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2020 Hybrid and Electric Car Guide: The Hybrids

2020 Toyota Highlander hybrid | Photo: D.Boshouwers
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Vincent Aubé
Here’s the fourth edition of our annual guide to hybrid and electric cars available in Canada!

The year 2020 marks a decade, more or less, of consumer electric cars on our roads, and from looking at what’s shaping up on the market over the next twelve months, it's safe to say this year is a particularly pivotal one for the electric shift the industry intends to make over the next ten years.

As we head into a future of seemingly infinite possibilities, hybrid and plug-in hybrid offerings are still among us, of course, but in 2020 the big attractions, the big attention-grabbers, are all-electric vehicles.

We're thus back for a fourth straight year with our Guide to Electric and Hybrid Cars, which we first produced in 2017. And though most models we’ve touched on in the past are still in place, some are disappearing, while others are coming up fast on the horizon.

Of course, the commercialization of these environmentally greener vehicles also goes hand in hand with government incentives programs; Canada has had its federal program in place since May 2019, while British Columbia and Quebec continue to offer discounts on the purchase or lease of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

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Here we go with our guide to 2020 models that consume significantly less fuel (or not at all) and leave a friendlier ecological footprint.

THE HYBRIDS

See also our Guide to Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles in 2020

See also our Guide to All-Electric Vehicles in 2020

Acura

Acura NSX
Acura NSX | Photo: V.Aubé

This year at Acura is much like last year. Honda's luxury division has evidently given an extension to it NSX performance model, which uses a 3.5L twin-turbocharged V6 engine working in concert with no fewer than three electric motors for a total output of 573 hp.

As for the big RLX sedan, it's available exclusively with a hybrid powertrain, the main explanation for that being the low sales tally last year and again this year.

In the case of the big MDX SUV, it too continues on its way with a Sport Hybrid option, borrowed from the other two Acura utility models. In this case, however, the automaker will have to revise its strategy, as the MDX is essential to the brand's success.

2020 Acura MDX
2020 Acura MDX | Photo: D.Boshouwers
Acura RLX
Acura RLX | Photo: Acura
Vincent Aubé
Vincent Aubé
Automotive expert
  • Over 17 years' experience as an automotive journalist
  • More than 60 test drives in the past year
  • Participation in over 200 new vehicle launches in the presence of the brand's technical specialists