7 Hybrid Vehicles That Get 40 MPG Or Better Without A Plug

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NEW YORK (MainStreet) –- When you can plug in and recharge can batteries and do without gas altogether, it's easy to lose sight of just how efficient the hybrid engine has become.

Once the lauded, eco-friendly mileage king of dealer lots, the hybrid electric-combustion engine is losing some of its luster. Tesla actively targets Toyota Prius drivers and is getting closer to the Prius's price after announcing a Model 3 that will sell $35,000 when it's finally finished. That doesn't factor in $7,500 in federal electric vehicle incentives, which drop its price closer to $27,500, but that's still a lot more affordable than Tesla's Model S and its starting price of nearly $70,000.

General Motors, meanwhile, is revamping its quiet-but-underwhelming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid and announced the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle at this year's Detroit Auto Show. GM claims the latter will offer 200 miles of electric range for $30,000 after incentives. That's actually 65 miles less than the Tesla Model S, but it's also considerably less expensive than Tesla's only offering -- which won't be followed up by the Model X until later this year or by the Model 3 until 2016 at the earliest. It's also more than double the range of the current fleet of non-Tesla electric vehicles, which is led by Toyota's Rav 4 EV crossover and its nearly $50,000 price tag.

This is all making hybrid vehicles look like stopgap measures, which isn't too far from the truth. Consider that the revived Mitsubishi Mirage gets 44 miles per gallon on the highway and combined 40.5 miles per gallon from a combustion engine alone. The most efficient plug-free hybrid gets 53 miles per gallon and 50 mpg combined, which means either the hybrids have to get more efficient or automakers have to find electric alternatives.

Why? because the Environmental Protection Agency says vehicle fuel efficiency standards have to reach a combined 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 for entire corporate fleets. The Environmental Protection Agency notes that cars and light trucks built during the 2013 model year, the last year for which such data was available, got an average of 24.1 miles to the gallon. That's still less than halfway to the EPA and Department of Transportation's goal that it set back in 2012, but all the changes are pulling the auto industry closer to that mileage number. As it stands, there are more than 30 new vehicles in the U.S. achieving more than 40 miles per gallon in combined mileage. However, low-priced hybrid vehicles are making up a larger portion of that group each year. In fact, the EPA counts at least 15 plug-free hybrids with more than 40 miles per gallon of combined mileage.

We checked in with the EPA and found nine original-recipe hybrids offering better than 40 miles per gallon. We've ranked them by combined mileage, which places them in five separate tiers. If you aren't ready to make the jump to electric and don't see much point in plugging in a hybrid for a handful of extra miles, here are the hybrid vehicles that give you the most mileage for your money:

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Source: 7 Hybrid Vehicles That Get 40 MPG Or Better Without A Plug