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Electric car architecture frees up designers to design some truly remarkable interiors. In an EV, you don’t need to put the shifter on the floor, you don’t need to have the car’s shape dictated by having a motor in the front, and you don’t need traditional gauges. Some succeed at good EV interiors, others not so much.

For 2023, Wards Auto decided that several cars and SUVs were worthy of interior design awards, but three full EVs and one hybrid stood out. The EV winners of Wards 10 Best Interiors and UX winners include:

2023 BMW i7

BMW i70 xDrive60 interior
The interior of the 2023 BMW xDrive60 | BMW

It’s hard to argue with the new 2023 BMW i7. This massive sedan is based on the new 7 Series sedan, or maybe it’s the other way around. The giant car’s interior is dominated by a giant floating screen that extends across most of the dash, but that dash. It’s a waterfall of unique patterns and shapes that lead your eye to the real glass crystal controls for the iDrive. Of course, in this $120,000 all-electric sedan you expect top-notch materials, too, and BMW delivers.

2023 Cadillac Lyriq

2023 Cadillac Lyriq best electric SUV
2023 Cadillac Lyriq | Cadillac

Cadillac, like BMW, uses a long curved screen that incorporates the infotainment system with the gauge cluster. While BMW went positively modern, GM decided a retro-modern look would appeal to Lyriq buyers. We tend to agree, as the styling shows what unleashed Cadillac designers can do. But, this, too, is an expensive wagon with a price of $63,000. The materials live up to the Best Interiors award.

2023 Nissan Ariya

The 2023 Nissan Ariya is certainly not in a pricing class with the i7 or Lyriq with a base price of about $45,000. But Nissan designers finally stepped out of their all-black-plastic interiors with confining high door sills and instead opened up the all-electric Ariya’s cabin. This tall sedan, too, gets a long touchscreen but it also gets a floating console that lets your feet dangle where they will and a long flat dash with cool integrated buttons.

2023 Toyota Prius

An all-Black 2023 Toyota Prius Interior
2023 Toyota Prius Interior | Toyota
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A lot has been made of the 2023 Toyota Prius’ new exterior styling. But the interior looks more traditional the other cars’ on this list. It has a simple but effective shifter on the console, a large but not obscene infotainment screen, and a funky but effective digital gauge cluster. The whole package is clever. The entire package works, and it shows that you don’t have to push boundaries to win awards.