While Teslas and other electric vehicles dazzled car buyers with futuristic technologies and dreams of a gas-free tomorrow, hybrid cars were beginning to seem like yesterday’s news.
By Laura King
Sales of Toyota’s Prius, the flagship hybrid car, fell 85 percent over a decade.
Now, slowing sales growth for electric cars has caused General Motors, Ford Motor and Volkswagen to backtrack on ambitious targets for these vehicles. Additionally, hybrid sales are strong, underscoring a possible enduring reality check of 2023: Many Americans are very receptive to electrification, but aren’t ready for an all-electric car.
“Consumers want the same experience they’ve had” with a combustion-engine car, said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry consumer insights at Cox Automotive. “And we haven’t gotten it yet. “Price remains the main barrier for most consumers.”
Last year, Americans bought a record 1.2 million electric vehicles, a 46 percent increase and a 7.6 percent slice of total new car sales, according to Cox. However, sales of hybrids increased even more, by 65 percent, surpassing 1.2 million, taking their market share from 5.5 percent to 8 percent, according to Edmunds. If we add plug-in hybrids, almost one in ten new cars combines a gasoline engine with an electric engine to save fuel and improve performance.
Analysts say high prices for electric cars and concerns about public charging are pushing some car buyers toward hybrids, including renters or urbanites who can’t charge a battery-powered car at home.
Hybrids allow you to save at gas stations without having to connect them for hours or plan trips based on stops to recharge. Their batteries are much smaller and cost much less than those in fully electric vehicles.
Car buyers paid an average of $42,500 for hybrids in November, according to Edmunds, compared with $60,500 for electric vehicles and $47,500 for conventional models.
There are a variety of affordable hybrid models, many starting at $30,000, including a sleek, redesigned Prius that gets a model-record 15 miles per liter. In contrast, the electric vehicle market remains overloaded with luxury offerings.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said traditional consumers were fundamentally different from the early adopters of electric vehicles, whom automakers hardly had to encourage or educate.
“Electric vehicles continue to grow at spectacular numbers, but the change is that the people who buy them are not willing to pay an additional charge,” Farley said in an interview. “Now we have to control costs and even—surprise, surprise—advertise.”
Ford is reducing planned production of the F-150 Lightning pickup truck and increasing production of the more affordable F-150 Hybrid by 20 percent. The automaker plans to quadruple total hybrid production with hopes of selling 100,000 this year.
Among those models is the Maverick compact pickup, whose hybrid version that delivers 16 kilometers per liter has exceeded Ford’s most optimistic sales projections.
The main beneficiaries of the hybrid resurgence are Toyota, Honda and Hyundai Motor, including its sister brand Kia.
These automakers represent about 90 percent of hybrid sales in the United States, followed by Ford. They all continue to invest in the technology, even as GM, Volkswagen and other manufacturers promise to make the complete shift toward electric vehicles.
Honda outdid itself in 2023, nearly tripling hybrid sales to 294,000 units. Hybrid versions of Honda’s Accord sedan and CR-V sport utility vehicle (SUV) now account for more than half of sales of these models.
The Accord combines comfort, quality and luxury-level equipment with a total consumption of up to 19 kilometers per liter at a price starting at $33,290.
Hyundai, Kia and their Genesis luxury brand were on track for record U.S. sales in 2023, after collectively selling more electric vehicles in the U.S. than any other automaker except Tesla.
However, Hyundai Motor remains bullish on hybrids, even after the Biden administration proposed regulations that would force two out of every three new cars to be fully electric by 2032.
“Anyone who wants to survive in this business is making these investments in electric vehicles,” said Steve Center, chief operating officer of Kia America. That includes Hyundai, which has committed to investing $12 billion in factories in Alabama and Georgia.
However, Center added that an electric vehicle might not meet the needs of a “Montana cowboy with a pickup truck.” Hybrids can help reduce emissions from those types of vehicles more quickly, she said.
Center offered a bold prediction: As combustion-engine cars slowly become obsolete, all remaining gasoline models will embrace electrification in hybrid form. Gasoline cars will not be able to compete without it, as both consumers and regulators demand greater fuel economy and fewer emissions.
“Everything should be hybrid to begin with, because everyone can drive a hybrid, everywhere,” he said.
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, appears to be following that path. Within a few months, Toyota will offer nine hybrid-only models, including one from its Lexus luxury brand.
The company sold more than 640,000 hybrids in the United States last year, 29 percent of its total sales in this country; sold about 15,000 fully electric vehicles.
David Christ, CEO of Toyota’s North American division, mentioned that the automaker hopes to reach 40 percent of electric car sales by 2024. Christ echoed Center’s opinion on projections for combustion engine cars.
“Over time, we are not opposed to adopting a fully hybrid system to move more quickly toward a greener future,” Christ said.
However, for some car experts, hybrids have an expiration date.
Dave Cooke, senior vehicle analyst at the Union of Conscious Scientists, said hybrids were a vital and affordable tool allowing millions of drivers to consume less gas, but they remained a transitional technology. Long-term climate change goals continue to require a shift toward electric vehicles that charge on a renewable power grid, he said.
“In our comments to the EPA and the industry, we said, ‘Hey, put a hybrid in everything,’” Cooke said, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency by its acronym in English. “But we still need stricter standards so that automakers face rules related to what can be achieved at the technological level.”
Cooke noted that the national fleet’s fuel consumption had remained stable for years, in part due to the shift toward pickups and SUVs. Recent gains are entirely attributed to the rise of electric vehicles, with hybrids playing a negligible role.
Chris Harto, transportation and energy policy analyst at Consumer Reports, agreed with that assessment.
