Lucid rated most efficient EV in US fuel economy guide, but Tesla not ranked

The US government’s latest Fuel Economy Guide ranks three different models of the recently released Lucid Air  as the most efficient electric cars in the country – indeed the most efficient of any type of car.

The assessment was done by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory but does not include Tesla EVs – presumably because the company did not make them available, nor the newly released Ioniq 5 from Hyundai.

A top 10 list ranks EVs according to Miles Per Gallon equivalent (MPGe), with 33.7kWh representing 1 gallon of gasoline.

The top spot when to the Lucid Air G Touring AWD with 19-inch wheelswith a combined fuel efficiency rating of 131. Two alternate Lucid Air models fell into the next two spots, with the Lucid Air Dream R AWD with19-inch wheels with a rating of 125, and the Lucid Air G Touring AWD with 21-inch wheels with a rating of 121.

This is the first time, according to ORNL, that two electric vehicles with a 500-mile driving range sat atop the pile, which works out to around 800-kilometres.

Fourth spot was jointly taken by the Chevrolet Bolt EV and the Hyundai Kona EV, both with a rating of 120, followed by two more Lucid Air Dream models with a rating of 116 jointly taking fifth place.

Filling in the final top 10 places were the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, the Kira Niro Electric, yet another Lucid Air Dream model, and the Nissan Leaf.

The statistical dominance of electric vehicles in the overall rankings has been matched by increasing popular interest, with the top 50 vehicles searched on fueleconomy.gov in fiscal year 2021 including 44 models that were either hybrids or all-electric.

“I think that as our choices for vehicle types increase, especially with new electric drivetrains, it’s more important than ever to understand the specifications of the vehicles that you have the option to purchase,” said Stacy Davis, who leads the fueleconomy.gov and Fuel Economy Guide projects at ORNL.