Disbelief Is Main Reaction From Toyota Highlander Owners Following Announcement That Highlander Will Be Battery-Electric Starting with the 2027 Model Year - Many Owners Dismayed, Some Happy

With the news today that the Toyota Highlander is going battery-electric for the upcoming 2027 model year, we wanted to find out what actual Highlander owners think of this development. We posted a detailed summary of the new 2027 Highlander, as much as is known at this point, and then we also created a poll to ask owners what they think of the Highlander going battery-electric.  The reactions are trending negative, but we have seen some owners say this is exactly what they have been waiting for.

I’m not a dispassionate reporter of this news. My family owned a 2007, first-generation Highlander for decades that we loved. We bought it new. It was a family car for us when we had two little boys. They loved the rear third row and would often jump over the second row once inside. That car was the vehicle both my boys learned to drive in (slowly over private property) before they were even 15. They went on their first dates in the car, drove it to prom pre-parties, and it served both of them well for years. After the boys moved on to their own cars, a 2011 Lexus RX and a 2025 GR86, we gifted the Highlander to a young family in our community, and it lives on. We now own a 2024 Venza Hybrid, which we love. Having covered automotive news for two decades, this is one of the more personal stories I’ve reported, so if I stray into opinion, you’ll have to forgive me.

2027 Toyota Highlander Battery-Electric Vehicle Reactions - Poll Results
We polled members of the Toyota Highlander Owners Club on Facebook. This is a very large, very active, and very well-run group of owners who love their Highlander. As social media vehicle groups go, it’s among the biggest. The Highlander is primarily a family vehicle, and Facebook is the right social media platform for family vehicle owners. Within minutes, the poll had over 100 respondents, and the results were clear.

We tried to keep the tone neutral. So as not to influence the outcome. We asked, 

Toyota just announced that the new 2027 Highlander will be all-electric. Does this make you more or less interested in buying a Highlander as a current Highlander owner?

We asked owners of Highlanders if the BEV Highlander makes them more or less interested in buying a new Highlander. Only 4% said that they were more likely. 95% said they were less likely. This fascinated us because EVs currently have roughly 5% of the new-vehicle market share in America heading into 2026. The market share peaked at 8% in late 2023, had a spike to about 10% just before EV subsidies were ended last September, then dropped like a rock to around 6% in Q4 2025. The January delivery numbers for battery-electrics were ugly, but Toyota did better than most .

Highlander Hybrid Owners Speak Loudest
Among the respondents that seemed most vocal were the Highlander Hybrid fans. 56% of poll respondents said they were less interested in Highlander if it were a battery-electric vehicle and that they’d prefer a hybrid. The majority of comments are disbelief and hope that the Highlander will not be exclusively battery-only. Here’s what some owners have said on this:
Top Contributor Jeremy T - “Nope. That’ll never happen in America. Electric only spells death nowadays.”
Top Contributor Mark S. - “I don't believe it will be only EV.”
Highlander Owner Mx H. - “I'm putting money on the fact there will be a hybrid as well. Toyota can't be that dumb.”
Rising Contributor Julie A.M. - “Surely they'll continue offering HEV and gas models. I can't imagine they wouldn't what with the current atmosphere in the US.”
Top Contributor Tiffany K. - “I don’t think electric will be the only option. I think it’s just a new option.”

Disbelief is the normal first reaction to grief, and I would put myself in this group. It is hard for me to fathom Toyota moving a top-selling vehicle with a massive loyal following to battery-only. Perhaps the cryptic information released by Toyota today will be followed by more info soon. As of the writing of this story, I am not privy to any embargoed inside information on whether other powertrains will be offered or if the Highlander will be battery-only.

Some Highlander Owners Happy To Hear an EV Option Is Coming
The very first reaction to the story I posted came from Highlander Hybrid owner, Mary G. She said, “I’m so excited. I keep telling the dealership I won’t trade my hybrid until they have a fully electric version.” Another owner in the group, who is a Rising Contributor, said, “100% yes. Superior in nearly every way — faster, quieter, more energy efficient, cheaper to maintain, far fewer mechanical parts, etc.”  

Gas-powered Highlander Owners Feel Deflated
Mixed in among the majority of owners who prefer a Hybrid Highlander and the small minority of those who are expressing happiness to hear a battery-only Highlander is on the way are the owners of conventionally powered Toyota Highlanders. Here’s what a few of them commented:
Top Contributor Doni GS. - “Am I the only one who actually wants the old 3.5L V6 back instead of any new EVs or hybrids? Would’ve been nice if Toyota USA could still offer the traditional naturally aspirated V6 engine w/bench second row as an option?”
Owner Joe T. - “I can't believe I am actually owning the final generation of fossil-fueled Highlander.”
In our polling, gas-only (non-hybrid) Highlander owners made up 35% of the respondents who said they are not happy to hear a BEV Highlander is coming and that they would have preferred a gas-powered one.

What do you think about the 2027 Highlander being a battery-electric vehicle? Will it help or hurt Toyota’s sales? Tell us in the comments below. 

John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his fourteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. John employs grammar and punctuation software when proofreading, and he sometimes uses image generation tools. 

Top of page poll image courtesy of Facebook. Inset image courtesy of Toyota. Images of boys with a Toyota Highlander by the author.