I love hybrids. I own a hybrid. I think most vehicles should either be full BEVs or hybrids (including EREVs), with the exception of some trucks and lightweight sports cars. It seems to me, based on the news this week, that a majority of people agree with me. How have hybrids gone from being perceived as dorky low-T greenmobiles to ‘authentic,’ as one automotive researcher called them?
The Morning Dump has long contended that we are in The Decade of the Hybrid, as early exuberance for electric cars has given way to the reality that most people are not going to buy the EVs that car companies seem to be building. Hybrids have transformed from fuel sippers like the Prius to full rippers like the McLaren Artura and brand new Lamborgh… Audi Nuvolari. That seems to be giving them a new push and a new image. Or maybe it’s just acceptable now that it’s the best alternative to BEVs.
Honda is, it seems, going full hybrid on a lot of cars. There are somethings you should never go full, but going full hybrid for crossovers and compact cars seems to be working out just fine for Toyota. Volkswagen probably wishes it had leased a bunch of hybrids, because one of the few parts of its company that’s consistently profitable is sweating all the EVs it now owns.
Did you know you can get a PHEV version of the Śkoda Octavia? It’s one model in an amazing 30-year run for this car.
[Ed Note: I’m told the title of this article is some kind of pop culture reference, so I’ll leave it even though it’s long and clunky. -DT]
Hybrids For The Rich, BEVs For The Not-So-Rich?
When I attended The Quail a couple of weeks ago I made sure to stop by the Audi stage to see the new Audi Nuvolari. I even chatted with a press guy from the brand I’ve known forever and he asked me what I thought of it. Honestly, it looks stunning in person. While it may have the feel of an older Lamborghini, I enjoy an older Lamborghini, so I’m not complaining.
Bloomberg‘s Hannah Elliott was also there, and got into a conversation with Audi CEO Gernot Döllner, who said some interesting things:
“We find that the higher the segment is, the more the enthusiast still loves the combustion engine,” Döllner says, explaining that the hybrid engine still allows car buffs to access the same desirable analog feeling that also makes mechanical watches appealing. EVs, by contrast, are considered commodities of mobility, not status symbols of pleasure and taste. “The lower the segment is, the more battery electric is accepted.”
It’s true that hybrids are, proportionally, probably best represented in supercars and hypercars. It’s a little eat-your-cake-and-have-it-too, with something that is easy to drive in Carmel traffic, for instance, but can make all the fun sounds you want in car you’re paying $700,000 for. The idea that the wealthy want gas-powered cars and are ok with hybrids, whereas its BEVs for the poors is a bit curious, though.
Credit to Hannah, she got another fun quote:
“One of the things that people are craving these days is authenticity,” says Rebecca Lindland, head of automotive advisory at HarrisX, a global market research firm. “A hybrid communicates that even though it does have an electric component, it is somehow perceived as way more authentic. It stays truer to the internal combustion experience.”
I think this is more important at the higher end of the market than the lower end. While I’m a proponent of hybrids for a wide range of consumers, I understand that a majority of people don’t want to have to think about how their car is powered.
Its’s been a weird transition from my earlier days, when the collective car enthusiast community dissed the Toyota Prius. Everyone seems to like the new Prius and has no problem accepting a hybrid. Whereas the Prius was the poster child for hybrids 20 years ago, it’s now cars like the Ferrari F50.
As the ACEA just reported, a whopping 37.3% of the new car market in Europe is now hybrid-electric, compared to 20.7% share for BEVs, and 29.7% for gas/diesel cars.
Honda Is Probably Going Full Hybrid For The CR-V And Accord
With Toyota going full-hybrid on the Sienna, Camry, and RAV4, it’s probably only a matter of time before Honda does the same. According to Automotive News, we’ll probably have to wait until 2031 as the company still recovers from canceling most of its EV projects.
Hybrids accounted for nearly a third of the brand’s U.S. sales in the first half of the year. Honda is ramping up production and marketing to capitalize on that momentum. Several core models, including the CR-V and Accord, could go hybrid-only by 2031.
Honda sees the greatest hybrid upside in its midsize SUVs. The company is developing a more robust hybrid architecture tailored for larger North American utility vehicles, featuring a new V-6 engine, multiple electric motors and a lower-cost battery pack.
While hybrids are slightly more expensive, there’s a cost savings that comes with only making a single powertrain.
When A One Percentage Point Error Costs $70 Million
Volkswagen continues to be in a bad way, and the one part of the company that consistently makes money is the arm that, well, makes money. Or at least makes money available for people to buy cars. Specifically, it’s Volkswagen Financials Services, headed up by this guy, Anthony Bandmann.
