Fast Facts | Best Hybrids of 2025
🚗 Best Mainstream Car: Honda Civic Hybrid for quiet, responsive driving and ~50 mpg efficiency
🏁 Most Fun Hybrid: Honda Prelude with sporty feel and hybrid tech tuned for engagement
👨👩👧👦 Best Family SUV: Hyundai Palisade Hybrid for space, refinement, and strong MPG for a three-row
✨ Best Luxury Pick: Volvo XC90 T8 for premium comfort plus real electric-only commuting potential
🛻 Best Hybrid Truck: Ford Maverick Hybrid for standout MPG and easy daily usability
🚙 Best Mainstream Crossover: Toyota RAV4 Hybrid for all-around practicality, efficiency, and broad appeal
🔌 Best Plug-In Value Idea: PHEVs make the most sense when you’ll actually charge nightly and use that electric range daily
Hybrids Are Having a Moment
While sales of full battery electric vehicles in the U.S. have continued to grow in recent years, the pace hasn't quite matched what many automakers were hoping for earlier this decade. Part of that's due to a relative lack of truly affordable options for many buyers. Hybrid adoption, on the other hand, has grown significantly faster, thanks to a growing number of options across just about every segment.
Conventional hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) combine an internal-combustion engine with electric drive and a small battery to recover energy that would normally be lost as heat during braking. The cost premium isn't what it used to be, and they generally offer 30 to 40 percent better fuel efficiency compared to the equivalent gas-only models, all without ever plugging in.
Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) use the same basic technology but with a more powerful electric motor and a larger battery that can be charged from a plug. Newer PHEVs typically deliver more than 30 miles of electric-only range when fully charged, with some now offering over 50 miles. That’s enough to cover the daily driving needs of over 80% of drivers without needing any guesswork. For longer trips, drivers can just keep going. Once the battery is depleted, a PHEV works like a conventional hybrid. PHEVs are more expensive than HEVs upfront, but if they're plugged in daily, the gas savings from electric driving can offset much of that premium.
Toyota pioneered modern HEVs when the original Prius was introduced in Japan in 1997, and now every model in its U.S. lineup is available with a hybrid powertrain as either standard or optional. Nearly every automaker offers at least some hybrid models these days. Even supercars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren have hybrid powertrains. With dozens of HEVs and PHEVs now on the market, here are a few of our favorites that went on sale this year.
Mainstream Cars: The Honda Civic
In the mainstream car segment, there's a wide variety of hybrids to choose from: the Toyota Prius, Corolla, and Camry, the Hyundai Elantra and Sonata, and more. But our personal favorite is the Honda Civic.
The current Civic comes as either a sedan or hatchback and is big enough to carry five adults and a decent amount of cargo. What sets it apart, though, is the driving experience. The Civic offers a great blend of comfortable ride quality with well-controlled handling and excellent steering. The Honda hybrid system has a more powerful electric motor than most others, and it does most of the driving. That makes it both responsive and less reliant on revving the engine for acceleration, so it’s quieter than the Toyotas while delivering comparable fuel efficiency at around 50 mpg. Super efficient and fun to drive, what more could you ask for?
Sporty Cars: Honda Prelude
If you like the way the Civic hybrid drives (and we certainly do), but you want a bigger dose of style at the expense of some practicality, Honda has the new sixth-generation Prelude. The Prelude is back after a more than 20-year sabbatical, and it’s very good. It’s based on a shortened version of the Civic platform in a 2+2 coupe configuration with a hatchback and the suspension and brake package from the more powerful Civic Type R.
To really set the Prelude apart from its more practically minded sibling, Honda’s software engineers built in the S+ shift system. Using the mostly series hybrid operation of the Honda powertrain, the engineers managed to simulate the feel of manual shifting and natural engine revving. Combined with the excellent handling of the Type R suspension, the Prelude delivers fun and 44 mpg combined.
Large SUVs: Hyundai Palisade
Three-row SUVs have become the family hauler of choice in recent years, and the all-new second-generation Hyundai Palisade that launched a few months ago is among the best in the segment. With lots of room for up to seven people, a surprisingly premium cabin, and modern design, it has a lot to offer. While the standard 3.5-liter gas V6 is fine, the hybrid is the version to get for both efficiency and performance.
