For years a hybrid pickup sounded like a contradiction. Trucks were sold on torque, towing and toughness; hybrids on squeezing out a few more miles per gallon. The 2026 sales charts tell a different story. Ford says it sold 27,793 Maverick Hybrids in the third quarter, up 59.6% from a year earlier, bringing its year-to-date total to a record 74,300. Through September it also sold 34,527 F-150 hybrids.
Ford describes the Maverick Hybrid as the best-selling hybrid pickup in the U.S., and price explains a lot of that. The 2026 Maverick XL with the 2.5-liter hybrid is the base model, with a starting MSRP of $28,145, which Ford says is the lowest starting price of any pickup in America. Put that next to Kelley Blue Book's August 2026 average transaction price for a full-size pickup, $67,446, and the hybrid Maverick looks less like a niche product than a pressure valve for buyers priced out of bigger trucks.
More power, not less
The full-size hybrids sell a different promise: more muscle. Ford rates the F-150's 3.5-liter PowerBoost full-hybrid V6 at 430 horsepower and 578 lb-ft of torque and offers it with 7.2 kW of Pro Power Onboard, the truck's built-in power supply. Toyota's twin-turbocharged V6 in the Tundra makes up to 389 horsepower and 479 lb-ft in gas form; the i-FORCE MAX hybrid version raises that to 437 horsepower and 583 lb-ft. In the midsize Tacoma, the gas 2.4-liter turbo makes up to 278 horsepower and 317 lb-ft, while the i-FORCE MAX hybrid version is rated at up to 326 horsepower and 465 lb-ft.
Fuel economy gains follow a clear pattern in the EPA's numbers. The smaller and lighter the truck, the bigger the payoff.
EPA combined fuel economy: hybrid vs. gas
| 2026 truck | Hybrid | Gas version | Hybrid gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ford Maverick FWD | 38 mpg | 26 mpg (2.0L turbo) | +12 mpg |
| Ford Maverick AWD | 37 mpg | 25 mpg (2.0L turbo) | +12 mpg |
| Toyota Tacoma 4WD | 23 mpg | 21 mpg (2.4L turbo) | +2 mpg |
| Toyota Tundra 4WD | 20 mpg | 19 mpg (3.4L twin-turbo V6) | +1 mpg |
Source: EPA ratings at fueleconomy.gov. The 2026 F-150 PowerBoost is rated at 24 mpg combined with 2WD and 23 with 4WD.
Maverick's hybrid is built for efficiency, and it beats the turbocharged four-cylinder by 12 mpg combined. Toyota's i-FORCE MAX systems trade most of their electric help for output, adding 1 to 2 mpg alongside large jumps in torque. That split is the real story of the hybrid pickup in 2026: one approach makes a cheap truck cheaper to run, the other makes an expensive truck stronger.
What the hybrid costs
Toyota prices the hybrid as a step-up. On toyota.com in early October 2026, a 2026 Tundra Limited started at $54,860 and a Tundra Limited i-FORCE MAX at $58,560, a $3,700 difference. A 2026 Tacoma Limited started at $53,570 and the Limited i-FORCE MAX at $56,895, $3,325 more. Toyota also covers the 2027 Tundra's hybrid battery for 10 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first, and says that coverage transfers to later owners.
Ford keeps refining its small hybrid. Its engineers recalibrated traction control for the 2026 Maverick Hybrid AWD and planned an over-the-air update for 2025 owners. In a first-person article on Ford's website, Maverick integration engineer Abby Grajek explained why all-wheel drive mattered so much:
"Adding an all-wheel drive option to Maverick's hybrid powertrain was a top request from customers when Maverick first went on sale." — Abby Grajek, Maverick integration engineer, Ford Motor Company
Toyota's all-in bet
Toyota has made hybrids central to its whole lineup. Toyota Motor North America reported 363,367 electrified vehicle sales in the third quarter of 2026, up 28.5% and equal to 57.4% of its U.S. volume, and said the Toyota division hit a best-ever 61% electrified mix in September. Its company timeline lists the all-new 2024 Tacoma i-FORCE MAX and an exclusively hybrid 2024 Land Cruiser among recent product announcements.
The trucks are built close to home. Toyota's plant-by-plant summary, published Oct. 2, 2026, lists Toyota Texas in San Antonio as the source of the Tundra, Tundra HEV and Sequoia HEV, and Toyota Alabama as a supplier of hybrid versions of its four-cylinder, 2.4-liter turbo and twin-turbo V6 engines. For 2027, Toyota has announced an updated Tundra with a new Trailhunter package, standard 14-inch multimedia screen and a 2.4 kW inverter on i-FORCE MAX grades, with full details and pricing due this fall.
Why regulators like them, too
Federal fuel-economy rules now point the same way. NHTSA's final SAFE III rule, published Sept. 30, 2026, sets Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards based solely on vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel, "a category that includes non-plug-in hybrid vehicles," and no longer counts electric vehicles when it decides how stringent the standards should be. NHTSA also expects the light-truck fleet to consist more of vehicles with genuine off-road or cargo capability, such as pickups, once new classification rules take effect in model year 2030. With EVs out of the standard-setting math, hybrid trucks give automakers a way to raise light-truck fleet averages with technology the standards fully recognize.
The hybrid truck has moved from experiment to option and, in the Maverick's case, to the base powertrain at the bottom of the market. That is a shift buyers feel every time they fill up.