Toyota hybrid car - Ranking of Hybrid Cars - How They Compare

June 28th, 2008

Tip! With all these advantages in Hybrid cars, and with the rate at which car companies are going in order to develop and innovate on current hybrid car models, it won’t be surprising to find the modern household owning at least one hybrid car in the next ten years.

Comparative rankings of hybrid cars are hard to find.

In the first place, there aren’t that many hybrids on the market to compare. And, secondly, they come in all different sizes and shapes, making ranking of hybrid cars very difficult.

How do you judge the ranking, for example, of a small Toyota Prius, a luxury Lexus LS sedan compared to a full-sized Chevy Silverado? Other than being hybrid cars, they have very little else in common.

But, it’s important to have a comparison before buying. So, since I always love a challenge, here’s my ranking of hybrid cars, which helped me tremendously while shopping around.

To begin with, let’s take a look at the best selling hybrid cars for the first six months of 2006. According to edmunds.com, they rank as follows:

  1. Toyota Prius - 48,156 units
  2. Toyota Highlander Hybrid - 18,127 units
  3. Honda Civic Hybrid - 15,755 units
  4. Lexus RX 400h - 11,193 units
  5. Ford Escape Hybrid - 10,190 units
  6. Toyota Camry Hybrid* - 7,386 units
  7. Honda Accord Hybrid - 3,245 units
  8. Mercury Mariner Hybrid - 1,461 units
  9. Lexus GS 450h - 525 units
  10. 10. Honda Insight - 489 units

* (The Toyota Camry Hybrid was newly released in May 2006, but sales in May and June were already second only to the Prius.)

Tip! In general, hybrid cars get twenty per cent better mileage than regular cars but cost $3000 more. It will take several years of driving to recoup the difference in better mileage but the overall quality of cars has made it possible for us to keep them five or ten years without major repairs .

It’s easy to see that Toyota hybrid cars are the best sellers. The Prius and the Highlander, for example, account for nearly 50% of the entire U.S. hybrid market. When you add in the future figures for the new Camry, that share will increase and Toyotas will clearly dominate.

Since the Honda Insight was first introduced in 2000, Honda’s sales of hybrid cars have increased by more than 2,000%. In 2005, over 205,000 cars were sold and it looks like close to 250,000 will be sold in 2006.

Tip! Natalie Aranda writes on technology. For many, electric hybrid cars are a glimpse into the future of automobiles.

Hybrids still only account for about 1% of the total U.S. car market, but most experts predict that’s going to change rapidly. It’s easy to see why. For economic, environmental and political reasons, more and more Americans are looking for fuel efficient automobiles. And, out of the top ten fuel efficient cars, the first three were green machines. They were:

  1. Honda Insight - 60 mpg city, 66 mpg highway
  2. Toyota Prius - 60 mpg city, 51 mpg highway
  3. Honda Civic Hybrid - 49 mpg city, 51 mpg highway

There’s another way we can compare hybrid cars. And that’s by looking at which hybrids received the coveted Consumer Reports recommendation. According to their most recent Consumer Reports publication (before the Camry was introduced), the recommended hybrid cars are the following:

  • Toyota Prius - small sedan
  • Honda Civic Hybrid - small sedan
  • Honda Accord Hybrid - family sedan
  • Lexus RX 400h - mid-size SUV
  • Lexus GS450h - luxury sedan
  • Toyota Highlander Hybrid - mid-size SUV
Tip! Although not solar powered, Hybrid cars are built to limit pollution through low fuel emissions. The vehicles are primarily gas powered cars, light trucks and suvs with electrical motor assist that have bodies designed with the latest aerodynamics.

Those that weren’t recommended are as follows:

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