Electric Car Awards 2025: Best hybrid family SUV

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Electric Car Awards 2025: Best hybrid family SUV

With fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars now coming in all shapes and sizes, we’ve named the best new and used buys in every class. Here we look at the best hybrid family SUVs...

Best hybrid large SUV

MG HS 1.5T Plug-in Hybrid SE

It says a lot – an awful lot – about just how impressive the MG HS plug-in hybrid is that last year’s winner in this category was the superb Mercedes GLC. That car costs almost twice as much and, at 4670mm from nose to tail, occupies almost exactly the same amount of space on the road, yet the upstart HS has stolen the posh German’s title.

Both of these five-seat family SUVs combine a four-cylinder petrol engine with a battery and electric motor, and it’s remarkable how much less refined the HS isn’t. Indeed, its 1.5-litre engine is remarkably smooth and quiet when it chimes in – not that that’ll happen very often with an official electric range of 75 miles, and we managed 74 miles in our real-world tests. The HS and GLC are virtually neck and neck in this regard, as it happens.

The HS is almost as quick as the GLC, too; the 0-62mph sprint officially takes 6.8sec (a tenth behind the GLC), but guess what? In our tests, we managed 0-60mph in 6.1sec. This is one nippy family SUV.

The plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is pretty comfy, too; its firmer suspension set-up makes for a much more controlled ride than you’ll experience in the regular petrol-engined versions. The GLC is plusher over bumps, but it’s not exactly in another league.

The same is true inside. Actually, with its smart, modern-looking design with soft, leather-like materials gracing all of the main touch points, and with attractive 12.3in side-by-side screens for infotainment and instrumentation, the HS could have GLC buyers wondering where their extra 30 grand went. Okay, a few details here and there feel a bit less than top-notch, but we’re miles from the bargain basement feel you might fear at this price level.

Room for a family of five? Yessir. The HS is a match for the Kia Sportage and Toyota RAV4 PHEV (or the GLC) when it comes to interior space; a family of four tall adults can stretch out in comfort. The HS does trail its rivals on boot capacity, but it still swallowed six carry-on suitcases in our test.

Don’t forget, either, that there is no cheaper plug-in family SUV than the HS SE. Sometimes you get what you pay for; in the case of the HS, we reckon you get rather more than that.