2024 EV Of The Year Winner
It’s finally time to announce the winner of the 2024 Auto Buyers guide Eevee of the Year Award winner that’s quite a mouthful but before we go to the specific winner let’s talk about the four finalists Travis who were they so we had a pretty varied list this year uh
In no particular order we had the Mercedes eqs line we had the rivan R1 s on the lower end version lower price we had the Kona EV and then we had the number one selling vehicle in the world the Tesla Model y yep indeed and uh prepare for the winner here everybody
The winner is the rivan r1s uh and now we’re going to chat a little bit about why I think that for me the big th big deal with the r1s is that this is very unlike any other EV SUV that we’ve seen before but it’s actually going to see
Some company later in 2020 24 because this is not shaped like a jelly bean it’s actually practical it has a usable third row and of course it’s very off-road focused yeah and even with that competition coming in which is I mean I guess we would categorize it as the
Boxier three row electric SUV um this is still going to have a couple things that those don’t and I think the uh biggest difference is going to be the focus on off-road ability um mainly in things just like ground clearance but this is this is one of the things that put the
Rivan of everything else indeed yeah let’s go over those specs so up to 14.9 in of ground clearance effectively 15 inches of clearance Towing 7700 lbs it can Ford three feet of water you can get up to 400 miles of range in it if you
Get the max pack and you can get up to four electric motors in it if you would like to as well um if you don’t need the third row you could consider something like the Hummer EV a competitor but that Hummer SUV EV is only two rows it’s not
Three and it’s a lot less efficient doesn’t have the practicality that we find in the rivan either and you’re not going to be able to right now buy a model as affordable as that dual motor rivan um and even so you know uh if you’re if you’re looking for more um as
Far as features or presence I think you would find that in the Hummer but that’s one of the things this rivan does so well which is almost everything um in any vehicle you’re going to have to make sacrifices obviously with a large vehicle you’re going to be sacrificing
Things like efficiency but a lot of folks consider EVS to be less capable in a number of ways you mentioned the range this has it um it does have the charging capability on top of the range it may not be top of the class but it is still
Plenty um and towing capability ground clearance there is very little you can say this rivan doesn’t do and do well that not just different than the competition the four finalists here but different than the the whole rest of the segment which is electrified Vehicles yeah indeed and so to give everybody an
Idea of how much ground clearance the rivan r1s even has the difference between the standard ride height the lowest ride height I should say and the highest ride height that’s more of a distance that that suspension will go up and down than you see period in a model
X or a model y Fran I mean it’s very very high off the road in those High uh High off-road capability numbers now the price tag yes I know this is going to offend some folks out there because it is starting at $78,000 so this is not an affordable EV
Mind you I do think it’s fantastic but on that front we actually have somewhat little options in uh in 2024 because of course the Chevy bolt and bolt e they have ended production by the time you are watching this video gentle mot said end of December is the end for them so
Kona is really kind of taking over for them and I really liked the Kona and I appreciate the format I appreciate the fact that someone’s still giving us a smaller battery EV because it’s very rational on a limited resource front as we’ve talked about here before but I
Will say that the big reason that it did not win for me is that it’s not going to qualify for any sort of of a tax preferential treatment because it’s not built in North America so it cannot get the federal tax credit on purchases that’s a big problem for it uh the Tesla
Model y obviously it’s a best seller here it’s the rational Benchmark option in this segment um but the model Y is also going to be one of the few that’s going to get the tax credits so that’s a big Advantage for it in 2024 we don’t
Have all the details yet but most likely rivian will qualify for some portion of it in the base versions leasing that’s kind of anybody’s guess at the moment as far as how that’s going to be treated on these models but uh the rest of them are
Not really going to get much tax credit treatment no I mean when you look at things like price and especially in the world of electric vehicles where pricing is so important it’s one of the biggest differentiators from the gasoline counterparts you know the con exists in
A gas model and it’s less expensive um where you know here an auto buyers guide and EV buyers guide guide we’re generally fans of the Hyundai Kia lineup what they’ve done with the electric vehicles the ionic and the ev6 and and the Kona is going to be another one of
Those that we are definitely on board with but without that federal tax credit it makes it a lot less competitive uh price-wise than some of the other options and then when you look at the model y it is the number one selling vehicle and for very good reason it does
A lot of things well but one of the things it does is meet the financial needs of some of its consumers um the model y buyer and rivian buyer are looking for two different models they’re looking at two different price points and uh while the model y can get
Expensive the highest trim model Y is not the reason it’s the number one selling vehicle so it’s not to say that we don’t like it and it’s not good at lots of things but when we’re looking at the best EV out there there’s there’s very few compromises with that rivan um
And and I appreciate that most definitely yep it’s definitely impressive so bottom line if you’re looking for a three row Grand Cherokee or a three row Range Rover and you want want it to be electric instead that’s basically what the rivan r1s is at its
Heart so let us know down there in the comment section below what do you think should have won this year if you don’t agree with us just shout out down there find us over at Facebook Twitter Instagram all other social places see all of you next Week
The number and variety of EVs keeps growing year over year with no signs of slowing down. When putting this list together we looked back and had driven almost 30 electric vehicles and that doesn’t include all of the Plug-In Hybrids tested either. When it comes down to it the Rivian R1S stands (literally and figuratively) above the other contenders in so small part because of just how much it can do. It’s an EV with very few limitations and while you do have to pay for that capability it should leave you feeling justified for doing so. What do you think, did we get it wrong? Let us know below!
#rivian #r1s #quadmotor #dualmotor #awd #3rowsuv #familycar #towing #adventure #ev
Join this channel to get access to perks! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3qM33hHgedfi7qTKKgIApg/join
Buy Merch! http://aoamerch.com
The Pod: https://www.youtube.com/c/AutoBuyersGuidePodcast
EV Buyers Guide: https://www.youtube.com/c/evbuyersguide
The Mountain Garden: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMountainGarden
Follow us on Facebook: http://fb.me/theautobuyersguide/
00:00 Introduction
00:19 The Finalists
00:40 And the Winner Is…
01:31 The Specs
03:19 Pricing
05:54 Summary