VWFS has continued to be a profit center for the automaker. Will it be for the future? There’s a little bit of an issue as Manager Magazin reports:
At first glance, VWFS appears to be in a solid position. In the first half of 2026, the division delivered nearly €1.7 billion in operating profit, more than any other vehicle brand. However, despite increases in key performance indicators such as the number of contracts and new contracts, operating profit fell by 7.6 percent. “This is due to increased costs associated with residual value risks,” the company explained.
Since new cars are increasingly being leased rather than purchased, the number of vehicles on Volkswagen’s finance division’s books is rising – and with it, the residual value risk. According to the annual report, this risk climbed by over one billion euros to almost 5.9 billion euros between 2024 and 2025. If VW’s residual value experts are too optimistic in their calculations, it becomes costly. An average error of one percentage point results in losses of almost 60 million euros. In its report for the first half of 2026, the company points out that residual value risks have increased again since the beginning of the second quarter.
This is the challenge of leasing (and, also, renting cars). If you are the entity responsible for leasing a bunch of vehicles, you have to calculate a value for that vehicle at the end of the lease term. If the vehicle is worth more–as has generally been the case due to a shortage of good used cars–as the leasing entity you do better. If the opposite happens then you lose money.
VW pushed EVs, and they pushed EVs via leases, and residual values for older EVs haven’t been great. Manager Magazin gets one of its patented juicy insider quotes, who says “We’re sitting on a time bomb.”
At least in the United States, EVs have done a little better lately on the used market, so maybe it won’t be so bad after all.
Happy 30th Birthday, Octavia
I have driven a Śkoda Octavia vRS, so I can say with authority that these are great cars. Amazingly, I’ve never considered why the car was called that. It turns out that it’s derived from the latin word for eight (also used in the word “octave”), because it was the eighth vehicle from the company way back when.
What we’re celebrating today is the 30th birthday of the reborn model, according to a press release:
The decision to revive the historic Octavia name – originally used for a model produced between 1959 and 1971 – was taken during the development of a new vehicle. Work began in 1992, one year after Škoda Auto had joined the Volkswagen Group. Access to the Group’s technology supported the development of a practical car styled by Dirk van Braeckel, then Škoda’s Head of Design. Meanwhile, a new production facility in Mladá Boleslav raised annual capacity from 90,000 to 350,000 vehicles.
The first-generation Škoda Octavia liftback, with a 528-litre boot, was unveiled on 4 April 1996; series production began on 3 September that year. The Octavia Combi followed in March 1998 and was joined by an all-wheel-drive version in 1999, further expanding the model’s versatility. The year 2000 saw the debut of the very first Octavia RS. It proved a true success story: in total, 1.44 million units were produced, and selected variants remained in production until 2010, even though the second modern Octavia generation had already been unveiled in 2004.
Absolutely the best.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
The hits keep coming. I know the “rule of threes” thing is sort of nonsense, but losing Dolly, Yayoi Kusama, and Tim Curry within a couple of days feels wrong and also connected. Kusama never got a single, I think, so here’s Tim Curry doing “Sweet Transvestite” from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The Big Question
Has your view of hybrids changed over there years?
Top Image: Columbia Pictures; Toyota
i just had a RAV4 hybrid as a rental. drove about 180 miles on 4 gallons of gas. you guys with “CVT=bad” and “two powertrains is turrible” opinions are missing the boat on some great commuter vehicles.
I’m anti-hybrid, ESPECIALLY for hypercars.
They are less authentic than pure EVs. For a hypercar, the only thing you need a gas engine for is noises (maybe range, as if people take these stupid things on road trips). It’s not for better performance. It’s no more authentic than piping in prerecorded engine noises.
I think they are a compromise all around and are just two systems with Lord knows how many more parts to fail. Just get the damn BEV.
Toyota has proven the right hybrid powertrain is every bit as reliable as a conventional ICE configuration. Every generation of drivers raised since the late ’90’s has seen hybrids become more prolific and proven. They aren’t just for tree huggers or budget conscious buyers, they are just cars now.
Until electrical energy storage gets lighter than Li-ion and less volatile (thermal runaway) hybrids aren’t going anywhere.
I don’t know. Hybrids seem like twice the amount of things to maintain or can go wrong. I have a BEV and an ICE. That’s what I like; one of each. Not one that has both.
TBQ: No
Gas or BEV. I want one power train in my car, not two. BEV for 98% of my driving, gas(diesel) for the other 2%.
