Heading Into 2026, The Toyota Prius Is Outselling Entire EV brands In America - Don’t Call It a Comeback, Its Been Here For Years

Heading into 2026, battery-electric vehicle sales are nose-diving. Manufacturers are cutting EV models, closing or repurposing EV factories, delaying EV launches, and scaling back production on many EV models. These are not opinions, but verifiable facts. Meanwhile, the 2026 Toyota Prius is outselling every EV for which monthly delivery data was provided by manufacturers in January. The Prius is even outselling all of Toyota’s EV models. Maybe the legend isn’t down for the count just yet.

EV Delivery Data Compared to the 2026 Prius - U.S. Market, January 2026
Not all automakers provide delivery data every month. Not all automakers provide delivery data by model or market. However, the ones with nothing to hide still provide fans, owners, and investors with monthly delivery data for their lineups, broken down by individual model and market. It helps provide a sense of whether the company, and which models specifically, are doing well or doing poorly.  Our chart above shows the U.S.-market January 2026 delivery data for all the manufacturers who reported it. We’ll also provide an estimate for Tesla, since Cox Automotive was kind enough to use considerable resources to find Tesla’s total delivery numbers, and we can surmise its Model 3 and Model Y delivery volumes based on past trends.

Based on estimates from prior deliveries and Cox Automotive’s estimate that Tesla delivered a total of 40,100 vehicles, we’d peg the Model 3 at about 10,000 units delivered and the Model Y at about 25,000 units delivered in the U.S. market. Cox has also posted: “The top five brands by (EV) unit volume were Tesla (40,100), Hyundai (3,074), Toyota (2,794), Cadillac (2,716), and Rivian (2,516).” From this, we know that the Prius outsold every EV in America except for those by Tesla. In fact, the Prius outsold all EVs in total by every individual brand in America.

Diving a bit deeper into the Prius' January delivery data, we can see from Toyota’s monthly delivery report that about one in four Prius buyers opted for the Plug-In hybrid option. Toyota delivered 3,093 hybrid Prius cars and 800 Plug-in hybrid Prius cars. Thus, it really doesn't matter if you call the Prius PHEV an “EV” or not; the Hybrid alone still outsold every EV in America but two.

The Prius starts at $30,220, including Toyota’s Delivery, Processing, and Handling Fee. The Prius Limited AWD has a price of $38,160. The Prius Plug-in hybrid has a price ranging from about $35K to $42K. These prices undercut most EV sedans and hatchbacks by quite a margin. The Tesla Model 3 does overlap the Prius, but its bare-bones trim starts at $38,630, exactly the price point of a loaded Prius. The Model 3 tops out near $55K, about 40% more expensive than the Prius.

One reason that the Prius may be hanging on well in a market hyped by a strong vocal minority in favor of BEVs is its cost per mile for energy. According to FuelEconomy.Gov, the Prius has an annual energy cost of about $750, and the Model 3 has a cost of about $550. However, those numbers are based on national averages and do not include public charging costs. If you live in an area with high electricity costs, like Metro Boston, or if you must rely on public charging, it’s cheaper to power a hybrid than it is a battery-electric vehicle.

Another reason the Prius is still viable in 2026 is that, according to Consumer Reports, the Toyota brand in #1 in reliability among all 26 car brands. The Prius has a 70/100 predicted reliability score for 2026, and finished 2025 with a score of 68/100. That is a very respectable reliability score.

Ease of refueling is also a plus for the Prius. It takes about 75 seconds to fill the Prius with liquid fuel. That will then carry the owner 644 miles, or roughly three weeks of average driving. The Prius Plug-In offers owners a choice of either plugging in or going to a gas station. The Plug-in can travel on electricity alone for 40 miles, more than most daily trips in America.

Finally, the Prius earned a Top Safety Pick Plus designation from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety in its last test. There is no higher safety rating.

Tell us in the comments below if it surprised you to learn that the Toyota Prius is outselling every EV in America but two models. 

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 image and chart by John Goreham. Fuel economy graphic courtesy of EPA. IIHS image courtesy of IIHS.