2026 Toyota Camry Hybrid Expert Review
Reviewed by Billy Rehbock
With its all-hybrid Camry lineup, Toyota enhances the comfort and quiet confidence you've come to expect from its popular midsize sedan. This year the automaker expands that lineup with a sophisticated new special-edition model.
Other hybrid midsize sedan competitors include the Honda Accord Hybrid and Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.
What’s New
A new Nightshade Edition comes to the Camry Hybrid model lineup this year. SE, XLE, and XSE trims also gain a new available exterior color called Dark Cosmos.
Here are the highlights from the Camry’s 2025 redesign:
Performance
- Standard hybrid drivetrain
- Available all-wheel-drive system
- Reworked suspension and new braking system
Tech
- New standard and available displays
- Standard wireless charging
- Standard Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 driver assistance suite
Style
- Restyled exterior bodywork and a new interior
- New paint colors, with two-tone color schemes available for XSE trim
Getting Shady With the 2026 Camry Hybrid Nightshade Edition
The Camry Hybrid gains a new Nightshade Edition this year, just three years after the previous last-generation modela similar special edition was offered. This year’s style package adds Midnight Black Metallic exterior accents that cover the Camry’s front grille, air curtains, side canards, door handles, side mirror caps, shark fin antenna, rear lower sport diffuser, and rear spoiler.
The 2026 Nightshade Edition also features model-specific 19-inch wheels and gloss black badging and is offered in Ice Cap, Supersonic Red, and Midnight Black Metallic exterior paint colors.
The 2026 Toyota Camry Hybrid is available with five trims this year: LE, SE, XLE, XSE, and Nightshade Edition. Look for pricing to increase slightly, with the base model starting at roughly $30,500. Deliveries will begin in summer 2025.
What We Think
The ninth-generation Camry is a major step up from the midsize sedan it replaces. Years of mastering hybrid tech with the Prius have helped Toyota deploy gas-electric powertrains that don’t just increase fuel economy but improve drivability as well, with punchy, smooth power delivery.
The Camry offers a more refined experience than the Prius, too, except that the engine will get noisy under extended periods of hard acceleration. The sedan is decently quick, and SE and XSE models handle well, but the Honda Accord Hybrid remains a better performer.
Camry Hybrid styling is handsome but interior packaging is undermined by a low roof. Some of our editors also struggled a little to find a comfortable seating position up front. The infotainment screen is sharp, though, and it’s mounted at a nice height on the dash.
We love some of the funky color combos that Toyota picked for the car, too. In its dwindling class, the Camry Hybrid is an excellent value, which is why it sits at the top of our midsize hybrid sedan ratings.
MPGs and Range
Every Camry Hybrid is equipped with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, CVT automatic, and dual electric motors, with AWD models getting a third motor at the rear axle. FWD base models get the best fuel economy—53/50 mpg city/highway with the 2025 LE and 48/47 mpg with other trims. Overall, you’ll get as much as 663 miles of driving range with the LE and 611 miles for the other front-drivers. That’s impressive from a 13-gallon fuel tank.
AWD models are efficient too, with fuel economy that ranges from 44/43 mpg for the loaded (and heavy) XSE up to 51/49 mpg city/highway for the lighter LE trim. The XSE can go an estimated 572 miles between fill-ups, and under the right conditions the entry-level AWD can go some 650 miles.
Performance
Output depends on drivetrain configuration. With FWD, the Camry Hybrid develops as much as 225 hp. That’s enough for the 2025 SE FWD to accelerate to 60 mph in a MotorTrend-tested 7.0 seconds, not too bad for a heavy-ish sedan. For comparison, a non-hybrid Honda Accord hits 60 in 7.9 seconds.
The quickest Camry Hybrids are AWD, though they don’t have a huge advantage with combined power that grows to 232 hp. In our testing, we hustled the XSE AWD model to 60 mph in a barely quicker 6.8 seconds. Honda’s Accord Hybrid is a tad better here, reaching 60 in 6.6 seconds.
Safety Ratings and Features
The Camry Hybrid is an IIHS 2025 Top Safety Pick+, the institute’s highest rating. The sedan also makes a clean sweep of NHTSA ratings, earning a five-star overall safety rating and five out of five stars in every test last year.
Automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, road sign recognition, and automatic high beams are standard through the Camry Hybrid’s Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 suite. Blind-spot monitoring, a rear seat reminder, and Hill Start Assist Control are also standard. Optional features include a 360 camera, front and rear parking sensors, Lane Change Assist, Rear Cross Traffic Braking, and Front Cross Traffic Alert.
Cargo Space and Interior Room
The Camry Hybrid’s direct competitors come with bigger trunks. Rear legroom in the Toyota compares favorably to the Sonata Hybrid, though.
Technology
Toyota includes a 7.0-inch driver display and 8.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard on LE, SE, and Nightshade Edition. Every model comes with a wireless phone charger and a mix of five USB-A and USB-C ports as well.
Higher trims like the XLE and XSE upgrade to a 12.3-inch driver screen and matching 12.3-inch infotainment interface. Optional tech highlights include a 10.0-inch head-up display and a nine-speaker JBL premium audio system.
