Here in New England, we’re in the middle of a typical winter season, where the weekly snow storm is not a surprise to anyone. Schools occasionally close, but for the most part life goes on as usual, regardless of road conditions. All-wheel drive is not required, but certainly helps keep things moving when the weather takes a turn.
This got me thinking: It’s easy to find a big SUV or truck with four-wheel or all-wheel drive, but where do buyers turn to find the intersection between fuel efficiency and capability?
It turns out there are quite a few options. Some are very well-known, but a few all-weather hybrids have shown up recently that may not be on everyone’s radar.
Here are three hybrid vehicles with all-wheel drive that you may not know about:
Subaru Crosstrek Plug-In Hybrid
Picking a Subaru for this list is almost cheating since you can’t buy one without all-wheel drive, but the new Crosstrek is worth a note. With the new car, Subaru has given the Crosstrek a plug-in hybrid system that can deliver up to 17 miles of all-electric range and 90 MPGe. This is all in a vehicle with about as much ground clearance as the surprisingly capable Jeep Renegade.
Efficiency sometimes comes at the expense of other valuable vehicle characteristics like size and drivability, but Subaru has made fewer tradeoffs with the Crosstrek than some. Most notable is the decrease in rear cargo space. It has been significantly compromised to make room for the batteries: 15.9 cubic feet, down from 20.8 in the standard Crosstrek.
Pricing may come as a bit of a shock to some buyers, as the Crosstrek Hybrid’s base price of around $35,000 overlaps the flagship Subaru Ascent by a few thousand dollars. There’s plenty of standard content to justify that price tag, though, with leather, advanced safety features, and an 8.0-inch touchscreen included in the single-trim Crosstrek Hybrid line.
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
Mitsubishi has been flying under the radar for years now, so their latest round of crossovers may catch many buyers off guard – at least here in the United States. The Outlander PHEV has been on sale elsewhere in the world for several years, with 100,000 having been sold in Europe alone.
Even though we’re five years behind the rest of the world in getting the Outlander PHEV, the technology it possesses is still cutting edge. It’s the only plug-in hybrid of any kind with fast charging, it has the best electric-only range of any plug-in SUV and is one of only a handful of plug-in SUVs not from a luxury brand that offers all-wheel drive.
Because it’s an SUV and competes in the most vicious of all the automotive market segments, the Outlander PHEV has to pack in some nifty features. The base SEL S-AWC trim starts around $35,000 and comes with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, along with active safety features like blind spot monitors and rear cross-traffic alerts. We tested the GT S-AWC trim, which is still a bargain at $40,000. This top trim comes with a power sunroof, a host of advanced safety features, leather, and a Rockford Fosgate sound system.
Toyota Prius
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Even with power going to all four wheels, the Prius is capable of 50 mpg combined and all models now come with Toyota’s suite of advanced safety features. Fully-loaded, the Prius XLE slides in at around $30,000, good enough to make it accessible to a wide swath of would-be car shoppers.
