, I suspect, do you. The EV revolution has arrived at a time when normal car prices are already beyond the reach of the average American. The average new car transaction price in October was $48,623, per Kelley Blue Book. That’s already a stretch, but for EVs it’s even higher at $56,902. Meanwhile, the median income for all “people with earnings,” per U.S. census data, is $50,310 as of last year. An average working adult between 35 and 44 years old would have to spend 94% of their annual income to buy a new EV. For a young adult between 25 and 34, that figure is a whopping 112%.
Something has to give.
Americans can either double their salaries overnight, or EVs need to get cheaper. If neither happens, we’ll be stuck polluting our air and water for decades to come.
So this year, I’m proud of our judges’ focus on accessibility for all. Cheap used EVs have already lowered the barrier to entry. But new options that can compete with gas cars on cost are an absolute must. EVs are already cheaper to own and run than gas cars. In the medium term, I’m 100% convinced they’ll be far more reliable, and more consistently last 200,000+ miles. In order for either of those things to matter, though, they have to be attainable.
The Other Barriers
This competition is not just “cheapest car wins,” though. As the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt, original Fiat 500e and others have proven, cheap isn’t enough if you aren’t providing what consumers expect in a new car. Americans now demand around or over 300 miles of range, decent charging speeds, practical form factors and capabilities that match or exceed internal-combustion options.
In some segments, this is a solved game. We already build sedans that offer serious range and blazing-fast charging speeds without compromising on practicality. But American buyers want that to be true for big vehicles, too. Right now, it isn’t. So matching the capability of an internal combustion truck at a competitive price remains an unbroken barrier.
Navigating America’s patchwork charging system is a nightmare, too, which is why we’re searching for EVs with great route planning. Tesla has this solved, though that’s far easier when you’re relying only on a wholly-owned network. The company that can network all of these chargers together into a reliable charge planner with no user stress will surely be a frontrunner for an award. Until that comes, we’ll settle for anything that makes charging a non-Tesla EV less of a headache.
Finally, there’s a hard-to-see barrier between us and EV adoption. It’s fear. Automakers’ forecast for perfect, hockey-stick-like exponential demand growth didn’t pan out. Based on the headlines, you’d have thought EV sales dropped 80%. In truth, they’re setting records here, in Europe, in China and in most places they’re sold. More EVs will be delivered in 2024 than ever before. Yet this isn’t enough for many companies, who are so hooked on internal-combustion profits that they’d clearly rather not bother.
This change will require courage. So we’re also awarding those that are blazing toward the future with genuine excitement and best efforts, rather than those companies that moan about problems without trying to solve them. Each one of these brands—Rivian, Tesla, Chevy, Hyundai, Kia and Lucid—is building something good enough to get consumers genuinely excited about EVs.
A Bright Road Ahead
These companies all prove that the EV revolution will succeed. Not because of regulation, or because of mandates, but because the cars provide a better all-around experience than any gas car ever built. A month in any of our challengers would make the best gas car you’ve driven feel old, loud and absurd by contrast. So long as you have home or work charging, they’ll be effortless to own and remarkable on the road.
Their only weakness is a still-nascent public charging landscape and high entrance prices. That’s why I’m so proud to honor our inaugural Breakthrough EV Of The Year, Technology Of The Year and Person Of The Year. All three represent stunning achievements on their own. Linked together, though, they are even stronger. They paint a picture of an EV market that is more accessible to consumers, better equipped for public charging expansion and, importantly, still survivable for automakers.
So no, I don’t buy that 2024 was a bad year for the EV market. By any measure, it’s the best one yet. With so many positive moves, I’m confident 2025’s field will be even better.
Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.
