Best Hybrid Cars of 2023 and 2024

[DRAMATIC MUSIC] SPEAKER 1: We are back in the dirt for some epic tractor pull action. Oh! Last year, Edmunds entered two of our very own long term test vehicles into a tractor pull event called Truck Mania, where we surprised a lot of people with the performance of our electric-powered rigs. Our Ford F-150 Lightning pulled the competition sled 231 feet, and the Rivian R1 made an even more impressive run of 246 feet. We found those results interesting enough to establish a whole new category for comparing and testing vehicles for the vast Edmunds database. So we connected with sled owner Brian Massetti to make runs here at his facility to establish a new baseline for the Edmunds tractor pull showdown. Now, I hear that with the monster truck echo in my head. Do you think we have budget for that in post? SPEAKER 2: Nope. SPEAKER 1: Ah. Edmunds Tractor Pull Showdown. Today, we're going to be running the Rivian R1T again now that we're on our new home track. Plus, we're going to run the F-150 Lightning with the stock tires first. But we also brought a set of more aggressive all-terrain tires for that. Why, you might ask? Well, that's because we read the comments on these videos, and on the Truck Mania feature, a ton of you said that you wanted to see a more aggressive tire to see if it can pull closer to the Rivian. So we're going to do that for you. Plus, we brought out our Ford F-150 hybrid to see how it stacks up against the electric trucks. The pulling sled itself is a marvel of engineering. Weighing in over 34,000 pounds, Massetti's "Terminator 2.0" is essentially a giant weight transfer machine. As it gets pulled down the track, a drive shaft connected to these tires will slide this massive weight box down to the front of the sled, eventually pushing this skid pan into the dirt, stopping all forward progress. Basically, the sled always wins, but the distance it gets pulled is the metric we're looking for. Our first run of the day is going to be in the lightest truck that we brought, the Ford F-150 hybrid. weighing in just under 5,800 pounds, this thing's sporting a traditional hybrid gas-electric drivetrain, and it's good for about 430 horsepower and 570 pounds feet of torque. And it's not a slouch. Let's hook it to the sled. [HIGH-OCTANE ROCK MUSIC PLAYING] BRIAN MASSETTI: All right, good! SPEAKER 1: Well, it's 100 degrees out here today, and now that I'm in the driver's seat, I'm nervous. And this is exciting. So there's this really strange feeling to have 34,000 angry pounds attached to the back of your borrowed truck. And we're going to send it. So the ground rules here are going to be, we're going to run factory tire pressures. And here in the F-150 hybrid, these are the settings we're going to run this thing at it. It has a transfer case. So it has four low. So I'm going to run four low. I'm going to put it in tow haul mode. I just seem to think that will be good, and it has a rear-locking differential. So I'm going to actually go ahead and use it. I'll just put it in drive. We've tightened up the chain, and all I do now is wait for the green lights on the sled, and then it's go time. [SHIVERS] All right, we got the green light from Brian in the cab. Let's go. Foot on the gas pedal. [TRUCK REVVING] And 60 foot. I'm [? flooring it. ?] I'm having to [? feed ?] a little bit of steering into it. We're moving. We're still moving. [TRUCK SQUEALING] And that's it. Wow! That was fun. That was kind of exciting, just to have all of that raw power just grinding forward in this thing. What a rush. Hey, I get it. Tractor pulling is kinda fun. I think this is a really interesting test of just how solid the chassis and the platform is of these vehicles. This thing felt completely unfazed by that pull. All right, I'm curious. Brian, how far was that? BRIAN MASSETTI: Hey, that was 154 63. 154 feet 0.63. SPEAKER 1: Awesome. That is great data. I'm not sure how that'll reference in next [INAUDIBLE], but that felt like a lot of fun. BRIAN MASSETTI: 10-4. That was a good one. SPEAKER 1: Weighing just under 6,800 pounds, this F-150 Lightning is still 1,000 pounds heavier than its hybrid cousin over there. This thing is sporting dual electric motors, one front, one rear, and it's good for 580 horsepower and 775 pounds feet of torque. And that drives all four wheels. It's a beast. If you want to check out some of the other things we've been up to in these trucks, head on over to edmunds.com. There's a convenient link in the description for you. There's all kinds of info and content and data on all of the other vehicles in our long term test fleet. It's good stuff. All right. It's interesting in the captain's seat of the Lightning. It's familiar, but definitely different than the F-150 hybrid. I like that. It's giving you the inclination that you have a ton more power and a unique drivetrain. So let's do it. Let's see, we're going to go tow haul mode. It's got a rear-locking differential. Let's see what that does. I'm going to just put it in drive and hold the traction control button until "Advance Track" is off, so that way we have full power all the time. I see the green lights on the sled. Let's put the spurs to her! [TRUCK SCREECHING] Ooh, this feels good. All right. Foot flat on the floor, putting all the kilowatts into motion right now. Come on, truck. Get in there, dig. Oh, it's interesting how it really just-- once it's done, it's done. The sled is going to win, and it just dominated. BRIAN MASSETTI: 16936. 