The first widely popular hybrid car in America was the Toyota Prius. Sure, it was downright revolutionary, but the Prius has also long represented the antithesis of a fun car. It's slow, it looks super dorky, and if you find your pulse racing while driving a Prius, it's probably because you snuck a couple of extra espresso shots into your Starbucks order.
For car enthusiasts, the Prius has given hybrids a bad rap. But modern hybrids have gotten much better. They don't just deliver efficiency and EV-only range; they also deploy their extra electric power for performance, smoothing out inefficiencies, supplementing low-end torque, and even cribbing tech from Formula 1 engines. The hybrid has become the preferred option for some of our absolute favorite vehicles.
Here are 11 new fun hybrid we would happily drive daily.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Jeep Wrangler 4xe
Will Sabel Courtney
The Hemi-powered Wrangler Rubicon 392 seems likely to capture the hearts of many an enthusiast. But it's the new Wrangler 4xe PHEV that deserves most of the accolades. In fact, you can argue that it's the best Jeep Wrangler ever made.
Yes, Ferrari makes hybrids. The SF90 Stradale, a plug-in hybrid, pairs three electric motors with a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8. The result is nearly 1,000 horsepower, which makes it the most powerful and quickest Ferrari road car ever built. And at Ferrari, that's saying something.
The Tundra is not the F-150, but it is a damn good, legitimately competitive modern truck. And with the way Toyota branding can resonate with truck buyers — the 4Runner and Tacoma are some of America's best-selling vehicles — the Tundra could finally make an impact beyond its niche audience.
The Acura NSX is a coherent, delightful performance car. The twin-turbocharged V6 and three electric motors — two on the front axle, one in the back mated to the gearbox — combine to deliver a seamless rush of acceleration, be it from a dead stop or from a roll at highway speed. Then there’s the Super-Handling All-Wheel-Drive system, which uses torque-vectoring capabilities to push the car through curves with fantastic prowess.
The Maverick isn't the flashiest vehicle in the Ford lineup, but it's a segment-bending new small truck that may redefine what a truck can be. It's the first affordable, practical and fun new people's car to emerge in a long while. And if that weren't enough, the base model Maverick is now the cheapest electrified vehicle on sale in the United States.
Whether you call it the Recharge or the T8 E-AWD Polestar Engineered, Volvo's hot wagon can scoot. It doesn't blind anyone with chrome trim, and it doesn't feign being a crossover with that body cladding seen on Volvo's Cross Country models. It's also safe, reasonably spacious, has all-wheel-drive — and earns a not-especially-guilt-inducing 30 mpg or so combined.
The idea of dropping luxury car money on a pickup seems crazy in theory. But once you spend a little time in one of the regal F-150 Powerboost, it starts to feel almost logical. This new Ford is packed with all sorts of ingenious features that, combined with its immense inherent capability, arguably make it the vehicle most worthy of your $80K.
The Tucson Hybrid does its compact crossover duty well; it's spacious, efficient and gets the family from A to B smoothly and safely. But unlike most of its competition, it does those tasks while being striking to look at, feeling like a premium product and being genuinely fun to drive. And as usual, Hyundai does it all while meeting or beating its competitors on price.
Don't let the Cayenne E-Hybrid's comparative lack of sex appeal fool you into thinking it's in any way unworthy of the Porsche name — or a bad car. Far from it. There's a strong case to be made that, for most of us, it's the best Porsche for everyday life.
The Sonata hybrid is remarkably fuel-efficient, earning up to 52 mpg combined in Blue trim level form; but unlike many hybrids on the market, fuel efficiency is just one of its many features. It’s also a sophisticated, spacious, and exceedingly comfortable car in its own right — and best of all, like a lot of Hyundai Group offerings of late, it’s a great value, starting for less than $30,000.
The RAV4 Prime is neither perfect nor refined. But it packs a 2.5-liter I-4 with a duo of electric motors to whip up a combined 302 hp, enough to spring it from 0 to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds in Car and Driver testing. It even proved quicker than the four-cylinder Supra in the 5-60 mph test, which is generally more equivalent to real-world conditions.
