Electrical Connection: 2025 Hybrid-Sedan Comparison

From the March/April 2025 issue of Car and Driver.

Here’s one trend the automotive prognosticators didn’t see coming: the humble hybrid’s comeback. In 2024, sales of conventional hybrids—the ones you don’t plug in—shot up nearly 37 percent from 2023, according to the automotive analysis firm Wards Intelligence, while sales of electric vehicles rose just 7 percent. Proof that hybrids have become so well understood, so well accepted, and so commonplace is that all 2025 Toyota Camrys are hybrids, and the top four of the Honda Accord’s six trims went hybrid-only in 2023. When popular mainstream family cars like these—the Camry was the eighth-bestselling vehicle in the U.S. in 2024—have gas-electric propulsion as standard, you know hybrids have become the new normal.

To see what upsides—and downsides—exist in the realm of hybrid-only mid-size sedans, we paired an all-wheel-drive Camry XLE and an Accord Touring for a comparison deep dive. We also invited the recently refreshed Hyundai Sonata Limited Hybrid, a natural competitor of the Camry and the Accord. Curiously, each of these family sedans employs a different type of hybrid system. Which car provides the best performance, the highest efficiency, and the most fun from behind the wheel?

To suss out our trio’s fuel efficiency and driving personalities, we journeyed from our Ann Arbor offices to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a round trip of 600 miles. Why Indy as our terminus? Race cars that compete at the Brickyard are increasingly adopting hybrid systems (Indy cars and IMSA prototypes are hybrids), and the connection to our family sedans gave our Walter Mitty fantasies a boost.

As to our street-drivable hybrid trio, we gathered loaded models from each brand. The Accord Touring and the Sonata Limited are top-spec versions in their lineups. The Camry XLE is one small step down from the slightly sportier XSE, and the XLE’s smaller wheels and tires net better EPA ratings. As tested, the three cars are close in pricing and equipment. The Honda’s $40,905 sticker showed but one option, Radiant Red metallic paint ($455), while carpeted floor mats ($210) were the only extra on the $39,005 Hyundai. The $42,577 Toyota, which starts at $36,360, was optioned up to a similar equipment level with the Premium Plus package ($4760); it also added several items the others didn’t have and that we wouldn’t want, including a dash cam and paint protection on the rear bumper and doorsills, a combo that raised the price by roughly $1500. And while the Honda and the Hyundai are front-wheel drive, the Camry offers an all-wheel-drive option for $1525. The system adds a motor to the rear wheels, netting seven more horsepower while dropping the EPA combined figure by 1 mpg on our test trim.

Fuel economy being a focus, we spent the first day of our drive on a mix of roads: a morning slog on a loop through city and suburban streets near our office; a midday, two-lane run from Toledo, Ohio, south along the Maumee River to Defiance, Ohio; and finally, an interstate sprint to Indianapolis and back. And, of course, we subjected the cars to our thorough instrumented testing regimen, including our 200-mile, 75-mph highway fuel-economy test. The deep soak revealed plenty about this intriguing trio.

Exterior and Interior

One thing the Accord, Sonata, and Camry hybrids show us is that hybrids are now mainstream: Beyond a few small badges, these three make no effort to call attention to their gas-electric powertrains. To our eyes, they’re all modern variations on the classic three-box sedan shape. The Accord’s styling is the most restrained, and the Sonata’s is the most modern and edgy, with a droopy nose and a thin light bar spanning the front end. The new-for-2025 Camry could be mistaken for the previous-generation car, which apparently looked good enough to attract 217,859 buyers to the 2024 model.

Honda Accord Touring

HIGHS: Sports-sedan moves, luxury-car powertrain refinement, rear legroom for days.
LOWS: Low-key on the outside, low-key on the inside, lacks satellite radio.
VERDICT: A family sedan that drives sweetly enough to please discerning enthusiasts.

Inside, each vehicle offers a slightly different vibe, though all three are roomy, comfortable, dressed in good-quality materials, and fully equipped with everything from heated steering wheels to heated and ventilated front seats to upscale audio systems. We were happy to find plenty of real buttons and knobs for things such as climate control and audio adjustments in all three cars. Our trio also featured reasonably easy-to-navigate 12.3-inch infotainment screens, though both the Sonata’s and the Camry’s were more convenient to use while driving than the Accord’s. The Honda is also the only one that does not offer the option of satellite radio. We did note one aesthetic miscue in the Camry’s interior, which is the fabric trim lining the dash and door panels—it reminds us of a cheap washcloth.

Since these are family sedans, roominess is especially important, and here, the Accord pulls ahead of its rivals in one key metric. While the Sonata and the Camry are spacious enough for a pair of six-footers to sit comfortably front and rear, the Accord’s rear-seat legroom is positively voluminous, giving its cabin a clear advantage in practicality. When we stuffed three staffers in the back, however, we noticed that the Accord’s sloping roofline impeded headroom for the outboard two passengers in particular.

