The Toyota Camry is the safe choice. For a lot of car buyers, it doesn’t require a second thought — its Toyota reliability, sufficient performance, and inoffensive looks are enough to close the deal. That’s why 300,000 Americans buy one every year. But for 2025, the Camry’s identity will change: It’s going hybrid-only.
[Full disclosure: Toyota flew me out to San Diego for a real-life Toyotathon, with an off-road course, a street route, and a bunch of car models to drive. In addition to transportation and accommodations, Toyota provided chocolate milkshakes and other non-milkshake food. -AK]
This isn’t just a big move for the Camry; it furthers Toyota’s hybrid-first approach to the future. Toyota’s said that going all-in on fully electric vehicles isn’t the path forward right now, and while people have criticized the company for dragging its feet on EVs, we’re all starting to realize that hybridization is a great answer to our modern transportation problems (in America, at least).
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Plus, it’s making Toyota money: In late 2023, Toyota said hybrids account for 28 percent of its global sales and are just as profitable as its traditional gas-powered cars. Hybrid sales are growing way faster than EVs in the U.S., and Toyota has hybrids to sell — including the new Camry.
What Is The New Toyota Camry?
The Camry is one of the best-selling cars in America, slotting in at eighth on the 2023 list with more than 290,000 sales. That number used to be in the 400,000 to 500,000 range, but it’s gradually fallen as the U.S. trends toward trucks and SUVs.
Still, the Camry makes up a huge chunk of the American car market — justifying its existence when many other carmakers ditched the sedan. The Camry has potential to be a big factor in pushing the U.S. toward a hybrid future. For non-car people, the terms “hybrid” and “EV” can be scary: What, I have to charge? How long does that take? How much does it cost? Do I need outlets at my house?
Non-plug-in hybrids like the new Camry, which charge the battery while the car is driving instead of at an outlet, help bridge that gap and assuage those concerns. They’re less scary to EV skeptics; they feel familiar, yet they still bring normal car buyers a step closer to full electrification.
Plenty of people want to drive long distances without scouting out chargers or experiencing EV range anxiety, but we need to move toward more sustainable vehicles. With new Camrys offered as hybrid-only, people shopping for their traditionally safe choice will be met without a choice on powertrain — helping push them out of their comfort zone toward a more efficient vehicle.
Let’s look at the basic specs:
- Price: $28,400 base, plus $1,095 in fees
- Engine: 2.5-liter four-cylinder
- Transmission: Electronically controlled continuously variable transmission (eCVT)
- Drivetrain: Front-wheel drive (FWD) or electronic on-demand all-wheel drive (AWD)
- Horsepower: 225 (FWD models), 232 (AWD models)
- Fuel Economy: Manufacturer-estimated combined 51 mpg (on the LE FWD grade)
- Body Style: five-seat sedan
- Curb Weight: 3,450 to 3,538
What It Looks Like
Toyota’s new body style features the “hammerhead” front end, which is exactly what it sounds like: the hood lines, grill, and headlamp combine to look like a hammerhead shark. It’s an elegant way to blend all of those lines together, and it gives the Toyota lineup a recognizable face. I’m not in love with it yet, but I recognize that everything must evolve to stay relevant. It’s growing on me.
The rear of the Camry still looks very “Camry” to me. It’s got those taillights that reach forward into a rounded point — “rounded point” contradicts itself, but you know what I mean — making the rear feel almost disjointed with the front of the new car. It’s like Toyota wants us to know what we were driving behind, but question what’s driving behind us.Best of both worlds in organic marketing, I guess?
What About The Inside?
The Camry is also familiar inside. Its panoramic glass roof makes the car feel airy, and the interior layout and dashboard don’t stray too far from the mold: There are a few big, flat dash panels, tactile buttons, and a digital instrument cluster and infotainment screen. It’s modern but not daring, and most importantly, it has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. (Some cars still don’t have wireless CarPlay! In 2024! Can you believe it?)
I drove a white Camry XLE, which is the third-highest of the four trims (LE, SE, XLE and XSE). The only unconventional part of my XLE’s interior design was its dashboard pattern. It was almost like quilting, but with little holes at the intersections of the quilts. I still don’t know how I feel about it, but I appreciate that it was different.
The Camry also keeps a straight pull-down “PRNDL” shift lever, which is a nice and familiar action. Some modern Lexus and Toyota products have a lever that requires you to pull over and up (or down), and while I get used to it after a few days, it’s not the smooth movement I crave.
