Hybrid vehicle reliability is neck and neck with gas-powered cars

Electric vehicles continue to receive lower tech reliability scores than other cars but research suggests the gap is beginning to close.

Driving the news: Consumer Reports’ latest Automotive Report Card tracked a notable shift in the number of reliability issues drivers of EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) encountered in 2024. The nonprofit considers a reliability issue to be anything that negatively impacts functionality or causes downtime and sourced its data from reader surveys and vehicle data covering the 2000 to 2024 model years.

• Both EVs and PHEVs still see markedly worse scores than the average internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle.

• However, automakers are starting to work out the kinks in the technology. EVs now see problems 42% more often than ICE cars, while PHEVs encounter 70% more issues.

• These represent big year-over-year drops: in 2023, the respective problem rates for EVs and PHEVs were 79% and 146% greater than gas-powered vehicles.

Zooming in: Most impressive in Consumer Reports’ results were the scores for (non-plug-in) hybrids, which are now roughly neck and neck with ICE vehicles in terms of tech reliability.

• “Today’s hybrids deliver reliability that is similar to conventional gas cars despite their added complexity,” says Jake Fisher, Senior Director of Consumer Reports' Auto Test Center. “CR’s tests have shown they’re also often quieter, quicker, and more pleasant to drive than their gasoline-only counterparts.”

• Consumers are also taking note. Hybrid sales have risen roughly 53% so far this year compared to 2023.

Zooming out: Brands are also seeing shifts in overall reliability, although Japanese automakers continue to dominate the rankings.

• Subaru placed ahead of all other competitors (a first for the manufacturer) in this year’s list, followed by Lexus, Toyota, Honda and Acura.

• U.S. brands placed relatively low in the rankings. Buick arrived in 11th place, followed by Ford in 13th, Chevrolet in 16th, Tesla in 17th, Jeep in 19th, GMC in 20th, Cadillac in 21st and Rivian in 22nd.

Japan vs U.S.: It’s worth noting that while many Japanese manufacturers have excelled in the hybrid space, they have also been slower to adopt fully-electrified models compared to U.S. brands.

• For instance, Subaru only has one EV, the 2024 Solterra, which received middle-of-the-road scores in Consumer Reports’ study.

• Considering electric models, despite their improvements, still perform notably worse than ICE and hybrids, this could explain the gap when comparing reliability scores between Japanese and American automakers.

Bottom line: Investments into EVs, PHEVs and hybrids are starting to pay off, reducing the number of problems faced by drivers and boosting interest among buyers. But while EVs and PHEVs still have a ways to go in terms of reliability and demand, hybrids are quickly becoming one of the top choices for today’s consumers thanks to their solid performance.

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