Last year was the first time we surveyed you, the PCMag audience, regarding your thoughts on electric vehicles and their hybrid counterparts, including plug-ins and standard hybrids, which combine electric and gas-powered motors. It felt like the right time to do so: After a decade of sales growth, EVs were seemingly on top of the world, closing the mainstream acceptance gap with internal combustion engine vehicles.
But will the enthusiasm continue? On September 30, the Trump administration pulled the plug on a major force in EV’s remarkable growth—the three-year-old $7,500 federal electric car tax credit, aka the New Clean Vehicle Credit.
“The credit incentivized nearly every automaker to develop new EVs and spin up entire businesses around them, from charging to dash tech,” says Emily Forlini, a PCMag senior reporter and our resident EV expert. “But ultimately, a mix of politics and concerns about range, charging, and safety has turned some public sentiment against EVs. And now that the credit is gone, much of that new tech development has stalled or ended entirely in the US.”
Still, there are plenty of chargeable vehicles already on the road. In August, record sales of EVs occurred ahead of the tax credit’s demise. And EVs and hybrids as a whole won’t ever disappear completely—battery tech and range improvements will ensure that. Plus, they’re not just for the US. “EVs are booming in Europe, with record sales every month,” Forlini says. “New EV development is currently focused on that market, and we can only hope some of it trickles down to the US in time.”
Needless to say, it’s a most interesting time to be publishing our second-annual EV and hybrids Readers’ Choice survey. Read on to see which brands are in the driver’s seat.
The Top Electric Vehicles and Hybrid Auto Brands for 2025
A lot can change in a year, especially in the automotive industry, which continually incorporates new technologies into cars and trucks.
Last year, BMW topped our chart combining the ratings of EVs, PHEVs (plug-in hybrids), and HEVs (hybrid electric vehicles). This year, BMW tied with Chevrolet, Lexus, and Toyota for overall satisfaction—the key rating we consider when choosing a winner in our Readers’ Choice surveys. But it’s Toyota that pulls out the win, thanks to its higher likelihood-to-recommend score.
(Note: Click the arrows in our interactive charts to view various elements of our survey results.)
Plug-in hybrids are the least-used type of electric vehicle in our survey, with only 14% of respondents rating them. Toyota also takes the top spot in the PHEV category, distinguishing itself in a two-way race with Kia thanks to its incredibly high scores for cost of operation, reliability, and services/repairs.
Toyota, the manufacturer of Prius models, has a long history with hybrid electric vehicles, and it’s the top brand in the HEV category again (last year it shared the award with Lexus). Ford and Lexus actually both score just as well for satisfaction, but Toyota’s recommendation score (in addition to its reliability rating) cements its third win in this year’s survey.
“Great car!” exclaims one Toyota hybrid owner who took our survey. “Perfectly reliable. Twenty-five-plus miles on battery in winter, 35 to 40 miles on battery in summer. Makes all local travel emission-free and quiet. Great color, too (Blue Magnetism)!”
“I am a car enthusiast,” says another reader. “I was really impressed with the quality of engineering and the overall driving experience of the 2025 Toyota Camry SE AWD. I can easily say I would buy it again.”
While Toyota produces a few all-electric vehicles, the brand doesn’t appear in our all-EV list below. Here, BMW comes out on top, while last year’s winner, Ford, drops way down to sixth place. (Coincidentally, Ford recently announced that it’s killing its flagship EV, the F-150 Lightning truck.)
BMW shares some wins in top subcategories—it ties with Chevy for cost of operation and reliability—but stands alone for its amazing driving experience score (9.7 out of 10). BMW’s worst score is in the cost category. Not surprising, since the brand is not known for affordability.
“Flawless, fast, and silent,” says one respondent of their Beemer, adding that since they got it, their Porsche has been sitting idly in the driveway more often. Another reader says they smile every time they get into their BMW. “It’s difficult to imagine switching back to a gas-powered car,” they say.
In addition, Chevrolet receives three awards from our readers this year, as it boasts the top ratings for EV driving range, overall reliability, and support for dashboard technologies (namely Apple CarPlay and Android Auto). Meanwhile, readers absolutely love Tesla’s in-vehicle navigation. Across all vehicle types, it’s the only brand to score above 9.0 for integrated satellite navigation, which is actually the only navigation option in Tesla’s vehicles.
For our in-depth reviews, read The Best Electric Cars for 2025.
The Top Home Charger and Charging Network Brands for 2025
There are three main levels of vehicle charging. The first two are the primary at-home options. With a Level 1, you plug a charger into a standard outlet to slowly trickle charge a vehicle. You’ll need a professional electrician to install a Level 2 charger, which provides full 240V fast charging, in your home. Level 3 is mainly for charging stations, the networks of so-called superchargers that are widely available to travelers throughout the country.
Starting with Level 1 and 2 chargers in the home, only two brands make the cut this year. Last year, we had three, but one of them—Enel X, the maker of the JuiceBox brand—shut down during the 2024 survey run. This year, it didn’t even make the list, as users apparently turn to other solutions. That leaves head-to-head contests between ChargePoint and Tesla.
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Say what you will about Tesla’s CEO, and many do, including us, but the company knows how to make an in-home charger people like. Especially now that its charger, called a Wall Connector, supports nearly any kind of EV with the right adapter. PCMag readers give Tesla in-home chargers the best ratings in almost every category. Tesla’s in-home charger’s worst score is an 8.7 out of 10, for cost.