169.36. SPEAKER 1: That feels like a good run right there. Thank you. Now I take this back to the staging area. There's a really interesting exhilaration and thought to this. It feels good, and it's just fighting for every inch. It's really exhilarating. Here's an interesting observation. It doesn't take much energy to do a run like that. We just made a run, and my observation it was at 91% on the battery and 263 miles of charge. Of range left, it has 261 left and 90%. Now, so minuscule effect on the battery for what seems like a high-effort run there. So that's an interesting bit of data for you. What we're doing here is a bit extreme, but what about everyday life with these, like towing a boat or towing a box trailer? Well, we've done that test. Go watch that video where we take these on our 200-mile loop, and we find that living and towing with EVs can be tricky. Now it's time to bring out the heavyweight, literally. This Rivian R1T weighs over 7,000 pounds, but it's also the most powerful of the group. It is good for 835 horsepower and 908 pounds feet of torque. Is it a supercar? Is it a truck? It's a little bit of both. It also has quad electric motors, so there is an electric motor at all four wheels pulling this thing forward. So we think it's going to do pretty good. [ELECTRONIC MUSIC] All right, Rivian time. This is the heavy hitter, like I mentioned. And that is because it just literally weighs the most. It has the most power. So that is what should give it the most leverage against the sled. That's what Brian told me. So we are in off-road mode. I have the traction controls off as I could get it. Standard ride height, stiff suspension, those are all the tips to see if we can get a good pull. And here we go. Rivian. Foot to the floor that time. Went much faster. [TRUCK RUMBLING] And we're actually picking up some speed here. Come on. I know as soon as that thing drops into the ground, there it is. It brings us to a stop and wins, but that felt like a really good run. BRIAN MASSETTI: Wow 224.59. 224.59 That was awesome 15 miles an hour, that's the fastest we've gone today. [CHUCKLING] SPEAKER 1: That's awesome. That is awesome to hear. That felt good. It just fought the whole way. It's really interesting to see all of the engineering and all of those principles come into play-- the weight, the leverage we just gained over that sled and made that fast, powerful run. So there was-- what felt like a constant bit of tire slip, I think actually helps. So I'm hoping that the Lightning actually does perform with those tires. We'll see. Let's find out. It's wild card time. Remember earlier, I talked about more aggressive all-terrain tires? Well, here they are. We ordered up a set from tire rack. Big thanks to them. They are a great source for tires, especially getting ones built specifically for EVs. So you can see the tread pattern is much deeper. Let's see if it gets us inches, feet out on the track. Let's send it. All right, so this is the redemption run in the Lightning. We have the more aggressive all-terrain tires on here. We're hooked up to the sled. Now quick rundown what I'm doing here. I set the controls-- the truck controls-- exactly like I did in the Rivian. We're in off-road mode, locking rear differential on, and stability advanced track basic traction control all off in this thing. So they are set up literally identical, and we're going to go to the floor. Let's go, Lightning. [TRUCK RUMBLING] All right, let's see some ground speed. 12, 13, 14. That's the speed we saw in the Rivian. [TRUCK RATTLING] But not quite the distance. OK. We're going to call it right there. All right, so what did we get? BRIAN MASSETTI: 206.71. Nice job. SPEAKER 1: Wow, that felt good. It felt angry, like it was trying to climb that time. The tires-- I honestly believe the tires did make a difference. I, in my head, was thinking, no, they're not going to make that big a difference. I do believe that this thing was happier and that there was a more efficient tire shear on the dirt with these tires. It was just slipping too much before. And the truck did and felt fantastic. Science. Science is the real winner here. The weight, and the power of the Rivian just has more leverage against that sled. I think that that's the answer, or that's what we're seeing in play here. So for internet points, I'd say this was a heck of a good day. All right. We have an exciting development here. Producer John made the call. It's late in the day, but we wanted to run the hybrid again. Because we had such good, solid results and got good data with the other two trucks, we thought let's give it a go. Here we go. Let's do it. [TIRES SCREECHING] Lot more wheelspin this time. [TRUCK SQUEALING] Come on. I'm willing it forward. [TRUCK SQUEALING] All right. Well, I'm wondering (CHUCKLING) what we did here. BRIAN MASSETTI: Hey, that was 145.56. 145.56. SPEAKER 1: Thank you. I'm forgetting, was that a good improvement from this morning in this thing? BRIAN MASSETTI: No. 154.63. So we're right in there. SPEAKER 1: Hm. BRIAN MASSETTI: Yeah, it didn't change much. SPEAKER 1: Well, there was a lot of wheelspin. I'm not sure if-- I was all hyped up that it was going to grip and do something different than before, and it didn't. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Wow, what a day. Horsepower, adrenaline, dirt flying, a little bit of science. What did we learn? That heavyweight horsepower wins the day. The Rivian is at the top of our list. And while we found it impossible to overcome the basic physics at play here in the tractor pull-- weight and power, equal leverage against the tow sled-- we did discover that the more aggressive all-terrain tires installed on the F-150 Lightning netted a dramatic performance gain, helping the truck claw its way to just over 206ft down the track, just 18 feet shy of the Rivian pull at 224 feet. But taking into consideration how much less power the Lightning has, I'm giving the Maximum Effort Award to that second run by the Lightning, for sure. The chassis on the F-150 hybrid felt rock solid during both runs, and it was a little surprising to come up a few feet short on that second pass. We're going to stick with our first run of 154 feet for our comparison numbers. This was an excellent display of how each of these vehicles handles under maximum tow capacity in a remarkably low-impact kind of way. So what we want to know is what you want to see us hook to that sled. Flood the comments with ideas, trucks, cars, things that you want to see us run in the tractor pull. I had such a blast don't forget to subscribe. Thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next time.