Electric vehicles improved in the 2025 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study but plug-in hybrids got worse.
Released Thursday, the annual study focuses on the rate of problems with new vehicles, as reported by owners, with scores assigned based on problems per 100 vehicles. The new results are based on problems experienced by the original owners of vehicles going back to the 2022 model year. The sample included 34,175 responses from owners gathered from August through November of 2024.
EVs improved by 33 problems per 100 vehicles compared to the previous year’s study, while plug-in hybrids saw an increase of 26 problems per 100 vehicles compared to last year, when EVs were found to be the most trouble-prone vehicles.
2024 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid
The gap between EVs and gasoline vehicles also narrowed significantly, J.D. Power noted, now standing at 223 problems per 100 vehicles and 200 problems per 100 vehicles, respectively. Plug-in hybrids were the most problematic, at 242 reported issues per 100 vehicles. Hybrids fared the best; such models without a plug experienced the fewest problems, at 199 per 100 vehicles.
In a previous study, J.D. Power underscored that the powertrains aren’t to blame for all these issues; rather it’s been all the other tech that debuts in EVs. The 2025 Vehicle Dependability Study indicates that tech-related issues are becoming more prevalent across the auto industry, with software connectivity issues among the most frequent owner complaints, and just 30% of owners saying that they saw improvements after over-the-air updates.
2022 Audi Q5 55 TFSI e plug-in hybrid
That contributed to a worse performance, as averaged across the entire industry, in this year’s study. The industry as a whole saw problems per 100 vehicles increase by 6%, averaging 202 problems per 100 vehicles.
But EVs continue to perform more poorly than other vehicles in these studies. J.D. Power also noted a higher rate of owner-reported problems for EVs, compared to the industry average, in its 2024 Initial Quality Study. Consumer Reports’ annual reliability survey in late 2023 found that vehicles that plug in, overall, are more trouble-prone—and it noted that especially applies to plug-in hybrids.