Photo: Courtesy Ford

Consumer Reports has a new top pick for the electric vehicle of the year.

What Happened: The Ford Mustang Mach-E from Ford Motor Company F is the 2022 Consumer Reports’ electric vehicle top pick.

An overall score is determined based on road-test scores, reliability, owner satisfaction and safety.

“The Mach-E crossover is wrapped in Mustang heritage and executed with the detail associated with a century-old automaker. We took instant notice, and so did car buyers,” Consumers Reports said.

The vehicle was noted as being more practical and easier to live with than some rival electric vehicles: “The Ford is also quieter and rides better.”

Reliability of the Mustang Mach-E was a key factor in the ranking with survey respondents from the magazine preferring the vehicle to others.

Consumers Reports ranked vehicles in 10 categories. Here is a list of the other winners:

• Small Car: Nissan Sentra
• Subcompact Car: Nissan Rogue Sport
• Small SUV: Subaru Forester
• Midsize Sedan: Honda Accord from Honda Motor Co Ltd HMC
• Hybrid: Toyota Prius and Prius Prime from Toyota Motor Corp TM
• Two-Row SUV: Toyota RAV4 Prime
• Midsize Three-Row SUV: Kia Telluride
• Compact Pickup Truck: Honda Ridgeline
• Luxury Midsize SUV: Lexus RX

Why It’s Important: The Model 3 from Tesla Inc TSLA  has topped the Consumers Reports list for the past two years in the electric vehicle category.

Consumers Reports said Tesla's Model 3 is still a great electric vehicle choice and is recommended to buyers.

“It shines with the latest technology, a long-range, an impressive charging network and a driving experience closer to a high-performance sports car than a sedan,” Consumer Reports said.

While ranking the Mach-E ahead of the Model 3, the magazine took a few shots at the Model Y in comments.

“The Model Y’s reliability has been much worse than average, which has kept it out of our Top Picks.”

The magazine said that owners reported problems with the Model Y and noted: “reliability is a key factor in our overall score.”

Consumer Reports and Tesla have had a back-and-forth relationship filled with some controversies over the years. In May 2018, Consumers Reports pulled a recommendation on the Model 3, due to emergency brake testing.

The sentiment change prompted Tesla CEO Elon Musk to attack the methods used by the magazine on car recommendations.

In 2015, Consumer Reports broke its own rating system and praised the Model S. The praise was followed up by giving the car a “worse-than-average overall problem rate” after receiving surveys from Tesla owners back. A recommended rating was pulled after the surveys in 2015.

The move of Ford topping Tesla could sour an already poor relationship between Tesla and Consumer Reports, while also giving Ford some leverage in strengthening an argument that it can take the electric vehicle giant head-on.

Ford CEO Jim Farley recently said that the Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup has the potential to become the top-selling electric vehicle in the U.S.