How It Drives
The XLE I drove was front-wheel drive, had 225 horsepower, and started at $33,400. It also gets a manufacturer-estimated 48 mpg in the city, 47 on the highway, and 47 combined. All-wheel-drive models send power to the rear wheels through a dedicated rear electric motor, which gives the car additional traction when you need it: bad weather, acceleration, and other traction-hungry situations.
I drove the Camry in the mountains and enjoyed it. The steering was responsive and well-weighted, not too light or too heavy. The pedals had tension and didn’t feel squishy. There wasn’t a ton of weight transfer in the turns, and you could take turns quickly. It was fun — not numb or boring — and that’s cool for a Camry.
The acceleration isn’t jumpy, but it’s strong enough, and there’s not a ton of wind or road noise. EV mode allows you to drive low speeds without any gas at all, and the gas kicks in as soon as the car determines you’re out of that low-speed range. The continuously variable transmission is the only thing that feels out of place in the car; there’s no shifting action on the fun roads, which makes it feel like something’s missing. But overall, the car is capable if you want to have a little fun and use less fuel.
Conclusion
I love hybrids, and Toyota does too. The new Camry isn’t perfect, but it is a car that can lead a revolution among normal buyers. The ride is comfortable and fun, the looks aren’t too out-there, and Toyota’s reputation for reliability can probably carry the rest. Plus, at $28,400 base, the new Camry (exclusively hybrid) is more than $400 cheaper than the outgoing Camry Hybrid. In a world of unchecked inflation, that’s a nice break from the norm.
The Camry is the safe choice, and now it’s the safe choice with an exclusively hybrid powertrain — letting car buyers learn that hybrids, and even full EVs, aren’t as scary as they seem. To me, that’s only a good thing.
I Briefly Drove The 2025 Camry Too – I Liked It
David Tracy here! Alanis and I teamed up on the Toyotathon event, with me handling the Tacoma and Tundra, and her handling the Camry and Crown Signia. I was also able to get behind the wheel of the Camry, albeit briefly, and was just as impressed as Alanis.
Here’s the car I drove. Doesn’t it look classy in blue, at least up front?
And here’s the cabin. I really like the fabric on the doors and dash, especially in white. It’s just cool.
While I agree with Alanis that a normal PRNDL shifter makes sense for the masses, for this car, a smaller shifter — perhaps dash mounted — would work great, and would free up some room on the center tunnel. Speaking of the shifter: I will miss the eight-speed automatic on the outgoing car, as I don’t love the Camry’s CVT (or perhaps I’m just not used to it). Still, I place the transmission among the better CVTs I’ve experienced (it’s not a conventional CVT — see below), and it helps the Camry achieve 50 MPG, so it’s all good.
Anyway, while we’re looking at the interior, I just wanted to point out how much room there is, even on the all-wheel drive (which again, has a hybrid system that has to package a lithium ion battery (note that Toyota also likes using Nickel-Metal Hydride, especially in Toyota truck applications. But the Camry and other front-drive Toyotas get sweet, sweet lithium):
You can thank the electric all-wheel drive system whose rear differential is completely separate from the engine/transmission/front motors (there are two electric motors up front), requiring no driveshaft to run down the length of the car.
Here’s the powertrain up front:
And here’s the rear drive unit, which — again — is totally separate from the gas-burning drivetrain components up front. There are no mechanical connections to the engine or transmission. This has its limitations as an all-wheel drive system, but is probably fine the snowy roads that a Camry driver might face; this isn’t an off-road machine.
And here’s a shot from the rear showing more of the multilink rear suspension’s lower control arms. You can sort of see the fuel tank ahead of the suspension; I’m fairly sure the battery is packaged somewhere up there, too roughly under the rear seats:
Anyway, I really just wanted to pop in here and show that rear drive unit more than anything. Thank you Alanis for covering the Camry for us!
How about Toyota RAV4 Pirime? 300+ HP plug in 50 miles, around 80/gal, you decide it.
Haven’t looked lately, but getting your hands on a prime for MSRP was a real challenge. Friends have tried for the last 2 years. People were literally working from a coffee shop across the street from the dealership for weeks on end. If they saw a truck show up with them, they would go over and stand in line for the “opportunity” to buy on, with all sorts of overpriced add on’s.. But maybe its better now.
That is true, my 2021 likely I got for sticker price and 2 months waiting.
