The American website Wards Auto recently published its 30e annual ranking of the best engines, all categories combined. If electric still has its place among these 10 engines, it is the hybrid that receives the most accolades.
A sign of a more nuanced position among manufacturers with regard to the electric shift, Wards crowned six hybrid powertrains in various categories. Among cars, the Honda Civic hybrid and Toyota Camry hybrid with all-wheel drive are represented in the top 10. The Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray equipped with a front electric motor to support its V8 (655 hp in total) also won a trophy.
As for hybrid SUVs and pickup trucks, the performance of the F-150 PowerBoost is praised, as is that of the Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid. Only one plug-in model is present in the list, the BMW X5 xDrive50e. This is undoubtedly a sign that technology, which is very complex, remains the result of multiple compromises.
On the electric vehicle side, Hyundai and Kia are rewarded with the Ioniq 5 N crossovers and the EV9 GT respectively.
Two purely thermal engines complete the ranking, namely the twin-turbo inline six-cylinder of the Ram 1500 pickup truck and the 1.6L turbocharged three-cylinder of the sparkling Toyota GR Corolla.
Note that this list only focuses on new or updated engines. It evaluates their pure performance as well as their overall efficiency and refinement in addition to the new technologies used. No word on reliability, which limits the scope of the list, which still offers us an interesting point of view on the performance of the best mechanics.