American automaker Lucid Motors has been named the Best Luxury EV Brand for 2025. Not bad for a company that has only been producing cars since 2021 and sells just two models.
The Lucid Air sedan, the company’s first model, was launched in September 2021. Production of its second model, the Lucid Gravity SUV, started in December 2024.
Lucid Motors’ accomplishments in those four years were apparently enough for U.S. News & World Report to rank them higher than other luxury EV brands like Tesla, Rivian, BMW, and Porsche.
In awarding Lucid Motors that honor, U.S. News & World Report considered several factors. Among them were the expiration of the electric vehicle tax credit, supply-chain issues, and trade and tariff rules. They also took into consideration the electric vehicle market moving towards more affordable vehicles.
“The Best Vehicle Brand awards are an objective assessment of quality across all of a brand’s offerings in six categories: cars, SUVs, trucks, luxury, electric vehicles, and luxury electric vehicles,” the publication explained. “Brand ratings are based on the U.S. News Best Cars overall scores for each vehicle, which incorporate the consensus opinion of our own automotive experts and external ones, and other factors such as safety and reliability data.”
The Lucid Gravity scored 10 out of 10 in U.S. News’ review of the vehicle. The Lucid Air scored 9.3 out of 10.
“Lucid currently has just two models, both of which carry luxury price tags, but it leads the whole pack of luxury EV brands for 2026 because of its level of overall excellence,” U.S. News stated. “Both of Lucid’s EVs offer mind-blowing acceleration, very fast charging, and some of the highest ratings for efficiency on the market.”
The best of the rest of the luxury EV brands and models
Other companies ranked by U.S. News & World Report included Rivian, BMW, Genesis, Tesla, Porsche, Cadillac, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo. They finished in that order in the Best Luxury EV Brand category for 2025.
Both the Rivian R1S electric SUV (8.6/10) and the Rivian R1T electric pickup (9.2/10) were highly rated. One reason Rivian was ranked lower than Lucid is that they “don’t charge as quickly as some other rival EVs.” Another is the fact that they “are very expensive.”
The BMW i7 (9.0/10) and the iX (9.0/10), the Genesis GV60 (8.8/10) and Electrified GV70 (8.8/10), the Tesla Model 3 (9.2/10), and the Porsche Taycan (8.6/10) all also scored well.
In the bottom half of the top 10, the Cadillac Optiq (8.7/10) and Lyriq (8.7/10), the Audi Q6 e-tron (8.4/10), the Mercedes-Benz G-Class EV (9.0/10), EQS hatchback (8.6/10) and EQS SUV (8.5/10), and the Volvo EX40 (8.9/10) were also highly-rated.
