Guzzling Gas Is In The Past: The Best Hybrid Pickup Trucks

Electrical power is sweeping the automotive industry. Hybrid and all-electric powertrains are meeting the demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles across the globe. People who need to haul cargo used to be stuck with internal combustion engines and nothing else. That is no longer the case. The best hybrid pickup trucks bring electrical power to the road, the construction site and the campground.

The latest hybrid trucks provide more power and better mileage. They do not stop there. They also use their battery packs to run your plug-in devices, so you can leave the generator at home, lighten the gas-pump expenses, and still turn up with a full-size truck.

Here is the part most round-ups skip. Only five hybrid pickups are actually sold new in the United States, and they come from three brands: Ford, Toyota and Ram. Plenty of others were promised and quietly shelved, and we cover what happened to them further down, but the buying decision comes down to these five.

The best hybrid pickup trucks

1. Ford F-150
2. Ford Maverick
3. Toyota Tundra
4. Toyota Tacoma
5. Ram 1500

Ford F-150

When it comes to creating universally-loved pickup trucks, Ford knows what it’s doing. The F-150 is the most popular vehicle in the United States, and the PowerBoost hybrid is the version we would pick if the truck has to earn its keep.

The Ford F-150 PowerBoost runs in fully electric mode, gasoline-only mode, or a combination of the two, and it does not ask you to give anything up to get there. It tows 12,700 lbs, more than any other hybrid truck here, and it turns the bed into a mobile generator with 7.2 kW of available power. That is enough to run a job site through an outage or a campsite for a weekend.

It is also the most efficient full-size truck you can buy, which is a strange sentence to write about something with 430 horsepower.

Ford Maverick

Not everyone needs a full-size truck, and the Maverick is the one that finally admitted it. This is a compact pickup that returns 38 mpg combined in front-drive form, which is roughly what a compact sedan manages, and it does so while still carrying a bed and five people.

The Ford Maverick Hybrid tows enough for an electric motorcycle or a pair of ATVs, and it comes with lane-keep assist and blind-spot monitoring plus the usual options list, up to a sunroof and a spray-in bed liner. It costs less than half what the F-150 does.

If your truck spends most of its life doing ordinary things and occasionally hauling something awkward, this is the one to buy.

Toyota Tundra

Toyota has an unmatched reputation for reliability, and the Tundra hybrid backs it up with 583 lb-ft of torque, which is more than any other truck on this list.

The Toyota Tundra i-FORCE MAX pairs a twin-turbo 3.5L V6 with an electric motor and a 1.5 kWh battery. It is frequently reported as a TRD Pro exclusive, and it is not: the hybrid is offered on the Limited, Platinum, 1794 Edition, Capstone and TRD Pro. Fuel economy is the trade-off you accept for the torque. The most efficient rear-drive versions return 20 mpg city and 24 highway, and the TRD Pro falls to 18 and 20.

Buy this one because you want a Toyota that pulls hard, not because you want to spend less at the pump.

Toyota Tacoma

The Tacoma has been the default midsize pickup for two decades, and the i-FORCE MAX hybrid is the version that changes how it drives.

Toyota puts an electric motor between the 2.4L turbocharged engine and the eight-speed automatic, which produces 326 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque. That is considerably more twist than the old V6 managed, and all of it arrives immediately. The efficiency gain is modest at 23 mpg combined, so this is a truck you buy for the shove.

It is the only hybrid in the midsize class, which makes the decision easy if that is the size you want.

Ram 1500

The Ram belongs on this list with an asterisk. Its eTorque system is a mild hybrid, not a full one: a 48-volt motor-generator replaces the alternator and adds 130 lb-ft of supplemental torque off the line, but it cannot move the truck on electricity alone.

What that buys you is a smoother stop-start and a firmer launch, attached to a 5.7L HEMI V8 that Ram dropped for 2025 and brought back for 2026 after customers complained loudly enough. It will tow 11,320 lbs and pull nearly any travel trailer you point it at. Set your fuel expectations accordingly, because 19 mpg combined is what a V8 returns whether or not there is a 48-volt system helping it.

Ram’s fully electric 1500 was cancelled in September 2025. The REV badge now belongs to a range-extended truck that uses a petrol V6 purely as a generator.

Buyer’s guide for hybrid pickup trucks

Buying a truck is a decision you live with for years, so it pays to work out what you actually need before the showroom talks you into more of it.

Start with the bed, because it is the whole reason to own a truck. Full-size beds run up to 8 feet and carry the higher payload ratings, while shorter beds come down to around 4 feet and give you a vehicle you can park. Be honest about how often you fill it. Most people buy far more bed than they use.

Towing is where the list separates quickly. The F-150 PowerBoost tows 12,700 lbs and the Ram 11,320, both comfortably into travel trailer and camping trailer territory. The Tacoma manages 6,000 lbs and the Maverick 2,000, which rules them out for anything heavy. Work out your fully loaded weight first, then shop.

The distinction that matters most here is full hybrid against mild hybrid. Ford’s and Toyota’s systems drive the wheels electrically, add real horsepower, and improve fuel economy noticeably. Ram’s eTorque is a 48-volt assist that smooths the stop-start and helps off the line. It is cheaper, and it is not the same thing. If a dealer describes both as “hybrid” without qualification, that is the difference they have skipped over.

Onboard power deserves more attention than it usually gets. The F-150’s 7.2 kW Pro Power Onboard genuinely replaces a portable generator, and for anyone working from a truck or camping out of one it can justify the hybrid premium on its own.

Finally, size. Full-size means the F-150, Tundra and Ram. Midsize means the Tacoma. Compact means the Maverick, which is built like a car with a bed rather than a scaled-down truck and drives accordingly. That difference in construction affects ride quality far more than any spec sheet suggests, so drive one of each before you decide.

The hybrid trucks that never arrived

If you have been holding out for a hybrid from someone other than Ford, Toyota or Ram, stop waiting. Jeep cancelled the Gladiator 4xe plug-in hybrid in September 2025 and is phasing out the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe in North America too, offering a 6.2-liter HEMI V8 Gladiator instead. The Hyundai Santa Cruz shares its underpinnings with the hybrid Tucson and has never been given the hardware. Honda still builds the Ridgeline with a V6 and nothing else. Mitsubishi has confirmed a Triton plug-in hybrid but now expects it with the next-generation truck around 2030, and does not sell the Triton in the United States regardless.

Chevrolet got there first and then left. Its two-mode Silverado hybrid and the GMC Sierra twin ran until 2013, extracting over 21 mpg from a 6.0L V8 when nobody else was trying. If you want one, you are shopping used. Chevrolet’s truck electrification went into the Silverado EV instead, which now covers an EPA-estimated 493 miles on a charge.