Powertrain and Performance

All three sedans use an Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder gas engine—2.0 liters in the Accord and the Sonata, 2.5 liters in the Camry—along with a small-capacity lithium-ion battery pack. From there, the strategies diverge. The 204-hp system in the Honda uses its engine to spin a generator that sends power to either the battery or a traction motor coupled to the front wheels; the engine can also power the front wheels directly when conditions are right. The Camry’s 232-hp setup combines a traction motor and a supplementary electric motor to apportion gas and electric power through a planetary gearset to the front wheels, and this all-wheel-drive version adds a 40-hp rear-axle motor. The Sonata’s 192-hp system has a motor-generator stuffed between the engine and a conventional six-speed automatic transmission. All three cars employ regenerative braking, adjustable in the Accord and the Sonata via steering-wheel paddles.

Hyundai Sonata Limited Hybrid

HIGHS: Modernistic styling, sharp widescreen infotainment display, big-time value.
LOWS: Conventional transmission hinders performance, uninvolving handling, would rather trot than sprint.
VERDICT: The hybrid that operates most like a conventional gas car, for better and for worse.

In our objective tests, no one car asserted dominance. In this segment’s all-important category of fuel economy, the differences are paper thin: Over our 600-mile drive, the Sonata delivered 37 mpg, the Camry 36 mpg, and the Accord 35 mpg. Those numbers are well below each car’s EPA figures for combined driving, a result we attribute to our heavy-footed driving style and the frigid winter temperatures the test vehicles endured. On our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test, the Sonata and the Camry both notched 39-mpg results, while the Accord came in at 36 mpg.

From there, determining which car has the best performance becomes murkier. The Accord’s 6.7-second 60-mph time is quickest, with the Camry at 6.9 seconds and the Sonata at 7.7. At the quarter-mile mark, the three are neck and neck, but the Camry begins to pull away. It is 2.6 seconds quicker than the Sonata and beats the Accord by 3.1 seconds to 100 mph, a speed that will probably be anathema to most hybrid jockeys. The Accord takes the win in sprints from 30 to 50 and 50 to 70 mph, and the Camry is a few tenths quicker than the others from 5 to 60 mph. Braking from 70 mph has all three within seven feet of one another. The Accord posts a strong 0.89-g skidpad result, with the other two tied at 0.85 g. Based solely on the objective results, it’s tough to pick a winner.

Driving Experience

While the performance of these hybrids is similar, their personalities are not. All were comfortable cruisers on the highway, but once we started threading our way along the two-lane bordering the frozen Maumee, the Accord reminded us why it’s a 10Best winner. It’s a sports sedan trapped in a hybrid family car’s body, manifesting that elusive nth degree of athletic coordination that discerning drivers will immediately sense. Its ride and handling balance is just right, its steering feel and effort spot-on. The Accord manages to be light on its feet yet playful and dedicated in the bends. What’s more, its powertrain refinement stands head and shoulders above the other two cars’. Its four-cylinder whispers distantly as the revs rise and fall between the barely noticeable faux shifts programmed into its hybrid system. As with the Camry, the instant torque supplied by the electric motors enables crisp response even to small accelerator inputs, making the Accord feel peppier than it is. We could nitpick its ride—it clip-clops across expansion joints the Camry glosses over—but our backsides quickly adjusted to that minor difference. There’s joy to be had here.

Toyota Camry XLE AWD

HIGHS: Pleasingly peppy powertrain, appropriately parsimonious with fuel, well-honed ride.
LOWS: Boomy engine note, CVT’s syrupy responses, the washcloth material on the dash and doors.
VERDICT: The Camry succeeds at making standard hybrid power a nonissue.

To be sure, both the Camry and the Sonata delivered a driving experience that will offend no one. The Camry has closed the gap between itself and the Accord dynamically, but it still doesn’t quite possess the deft and effortless handling that wows us in the Honda. There’s far more engine presence in the Camry’s cabin too, exacerbated by its transmission, which slurs engine rpm up and down noisily with every press of the right pedal. Still, there’s a lot to like here; it’s a well-rounded and highly capable family sedan.

As is the Sonata. It’s the softy of the group, with a ride that sometimes had a touch of float coupled with relaxed handling responses. “Relaxed” also describes the drivetrain, which was the least inclined to deliver energetic acceleration unless you pin the gas for a long time. Part of this is down to its conventional automatic transmission, which felt programmed to upshift to higher gears early, as expected of a car aimed at max fuel economy. All of this made the Sonata feel the most like a conventional gas-only sedan.

And the Winner Is . . .

All three of the hybrid family sedans in this test are parsimonious with gasoline and offer solid value. But we love driving, and we favor vehicles that not only fulfill their core mission but also deliver an extra measure of enjoyment and involvement behind the wheel. That’s why the Honda Accord Touring is the hybrid sedan we would most want in the Car and Driver family’s garage. You’re not surprised. Come to think of it, neither are we.

⬇︎Curiosities: Power Play

While counting USB ports and cupholders as part of this comparison test, we thought we had killed the Sonata’s 12-volt battery when all electronic accessories stopped working. After some research, we discovered the vehicle’s “12V batt reset” button on the lower left portion of the instrument panel. To prevent its lithium-ion 12-volt battery from an accidental over-discharge, the Sonata disconnects the 12-volt system if it senses a drop in voltage beyond a certain point. The reset button reconnects the 12-volt battery for 30 seconds, allowing you to start the car or put it in Ready mode to replenish it with the hybrid powertrain’s traction battery. Alternatively, the trunk release can act as the reset button, should you find yourself in a similar situation with the fob locked inside. —Austin Irwin

Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com