DETROIT (AP) — The reliability of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids has dramatically improved, narrowing a wide gap with gas-powered automobiles, according to the latest survey by Consumer Reports.
But vehicles with internal combustion engines and gas-electric hybrids are still far more dependable, the survey found.
Consumer Reports subscribers, who filled out surveys during much of 2024, reported that electric vehicles had 42% more problems than gas autos on average. But that was down from 79% more in the 2023 survey. The survey released Thursday measured reliability of vehicles mainly from the 2022, 2023 and 2024 model years.
Plug-ins, which travel a short distance on battery power before a hybrid powertrain kicks in, had 70% more problems than gas vehicles, but that was less than half the difference found in last year's survey.
The reason for the improvement? EV and plug-in technology are maturing, said Jake Fisher, head of Consumer Reports' automobile test center.
“As the automakers get more experience with the new technologies and new platforms, they will improve,” Fisher said.
He said he expects plug-in and electric vehicles to keep getting better, further closing the gap with gas vehicles. But one thing may stand in the way: Automakers often test new automation and other features on EVs, and the new stuff is prone to glitches.
“Until we get to where an EV is just a car that does practical things with their own powertrain, I'm not sure they'll ever catch up totally” to gas vehicles, Fisher said.
The new technology may offer more than the next wave of EV buyers would like, as EVs move from early adopters to more practical mainstream buyers, Fisher said. “There are people who just want a car that’s easy to maintain,” he said. “I don’t use gas. I don’t need this automation feature and electric door handles or whatever the heck they are putting out.”
Consumer Reports has noted that concerns about EV and plug-in quality add to issues that may have buyers hesitating before switching from gasoline engines, including concerns about higher up-front costs, too few charging stations and long charging times.
Gas-electric hybrids, which switch from internal combustion to electric power to get better mileage, were about as reliable as cars with combustion engines. While the technology is pretty technical, it has been refined for a quarter century, mainly by pioneer Toyota, Fisher said. “CR's tests have shown that they are often quieter, quicker and more pleasant to drive than their gasoline-only counterparts,” he said.
Through September of this year, the last month for which all automakers have reported results, electric vehicle sales are up 7.2%, plug-in sales rose 11.6%, but hybrids led with a 32.6% increase, according to Motorintelligence.com.
Consumer Reports said its 2024 survey of subscribers representing about 300,000 vehicle owners found that Subaru was the most reliable brand for the first time, followed by perennial top finishers Lexus and Toyota. Rounding out the top five were Honda and its Acura luxury brand. It was the first time since 2020 that neither Toyota nor its Lexus luxury brand were in the top spot, Fisher said.
The highest-ranked brand from a U.S.-based automaker was General Motors' Buick at No. 11.
The five lowest of 22 brands that were ranked were electric upstart Rivian, followed by GM's Cadillac luxury brand, GMC, Jeep and Volkswagen, Consumer Reports said.
The magazine and website didn't get enough data this year to rank Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Lucid, Maserati, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Porsche and Ram.
Electric vehicle sales leader Tesla finished 17th, down three spots from last year's survey.
Subaru took first place in the survey by following the same formula that Toyota uses to get high reliability scores: It doesn't make huge changes when updating or unveiling new vehicles, Fisher said. Instead of going with new engines or transmissions, Subaru carries parts over from the prior generation.
“They don't fix what's not broken,” he said. “They continue to refine their products, and because the products perform quite well, they don't have to have big changes.”
Rivian, Fisher said, is a new company with new electric models that have more glitches. Since the company is a startup, it can't use proven powertrains from prior generations yet. “It's expected that you're going to have issues when you have nothing to carry over” from previous model years, he said.
The survey found that the gas-powered Toyota RAV4 small SUV was the most reliable vehicle, followed by the Toyota Corolla compact car. The RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid was third, followed by the RAV4 gas-electric hybrid, Fisher said.
Consumer Reports' survey of its subscriber base does not represent all vehicle purchasers in the U.S. or the population that bought specific vehicle types. The survey results were released at a meeting of the Automotive Press Association of Detroit.
FILE - A Toyota RAV4 Prime is displayed at the Pittsburgh International Auto Show in Pittsburgh, Feb. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
It was a week of fire and ice.
It began with millions of people across the U.S. shivering amid blizzard conditions and frigid air that lasted for days, thanks to a jet stream that slips out of its usual path more often these days. Then, catastrophe in California, with wind-whipped flames taking off in a landscape parched by months of drought to become Los Angeles' worst-ever wildfires.
To cap it off, major weather monitoring agencies confirmed 2024 as the hottest year in global history. Even more dire, four of the six agencies said it was the first full year Earth went beyond a warming threshold seen as critical to limiting the worst effects of climate change.
Welcome to one wild week of the climate crisis, scientists say. There will be more.
