Hyundai landed three models on Kelley Blue Book’s 2026 Best Family Cars list, including the IONIQ 5, the first electric vehicle to crack a traditionally gas-focused awards category that has never included battery-electric contenders.
KBB announced the 12-vehicle list on June 3, naming the Palisade and Santa Fe in the 3-row SUV category and the IONIQ 5 among 2-row SUVs. The evaluation considered versatility, comfort, safety features, value, and efficiency. The IONIQ 5 was the only EV to make the 2026 roster.
That the IONIQ 5 appears on the list at all is the notable turn. The Best Family Cars list has historically drawn exclusively from SUVs and minivans powered by internal combustion engines, a reflection of the segment’s long-standing fuel and infrastructure assumptions. An electric vehicle making the cut signals either that KBB has updated its criteria to accommodate EVs or that the IONIQ 5 has cleared the practical thresholds—range, charging access, cost of ownership—that kept earlier electric models out of consideration.
The IONIQ 5 lands alongside mainstream family-hauler benchmarks like the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4. That placement suggests KBB sees the IONIQ 5 as competitively viable in the segment where volume-selling family vehicles live, not as an enthusiast outlier or a niche alternative. The implication is that electric vehicles have moved from specialty product to direct competitor in one of the industry’s highest-stakes categories.
The Palisade and Santa Fe both appeared on the 2025 Best Family Cars list in the 3-row category, making their 2026 inclusion a continuity story rather than a breakthrough. Hyundai’s position in the three-row space has been stable for multiple award cycles. The IONIQ 5’s debut on the list is the new information.
What the list tells the industry is that KBB’s evaluators now consider an electric vehicle to be a credible family-car recommendation without qualification. The IONIQ 5 did not earn a separate EV category or an asterisk; it competed directly with gas-powered rivals and made the cut. That is a different market positioning than electric vehicles held even two years ago, when range anxiety and charging infrastructure kept most EV models out of the practical-family-vehicle conversation.
For Hyundai, the result is three nameplates in a 12-vehicle field. The Palisade and Santa Fe hold the three-row ground the brand has defended successfully since the current Palisade launched. The IONIQ 5 does something the other two cannot: it puts Hyundai in the family-EV conversation as the only manufacturer with a battery-electric model KBB considers ready for mainstream family duty.
Source: Hyundai. Images courtesy of Hyundai.