The Palisade is the first model to get Hyundai Motor Group’s next-generation hybrid system that combines two electric motors, a clutch, and a six-speed automatic transmission to enable various combinations of series and parallel hybrid operation depending on speed and load conditions.
With a turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder, the hybrid is both significantly more powerful — at 329-horsepower combined from the engine and electric drive — and a lot more efficient than the V6. Depending on which wheel and tire combination you choose and whether you go with front or all-wheel drive, the Palisade hybrid delivers anywhere from 29 to 34 mpg on the EPA combined rating. It does all that in a manner that's much more refined than previous Hyundai hybrids, as well as competitors like the Toyota Highlander.
Luxury: Volvo XC90 T8
There are now plenty of HEV and PHEV options at the premium end of the market, but one of our favorites is a model that’s actually been around for nearly a decade but just recently got some updates: the Volvo XC90 T8. The XC90 got a new grille and some interior technology updates midway through the 2025 model year, including a larger infotainment screen with an updated interface for Google software. Like all Volvos, it’s got the classic Swedish look in the cabin that's both understated and sophisticated, as well as some of the most comfortable seats in the business. With three rows, it can carry up to seven passengers, but you’ll want to keep taller folks in the first two rows.
Volvo updated its PHEV drivetrain a couple of years ago with the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine getting a 48-volt mild hybrid system replacing the former supercharger to drive the front wheels. A more powerful 145-horsepower electric motor at the rear axle combines with a larger 18.8-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery to deliver an EPA rating of 32 miles of all-electric range and 530 miles of total range.
However, on my test loop of mixed highway, city, and suburban driving, I achieved 42 miles in electric mode before the engine finally fired up. For those interested in exploring EV life with a three-row luxury SUV but perhaps not ready to fully commit, the XC90 T8 is a great bridge.
Trucks: Ford Maverick
Pickup trucks are a huge part of the market in the U.S., and there are now several hybrid options available. Toyota offers hybrid versions of the Tacoma and Tundra, but both are really tuned more for performance than efficiency. Ford also offers two hybrid pickups: the F-150 and the compact Maverick.
The F-150 hybrid is considerably more efficient than the Tundra and offers up to 7.2 kilowatts of export power to run tools at a job site, provide emergency home backup in an outage, or just power your outdoor gear. But unless you're doing a lot of heavy towing, the Maverick is actually all the truck that most people need.
The crew-cab Maverick will carry four adults comfortably (or five in a pinch), and the 4-foot-5 bed will hold more than enough mulch for most weekend yard projects. But the hybrid powertrain is what really sets this little truck apart. With an EPA combined rating of 38 mpg for the front-drive model and 37 mpg for the new-for-2025 all-wheel drive, the Maverick uses less gas than most small cars, and in most real-world driving, it will easily top 40 mpg.
While the price has gone up quite a bit from the original $20,000 sticker when it debuted in 2022, the Maverick hybrid can still be had for just under $30,000. That's a lot less than any other hybrid truck, and it’s much easier to drive than a full-size.
Mainstream Crossovers: Toyota RAV4
The top-selling individual nameplate in the U.S. in 2024 and 2025 has been the Toyota RAV4, and it's been completely redesigned for 2026. While Toyota has offered both hybrid and plug-in hybrid options in the RAV4 for many years, the new model is now exclusively offered with these electrified powertrains.
The RAV4 HEV is offered with either front-wheel drive and 226 horsepower or all-wheel drive that adds a motor on the rear axle to bring total output to 236 horsepower. While final EPA ratings aren’t yet available at the time of writing, it should at least match or exceed the 39 mpg combined rating of the 2025 RAV4 hybrid that was only offered with AWD.
The RAV4 PHEV will arrive in spring 2026 with a larger 22.7-kWh battery pack that'll boost electric driving range to over 50 miles. The PHEV delivers 324 horsepower, which is well-suited to the new-for-2026 GR Sport trim level, making it the quickest-accelerating RAV4 ever. The 2026 RAV4 hybrid starts at $33,350 delivered, with PHEV pricing to be announced closer to its on-sale date in the spring.
Wrap Up
Hybrids have come a long way since that first Prius rolled out nearly three decades ago. Whether you're looking for a fun daily driver, a family hauler, or something a bit more luxurious, there's definitely a hybrid out there that fits your needs (and your budget).
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