Owner satisfaction with new battery-electric vehicles reached its highest level since J.D. Power began measuring it in 2021, and the top-scoring premium model was the Tesla Model 3. The finding comes from the 2026 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study, released February 18, 2026, which surveyed 5,741 owners of 2025 and 2026 model-year battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles between August and December 2025.
The study is best read as a snapshot of how owners felt at the close of 2025, just as federal purchase incentives disappeared, rather than as a current market ranking. Its scores are indexed on a 1,000-point scale, and small gaps between models are common, so the placement of individual vehicles matters less than the direction of the whole segment.
Premium scores climb 30 points in a year
Premium battery-electric vehicles averaged 786 points in the 2026 study, up from 756 in the 2025 edition, according to the J.D. Power release. Mass-market battery-electric vehicles moved far less, from 725 to 727. Premium plug-in hybrids rose from 741 to 756, and mass-market plug-in hybrids from 632 to 658, though the mass-market plug-in group had no award-eligible models this year.
The premium podium was dominated by one company. The Tesla Model 3 scored 804, the Tesla Model Y 797, and the BMW i4 795, so the two Teslas finished first and second with the German sedan eight points behind the leader. A year earlier the premium winner had been the BMW iX at 790, according to the 2025 edition of the study, which means the 2026 winner topped the previous winner by 14 points.
In the mass-market group, the Ford Mustang Mach-E led with 760, followed by the Hyundai Ioniq 6 at 748 and the Kia EV9 at 745. The Ioniq 6 had won that segment in the 2025 study with 751, so it slipped three points while still holding second place.
Charging scores rebound, and the quality gap narrows
Public charging satisfaction produced the largest swings in the report. Premium owners scored it 652, up 101 points from the prior year, while mass-market owners scored it 511, up 115 points. J.D. Power tied part of the mass-market gain to the opening of Tesla's Supercharger network to other brands, which it credited with lifting that segment by 115 points year over year. The 2025 study had put mass-market public charging at 396, so the 2026 figure represents a recovery from a very low base rather than a comfortable score.
Build quality moved in the same direction. Premium battery-electric vehicles logged 75.0 problems per 100 vehicles, a 15.9-point improvement, while mass-market models logged 92.2. Since the 2025 study had found mass-market vehicles ahead of premium ones on quality, the premium segment closing that gap is one of the more notable changes in the data.
Satisfaction rose even as sales fell
The study arrived after the federal consumer credit for new electric vehicles ended. The IRS states that the new clean vehicle credit is not available for vehicles acquired after Sept. 30, 2025, and the survey window ran from August through December, straddling that cutoff. Brent Gruber, executive director of J.D. Power's EV practice, addressed the timing directly: “EV market share has declined sharply following the discontinuation of the federal tax credit program in September 2025, but that dip belies steadily growing customer satisfaction among owners of new EVs.”
Gruber attributed the gains to “improvements in battery technology, charging infrastructure and overall vehicle performance.” The study also found that 96% of new battery-electric owners would consider buying or leasing another one, up from 94% in the 2025 edition, and Gruber noted that the vast majority say so regardless of whether they benefited from the now-expired credit.
One caution applies to any satisfaction survey. J.D. Power measures how owners feel about their vehicles after months of use, across factors that include ease of charging at home, range accuracy and driving experience, and it does not measure repair history. Owner-reported reliability is a separate question, and Consumer Reports' December 2025 survey of about 380,000 vehicles found electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids had roughly 80% more problems than gas-only cars, even while naming the Model Y as the most reliable new EV. Both findings can be true at once: owners can be happy with how a car drives and charges while the category still has more faults per vehicle.
J.D. Power’s data cannot yet say whether the charging improvement holds. Tesla's NACS page describes a transition in which all new EVs will eventually ship with the connector built in and adapters will no longer be needed, and J.D. Power's 115-point mass-market jump suggests access to that network is already changing how owners of other brands rate public charging.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
More from Morning Overview
- General Motors is switching on cameras that record inside your vehicle by update
- A geomagnetic storm is forecast to hit Earth today, pushing the northern lights unusually far south
- A recalled pill hid a stimulant dose linked to heart attacks and death
- Four U.S. startups fired up their first small nuclear reactors, aiming to power AI data centers on-site
