Hybrid sales in the US jumped from 16 % share to 19 % after start of Iran war. Explosion in gas prices has pushed people into hybrids, but not fully electric cars. GM lost market share because of its EV focus while Toyota has gained ground. If you follow the stock market at all, you’re probably still kicking yourself for not dropping $10k into Sandisk last year. If you’d done that in April 2025 and cashed out 14 months later you’d have made almost $800k. It could be worse though: You could be GM and have invested billions in EVs only to discover everyone wants hybrids. Rewind to the late 2010s and the whole car industry was going gaga for EVs, with multiple brands pledging to go electric-only by 2030 and most putting huge resources into battery-powered cars. Growing EV sales figures and tightening regulations really did make electric vehicles look like they would take over the world. Related: Kia Sets All-Time August Sales Record As Hybrids Soar Hybrids, meanwhile, which had kick-started the modern electric revolution in the late 1990s, were dismissed as an “interim solution” by GM boss Mary Barra in 2019, Reuters reminds us. But seven years later, American car sales say hybrids are the complete solution, not an interim one. And automakers who bet on gasoline-electric rather than electric power alone are winning big. The biggest winner is Toyota. It’s crushing the competition, securing a 49.2 percent share in Q1 of the hybrid market, Cox Automotive says, per Reuters. That market has grown, too. Hybrids’ share of the total car market swelled from 16 percent in February to 19 percent in August on account of gas prices exploding following the start of war in Iran. And one analyst told Reuters he expects hybrids to hit a 34 percent share by 2031. Stuck To Its Hybrid Guns Toyota, you’ll remember, popularized the hybrid with the original Prius, and endured years of criticism for being slow to launch EVs. But it never wavered from its commitment to hybrids, and that determination is paying off in the US in 2026. While GM’s share of the US car market fell from 17.6 percent in the first half of 2025 to 16.8 percent in the same period this year, Toyota’s grew from 15.5 to 15.8 percent, according to Cox Automotive. EVs also cut fuel costs, of course. And in Europe, which is suffering the same kind of gas pain American drivers are battling, EV sales are on fire. One in every four new cars sold there is an EV. But in the US, sales are heading in the opposite direction, partly as a result of the Trump administration killing federal EV tax credits. Their share of the US market fell from 14.4 percent in September 2025 to 7.1 percent this May. The 19 MPG Hybrid So if GM wants to get back in the game, it’s got no option but to deliver multiple new hybrid choices to support the straight gas vehicles it fortunately kept building. Incredibly, the General’s sole hybrids in the US today are two Corvettes, the $111k E-Ray and $227k ZR1X, though in previous years it also sold hybrid sedans and SUVs. It also sells hybrids in China. When will we see new GM hybrids with more than two seats in North America? Dealers won’t like the answer, because while the automaker won’t confirm dates or comment on speculation, Reuters industry sources say American showrooms could be hybrid-free zones until near the end of the decade. GM, Toyota
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