America’s Hot Hybrid Summer

In Europe, the rise in gas prices due to the Iran war has car buyers thinking about electrics more than ever before.

Battery-electric vehicle (BEV) sales were up more than 33 percent in the first half of 2026 compared to the same time last year, according to data published by European consultancies and nongovernmental organizations this month.

The same has not happened in the US. Electric sales are up by nearly 15 percent in the second quarter of the year compared to the first. But the overall number of EVs sold is still small. They’re lagging well behind the optimistic projections made before the Trump administration reversed federal support for the tech, which included generous tax credits of up to $7,500, and before automakers responded by dialing back their own electric plans.

Instead, the more noticeable sales boom has been in cars that use traditional fuel, but more efficiently: hybrids. Sales of cars that sip gas rather than glug are projected to rise 9 percent this year, according to Kelley Blue Book, while sales of cars overall are slated to dip by more than 2 percent.

Fuel Efficient

The price of oil has fluctuated following the continuing conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, and so have gas prices, which are now up 30 percent in the US compared to this time last year. That alone has Americans thinking about alternatives to the traditional gas-powered car. Hybrids are more fuel-efficient because they combine internal combustion engines with electric motors. Some plug in and use smaller gas tanks to move once their electric charge has run out; most don’t, depending on technology that’s decades older.

But gas prices aren’t totally responsible for the US’s hot hybrid summer, analysts say. Hybrids are more available than they used to be. They are, on average, more expensive than gas-powered cars, but not by much. And they don’t give Americans range anxiety in the way that pure battery-powered cars do.

Now the vehicles—once viewed as a bridge between gas and electric—will likely stick around for the long haul. “A hybrid doesn’t feel like an electric vehicle—these are very different animals,” says Stephanie Brinley, the associate director of AutoIntelligence at Mobility Global.

“People are looking to save; they have range anxiety. The hybrid is the perfect solution,” says Karl Brauer, an executive analyst at iSeeCars.com. “Hybrids still have a long life ahead of them.”

Unlike electrics, which tend to confuse Americans right now, hybrids aren’t as alien. More buyers thinking about hybrids isn’t necessarily bad for EV adoption, Brinley argues. “When buyers say, ‘I’ll look at this hybrid,’ that’s opening up a willingness to consider something that’s not traditional. It’s a little crack in the armor that can make a difference when they come back to the market,” she says.

The American fondness for hybrids is another way US cars are looking really different from their global counterparts.

Toyotathon

This year’s jump in US hybrid sales has a lot to do with one automaker: Toyota. The Japanese automaker made its initial bets in hybrid tech back in the late 1990s, with the birth of the Prius. By the early 2000s, its hybrid system had made its way into other mass-market cars, like the Camry. And then, critically, Toyota stuck with hybrids as other automakers went all-in on electrics in the 2010s and early 2020s. Now, US customers can buy a hybrid version of nearly every car in its lineup. What’s more, many of the automaker’s most popular vehicles, including the Camry and the RAV4, are now hybrid-only.

So maybe it’s unsurprising: This quarter, Toyota reported its hybrid sales were up by nearly 20 percent.