America’s Hot Hybrid Summer

美国火热的混合动力之夏

In Europe, the rise in gas prices due to the Iran war has car buyers thinking about electrics more than ever before. Battery-electric vehicle (BEV) sales were up more than 33 percent in the first half of 2026 compared to the same time last year, according to data published by European consultancies and nongovernmental organizations this month.

在欧洲，受伊朗战争影响，汽油价格上涨，这使得购车者比以往任何时候都更关注电动汽车。根据欧洲咨询公司和非政府组织本月发布的数据，2026年上半年，纯电动汽车（BEV）的销量较去年同期增长了超过33%。

The same has not happened in the US. Electric sales are up by nearly 15 percent in the second quarter of the year compared to the first. But the overall number of EVs sold is still small. They’re lagging well behind the optimistic projections made before the Trump administration reversed federal support for the tech, which included generous tax credits of up to $7,500, and before automakers responded by dialing back their own electric plans.

美国的情况则截然不同。今年第二季度的电动汽车销量较第一季度增长了近15%，但电动汽车的总体销量仍然很小。其表现远落后于特朗普政府撤销联邦技术支持（包括高达7500美元的慷慨税收抵免）之前所做的乐观预测，也落后于汽车制造商因政策变动而缩减其电动化计划之前的预期。

Instead, the more noticeable sales boom has been in cars that use traditional fuel, but more efficiently: hybrids. Sales of cars that sip gas rather than glug are projected to rise 9 percent this year, according to Kelley Blue Book, while sales of cars overall are slated to dip by more than 2 percent.

相反，销量增长更为显著的是那些使用传统燃料但效率更高的车型：混合动力汽车。据凯利蓝皮书（Kelley Blue Book）预测，今年这种“浅尝辄止”而非“大口吞油”的车型销量预计将增长9%，而汽车整体销量预计将下滑超过2%。

Fuel Efficient

燃油效率

The price of oil has fluctuated following the continuing conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, and so have gas prices, which are now up 30 percent in the US compared to this time last year. That alone has Americans thinking about alternatives to the traditional gas-powered car. Hybrids are more fuel-efficient because they combine internal combustion engines with electric motors. Some plug in and use smaller gas tanks to move once their electric charge has run out; most don’t, depending on technology that’s decades older.

随着霍尔木兹海峡冲突的持续，油价波动不断，美国汽油价格也随之水涨船高，较去年同期上涨了30%。仅此一点就促使美国人开始考虑传统燃油车的替代品。混合动力汽车因结合了内燃机和电动机，燃油效率更高。有些车型可以插电，并在电量耗尽后使用较小的油箱行驶；但大多数车型不支持插电，而是依赖于几十年前的技术。

But gas prices aren’t totally responsible for the US’s hot hybrid summer, analysts say. Hybrids are more available than they used to be. They are, on average, more expensive than gas-powered cars, but not by much. And they don’t give Americans range anxiety in the way that pure battery-powered cars do.

但分析师表示，油价并不是美国混合动力汽车热销的唯一原因。混合动力汽车的供应比过去更加充足。虽然它们的平均价格比燃油车贵，但差距并不大。而且，它们不会像纯电动汽车那样给美国人带来“里程焦虑”。

Now the vehicles—once viewed as a bridge between gas and electric—will likely stick around for the long haul. “A hybrid doesn’t feel like an electric vehicle—these are very different animals,” says Stephanie Brinley, the associate director of AutoIntelligence at Mobility Global.

如今，这些曾经被视为燃油车与电动车之间“过渡桥梁”的车型，很可能会长期存在下去。Mobility Global 汽车情报副总监斯蒂芬妮·布林利（Stephanie Brinley）表示：“混合动力车的感觉与电动汽车完全不同——它们是截然不同的物种。”

“People are looking to save; they have range anxiety. The hybrid is the perfect solution,” says Karl Brauer, an executive analyst at iSeeCars.com. “Hybrids still have a long life ahead of them.”

iSeeCars.com 的执行分析师卡尔·布劳尔（Karl Brauer）说：“人们想要省钱，同时又有里程焦虑。混合动力车是完美的解决方案。混合动力汽车的生命力依然旺盛。”

Unlike electrics, which tend to confuse Americans right now, hybrids aren’t as alien. More buyers thinking about hybrids isn’t necessarily bad for EV adoption, Brinley argues. “When buyers say, ‘I’ll look at this hybrid,’ that’s opening up a willingness to consider something that’s not traditional. It’s a little crack in the armor that can make a difference when they come back to the market,” she says.

与目前容易让美国人感到困惑的电动汽车不同，混合动力车并不那么陌生。布林利认为，更多买家考虑混合动力车对电动汽车的普及未必是坏事。她说：“当买家说‘我会看看这款混合动力车’时，这开启了他们考虑非传统事物的意愿。这是思想防线上的一个小裂缝，当他们再次回到市场时，这可能会产生影响。”

The American fondness for hybrids is another way US cars are looking really different from their global counterparts.

