The 2025 U.S. Initial Quality Study by J.D. Power reveals that PHEVs have surpassed BEVs in terms of vehicle problems per 100 vehicles (237 PP100 vs. 212 PP100). While PHEVs were once viewed as a bridge to an electric future, they now reflect significant quality issues, leading to dissatisfaction among owners. Gasoline and standard hybrid vehicles show better initial quality scores, indicating more reliability at launch. Notable improvements in BEVs, particularly Tesla, have positively influenced overall perceptions of electric vehicles, enhancing consumer confidence despite PHEVs' declining reputation.
"For the first time, PHEVs, on average, have more problems than their battery electric vehicle (BEV) counterparts," the study's authors said. That equates to scores of 237 PP100 for PHEVs vs. 212 PP100 for EVs.
"The improvement in BEVs is driven by a 62 PP100 improvement for Tesla," the study said.
"As you can imagine, Tesla carries the lion's share of the EV market, so when they improve (as they did by 62 PP100 this year), they take the BEV average with it," said Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking and long-term quality at J.D. Power.
In practice, however, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) can also represent the worst of both worlds.
Collection
[
|
...
]