3 Things That Most Popular Hybrid Vehicles Have in Common

These common traits are all found in the most popular hybrids on the streets.

With today's hybrid vehicles, advancements in safety features, driving range, improved driving agility, and overall performance have elevated sub $40,000 hybrid vehicles once shied-away from to best-seller status.

Here are three features the most popular hybrid vehicles have in common.

1. Chart-topping range and affordability

Two popular hybrid vehicles, the Chevrolet Bolt and the Toyota Prius, eliminate range anxiety by being amongst the first to break into new territory on a single charge. The 2017 Bolt delivers 238 miles of driving range, with up to 90 miles on a 30-minute charge using a flash charging station. The Prius, with more than 3 million cars sold, clocks in at 58 mpg city/53 mpg highway with its FWD drivetrain on 121-horsepower.

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The Nissan Leaf is not far behind, with 107 miles of electric-only range on a full charge, all for just under $31,000.

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Value for feature set

Base and premium trims are slowly merging its feature set for a higher value than more expensive cars like the Tesla Model S.

The Prius has a base price of $24,685 with its top trim, the Four Touring, costing $30.015. The Bolt costs $36,620 before tax incentives.

Another drawing card is its value relative to its features. Like the $68,000 Tesla Model S, the Bolt sports tons of high-tech features, such as Wifi hotspot connectivity, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto support, and a 10.2-inch touchscreen. Previously, one had to consider a $60,000+ hybrid for the same features.

Safety

In 2017, the Chevrolet Volt and Toyota Prius Prime were awarded 2017 IIHS Top Safety Picks by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Compare that to the Tesla Model S and BMW i3, which earned lower scores using the same tests.

Also, safety suites on sub-$40,000 cars are quickly matching more expensive models. One example is the Prius' Safety Sense, its suite of accident preventing features with options such as a rearview camera, lane assist, adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, and pre-collision warning systems to alert drivers for accident prevention.

NEXT: HERE ARE THE TOP-SELLING CARS AND TRUCKS IN AMERICA IN AUGUST, 2017