Every year, Green Automotive Reports takes a better have a look at the market’s best and brightest green vehicles—models that help assure a cleaner future for us.
Considered one of these might be named Green Automotive Reports Best Automotive To Buy 2025 on Jan. 6. Read on for a fast snapshot of every and a fast summary of our priorities, after which check back for a better have a look at each of their credentials over the subsequent couple of weeks.
2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV
Sometimes it’s easy: The 2025 Chevy Equinox EV costs $34,995 for 319 miles of EPA range, in a vehicle sized and shaped like today’s hottest sort of family vehicle—a wagon-like crossover SUV. Even before the $7,500 EV tax credit, the Equinox EV amounts to a bargain for freeing your loved ones of gas pumps and tailpipes. Quite simply, it’s on this list since it makes electric vehicles inexpensive to mass-market automotive buyers not in a distinct segment commuter-vehicle form, but in a single they may pack the entire family into.
2025 Hyundai Kona Electric
Where have all of the small-but-practical, urban-savvy EVs gone? The closest latest entry we’ve got within the U.S. market, this 12 months is the Hyundai Kona Electric. It’s not a dedicated electric vehicle, but it surely might as well be one because it outshines the gasoline Kona in performance and drivability. With the bottom Kona Electric SE, Hyundai’s offering a modest 48.6-kwh battery pack that can still be plenty big for commuters, at 200 EPA miles, while SEL and Limited versions get a 64.8-kwh pack and a 261-mile range. Much-upgraded cabin trims plus meaningful cabin-tech updates amount to a automotive that’s easy to park but not short on amenities.
2024 Porsche Macan EV
The Taycan, which was referred to as Mission E until it was almost ready for deliveries, began as a special project, set to face off with Tesla and reckon with a mostly fully electric future for this storied sports automotive brand. But now Porsche is carrying those smarts from its electric experiment into its top-selling model, the Macan SUV. With a brand new platform that learns from the Taycan’s original range and efficiency shortcomings, downsizes key components to avoid wasting weight, and maximizes acceleration performance, charge rates, and brake regeneration—plus rear-wheel steering and an air suspension for a few of the lineup—the Macan EV looks like the guts of Porsche and of high-performance luxury SUVs.
2025 Rivian R1S
We normally reserve our Best Automotive To Buy finalists to models which can be completely latest or extensively redesigned or reengineered. So why did we put the R1S on the list a pair years after it was first delivered to customers? It takes some looking past the mostly-carryover appearance of Rivian’s R1 models to get to why it’s here. It’s here since it’s higher in every way.
With re-engineered battery packs, motors, and body structure, plus an simplified electrical architecture, updated sensing suite, and flattened interface, these revamped electric trucks have earned a spot. In every little thing from performance and ride and handling, the R1S does it higher and a bit more efficiently. It could not yet deliver the 800-volt or bidirectional charging Rivian had said was on the way in which—or any significant charging boost—but it surely innovates in manufacturability and a set of tech it will probably scale up and use for its mass-market R2 and R3 models.
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
Unless you’ve been living in a commune, disconnected from popular culture for many years, you’ve little question heard the news: VW brought back the Bus as an EV. It’s a wise move, because it lures you with hazy nostalgia from the Sixties counterculture icon, draws you right into a thoroughly modern interior, and leaves you altogether in a special sort of family vehicle—the primary U.S.-market electric minivan and, perhaps, the beginning of a brand new EV segment.
All that said, there are various pros and cons to juggle. The ID.Buzz took an extended time to get to the U.S., but it surely’s only arriving here in an extended, three-row version with a much higher price tag. Despite an even bigger battery that fumbles the flat floor, its EPA range numbers only span as much as 234 miles. But with available all-wheel drive, relatively perky performance, and an honest interface, it covers all of the functional bases without muting all the thrill.
2024 Kia EV9
How we resolve Green Automotive Reports’ Best Automotive To Buy
Amassed peer-reviewed papers and revered scientific sources agree that within the overwhelming majority of typical use cases, electric vehicles are higher for the environment.
We all know that assembling an electrical vehicle, making the battery, and sourcing the materials for it adds to the vehicle’s carbon footprint. These impacts are offset versus gasoline models inside just a few years of the EV’s service life, but in taking a look at any EV we consider the scale of the battery and whether it’s truly needed for the aim of the vehicle.
In averting tailpipe emissions, the results on health in your community and household are immediate and positive.
Efficiency is the priority
Sure, range matters in an EV, but shorter-range models with smaller battery packs might be among the many greenest picks in some households. With families making second (and third) vehicles fully electric too, who needs all that range in every vehicle?
Yes, we selected the reigning range champion, the Lucid Air, two years ago, but it surely wouldn’t have made it to the highest had it not also been some of the efficient EVs.
2024 Tesla Model 3
Big market impact—now or long-lens
The Best Automotive To Buy must make a big effect (short- or long-term) available on the market. That may very well be interpreted as going for volume and affordability, making a brand new segment of the market electric, or setting a brand new standard for efficiency or technology. It must be the perfect, but as we’ve seen in past Best Automotive To Buy winners, that may take many alternative forms.
PHEVs on ice
Green Automotive Reports continues to cover the range of hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology in vehicles, and we respect that an all-or-nothing approach isn’t all the time the perfect option to electrify the fleet or to persuade a mass market to decide on more environmentally sound vehicles. For the greater good the next-best option is usually higher than not choosing a greener pick in any respect.
Cutting out performance models working regulators’ loopholes with a charge port, plug-in hybrids remain an intriguing pick, especially when the charging infrastructure just won’t meet needs for weekend trips but drivers are dedicated to keeping zero-tailpipe-emissions for the commute. Efficiency-focused PHEVs are coming with 40, 60, or more miles of all-electric range. Will they persuade a brand new sort of shopper to plug in?
All that said, placing one other internal combustion vehicle into service, as a possible emissions source for many years, carries with it a high bar for making our Best Automotive To Buy shortlist. And there simply aren’t any latest ones this 12 months making that cut.
This Article First Appeared At www.greencarreports.com
