Autobayng News Team
Welcome to the 2026 edition of the InsideEVs Breakthrough Awards, where we celebrate the cars that are getting us closer to an all-electric future. The goal is to find the cars that make electric vehicles more enticing, more attainable or more practical for American buyers, and this is our best field yet.
Over this past year, InsideEVs editors and writers tested dozens of cars in cities spanning the globe. From Shanghai and Bucharest to San Diego and Columbus, we sampled the best electric cars on sale. Then our five judges put together an Editor’s Choice list, celebrating the U.S.-market EVs that moved the industry forward this year.
This is the second year we’ve done this award program. As before, the rules work like this:
- The car had to be new or substantially updated for model-year 2025 or 2026.
- It had to be on sale in the U.S. at the start of our final judging process, which was around September-October.
- Only one car could represent a brand, or a larger automaker group: two picks below stand for the entire General Motors and Hyundai Motor Group families, for example.
All of our finalists are breakthroughs in their own right, delivering excellent value with plenty of technology and technology. That’s why they’re all Editor’s Choice picks.
But there’s only one Breakthrough EV of the Year. I’ll have a post revealing the winner later today. For now, let’s go through the Editor’s Choice picks (in alphabetical order), and why they’re here.
2026 Cadillac Optiq
Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs
Going into our nomination meeting, I knew we’d have a Cadillac on this list. I just didn’t know which one to pick. The once-struggling American luxury marque has been churning out new electric models so quickly that it has been hard to keep up. The Escalade IQ, Vistiq, Lyriq-V, Optiq, and Optiq-V are all new since our last Breakthrough competition.
The Optiq won out because it is perhaps the best example of GM’s rapid improvements in this arena. The Lyriq had already proven that Cadillac deserved a place at the top of the market; Now, the Optiq is here to prove that GM can win in the entry-level luxury space, too. And despite the Optiq being brand-new for 2025, it’s already got a big upgrade for 2026: A new Tesla-style North American Charging System (NACS) port and new electric motors driving more power and performance.
Plus, the Optiq switched from offering front-wheel-drive or front-biased-all-wheel-drive to rear-wheel drive and rear-biased all-wheel drive, a sign of this platform’s flexibility and the iterative approach GM is taking. Each of the company’s EVs has been better than the last. With a $50,000 starting price and standard Super Cruise, could the Optiq be the best electric Cadillac yet?
Read the full story on the Optiq here.
2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5
Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs
If you want an electric SUV and you don’t want a Tesla Model Y, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 is the go-to recommendation for a reason. It offers plenty of range in a stylish and well-packaged design, with lightning-quick charging stops that put most Mercedes and BMW EVs to shame.
For 2025, the Ioniq 5 got even better. Hyundai swapped in a larger battery pack that offers up to 318 miles of range on the rear-wheel-drive model, and the all-wheel-drive versions finally get close to the magic “300” number. Plus, it gets a new NACS port, a Subaru-esque XRT trim and some software improvements.
The biggest upgrade wasn’t physical: Hyundai also cut prices. Every Ioniq 5 trim is at least $7,600 cheaper for 2025, with some models that cost up to $9,800 less than their 2024 counterparts. It’s proof that Hyundai isn’t giving up on its electric car momentum. It’s doubling down.
(Read the full story on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 here.)
2026 Lucid Gravity
Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs
Even a year ago, I knew that the Lucid Gravity would be on this list. Lucid is one of those companies that is always pushing boundaries, so it’s no surprise that its new flagship is here to compete for our top award. It offers up to 450 miles of range, comfortable seating for seven, a luxurious interior and the fastest charging speeds of any car on sale in the U.S.
The packing alone is a breakthrough: I’ve never seen such a tidy SUV pack so much passenger space. The Gravity is easily as comfortable for a family as a big Chevy Suburban or a Honda minivan, in part due to its minivan-adjacent design. Don’t let the looks fool you, though. It does not drive like a minivan.
In fact, it offers an unbelievable blend of comfort and engagement, with some of the best driving dynamics of any EV on sale.
(Read the full story on the Lucid Gravity here.)
2026 Nissan Leaf
Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs
Nissan proudly proclaimed at the 2026 Leaf’s launch that it was the first Western “third-generation” EV. The company meant it literally: Nissan is the only brand that has been building one EV long enough for three full product cycles. But the new Leaf is here, and it’s nothing like the two that came before it.
The old one was a low-range, bargain-built city car with an anonymous design, a ho-hum interior and none of the features modern EV buyers expect. The new one is a stylish “crossover” with 150 kilowatt fast charging, a laundry list of available luxury features and up to 303 miles of range. Despite all of that, it hasn’t really gotten more expensive.
The Leaf represents the next generation of compact, attainable EVs. It’s nothing like the cheap EVs of yesterday, and that’s why it’s here.
(Read our full story on the Nissan Leaf here.)
2026 Tesla Model Y
Photo by: Patrick George
This invite should have gone out automatically. Any redesign of the world’s best-selling EV is worth considering. Tesla dominates this industry for a reason, after all. Five years after its launch, no Western brand has been able to match the Model Y’s blend of performance, range, value and technology.
This year, the company also addressed some of the car’s biggest shortcomings. It improved the horrendous ride quality with a new suspension design, and upgraded the interior to make it feel less plasticky inside. Plus, after we had already decided to include the Model Y, Tesla launched the de-contented Model Y Standard to lower its entrance price.
That’s not the model we recommend, so it’s not the one we sampled. But it’s a good reminder that—while Tesla’s leadership still feels distracted—the company is trying to defend the Model Y’s turf.
Are the changes enough to make one of our favorite EVs into a true Breakthrough EV Of The Year? You’ll have to wait until this afternoon to find out.
(Read the full story on the Tesla Model Y here.)
Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com. We want your opinion! What would you like to see on Insideevs.com? – The InsideEVs team