IOW: BEV or I will rent.
For many years I thought “Dr Strangelove” was a parody of “Fail Safe.” Just a couple of years ago I learned that “Dr Strangelove” was released first.
Close. Was based loosely on it.
Fun fact: the B52 interiors were all fake sets. The USAF rescinded access to a real plane so the set designers made it up guessing a bit as the real ones were presumably secret
[Ed Note: I’m told the title of this article is some kind of pop culture reference, so I’ll leave it even though it’s long and clunky. -DT]
Young people! I played Dr. Strangelove in an 8th grade play about the time the movie was released in 1964. It was great fun for a Jewish kid. Quite a change in perspective compared to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
Even though we lived across the river from Manhattan, I figured that we would be crisped, if the Soviets bombed NYC since the CEP (circular error probability) of their missiles was so poor. I was a nerd from an early age.
David, buddy, that “pop culture reference” is a masterpiece. I’ve got the DVD and access to a full-blown movie theatre for like $250 for an entire afternoon. They serve beer. Come out to Iowa (and bring the rest of the Autopian crew) sometime and lets watch it.
TBQ? I loved the original Honda Insight when it came out – such a fascinating, purpose-built car. Plus it had fender skirts.
I was indifferent to the Prius when that followed, although I had a couple friends that went nuts over them. Mostly I just didn’t care for the looks. Later, I rented a second gen Prius and managed 55 mpg on a round trip to Maryland. After that I started paying a bit more attention to them.
The one I was really fascinated with was the Volt. After seeing the concept at the Chicago Auto Show, I became quite enamored with the idea of not using any gasoline for short trips. Of course, when the actual one came to market I thought the price was crazy and the looks didn’t match the concept very well, but it still seemed pretty cool.
The big surprise came a few years later when used Volt prices were just dirt cheap. Being able to buy a four-year-old one with 40,000 miles on the clock for $11,500 seemed like a deal too good to pass up. The first couple of years with the car were pretty-much like David’s initial reaction to his BMW i3, i.e. best car ever.
Since then things haven’t changed too much even though I’ve gravitated back to driving my classics more often again. I still love the concept of the PHEV and hope to replace the Volt with either another one of those or a full BEV when the time comes. As to regular hybrids, they’re still… fine.
Combustion engines are going the way of mechanical watches
Yes, my view of hybrids has changed, but not for the better.
The original hybrids had great tech like the e-CVT.
Now there’s a whole genre of what I’d term Hybrid Compliance cars.
Ones where you take a pure ICE automobile and shoehorn (a) electric motor(s) and a battery into the car for minimal MPG gains.
For PHEVs of this category the batteries are simultaneously too small in capacity to have sufficient electric only range and too large in overall size to the point it intrudes into the cabin.
“Has your view of hybrids changed over there years?”
Not really. I’d still have something that I can work on that’s gets “worse” mileage than something that gets high mileage but needs to go to a specialty shop when something goes wrong.
The specialty shop thing is real. When I got the 2 way Helical LSD for my Leaf I had to go to a shop several hours away that normally does EV conversions as no performance shop would touch an EV of any sort
My Prii have “gone to the shop” less than any cars I’ve ever owned.
I prefer to identify as a hybrid rather than a transvestite. 😉
Sorry to Tim go, but so glad to see all of the recognition that has been bestowed upon his memory since his passing. I don’t believe he ever received his due share during his time here with us.
RIP, Tim.
As they moved away from early-adopter tech, eco people, and performative greenwashing customers and put more powerful versions in more mainstream looking vehicles, of course appeal broadened. Volatile gas prices also haven’t hurt, but in the top three cars I regularly see that are in the 20-year-old range, the Prius is easily one of them, and I’m sure that reliability of the most visible hybrid poster car also had a huge effect on changing perception of long term worry (though it seems like Toyota was also way ahead in terms of rust protection and, here in New England, that’s also a major factor in longevity and a big reason even younger Mazdas are rare). Of course, there’s enough to worry about with non-hybrid reliability today, too, so what could be a little more when mileage is 40% better and it runs on 87 instead of possibly needing premium? I haven’t changed my view of hybrids as a concept—I’ve always seen the potential benefits—but apparently like a lot of buyers, I didn’t find any personally appealing until fairly recently.
“The Big Question
Has your view of hybrids changed over there years?”
My question is why editors don’t catch typos anymore.
As far as hybrids go, for years my motto was “Never trust a Prius.”
But after the Volt, I would definitely consider a hybrid. But not a Toyota.