CleanTechnica Car of the Year Nominees & Voting — USA Edition – CleanTechnica

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It’s time to make a conclusion on which newly introduced vehicle deserves the title of CleanTechnica Car of the Year for the USA market. For those unfamiliar with this award, the core of the award is to try to identify the vehicle likely to have the most positive impact — directly and indirectly — on the world. Here’s a longer explanation:

The main aim is to choose the vehicle that we think will have the largest net positive impact on the world. That can mean the electric vehicle that is expected to get the most sales and thus replace the most fossil fueled vehicles, or it can mean that we think the vehicle is transformative and will influence the auto industry beyond its own sales alone. It’s your call to decide which of the finalists you think will have the most impact. This year, though, since we’re now doing region-specific awards, the task is to pick the vehicle you think will have the most positive impact on the world from within the boundaries of the award region (in other words, if one model is also being sold in China and the others aren’t, that doesn’t give the model sold in China any advantage in this competition).

In terms of candidates, the models have to arrive on the market in the last two quarters of the previous year (2023 in this case) or the first two quarters of the award year (2024 in this case).

With that intro out of the way, let’s look at the five nominees, and you can vote for your choice here.

The Kia EV9 offers a lot of space, three rows of seating, modern tech, enough range, and really everything you could ask for at not insane pricing. It has gotten great review after great review, including from our own Jennifer Sensiba, and has won numerous awards already.

The Tesla Cybertruck — well, does it need any introduction? Whether you love it our hate it, it’s got one of the most distinctive designs on the road (perhaps the most distinctive) and has some innovative new tech (drive by wire, most notably). Otherwise, it’s a Tesla — you get what you’d expect from a Tesla on the inside, in terms of infotainment, and in drive quality and performance. It’s definitely got some utilitarian appeal, but then is also an odd duck and has come with its growing pains (product quality issues have not been infrequent). The big question: is it the highly transformational product it was hyped to be and will its sales continue to grow?

The Chevy Silverado EV is a more traditional pickup truck, of course, while still bringing the various benefits of electric vehicles (powerful torque, great efficiency, the ability to power various other things). Sales of the Silverado EV are not at the level of the Cybertruck’s numbers, but its sales have been growing and this could become a big electric vehicle hit in time. Especially as the EV market matures, prices come down, and the mainstream jumps on, could the Silverado EV become a major seller? Maybe….

Chevrolet got another EV in the running this year. The Chevy Equinox EV is a “great value for money” offering. It’s all about offering enough of the modern goodies at a low enough price to pull in a lot of buyers, achieve mass-market sales, bring down costs further, bring in more buyers, raise volumes, etc. The Equinox EV is already moving about 10,000 units a quarter and only a handful of EVs are selling more in the US.

The Honda Prologue is in a super similar space. In fact, much of what’s under the hood is basically an Equinox EV, thanks to Honda’s reliance on GM and its Ultium platform for the Prologue. That said, the Prologue costs a chunk more than the Equinox EV. In any case, though, the Prologue is off to a flying start, with nearly 13,000 sales in the 3rd quarter. That made it the 5th best selling EV model in the USA last quarter, only trailing the Tesla Model Y, Tesla Model 3, Tesla Cybertruck, and Ford Mustang Mach-E. Of course, the Honda brand goes a long way, and its entry into the EV market could pull a lot more people into EVs.

If you haven’t voted yet, you can do so via this link or this embedded survey:

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And make sure you clicked “Done” after voting!