Why Hybrids Are Beating EVs In The U.S.

I drive a 2012 Camry hybrid. It’s been driven hard for food delivery and has gone 30,000 miles in under 2 years. Not a single problem. Oil changes every 5k miles.

Toyota didn't "miss out" on anything. They are selling hybrids and ice cars like crazy.

Have a Hybrid for 14 years and have 205k miles on it. My next car will most likely be a hybrid, it just makes sense

PHEVs make sense for people without stable housing. For example, my son, who is in college, first year, charging on campus was free. Next year is was so expensive it was the equivalent of $7.50/gal, so he bought gas. The next year he was renting a house and charged on 120v without issue and didn't use any gas that year. The next year he's in an apartment without the ability to charge and is mostly using gas again.

Had a gen. 2 Prius. Best car I ever owned in over 50 years of driving experience. Ordered a Rav4 XSE Prime in Nov. 2023; arrived 1st week of Jan. 2024. This car is amazing. Works perfect for where I live in a rural area of Oregon. Driving in EV mode, I can make 3 trips into town and back just on the battery alone. But when I need longer commutes, I have no range anxiety as this car fully charged and fully fueled has over 600 mile range. Amazing.

Calling a Mustang Mach-E “acclaimed” is an overstatement.

I just got my first Hybrid and I am totally impressed. It is amazing and the best choice for most Americans. People just don't have the ability to own an EV. It's not just price or infrastructure, but housing that determines what car is driven. I have a townhouse and have no ability to have a charger. In addition, my commute can be unpredictable with accidents and traffic. The hybrid gives me the fuel economy I need without the worry or stress of needing to "charge" my car. I can drive hundreds of miles on a single tank and fill up in minutes when I need to refuel. I know many Tesla owners who say that the "not needing maintenance" line is a scam. ALL cars need some kind of Maintenance. The dirty little secret of evs is that they burn through tires and breaks especially if you commute. The tire shops say they love EV's because their tires need to be changed every 12-18 months or so. Again, I love my Hybrid and I suggest you consider one before getting an EV. It just makes more sense.

I’ve just bought a flawlessly running 2012 Toyota Prius Hybrid with 230K miles on its original engine and battery for mere $3000 cash. The beautiful Prius Hybrid gets 45-50 miles per gallon and will last for another 20 years without new car payments for me.

Prius Prime and RAV4 Prime both offer 45 miles on pure electric for daily short range commute and seamlessly switches to hybrid ICE when the battery runs dry with total combined 500mi range. You can plug it in at home and it'll be full by the time you get up for work the next day. It's the smartest way over going full electric.

Hybrid sales are higher partially because some model lines/trims are now hybrid only. The Toyota Sienna is only available as a hybrid. The upcoming Camry will also only be available as a hybrid. Basically, in some cases, buyers only have the option of buying a hybrid and nothing else.

One thing on PHEV, under regular daily use, I only have to fill up the tank once every 3 months. Oil change once a year isn't a big deal compared to having to wait 3 hours to charge the car and forget about the pain of long trips on long weekends when everyone is clogging the charging stations!

The hybrid will offer you the best of both worlds, I think. The stress level concerning the "range anxiety crap" goes to zero. I live from home with a 53-mile electric range (Prius Prime 2023) on battery (EV mode), and I know that with a full gas tank, I have another 433 miles standing by in case of complete discharge by the battery (EV/HV mode). I usually charge the battery at 85%, but if I expect a longer trip the next day, I will charge it in full. I do have around 3200 watts of extra juice in my home solar panels for this task. It's perfect for me since I live on an island, and if we get hit by a hurricane, our gas and electric infrastructure will go back to the beginning of the 19th century for months, literally. I don't recommend anybody to buy a specific vehicle, but what I do recommend is to do your research based on your situation. In my case, I am more than happy with my red supersonic Prius, plus the vehicle looks like the "sporty version" of a Power Ranger's mobile.

My wife drives a Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid. It is I think the best choice right now. She gets 50 miles on the battery and that is all she needs to get the kids to school, shop, and get home on a weekday. And on the weekend, it can go an unlimited range without needing to stop anywhere to charge up. Plug-in hybrids are the BEST of both worlds. Not the WORST as implied in this story.

Prius has been kicking ass since the second gen came out, sounds to me like the general public is just now realizing what amazing vehicle they are.

Sept. 2022 my wife and I rented a Tesla for a trip from Chicago to Orlando and back. One of the things I learned is that, with a Tesla at least, we could make the trip in slightly more car time than with one of our regular hybrids. The adjustment was centering all activities like potty and food stops in combination with a charging session since the charging session took 5x as long and needed to be done about every 210 miles as opposed to every 240 for gas stops (in our vehicles). My takeaway from this is that charging infrastructure along highways shouldn't be thought of as something that is a standalone place like a gas station but rather an add-on to places that already want customers to stop there like restaurants and roadside attractions and should also be common at rest areas. It also doesn't seem practical for suburban areas let alone urban areas to try to meet a significant part of the charging demand with public chargers so finding a way for a large portion of the public to charge the vehicles where they live will be a limiting factor. As for me, if I buy a new vehicle in the next year or two, it will be a plug-in hybrid that can travel in EV mode for a minimum of 40 miles. I also signed a contract this morning to put an EV charger in my garage.

Hybrids are the sweet spot. No range issues, great mpg and somwhere in the middle when it comes to pricing. Also Toyota.... so reliable!

I think the big mistake is to assume that one technology will take over the whole auto industry. We are going to see a diverse landscape of gas cars, hybrids, plug-in, hybrids, and EV’s.

I live in an Apartment with no chargers. I have nothing against EV's, but I'm not going to drive around and wait at a charging station. Also, I like to take long road trips, EV's would add A LOT more time for driving.

I drove from Chicago to Austin and back in a 2021 standard range model 3 (loaner). It honestly was about equivalent to the ICE car I had a year prior (2022 corolla hatchback) as far as time traveling. Was stopping at a super charger about every 2 hours which worked out well. Car plans out via route planner where the next stop will be to charge at. We had time to stretch our legs, use the restroom, and eat all while the car was charging. So less stops for rest areas. Honestly camp mode was a nice feature to have too. Posted up at a rest area 10 miles from the next super charger and slept with camp mode. Its not the safest sleeping in a car but it made the night more comfortable without needing to get a costly hotel. The Toyota dealerships near me rarely have plug in hybrids available. The one near me has a Rav 4 prime listed for over 50k. Its just a tough sell because I can get a brand new dual motor model 3 for a decent amount less. Or a 2021+ one with full self drive for around 37k. I live in a dense city so charging isn't an issue for me I can see how it can be for some. But having traveled across the US in a reasonable amount of time, I can say the Model 3 is the best option for anyone getting into EV's.

We bought a used 2017 Chevy Volt in 2020. (30,000 miles). We have a charger in our garage and we have never charged outside of the garage. We rarely buy gas. When we were planning a longer trip I filled up the tank. My whole driving life I write down every gas purchase/price/gallons. It had been 3 months since I had bought gas. We have had solar for 22 years and though we only have a 3.5 KW solar system, our electric bill is in the negative. We really like this car.