30 Years of Wards 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems

It’s been quite a ride.

Three decades ago, a small group of Wards editors convened for the first time to debate the strengths and weaknesses of a list of powertrain nominees they’d been driving and evaluating during the previous few months. Their mission: to choose the first class of Wards 10 Best Engines honorees, in a contest intent on shining a bright light on the systems that propel our vehicles, and equally importantly, to recognize the people with the engineering excellence behind those machines.

Now, 30 years later, we celebrate the winners in what is now the Wards 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems program, which seeks to recognize the wide variety of systems available in the marketplace. From the most powerful supercharged internal-combustion V-8s to hybrids to fuel-cell and pure battery-electric vehicles, our program has grown and adapted to encompass the entire spectrum of light-vehicle propulsion.

Always seeking to make our winners’ list as egalitarian as possible, we had imposed a tight price cap on nominees until 2021, when it became evident that many worthy propulsion systems were being left out. No, that decision didn’t release the floodgates for exotics to take over our list, but it did open the door to many more nominees, including battery-electrics with higher sticker prices that would have otherwise qualified if tax breaks were a factor. Value still remains among our bedrock criteria.

Over the years, Wards editors and judges have evaluated more than 1,000 nominees, from diminutive 1.0L economy leaders to electric and gas-powered behemoths with six-figure sticker prices and everything in between. And while editors and 10 Best judges have come and gone, we remain true to the principle that has guided this program’s decision-making process from Day 1: “Does this powertrain or propulsion system sell the vehicle?”

We believe that, by answering that question in the affirmative for every winner, we have chosen the best 300 powertrains over three decades that truly deserve the industry’s highest recognition. We think you’ll agree, and we encourage you to celebrate them with us.
Download the entire list here.