In the short run this will probably do more for North American emissions reduction than any number of boutique EV manufacturers…
Those bronze TRD wheels were the best thing about the 2024 model. It would be a big mistake to stop offering them as an option.
At what point did we start equating automatic shifts with fun? This same sort of thing came up on the Hyundai N article (and I complained about it there too) and I just don’t understand it. I enjoy banging through gears in my manual as much as anyone, but if my automatic can keep me in the peak of the power band instead of drifting in and out of it all the time that sounds like great fun.
Also, the eCVT in my Prius makes that car feel surprisingly more sporty than you might expect from the gutless 4 cylinder under the hood. The instant electric torque when you mash the accelerator has a huge subjective impact on how the car drives. I know intellectually that it’s not a fast car, and yet when I get in a traditional ICE, even one with massively more power, I often find that they feel a little sluggish around town because I have to wait for the engine to spool up before I get any oomph out of it.
I’m concerned that we’re going to compromise modern performance cars by focusing on adding fake shift points and engine noise to the detriment of their actual performance. I get it, I’m going to miss the roar of my V8 when I inevitably get into some sort of electric sports car, but that won’t mean it’s bad, just that it’s good in different ways. I don’t want my EVs to feel like an ICE, especially some of the negative aspects of ICEs.
I’ve wondered this too, I haven’t been especially fond of the CVTs I’ve driven but making them mimic geared transmissions has always felt like it was sacrificing some of their strong points for “normalcy” like if I’m gonna be stuck with a CVT make it the best it can be.
I don’t think enough emphasis is placed on the fact that this is NOT a traditional CVT. It should be renamed and re-marketed differently. Same as the eCVT that Ford uses (originally licensed from Toyota) it has no belts, no clutch, and no torque converter.
There are no wear items. You could argue there is NO transmission at all.
It is an ICE and electric motor both permanently and simultaneously connected to wheels via a planetary gear system. Final drive ratio is obtained by varying the loads and input on the electric motor. Similar to when you slow down one wheel on a rear wheel drive vehicle and the power is then transferred to the other wheel, but think of it in reverse. ICE engine connected to one wheel, electric motor connected to other wheel and both work in tandem to produce infinite rations/speeds on the driveshaft.
Yeah, not to single out The Autopian at all, but reviews in general should specify whether a car is equipped with a planetary gearset, or a CVT. I appreciate being informed.
As a 2022 Camry Hybrid owner, this feels like a heavy refresh of the old model.
These together probably represent 80-90% of the changes over the outgoing model.
As much as a PHEV version of the Camry Hybrid would have been nice, I can see why Toyota didn’t go for it. It seems like Toyota is trying to save money on this redesign. Consider that the new car:
By making all new Camrys a hybrid, Toyota improves economies of scale by making fewer versions of the same car all while getting to raise its fleet fuel economy average for a minimum in development / retooling costs compared to the outgoing car. Trying to shoehorn a PHEV powertrain in would run counter to all that progress.
Consider that:
Toyota didn’t want to reinvent the wheel with the new Camry and seems to have decided that a PHEV version would be more trouble than it was worth and that the standard hybrid would fulfull 98% of prospective Camry shopper’s needs.
For those that want a plug-in hybrid, Toyota already makes the Prius Prime for the dedicated hypermiler. The prius is a better platform as a PHEV anyway, because its lighter, smaller, has a better CD, and people don’t expect cavernous trunk space from it the same way they do from a Camry.
I thought the same thing when Toyota made all Siennas hybrids, but from the comments I’ve seen on every review, you still can’t find one without a dealer markup (or at the very least, not one in the specific trim you want).
Something tells me that you will be able to find the Camrys easily, and they won’t be marked up. Funny how that works…
Yeah, the Sienna is never available and always marked up. I have a theory about that:
So we have lots of pent up demand and seemingly difficulty on Toyota’s end making enough of them.
This is probably my biggest concern for the new Camry: will Toyota be able to make them fast enough to keep with demand? They have certainly struggled with this in the past with the RAV4 hybrid and Sienna hybrid, so adding a couple hundred thousand more hybrid vehicles to the mix might be a bit of a challenge for them if they were struggling already…
I just think that if you’re a car company, and demand for your vehicle is strong, then your production line should still be able to manufacture the same volume of cars this year as it did last year (external forces notwithstanding). Otherwise, don’t make any changes that would prevent that from happening.
