America’s high EV costs are driving buyers to hybrids

When Amber Lombardi went car shopping last year, she knew she needed an efficient vehicle able to haul a large trailer for her mobile dental practice. And it would be great if it could help provide electricity for some of her onboard equipment. The Ford F-150 pickup she chose has plenty of towing capability, and her drills and teeth-cleaning tools can draw juice from a 7.2-kilowatt generator built into the bed of the truck, powered by the same battery that helps propel it down the road.​

Lombardi’s truck isn’t one of Ford Motor Co.’s hot-selling F-150 Lightning electric pickups. It’s a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the venerable F-150, which costs less and still saves big on her fuel bills. “It just wasn’t within our reach to have a fully electric vehicle at this time,” says Lombardi, chief executive officer of Mainely Teeth in Portland, Maine. “So this is kind of bridging our gap.”

More than a quarter-century ago, Toyota Motor Corp. introduced the Prius, a car with a new technology—a small gasoline engine paired with a relatively large battery—that would become a darling of the green movement. But in recent years those hybrids fell out of favor as automakers raced to develop fully electric vehicles, which captured generous government incentives and sparked the imaginations of forward-thinking drivers. Now hybrids are making a comeback as would-be electric vehicle buyers are increasingly put off by stiff sticker prices and spotty charging infrastructure.

US sales of hybrids have more than doubled since 2020 and are heading toward a 35% increase this year, according to researcher GlobalData. “The auto industry doesn’t function in a mode where you just flip a switch and everything’s different,” says Jeff Schuster, GlobalData’s executive vice president for automotive. Hybrids are “a way for the mass market to start edging into electric vehicles.”

To win over some of those customers, Ford is doubling production of its three-year-old F-150 hybrid and lowering the price by $1,900—making it about equal to the full-gasoline model, and almost 10% cheaper than the all-electric version it introduced in 2022. Ford aims to quadruple hybrid sales over the next five years and offer the technology across its lineup, even as it throttles back ambitious production plans for its fully electric models. “We have been surprised, frankly, at the popularity” of hybrids, Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said on an earnings call in July.

For drivers seeking to tow big trailers, hybrids are a better option than fully electric versions, because heavy loads sap the battery and reduce the range of an all-electric pickup. The F-150 hybrid combines an electric motor with a 3.5-liter V6 engine, giving it 430 horsepower, among the most powerful in the F-150 lineup. The 2023 model averages about 25 mpg, versus 21 mpg for a conventional F-150 with the same engine, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

GlobalData expects Toyota’s hybrid sales to rise 7.5% this year, to more than 600,000. About one-third of Toyota’s sales in the US are hybrids, and some models are only available as gas-electrics, including the Sienna minivan and Sequoia full-size SUV.

The Sienna has a waiting list of at least eight months, and Toyota would sell more hybrids as a percentage of its total—especially plug-in models—if it had more powertrains available, says Jack Hollis, Toyota’s US sales chief. “If you look at plug-in hybrids, it’s really growing fast,” he says. “We could easily double our plug-in hybrid” sales.