EV dependability has improved, but PHEVs are problematic

Electric vehicles improved within the 2025 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study but plug-in hybrids got worse.

Released Thursday, the annual study focuses on the speed of problems with recent vehicles, as reported by owners, with scores assigned based on problems per 100 vehicles. The brand new results are based on problems experienced by the unique owners of vehicles going back to the 2022 model 12 months. The sample included 34,175 responses from owners gathered from August through November of 2024.

EVs improved by 33 problems per 100 vehicles in comparison with the previous 12 months’s study, while plug-in hybrids saw a rise of 26 problems per 100 vehicles in comparison with last 12 months, when EVs were found to be probably the most trouble-prone vehicles.

The gap between EVs and gasoline vehicles also narrowed significantly, J.D. Power noted, now standing at 223 problems per 100 vehicles and 200 problems per 100 vehicles, respectively. Plug-in hybrids were probably the most problematic, at 242 reported issues per 100 vehicles. Hybrids fared the perfect; such models and not using a plug experienced the fewest problems, at 199 per 100 vehicles.

In a previous study, J.D. Power underscored that the powertrains aren’t responsible for all these issues; quite it has been all the opposite tech that debuts in EVs. The 2025 Vehicle Dependability Study indicates that tech-related issues have gotten more prevalent across the auto industry, with software connectivity issues amongst probably the most frequent owner complaints, and just 30% of householders saying that they saw improvements after over-the-air updates.

2022 Audi Q5 55 TFSI e plug-in hybrid

That contributed to a worse performance, as averaged across your entire industry, on this 12 months’s study. The industry as an entire saw problems per 100 vehicles increase by 6%, averaging 202 problems per 100 vehicles.

But EVs proceed to perform more poorly than other vehicles in these studies. J.D. Power also noted the next rate of owner-reported problems for EVs, in comparison with the industry average, in its 2024 Initial Quality Study. Consumer Reports’ annual reliability survey in late 2023 found that vehicles that plug in, overall, are more trouble-prone—and it noted that especially applies to plug-in hybrids.