Here's one trend the automotive prognosticators didn't see coming: the humble hybrid's comeback.
In 2024, sales of conventional hybrids-the ones you don't plug in-shot up nearly 37 percent from 2023, according to the automotive analysis firm Wards Intelligence, while sales of electric vehicles rose just 7 percent. Proof that hybrids have become so well understood, so well accepted, and so commonplace is that all 2025 Toyota Camrys are hybrids, and the top four of the Honda Accord's six trims went hybrid-only in 2023. When popular mainstream family cars like these the Camry was the eighth-bestselling vehicle in the U.S. in 2024-have gas-electric propulsion as standard, you know hybrids have become the new normal.
To see what upsides-and downsides-exist in the realm of hybrid-only sedans, we paired an all-wheel-drive Camry XLE and an Accord Touring for a comparison deep dive. We also invited the recently refreshed Hyundai Sonata Limited Hybrid, a natural competitor of the Camry and the Accord. Curiously, each of these family sedans employs a different type of hybrid system. Which car provides the best performance, the highest efficiency, and the most fun from behind the wheel?
To suss out our trio's fuel efficiency and driving personalities, we journeyed from our Ann Arbor offices to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a round trip of 600 miles. Why Indy as our terminus? Race cars that compete at the Brickyard are increasingly adopting hybrid systems (Indy cars and IMSA prototypes are hybrids), and the connection to our family sedans gave our Walter Mitty fantasies a boost.
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Esta historia es de la edición March - April 2025 de Car and Driver.
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AN AMERICAN TOURING SCOTLAND IN AN ENGLISH CAR BUILT IN CHINA
In Dornbach, Scotland, Kitman walks past a modern MG and a Morris Minor, its distant relative. From left: Motoring through the Scottish Highlands; lobster traps in Dunbeath; taking on electrons at Gridserve; traversing the North Sea coast.
THE MAD SCRAMBLE
AN 814-HP V-12 THAT SCREAMS TO 9400 RPM IS JUST THE START OF THE INTENSE EXPERIENCE THAT IS THE LAMBORGHINI REVUELTO.
2022 Rivian R1T
This EV pickup proves to be E-Z to live with.
Spite Defender
Ineos Grenadier HIGHS: Dapper off-road style meets genuine off-road capability, wonderfully smooth powertrain, built like a brick outhouse. LOWS: Incessant warnings, sloppy and slow steering, noisy on the highway.
The Revivalist
The Nissan Murano emerges fresh-faced and revitalized from a long-overdue redo.
ELECTRICAL CONNECTION
The Toyota Camry, the Honda Accord, and the Hyundai Sonata all take different approaches to hybridization, but which one does it best?
The Achilles Kneel
Mercedes-Benz W123 wagons doing the Carolina Squat can get their droopy self-leveling rear suspension back up to snuff courtesy of a Californian.
Dollars to Donuts
Despite the high cost, automakers are still drawn to racing.
G to the Power of E
Mercedes-Benz G580 with EQ Technology HIGHS: Quicker than the old G550, improved handling, better braking. LOWS: Cubist shape torpedoes highway range, cramped inside, dorky name.
The Best Odds
The cars I recall most fondly were neither the prettiest nor the quickest. Certainly not the most expensive. They were machines that emerged willfully peculiar and intractably idiosyncratic.