“My Tesla in-home charger is outside next to the driveway,” reports one user, describing a typical setup: “Every night, I just plug my car in as a matter of routine. Works great.”
Not everyone wants a Tesla product, though, and ChargePoint has long filled the void for non-Tesla drivers. It works with every single type of EV and PHEV available because the brand uses the universal J1772 plug, which can, in turn, be adapted for other cars that use the CCS adapter, or even get the cabling upgraded to use Tesla’s NACS port. For that reason, we’re also giving ChargePoint a Readers’ Choice award for in-home chargers.
ChargePoint and Tesla compete with other brands, including Electrify America, in the Level 3 charging station space. The Tesla Supercharger network dominates every single measure in our survey, with particularly high scores for reliability, ease of use, and perhaps most importantly, the number of locations available while traveling.
According to U.S. News & World Report, Tesla leads in public charging ports (the total available plug-ins in the US), but it technically has fewer actual locations (2,783) than ChargePoint (3,870). So maybe it just feels like there are more Tesla stations.
Recommended by Our Editors
Thankfully, now almost any EV with the right adapter can charge at Tesla Supercharger stations. “Being able to charge at a Tesla station offers major peace of mind for road trips, but the reality is that 80 to 90% of EV charging occurs at home,” Forlini says.
“That means people who live in apartments or rental units might still struggle to power up, because it’s easier to install a charger in a single-family home,” she continues. “Tesla can’t solve the entire EV charging problem on its own, but opening up its network sure helps a lot.”
The Top Route Planning, Mapping, and Charger Network Location Apps for 2025
Last year, when we asked our readers about apps that help find charging stations, we had two winners: Tesla, with its app for locating only Tesla Supercharger stations, and PlugShare, which maps every charging station imaginable, including Tesla’s. Although limited in scope, the Tesla app scores far ahead of the competition, taking our Readers’ Choice award again for its charger network location app.
However, like last year, we want to award a more inclusive option, so we’re again giving a Readers’ Choice award to PlugShare, which has higher satisfaction and recommendation scores than the other apps on the list (minus Tesla). Google Maps—which actually has the highest score for app cost and second-place ratings in terms of reliability, listing accuracy, and directions—comes in third overall.
“Anyone who is traveling a long distance,” says one survey respondent, “knows PlugShare is the go-to app to use.” Another concurs: “When traveling, the PlugShare app is my favorite to start off with. It has almost all the charge sites listed.”
This year, we’re also narrowing down the best app for straightforward route planning on a map. This is the purview of big-name map apps like Google Maps (our mapping Editors’ Choice pick) and Apple Maps, of course. But our readers overwhelmingly prefer Waze, which is owned by a Google subsidiary. Waze wins in every subcategory we asked about, except one—it ties with Apple Maps for use on a smartphone.
Waze has a particularly high score for use via CarPlay/Android Auto, earning a 9.3, just ahead of Apple’s 9.2. But Waze is more than a full point above both Apple and Google when it comes to incident alerts and reporting, which it crowdsources directly from drivers on the road. It’s a feature Google built into Google Maps after acquiring Waze—but readers apparently prefer Waze’s implementation.
“Waze’s focus on driving may make it more niche compared with other, more all-purpose navigation apps, but it serves that important niche very well,” says Jordan Minor, a PCMag senior writer who reviewed Waze earlier this year. “From community social features to picking new celebrity voices for navigation instructions, a lot of thought has gone into making Waze an app for drivers first and foremost. ”
“Waze is my constant digital companion for any and all trips we take for work or pleasure,” says one reader. “It’s incredible reliable, easy to use, and has helped me traverse traffic conditions on countless occasions. I have been using Waze since its launch and literally don’t leave home without using it for both short- and long-distance drives. Best traffic assistance ever!”
For more, read Everything You Need to Know About Charging an Electric Car and How to Find Free Electric Car Charging Stations.
The PCMag Readers’ Choice survey for Electric Vehicles and Hybrids was in the field from Aug. 28 to Nov. 23, 2025. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read our methodology.
PCMag Readers’ Choice: How Our Surveys Help You Find the Best Products
About Our Expert
Eric Griffith
Senior Editor, Features
Experience
I’ve been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally since 1992, more than half of that time with PCMag. I arrived at the end of the print era of PC Magazine as a senior writer. I served for a time as managing editor of business coverage before settling back into the features team for the last decade and a half. I write features on all tech topics, plus I handle several special projects, including the Readers’ Choice and Business Choice surveys and yearly coverage of the Best ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs, Best Products of the Year, and Best Brands (plus the Best Brands for Tech Support, Longevity, and Reliability).
I started in tech publishing right out of college, writing and editing stories about hardware and development tools. I migrated to software and hardware coverage for families, and I spent several years exclusively writing about the then-burgeoning technology called Wi-Fi. I was on the founding staff of several magazines, including Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine. All of which are now defunct, and it’s not my fault. I have freelanced for publications as diverse as Sony Style, Playboy.com, and Flux. I got my degree at Ithaca College in, of all things, television/radio. But I minored in writing so I’d have a future.
In my long-lost free time, I wrote some novels, a couple of which are not just on my hard drive: BETA TEST (“an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale,” according to Publishers’ Weekly) and a YA book called KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. Go get them on Kindle.
I work from my home in Ithaca, NY, and did it long before pandemics made it cool.
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