This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. But there's a lot going on in the world of evs, you know that if you listen and watch Bloomberg, especially as major automakers are ramping up their offerings, really looking to give Tesla some challenges. Just yesterday we heard about Mercedes Benz entering a new era with its flagship S class sedan
going electric. Well, here with the roundup of the best electric vehicles, though with some caveats and metrics in mind, is Brian Moody, who's executive editor for Auto Trader. He's with us on the phone in Atlanta. Brian, how are you. I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well? Happy it's Friday, to say the least. Um, First of all, tell us about the metrics you used to evaluate the evs that are out there, because she did come up with kind
of a top list of evs we did. So. One of the things that we included was the car had to have a plug and so we didn't include hybrids. But we didn't include plug in hybrids, so they're both elect trick only and plugged in Happer vehicles. We also put the price cap at seventy dollars and we wanted to only include cars that would be available within the next six months of the public so that it would need you know, it would be meaningful to someone who's
going to buy an electric car. Alright, So notably absent is Tesla. Is it that dollar mark that knocks it out or what? No, because Tesla actually has a couple of cars well under price range. Last year. We do this list every year. Last year we had the Model three on our list, and it is a fun car to drive, but we also like the way it look. But one of the reasons we just included this year was because of increasing competition for one thing, and a lot of us didn't care for that main central screen
that controls everything. A more traditional screen uh with also gauges where you expect them to be, we thought was safer and more in line with what people would expect from a car. Alright, So it was reviewed, but you just you guys just didn't really like it as much. Yeah, and it's a good car. I think if someone was looking for an inexpense the electric car, that's fun and
that's your main criteria. I would say you should be looking at cars like the Hyundai Kona, the Ford Mustang mach E. And that's in addition to too many others that you know. We have a list of ten. You can include everything. Let's talk about them, and that's fair and what's interesting. When I was looking at your list, I'm like, Wow, there's a fair amount of e vs out there. So walk us through the list some of
the standouts based on your analysis. Well, one standout that's really telling is the new Chevy Bolt EUV and what that is is it's more of a crossover suv type version of the Chevy Bolt we already know, So that tells you right there, Chevrolet knows something about making money and about making cars that people want. Crossover SUVs is where this is going. We also like the Twitter rap for Prime again same type of thing, the Volvo x
C forty recharge and all electric small Volvo Suv. And then the Ford Mustang mock Eat, which is a Mustang in name, but it has more of a h sits high up off the ground and has more of a crossover suv type of feel. You see, you see a
theme here. People like SUVs. Yeah, well, listen, right, I mean that's the one thing I guess when it comes to the e V market, right, do I mean, do makers manufacturers need they need to be thinking about really kind of the cars people want to be driving if they're you know, hoping to kind of juice those e V purchase numbers. Right, that's exactly right. Now. There are
plenty that aren't SUV based. For example, the Nissan Leaf is an affordable one that we like, um, but when it comes to cars like say the Hyundai Ionic, those aren't SUVs. That's just a regular car. But there's also a good number of plug in hybrids. We to put a couple of those on the list too, because we feel like it bridges the gap between fully electric and some concerns people might have and fully gas that has
its own set of concerns. And one of the best of those is the Lincoln Aviator's plug in hybrid that goes for electric only, then gas and electric combined to get great gas milege. Well, you know, what is it that people want right now? What's the consumer demand? Do they want the hybrids? Do they want completely electric vehicles?
What are still their concerns? I do feel like the infrastructure still lagging when it comes to supportive the electrical vehicle market, right, I don't think that the confidence is there. So what people want our trucks and SUVs, and when you can give them an electric version of that, and this is the important part, convince them that they will never be without a way to refuel or recharge, that's when it's going to, you know, really make a difference.
There's a lot of electric trucks coming, but they're just not here right now. Well, do you feel like with the President's infrastructure plan, and certainly there's allocation for things like this in building out the infrastructure for electric vehicles, we're going to need to have some kind of program like that in order for evs to really take off
in this country. Probably. Yes, Um. But here's the one thing that concerns me is that if it was you know, the way the market works, the way the economy works, is that it's it's market driven, it's demand driven. Competition makes great things. Why don't we see gas stations ramping up their electric charging stations to make stacks of money? I don't know the answer, but the fact that it's not happening makes me think that there's something that we
are we aren't really aware of at this point. That cars are good and they can be charged up at home, but that's not enough for some people. Well against stations in the US, are they franchises or they're owned by the big you know, integrated oil companies who are kind of working their book there now, right, and many are many are franchises, so they would they're probably making more money on selling coffee and twinkies than they are selling gas. Yeah,
it's interesting. Hey, when you look ahead to this year, I do feel like, all of a sudden, there is a lot of momentum. Whether it's Folkswagen, whether it's Mercedes, whether it's you know, pick your well known auto manufacturer. It does feel like, all of a sudden, everybody's all in on E V S. Yeah, and I'll tell you something that you just mentioned that I find very encouraging. The Volkswagen I D for that you just mentioned is
a very compiling car, no matter how it's powered. So it is an all electric car, that's the only way it comes. But it's good looking, it's fun to drive, the interior is great. The part that it's electric. I don't know that younger drivers are going to care that much as they get older. They just want something cool. That new Volkswagon is just cool, no matter what interesting. I know my daughter likes Volkswagons and checking that out. Hey, Brian,
thank you so much. Have a really wonderful weekend. Brian Moody, he's executive editor at Auto Trader, jutting us on the phone from Atlanta talking about their list of the best electric vehicles one. I can also find it if you go online and check them out on Twitter at Auto Trader, Underscore, Calm,