Over the last several years, electric vehicles have quickly become one of the hottest topics in the autoverse. Led by the polarizing Elon Musk and his ever-advancing fleet of Teslas, the pro-EV movement has managed to engender equal parts support and opposition. But, despite its controversial status, the bottom line of the argument is, in fact, the bottom line of the balance sheet for manufacturers. Meaning that as long as EVs are selling, not much else matters for carmakers.
In a wildly contended statement a few months ago, Toyota’s CEO Akio Toyoda stated that EVs would never dominate the sales market and that hybrids were a better alternative. While even more time will be needed to confirm this statement to be true in perpetuity, CarGurus has recently released a few findings that prove the public agrees with Akio Toyoda’s thinking.
With sales up 38.2% year-over-year, it has become clear that hybrids have quickly become a popular choice for car buyers. Hybrids offer an attractive compromise between reliable and easy-to-refuel ICE-powered cars and zero-emissions electric vehicles that suffer from a still-growing support infrastructure.
The graphs above comprise one hundred percent of powertrain sales listings from January 2020 to August 2024. Over the four years and nine months this study compares, ICE engines dominated the market until around the end of 2022. But in the last third of the chart, we see a huge dip in new ICE listings, where EVs (or BEVs) and Hybrids gained significant traction (no pun intended).
Beyond that, in the used listings chart, hybrid listings are more than double that of EVs. While an astute EV proponent might say that fewer EVs are available on the used market because owners keep their cars longer, it might be a solid argument if it were not for the initial graph that shows new EVs also pale in comparison to hybrid listings by almost half.
