Car dashboards have turned into walls of glass. Mercedes fits 56 inches across the EQS, Cadillac runs 55 inches pillar to pillar, and BMW now paints a 43-inch strip of light along the base of the windshield. This chart ranks every headline EV display by the inch, then rates each cabin for the thing the spec sheets leave out: how much you can still do with your hands.
The glass keeps growing. So do the knobs, quietly. Rank every headline EV display by size, or plot screens against buttons and see which cabins give you both.
One short email when a carmaker unveils a bigger screen, or brings the buttons back.
Sizes are the headline figures each maker publishes: diagonals for single displays, Jeep’s own total for the Wagoneer S, the width of BMW’s Panoramic Vision strip (BMW quotes no diagonal) and the BMW i7’s rear Theater Screen. Hollow, hatched bars and rings mark those three. The hands-on score is our editorial rating out of 5 for how much a driver can do without looking at a screen: volume, climate, the wheel controls and a physical way to work the menus. Two points on the plot are nudged apart so they do not overlap. Photos from each maker. Read the full story: The EVs With the Biggest Screens, Ranked by the Inch.
What the chart shows
The size ladder ranks the headline display of each car, using the figure the maker publishes. Most are true diagonals for one screen. Three are not, and we mark them with hatched bars and hollow rings: Jeep adds up four screens to reach its Wagoneer S total, BMW quotes Panoramic Vision by its width rather than a diagonal, and the BMW i7 earns its place with a 31.3-inch screen that folds down for the back seat.
The second view plots screen size against our hands-on score. Cabins in the top right give you a huge display and real controls for the jobs you do without looking. Cabins in the bottom right put nearly everything behind the glass. Tap any dot to jump to that car.
How we score hands-on
The hands-on score is our editorial rating out of 5, not a lab measurement. We look at four jobs a driver does with eyes on the road: changing the volume, changing the climate, working the steering wheel controls, and getting around the menus. A cabin earns points for each one it keeps on a real knob, key, roller or controller, and loses them for touch pads and on-screen sliders. Each car’s row explains its score in one line, so you can disagree with us on the specifics!
What we found
The biggest screens are the oldest designs. The Hyperscreen dates to 2021 and still tops the list, but every cabin unveiled in the last eighteen months has added something physical. The new Mercedes GLC pairs the brand’s largest single panel with seven console buttons and a scroll knob. The Genesis GV70 moved to one 27-inch OLED and kept every knob. Even Tesla brought back a turn-signal stalk.
Big glass and good controls are not opposites. The Cadillac Escalade IQ and the Mercedes GLC both land in the best-of-both corner: 55 and 39.1 inches of display, with real keys underneath. For the full tour of each dashboard, with photos of every one, read The EVs With the Biggest Screens, Ranked by the Inch.
What we are still verifying
Screen sizes come from each maker and are current as of November 2026. Carmakers measure differently, so a diagonal from one brand is not always comparable with a combined or width figure from another, which is why we label those three. The BMW iX3 and Mercedes GLC EQ cabins are brand new; we will revisit their scores as more owners live with them.
Questions people ask
Which EV has the biggest screen? The Mercedes-Benz EQS with the MBUX Hyperscreen, at 56 inches across three displays under one sheet of glass. The biggest single panel belongs to the Cadillac Celestiq and Escalade IQ at 55 inches.
Which EVs still have physical buttons? The Genesis Electrified GV70 keeps the most, with two knobs, shortcut keys and a full climate panel. The Cadillac Escalade IQ and the new Mercedes GLC EQ pair huge screens with real keys. Turn on I want knobs in the chart to see only those.
Is a bigger screen safer or worse? Size alone is not the problem; burying basic functions is. Euro NCAP now docks points from cars that put the indicators, wipers, hazards or horn behind a touchscreen, and J.D. Power owner surveys favor a blend of screen and buttons.
Want to know how far these cars really go? Try Real Range, or compare every EPA rating on the EV Range Chart.
Know when a new cabin joins the chart.
New screens, new buttons, new tools on the site. One short email, only when something changes.