“For the average person, this means the changes you’re experiencing — more extreme weather, rising costs due to climate impacts, threats to food and water security — aren’t anomalies,” said Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University. “They’re the new normal unless we take action.”
“The last week of weird weather has been alarming,” said Natalie Mahowald, chair of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University. “I hope it’s not a sign of things to come, because we’ve barely seen any climate change compared to what we are going to get unless we radically cut CO2 emissions.”
Here's how the week unfolded.
The cold came first.
The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world, which means the difference between temperatures up north and down south are shrinking — along with sea ice that releases more heat into atmosphere. That means more energy bouncing off and warping or moving the polar vortex, scientists say. And climate change is also messing with the jet stream, the air currents that circle the globe.
The result? More frequent blasts of intense cold in winter even as global temperatures heat up overall.
The blizzard dumped more snow in some parts of Kansas than they usually get in a year, one Kansas State University meteorologist said. Ice-coated trees downed power lines in eastern Kentucky, and a U.S. Olympian skied on the National Mall in Washington.
Farmers rushed to move cows to keep them from freezing to death and to feed and water them as rural roads became impassable. Travel stalled as multiple states warned motorists not to chance the treacherous snow and ice.
About 200 people, many homeless, sheltered at a roller rink in Cincinnati. The alternative was frostbite or worse in exposure to temperatures that were expected to slip from freezing to sub-freezing overnight.
Out West, wildfire took hold.
The Palisades Fire erupted in the Santa Monica mountains and moved quickly on Santa Ana winds gusting to 100 mph — much faster than normal. The winds were so strong they grounded airplanes normally used to drop water on the flames.
The blaze reached near the Getty Museum and by the end of the day, several celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Jhené Aiko, had lost homes. Less than 72 hours before, many stars had convened to walk the Golden Globes’ red carpet.
The Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, killing 2 people and closing about 10 school districts.
Climate change laid the groundwork for California’s megafires. Atmospheric rivers dumped huge amounts of water on the region that caused plenty of plant growth. Then, a fast onset of drought dried them out, providing plenty of fodder for the flames.
The water system used to fight the Palisades fire in Los Angeles buckled in the morning, as some hydrants ran dry as they were overstressed without assistance from firefighting aircraft.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was pumping from aqueducts and groundwater into the system, but demand was so high that it wasn’t enough to refill three 1-million gallon tanks in hilly Pacific Palisades. At least 1,000 buildings were engulfed in flames.
The Sunset Fire started, too, threatening the Hollywood Hills and forcing mandatory evacuations in Hollywood.
President-elect Donald Trump criticized state and local officials' water management policies. But experts said critics were connecting unrelated issues and spreading false information during a crisis.
By the afternoon, calmer winds aided firefighters in making some headway, though by that point at least five fires were still active and some burned out of control in the L.A. area.
Scenes of the destruction started to emerge. Recovery crews pulled a body from the rubble of a beachfront residence in Malibu.
AccuWeather, a private company that provides data on weather and its impact, estimated the overall wildfire damage could reach $57 billion, though much of the destruction remains to be surveyed.
At the same time, another winter storm bore down on the South, with warnings and advisories for at least 20 states. Many had gone through the same thing just days earlier.
Major weather monitoring agencies said 2024 was the hottest since record-keeping began, easily passing 2023.
Even more significant: 2024 was the first year with a global average that broke the long-term warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s that was set as a goal by the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Extreme weather like this week's is “affecting so many more people all at one time,” said Barbara Hofer, a professor emerita of psychology at Middlebury College. “Increasingly, the scale is changing. The loss is mounting."
Hofer said the growing impact may make some people deny climate change, ignore it or become numb to it as “a way to avoid what's psychologically uncomfortable."
Such a week can also energize positive change, she said. But Hofer said she thinks that will be harder, at least in the U.S., as Trump takes office. He's promised to halt federal climate action and repeal existing legislation aimed at the problem.
“I worry about the denial, the misinformation, and the forces that are feeding that denial," she said. “That’s what we have to address.”
Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein contributed.
Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social.
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FILE - Jesse Thompson rides his bicycle in the snow, Jan 10, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, FIle)
FILE - Fire crews battle the Eaton Fire as it impacts a structure Jan. 9, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)
FILE - Firefighters work a hydrant in front of the burning Bunny Museum, Jan. 8, 2025, in the Altadena section of Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
FILE - Residents of a senior center are evacuated as the Eaton Fire approaches Jan. 7, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)
FILE - People walk near the Washington Monument during a winter snow storm in Washington, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - Jagmeet Singh, a manager at Clifton Market, shovels the sidewalk in front of the store during a winter storm, Jan. 6, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, FIle)
FILE - Cosimos Cendo, of Washington, D.C., skis down Main Street in Annapolis, Md., Jan. 6, 2025, during a snow storm. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - The Palisades Fire burns vehicles and structures in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)
