Hybrid SUV statistics are best understood through U.S. production data, because no single national series measures hybrid-SUV ownership or maintenance costs. EPA’s latest report separates mild and strong hybrids, while its SUV categories distinguish car SUVs from truck SUVs; DOE and IIHS provide adjacent sales and safety context.
Key Hybrid SUV Statistics
The most broadly useful figures are:
- In model year 2024, SUVs made up 60% of all U.S. vehicle production, combining car SUVs and truck SUVs.
- In model year 2024, truck SUVs represented almost 50% of U.S. new-vehicle production.
- In model year 2024, hybrids represented 15% of U.S. new-vehicle production, the highest share in EPA’s series.
- EPA’s preliminary model-year 2025 projection puts hybrids at 19% of U.S. new-vehicle production.
- In model year 2024, mild hybrids accounted for 5.3% of U.S. new-vehicle production.
- In model year 2024, strong hybrids accounted for 9.5% of U.S. new-vehicle production.
- In model year 2024, plug-in hybrids represented 2.5% of U.S. new-vehicle production, separately from MHEVs and HEVs.
- In model year 2024, battery-electric vehicles represented 7.2% of U.S. new-vehicle production.
- In model year 2024, car SUVs averaged 39.2 real-world mpg among the five EPA vehicle types.
- In model year 2024, truck SUVs averaged 25.7 real-world mpg in the United States.
- In model year 2024, 30% of car-SUV production was BEV and 3% was PHEV.
- In model year 2024, truck-SUV production was 4% BEV and 4% PHEV.
- In calendar year 2023, SUVs accounted for 53% of U.S. BEV sales.
- In calendar year 2023, SUVs accounted for 83% of U.S. PHEV sales.
- In 2024, 6,648 SUV occupants died in U.S. crashes, equal to 29% of passenger-vehicle occupant deaths in the IIHS table.
Contents
- What counts as a hybrid SUV in official U.S. statistics
- SUV market scale and regulatory classification
- Hybrid SUV production adoption and the shift toward SUVs
- U.S. hybrid powertrain production shares over time
- Fuel economy, vehicle attributes and measured outcomes
- SUV electrification sales context
- Measured SUV safety outcomes and occupant fatalities
What Counts as a Hybrid SUV in Official U.S. Statistics
EPA’s U.S. production reporting distinguishes hybrid types by electrical capability. A mild hybrid, or MHEV, uses a 48-volt DC or lower electrical system that can assist launch and the engine but cannot directly propel the vehicle; a strong hybrid, or HEV, uses a system above that threshold and can temporarily propel the vehicle without the engine engaged.
The first hybrid in EPA’s tracked U.S. production series was one model, the Honda Insight, in model year 2000. These definitions apply to EPA production reporting and do not automatically describe every global market.
Hybrid SUV Market Scale and Regulatory Classification
SUVs were the dominant U.S. production category in model year 2024, but EPA’s terminology matters. The 60% SUV share combines car SUVs and truck SUVs, while the truck regulatory class also includes pickups, minivans and vans.
| Measure | Model year 2024 result | Population and scope |
|---|---|---|
| All SUVs | 60% | All U.S. vehicle production; car and truck SUVs |
| Truck SUVs | Almost 50% | All U.S. new-vehicle production |
| Truck regulatory class | 66% | U.S. new-vehicle production; includes pickups, minivans/vans and truck SUVs |
| Truck-defined SUVs at 4,000 pounds or less | 77% | SUVs in the specified inertia-weight subset |
The 77% share among SUVs with inertia weight of 4,000 pounds or less was the highest observed in the comparison series since at least model year 2000. It excludes heavier SUVs, so it should not be generalized to every SUV.
Fuel economy also varies sharply by SUV class. Car SUVs averaged 39.2 real-world mpg, the highest value among EPA’s five vehicle types, while truck SUVs averaged 25.7 real-world mpg; EPA estimates these real-world values rather than presenting laboratory label results.
Truck-SUV fuel economy rose by 1.0 mpg from model year 2023 to a record 25.7 mpg in model year 2024. EPA’s manufacturer mix shows Tesla with the highest car-SUV share among manufacturers shown, at 61%, and Mazda with the highest truck-SUV share, at 90%; these are manufacturer production mixes, not hybrid-SUV shares.
Hybrid SUV Production Adoption and the Shift Toward SUVs
Hybrid production reached 4% of all U.S. vehicles in model year 2010, fell below 2% in 2016, and reached a record 15% in 2024. EPA’s preliminary model-year 2025 data project a further increase to 19%, but that figure is not a finalized production measurement.