Accidentally creating a production constraint is quite the own-goal. (And creating a production constraint intentionally, for the markups, is just plain evil…)
I don’t know why they’d create production restraints intentionally for the markups though; the dealerships get the markups, Toyota gets the bad press.
Coming off the same line as the Highlander is probably the biggest issue. More Siennas = fewer Highlanders. And the Highlander is also a hot item.
Only the Hybrid, which is more of the same problem. Now the Grand Highlander? Yeah, those are hot
This is why they introduced the new Prius first. With good seats and better headroom, and comparable-to-better performance and efficiency, it seriously begs the question of the Prius: why bother.
To that, the answer is: because Prime. Otherwise, get the Corolla or Camry.
The eCVT in the Prius has been, in my experience, unbreakable. I got mine with 160K+ on it, and it has 320K+ on it now. I’ve had a few hiccups with the car – nothing that stopped it working as a car – but in terms of drivetrain my GenII is as relentless as a glacier: not fast, but unstoppable. I cannot guess how Toyota has changed and upgraded the HSD system for these new, more powerful drivetrains, but I wouldn’t fear for their longevity at all.
The Prius is made in Japan. Some people equate that with better build quality (panel gaps, paint, etc). If you don’t care about that, or believe US factories (or local factories depending on where you buy you cars) are fine, then a Corolla or Camry will be better value. They may be better for the environment too, because of maybe less shipping.
The Prius has a hatch. If they made this in wagon form I’d probably agree, but that’s a killer feature for me.
The efficiency is less comparable than you think.
The Prius is smaller, lighter, and has less aerodynamic drag than the Camry hybrid, so it will always be slightly more efficient, even if they had the exact same hybrid system (incidentally, they don’t; the Prius uses a 2.0 liter, the Camry is 2.5).
So for people who don’t need a bigger car with worse mpg and just want the most mpg at a lower price, the Prius is still quite relevant.
I’ve never been crazy about the Camry; it feels like a little-big car to me. Not really full-sized, but as difficult to get around in as one. That said, this one looks cromulent yet modern. Of all the changes from 2024, the one thing that floored me is they figured out how to integrate the touchscreen into the dash! I really hope other car designers pick up on that.
I guess they didn’t forget about the infotainment system during the design process. The haphazard tacked on tablet design always looked rather janky.
The 2018-2020 Camry had a touchscreen integrated into the dash. They wanted to make it bigger for the 2021-2024 models and as such, it became more “tacked on” because they didn’t want to pay to redesign all the dash panels.
Now that they are paying to refresh the whole dash, it made financial sense for them to re-integrate the touchscreen back into it for a more cohesive look.
Good fucking luck cleaning that quilted white fabric.
Hi, fellow parent!
Anytime I see a white interior I think “I’d love that!” and then the parent brain kicks in and kills that thought.
A stylist’s choice, not a realist’s choice.
Not all of us are saddled with crotch goblins.
for real, 2-3 year leases only-Subaru offered an off-white cloth option for a while in the early teens, and everyone I see used now is just nasty looking even when the rest of the car is clean and taken care of. This will be even worse with the obligatory diamond quilting (thanks audi). IF you’re gonna do white it’s gotta be vinyl or leather and even those interiors dont’ hold up great long term.
I’m just slightly perturbed by the front looking more “vertical” from the side…we should be moving to more curved and lower hoods, dammit. Not just like a shrunken-down version of the vertical behemoth pedestrian-killing pickups.
…still, probably not anywhere near as deadly here as with said pickups. But I think the sentiment should be similar across the board.
Great review! And with the Camry coming as a hybrid and being as good as it is in fuel economy and other ways, it will likely hurt the popularity of the Prius.
I think Toyota should make the next gen Prius a BEV… and aim to make it the most efficient and reliable BEV out there.
I’m sure the hatch and smaller size helps Prius sales. But if I had to pick I’d pick Camry.
It still blows my mind that this Camry has the same hp as my 08′ 328xi but literally double the gas mileage. I don’t expect it to drive like an E90 but those stats are still crazy to me.
Also, the configurator is live! You can get a red exterior with a red interior! My favorite color combo has returned!
It may be going hybrid only and that’s lowering the hybrid version slightly, but the base MSRP for a Camry just went up by $2000 at the same time. So, inflation still gonna inflate.
But on the bright side, the fuel savings should more than make up for the extra cost over the life of the vehicle.
