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What happens when you mix sky-high fuel prices with a rollback of EV incentives? A boom in hybrid sales, as it turns out. A year after Congress officially ended America’s electric vehicle subsidies, we’ve seen an unsurprising decline in EV sales. But as the stagnant and unfavorable geopolitical climate continues to put pressure on global fuel prices, Many (though clearly not all) buyers are turning to hybrids for their new-car purchases, and companies like Toyota are reaping the benefits. But with hybrid sales exploding, why the heck is no one buying the Prius?
Let me give you some context. At this point last year, automakers with deep EV portfolios were doing everything they could to blow out their inventory while they could still send customers home with some cash in their pockets. Toyota would have been pushing its U.S.-built plug-in hybrid models hard, while the Prius languished despite a strong start to 2025. Toyota sold only 2,011 of them last September. This year, without that same EV pressure, that number fell again—to just 1,897.
Toyota moved more than 25,000 Camry Hybrids and more than 28,000 RAV4 Hybrids in the same period. In fact, the only hybrids in the Toyota lineup that sold worse than the Prius last month were the Corolla Cross (1,821), Tacoma (1,705), the Highlander (1,088), and the Crown (406). Toyota sold more BZ EVs in September than regular Prius hybrids; you have to throw in the plug-in variant just to sneak past the EV. Consequently, in a year when hybrids are taking market share left and right, the industry’s best-known model is headed in the opposite direction. Year to date, Prius sales are down 51%, to just 16,731.
Are Toyota buyers spoiled for choice, or is America just over the Prius?
Plenty of support backs the former argument. Toyota sells multiple hybrids in its own showroom that compete with the Prius, including the Corolla and Corolla Cross; even the Camry and RAV4 overlap in price. Like the Prius, the hybrid Corollas move in modest numbers, especially compared with their gas-powered sibling. Toyota has sold nearly 200,000 ICE Corollas so far in 2025, to just over 34,000 hybrids. Not even close.
But even if there’s a case for cannibalization, there’s still one more factor to consider: the Prius is actually kind of cool now. I’d certainly rather drive this than any Corolla short of a GR. Clearly, many Toyota buyers feel differently. Bummer.
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Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
