Consumer Reports finds reliability issues with EVs, PHEVs

Being the new kid on the block has its challenges.

Battery electric vehicles didn’t fare so well compared to their internal combustion engine counterparts on Consumer Reports’ latest Automotive Brand Report Card, which heavily weights reliability metrics. But EVs might just need a chance to catch up—gas-powered models have had a roughly century-long head start, after all.

Consumer Reports analysts unveiled the nonprofit consumer organization’s 2026 report during an Automotive Press Association event on Dec. 4, and explained that new technologies tend to struggle with reliability and then improve over time.

“Our surveys continue to show that the slow and steady approach to vehicle redesigns pays dividends for reliability, while more aggressive changes and the introduction of new technologies often lead to setbacks,” Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing for CR, said in a statement. “For reliability-conscious car shoppers, the best bet is to steer clear of newly introduced or newly redesigned vehicles in their initial model year, as that’s when they are almost always the most problematic.”

Case in point: Tesla’s eight-place climb up the report card to the 10th spot. Thanks in large part to improved reliability, the EV maker made the top 10 for the first time.

“This is a big story,” Steven Elek, CR’s automotive data analytics program leader, said. “In the past, we’ve seen some build quality issues for the Model 3 and the Model Y. The updated Model Y and 3 have overcome these build quality issues from the past. So almost all Teslas are average or above, except for the brand-new, completely ground-up-designed Cybertruck.”

Rankings: CR’s report is based on road test scores of more than 200 new vehicles, reviews of safety performance, and analyses of reliability and owner satisfaction data from member surveys. This year’s analysis had data on 380,000 vehicles.

Subaru topped the overall brand rankings for the second consecutive year. BMW ranked second, followed by Porsche, Honda, Toyota, Lexus, Lincoln, Hyundai, Acura, and Tesla. The bottom five brands were Dodge, GMC, Land Rover, Rivian, and Jeep.

The ranking is determined in part by CR’s annual Auto Reliability Survey, which Toyota led this year, followed by Subaru, Lexus, Honda, and BMW.

CR analysts noted that this year’s report comes as the average price of a new vehicle for the first time topped $50,000, “placing added pressure on car shoppers to ensure they’re making a smart choice” on their next vehicle purchase.

Growing pains: The report homed in on the reliability of hybrid models, with hybrids on average having “about 15% fewer problems than internal combustion engine cars, a significant boon to the growing number of Americans who are buying hybrids.”

Meanwhile, CR’s data suggests that EVs and plug-in hybrids “continue to experience growing pains,” with those powertrains having about 80% more issues than ICE vehicles.

CR’s rankings show that for half the brands, their least reliable model is a PHEV or EV. And seven out of the 10 least reliable vehicles are either EVs or PHEVs, due to problems with batteries, charging, and drive systems.

“The general trend of what we’re seeing is, the longer a technology has been around and the more time automakers have to work out the kinks, they get more reliable,” Elek said. “Whereas the newer technologies like plug-in hybrids and EVs, they’re still working on that.”

The Tesla Model Y ranked as the most reliable EV; the Rivian R1T ranked the lowest. However, Rivian ranked highest on owner satisfaction, which CR analysts attributed to early adopters being more willing to take risks on new technologies.

“We are proud to earn the top-ranking owner satisfaction score, which reflects the superior performance, utility, and joy our vehicles bring to their owners,” Rivian said in a statement, noting a 71% YoY improvement in its reliability score. “We take customer feedback very seriously, and we are committed to delivering products with the quality our customers expect.”