Automakers are just starting to report sales for the second quarter, giving us a glimpse into the first half of the year. It’s a story of haves and have-nots: if you have hybrids to sell, you have a lot of customers; if you don’t have any, you’re probably suffering. I’ll write a more detailed report tomorrow for The Morning Dump and once again tap the “Decade of the Hybrid” sign.
The big number that grabbed me like The Count from Sesame Street comes courtesy of Kia, which is out gloating about selling 70,507 vehicles in June, which is up 10% year-over-year. That’s not the big number (although it is a big number) I’m interested in, though. Kia said that just hybrid sales were up 187% year-over-year in June and up 85% for the year.
That’s a lotta damn hybrids. And literally all of the many hybrids that the company sells did well.
“Kia’s record-breaking first half sales performance was seen across our entire lineup of sedans and SUVs. The results illustrate our ability to react to shifting market demands by resetting our showrooms with the right mix of ICE, hybrid and electrified models,” said Eric Watson, vice president, sales operations, Kia America. “As we enter the second half of the year, we expect our momentum to continue, driven by strong anticipation for the all-new Seltos, which will begin full-scale sales nationwide in July, alongside the continued success of the 2027 Telluride, the expansion of our hybrid lineup, and the launch of the all-new EV3.”
The “electrified” bit is something of a canard as Kia lumps hybrids and EVs in, which ends up lowering the increase as the company’s EV6 is down, although the EV9 is up (Kia didn’t release Niro EV numbers). Hyundai is in a similar boat, albeit not quite as hybrid-heavy since they lack a Carnival HEV equivalent. For Hyundai, total hybrid sales grew by 74% in June, 71% in Q2, and 67% on the year
Honda And Toyota Benefited From Strong Hybrid Sales, Too
Toyota is an interesting automaker to view through the hybrid lens as it’s shifted numerous vehicles (RAV4, Sienna, Camry) to hybrid-only platforms and, overall, offers a hybrid option for nearly every vehicle they make across both the Lexus and Toyota brands.
The company lumps all its EVs and hybrids together in one big category called “Electrified,” and there, at least, the two Toyota brands were up about 35% overall. Sales of the BZ and RZ EVs rose, but not as fast as hybrids, with the RAV4 Hybrid climbing by 90.7%, the PHEV up 619%, and the RX Hybrid up 65.3%. While most hybrids were up by larger amounts, the Land Cruiser, Tacoma, and Corolla HEVs did drop a little. Overall, though, hybrids smoked.
The same is true over at Honda, which saw a big lift from the CR-V Hybrid:
CR-V is the #1 SUV in America in 2026, posting sales of over 226,114 units for all-time best first half (+6%) and best first quarter sales (+16%), and a record June (+30%) with CR-V hybrid models representing 55% of sales for an all-time best half (124,017), quarter and June.
Honda’s biggest problem is that it can’t build new hybrids fast enough, having spent a lot of money on doomed electrification projects. I’m sure Honda would give its left axle nut to have an Odyssey or Pilot hybrid. They’re coming, but not until the end of the decade, so Honda is having to get by on Civic, Accord, and CR-V.
The (Mostly) Have Nots
There is exactly one GM hybrid for sale in North America, and it’s the Corvette ZR1X, which is very funny. What are things like over at GM? The brand was down 4.2% in Q2 of this year (the company doesn’t typically report monthly sales unless it wants to brag about something specific).
“Our business is performing well, and customer demand is resilient, especially for our trucks and SUVs. The depth, breadth and appeal of our vehicle portfolio allows us to lead the market in sales, while maintaining discipline on inventory, pricing and incentives to deliver strong margins,” said Duncan Aldred, President of GM North America.
EV sales at Cadillac were up, with the brand claiming the best Q2 they’ve ever had, with Optiq up 31% and Vistiq up 15%, though Lyriq was down 16.1% year-over-year. Given the loss of the IRA, this isn’t bad, but the Equinox EV cratered by 61.8%, even though it’s affordable. Some of that may be down to the return of the Bolt, which sold 3,433 units in Q2.
There’s a similar story at Stellantis, where the only regular hybrid the company sells–the Cherokee Hybrid–has just gone on the market as the old PHEVs come off the market. The Jeep brand overall was down, and Stellantis only managed to eke out a 6% quarterly increase on the back of Ram trucks and an absolute wild number of Pacificas getting pushed out the door.
More sales numbers will come out in the next few days, but for now it’s all about the hybrids.
Top graphic images: Kia; DepositPhotos.com
People have said for years that high gas prices would drive people to electric and now we have proof. As someone else said hybrid IS the upgrade now for many models and people are now ready for it.
GM is gonna GM. BTW, where is my EREV Colorado/Silverado/Tahoe?
Honda wasted so much money on useless fuel cells
No, they wasted a lot of the Japanese government’s money on fuel cells.
The fact the Corvette is the only GM Hybrid says all you need to know about the future of that brand.
If GM spent 10% of the energy they put in to the amazing new corvette they probably could have fixed their V8 issues
At the dawn of the hybrid era, a lot of folks had an irrational fear of them (“Yeah but how much is it gonna cost to replace the battery?”). That’s largely gone by now, and anyone who visits a dealer can look at a 25mpg CR-V next to a 45mpg CR-V and decide the extra amount of monthly payment will be more than covered by the gas savings.
Also hybrids are the upgrade option now. Where you used to be able to choose a V6 for twice the power and half the economy, now you can choose a hybrid for double the torque and double the economy—not to mention better NVH than a buzzy four-banger on its own.
I caught a bit of terrestrial radio while waiting for UConnect to recognize my phone, and it was some local morning show where the hosts were discussing hybrids gaining popularity and asking each other questions about how they work ed and if they all had to be plugged in, and then pondering whether some coworker had recently bought a Toyota hybrid and maybe they could get her in the studio to ask about it
This is 2026, hybrids have been mainstream, mass production cars for a quarter century, and it really seems like a whole segment of the car buying public is somehow still barely aware that they even exist
I had the same conversation about my Ioniq hybrid several times with several different people. “Is that electric?” No, its a hybrid “do you have to plug it in?” No, you just put gas in it “but is also electric?”
The market transition that’s happening now is probably 20 years late and I bet bad PR on the part of automakers is a big contributor. If they can educate people about different diesel engine brand names, surely they could have told people what hybrids are
The mixed marketing between PHEVs, series, parallel, blah blah blah doesn’t help. I do think the European notion of calling anything that doesn’t have a socket a ‘self-charging hybrid’ might be beneficial, although it does feel a little clunky since to us that’s just a ‘normal’ hybrid.