美国人对混合动力汽车的偏爱，也让美国汽车市场与全球其他地区呈现出明显的差异。

Toyotathon

丰田盛宴

This year’s jump in US hybrid sales has a lot to do with one automaker: Toyota. The Japanese automaker made its initial bets in hybrid tech back in the late 1990s, with the birth of the Prius. By the early 2000s, its hybrid system had made its way into other mass-market cars, like the Camry. And then, critically, Toyota stuck with hybrids as other automakers went all-in on electrics in the 2010s and early 2020s. Now, US customers can buy a hybrid version of nearly every car in its lineup. What’s more, many of the automaker’s most popular vehicles, including the Camry and the RAV4, are now hybrid-only.

今年美国混合动力汽车销量的激增与一家汽车制造商密切相关：丰田。这家日本车企早在20世纪90年代末普锐斯（Prius）诞生时，就开始押注混合动力技术。到21世纪初，其混合动力系统已应用于凯美瑞（Camry）等其他大众市场车型。至关重要的是，当其他汽车制造商在2010年代和2020年代初全力转向电动汽车时，丰田依然坚持发展混合动力。现在，美国客户几乎可以买到丰田旗下所有车型的混合动力版本。更重要的是，包括凯美瑞和RAV4在内的许多热门车型，现在仅提供混合动力版本。

So maybe it’s unsurprising: This quarter, Toyota reported its hybrid sales were up by nearly 20 percent.

所以这或许并不令人意外：本季度，丰田报告其混合动力汽车销量增长了近20%。

“You have people who have been buying RAV4s for 20 years, and they literally don’t know what a hybrid is, but they go into a dealership and buy a new one,” Brauer says.

布劳尔说：“有些人买了20年的RAV4，他们甚至根本不知道什么是混合动力，但他们走进经销商展厅时，还是会买一辆新的（混合动力版）。”

It helps hybrids that, even for vehicles with pure gas-powered alternatives, the mixed powertrain now adds only a few thousand dollars or so to the sticker price. For those who can afford today’s eye-watering car prices, that’s not much. Honda, another automaker with recent success in hybrid models, reported last month that its popular CR-V SUV with hybrid trims accounted for 51 percent of model sales. Honda said last week that it would discontinue its Prologue EV in the US for the 2027 model year, leaving it with zero BEVs in its North American lineup. Hybrid sales from Hyundai and Kia were also up this quarter.

混合动力车的优势在于，即使对于有纯燃油版可选的车型，混合动力系统现在也只需多花几千美元。对于那些负担得起如今令人咋舌的车价的人来说，这并不算什么。另一家在混合动力车型上取得成功的车企本田，上个月报告称，其热门SUV CR-V的混合动力版本占该车型总销量的51%。本田上周表示，将在2027车型年停止在美国销售Prologue电动汽车，这意味着其北美产品线中将不再有纯电动车型。现代和起亚的混合动力汽车销量本季度也有所增长。

Even US automakers, which devoted much of the last half-decade to a pivot to electrics, are talking bigger games about hybrids. Ford’s smaller Maverick truck has seen serious success with its hybrid trim, and it offers a handful of other hybrids. Stellantis has backed away from plug-in hybrids, but it has publicly floated the possibility of more electrified powertrains. Even GM, long a hybrid holdout, now says it will lean on the tech to help it get through the messy middle of the electric transition.

甚至连过去五年大部分时间都致力于向电动化转型的美国本土车企，现在也开始更多地谈论混合动力。福特的小型皮卡Maverick凭借混合动力版本取得了巨大成功，并提供了其他几款混合动力车型。Stellantis虽然退出了插电式混合动力领域，但已公开表示未来可能会推出更多电气化动力系统。就连长期抵制混合动力的通用汽车，现在也表示将依靠这项技术来帮助其度过电动化转型中混乱的中间阶段。

Edmunds reported this month that even Tesla owners are getting in on the hybrid act. More than 20 percent of those trading in the electric cars in the second quarter of this year purchased hybrids. (The figure doesn’t account for direct-to-consumer brands like Rivian, Lucid, and of course, Tesla.)

Edmunds 本月报道称，连特斯拉车主也加入了混合动力阵营。今年第二季度，超过20%的电动汽车置换车主选择了购买混合动力汽车。（该数据未统计 Rivian、Lucid 以及特斯拉等直销品牌。）

Oddly, the slow-moving success of hybrid technology has Brinley optimistic about the future of EVs. “Hybrids showed up more than 25 years ago, and now they’re reaching 15 percent of the market,” she says. “We expect EVs to be 12 percent of sales in 2030, and that’s a growth pace that’s even faster than hybrids. It takes a long time for people to change.”

奇怪的是，混合动力技术缓慢而稳健的成功反而让布林利对电动汽车的未来感到乐观。她说：“混合动力车在25年前就出现了，现在才达到15%的市场份额。我们预计到2030年，电动汽车将占总销量的12%，这个增长速度甚至比混合动力车还要快。人们的观念转变需要很长时间。”