by tick rootgrist
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Even as gas prices rose across the U.S., electric vehicle sales fell in April. This is in contrast to strong growth elsewhere in the world, such as Europe. But American drivers are gravitating toward at least one more efficient powertrain: the hybrid.
Sales of new EVs fell nearly 18 percent from March to April, according to the latest data from Edmunds, an auto research firm. Another company, Cox Automotive, pegged the drop at around 6 percentt. Either way, experts say it’s clear that higher gas prices aren’t driving a significant shift toward EVs.
“There was a lot of window shopping,” said Evan Dury, director of insights at Edmonds, adding that searches for electric vehicles on the company’s site were strong. “It didn’t translate into tire-kicking and shopping.”
Cost is the biggest hurdle for most people, Drury said. While electric vehicles may be less expensive to run in the long run — especially when gas prices are high — the upfront costs remain significant. The average transaction price for an EV in April was $6,214 higher than for vehicles with an internal combustion engine, Cox reported.
“It’s still a cost barrier,” said Stephanie Brinley, a principal automotive analyst at S&P Global Mobility. “You don’t know how long it will take to get it back.”
Average price of gas on Thursday $4.56 per gallonAn EV buyer would have to drive more than 40,000 miles to make up the difference with a car getting 30 mpg. Savings on maintenance, such as oil changes, can speed up that timeline, but factors such as High insurance prices And installing a home charger can make the payback period even longer. As fuel prices drop, so does the utility of an EV.
“It’s very hard for people to wrap their heads around, ‘Hey, if I spend this $55,000, I might save time,'” Drury said. “It requires a little more math than most people want to go through.”
The calculus is much simpler for hybrid vehicles, which can use batteries Improves fuel economy by 25 to 45 percent Without the need to plug in. For example, a Honda CR-V gets about 29 mpg while the hybrid version gets 37. Even more popular models are available only as hybrids, a strategy Toyota has adopted perhaps most notably. Last year, it released a gas-only version of the Camry sedan. The 2026 RAV4 followed.
Overall, Edmunds data shows sales of hybrids are up 20 percent year over year and nearly 50 percent since February, when the U.S.-Iran conflict began. In the same two months, gas-powered gas sales increased by nearly 11 percent.
“I think it’s going to be a hybrid moment,” said Stephanie Valdez Stretti, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. “There are many options.”
Used EVs provide another somewhat bright spot, he said. The segment saw a 3 percent increase in sales from March to April and a price premium of just $1,096 over used internal combustion vehicles. Used EVs also sell faster than their used gas-powered counterparts. “They’re selling really efficiently,” said Valdez Stretti, who added that plenty of EVs should be available throughout the year as leases end. “I don’t think inventory will be a problem.”
With Iran maintaining its grip on the Strait of Hormuz and the summer travel season approaching, gas prices look set to continue to rise—which will only make an EV more attractive. Sales in other parts of the world have increased significantly since the conflict began Europe is facing a wave And China set an export record in April, according to BloombergNEF.
In the US, though, it seems that those already in the market for an EV are the ones making the jump. “Edge-case people,” as Brinley calls them. Dramatic pump readings “could shock them because they were already in that direction,” he said. “But what we don’t see is a shift among current (internal combustion vehicle) owners making this change fundamentally just because of gas prices.”
This article originally appeared on grist A https://grist.org/solutions/why-hybrids-not-evs-are-winning-over-us-consumers/.
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