The production mix increasingly favored SUVs. In model year 2020, truck-SUV hybrid production surpassed sedan/wagon hybrid production for the first time, by more than 50%; by 2024, sedan/wagon hybrids accounted for less than 25% of all U.S. hybrid production.
Other adoption measures reinforce the change in vehicle mix:
- Mild hybrids represented about 35% of U.S. hybrid production in model year 2024, with strong hybrids making up the remainder of the gasoline-hybrid category.
- Truck-SUV production increased by more than five percentage points at each of Stellantis, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia and Toyota from model year 2023 to 2024; the change concerns truck SUVs overall, not only hybrid truck SUVs.
- GM reduced its truck-SUV production share by 11 percentage points from model year 2023 to 2024 while increasing its pickup share; this also concerns overall production mix.
These measures describe U.S. light-duty production, not registrations, ownership or consumer adoption. EPA reports MHEVs and HEVs in its hybrid total, while PHEVs are separate.
U.S. Hybrid Powertrain Production Trends
EPA’s powertrain table shows separate paths for mild and strong hybrids. The values below are shares of all U.S. new-vehicle production, not shares of SUV production alone.
| Model year | Mild hybrid | Strong hybrid |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Not separately stated here | 3.8% |
| 2015 | Not separately stated here | 2.4% |
| 2020 | 1.8% | 3.1% |
| 2021 | 4.0% | 5.3% |
| 2022 | 4.2% | 6.0% |
| 2023 | 4.9% | 7.2% |
| 2024 | 5.3% | 9.5% |
| 2025 preliminary | 5.1% | 14.0% |
The preliminary 2025 values are forecasts or projections in EPA’s production table, not finalized observations. In model year 2024, PHEVs represented 2.5% of production separately from MHEVs and HEVs.
The wider powertrain context shows battery-electric production at 7.2% in 2024, up from 0.5% in 2015. Gasoline internal-combustion vehicles without stop/start fell from 88.9% in 2015 to 17.2% in 2024, while the distinct gasoline internal-combustion category with stop/start represented 57.6% in 2024; diesel represented 0.7%.
Hybrid SUV Fuel Economy, Vehicle Attributes and Outcomes
EPA estimated average U.S. new-vehicle real-world fuel economy at 27.2 mpg in model year 2024, or 25.6 mpg when BEVs and PHEVs were excluded from the comparison. These are modeled estimates, and the inclusion rule changes the result.
| Vehicle group | With BEVs and PHEVs | Without BEVs and PHEVs | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Car SUVs | 33.5 mpg | 31.7 mpg | Model year 2024 |
| Truck SUVs | 25.7 mpg | 24.7 mpg | Model year 2024 |
In 2024, BEVs made up 30% of car-SUV production and PHEVs another 3%; truck SUVs were 4% BEV and 4% PHEV. EPA attributed a 9.0-mpg increase in average car-SUV fuel economy from 2023 to 2024 to the mix effect of those BEV and PHEV shares, while the corresponding truck-SUV increase was 1.0 mpg.
Those changes are not causal estimates for an individual hybrid SUV. They describe vehicle-type averages under EPA’s inclusion rules and include electrified powertrains adjacent to, but distinct from, conventional non-plug-in HEVs.
SUV Electrification Sales Context
DOE’s sales figures are useful context for SUV electrification, but they do not measure conventional non-plug-in HEVs. In calendar year 2023, SUVs accounted for 53% of U.S. BEV sales when small and standard SUV categories were combined, and 83% of U.S. PHEV sales.
The small SUV category had the highest sales among the two SUV size classes shown by DOE, although the cited page text does not provide an absolute count. Cars represented 43.4% of U.S. BEV sales but less than 10% of PHEV sales in the same size-class comparison.
| Powertrain | SUV share of U.S. sales | Period |
|---|---|---|
| BEV | 53% | Calendar year 2023 |
| PHEV | 83% | Calendar year 2023 |
Source: FOTW #1364, Oct. 14, 2024: Over Half of All BEV and PHEV Sales in 2023 Were SUVs.
Measured SUV Safety Outcomes and Occupant Fatalities
IIHS data provide safety context for all SUVs, not hybrid SUVs specifically. SUV occupant deaths increased nearly 15-fold from 1975 to 2024 in the historical fatality series, a count trend that does not measure crash risk per vehicle or isolate hybrid powertrains.
In 2024, rollover crashes accounted for 33% of SUV occupant deaths. There were 6,648 SUV occupant deaths in the United States, representing 29% of passenger-vehicle occupant deaths in the IIHS table.
These figures cover occupants in all SUVs and should not be interpreted as hybrid-SUV safety outcomes. The supplied safety series does not provide a hybrid-SUV-specific fatality rate or ownership-adjusted risk measure.
Source: Fatality Facts 2024: Passenger Vehicle Occupants.