Over the life of the vehicle? Buddy, it’s a Camry. How the hell am I supposed to multiply the $0.05/mile gas savings times infinity miles?
Well then do it over the life your own body!
How many years and miles do YOU have left in YOU! I figure you’re still good for 10 years/200,000 miles… whichever comes first!
Make the cost savings based on that!
LOL
David LOVES to show off a rear drive unit.
And I LOVE to see it!
Why have bumpers if you ain’t gonna use em?
Seems very sensible in so many ways.
My wife may be in the market for a new vehicle this Summer. I like most everything about this, but I have a sinking feeling that there will be some dealer markup. For me, dealer markup (“market adjustment” sounds like a phrase dealers us to make it sound like it isn’t them, but the “market” causing the additional price hike) is a non-starter.
I think your instincts are sound. It’s never fun walking into a Toyota dealership with respect to negotiating a price.
If you don’t have one, get a Costco membership specifically for this purpose. I bought a new Outback for work in early 2022 when market adjustments were crazy. I went through Costco Auto (my first time) and got $850 off sticker and didn’t have to deal with any sales pressure or BS sales manager add ons. The only drawback is if they have a car on the lot you have to take the color they give you…unless they’re cool about ordering one. I was lucky and got the latter because the Outback was in such demand in Oregon. The dealership wanted as much ADM as possible.
That’s interesting. The color would be a deal breaker unless we are talking a few grand off MSRP.
I did look into the Costco service when trying to buy my Subaru, but there were no participating dealers for a good 3 hour drive in any direction. I think there is one participating Toyota dealer in my city, out of like 4.
It’s definitely not a perfect solution. Originally I was going to get a PHEV Santa Fe but every dealer in Oregon and Washington had excluded them from the Costco program. Hyundai couldn’t make them fast enough and they were fetching a $5-7k market adjustment. Their ICE vehicles were still available, probably because the ADM was below $2k.
I expect dealers to initially markup the Camry the same way they did to the Prius with the logic that they’re both hybrids, but as long as supply is high (like a Camry should be), they should hopefully disappear. Unless you live in California.
For any non manual, I have a strong preference for either a light (read not 1990s-2000s ford truck) steering wheel shifter, or a small rotary shifter. Space in the center console is arguably the most valuable location in any vehicle given that it is ALWAYS driver useful, compared to towing/trunk/frunk/passenger volume.
To me, the large automatic stick shifters in the center console are a big demerit, and almost a hard pass.
Considering almost none of them are mechanical anymore it’s a massive waste of space but people also hate change, so they persist. I imagine Toyota did not want to change it so that its familiar with their target market.
My wife’s van has a dash dial. it took a moment to get used to but it is fine compared to some fake shifter.
The little joystick shifter dealie on the GenII Prius struck me as irretrievably wimpy, until I remembered I was just flipping a switch to tell a computer what to do. Then I stopped caring about how robust it wasn’t. It gets the job done, and that’s plenty good enough. It’s actually way stronger than it needs to be, to help it resist hamfisted habits built up over years of stirring the gears by hand.
My only problem with the Prius shifter (aside from the fact that no one can figure out how to put it in park the first time they drive it) is the fact that it snaps back so every once in a while I won’t move it quite far enough and end up not changing gears the way I intended, which I don’t discover until I try to start driving.
I felt the same way. I thought they were really goofy, and just different for the sake of being different, cuz prius. I grew to like them. My problem became when it was really cold they would take a while to catch up to what i was doing – so i would need to hold it in place a second until it registered and changed.
I agree, but you would not believe how many people complain about rotary shifters on cars that have them.
I’ve seen that, and it makes me so sad. IMO it is the best shifter, since it is easy to learn muscle memory, hard to forget it is for anything else, takes up little vertical space, and looks nice.
Yep, the rotary shifter in my truck works great the whole two or three times I use it per trip (once into drive, once into park, maybe once into reverse) and I love the giant storage space in the center console that it opens up.
I am fully of the belief that the rotary shifter knob is the best modern shifter i’ve used since they started going crazy with reinventing them. I’ve only used clunky pickup column shifters so I’m a little skeptical of going back to them-but surely there’s better options than the fiddly multi directional button-ed joysticks so many cars come with now.
Liked the last 24 I drove. Looking at the photos side by side is this still the same basic body structure? The rear roofline appears to not have changed.
It seems like the exterior is strictly new bumpers, headlights, tailights, and hood, with just about everything else being carryover.