If you’ve been keeping tabs on Toyota’s latest truck releases, you may have picked up the fact that despite its heavy emphasis on electrification, the company’s hybrids haven’t exactly led with efficiency. As it turns out, the redesigned 4Runner will be no different. In fact, the new i-Force Max hybrid manages to return worse fuel economy on the highway than the standard gasoline powertrain in Toyota’s newest SUV.
There are two main reasons for this. For starters, the standard gas engine is the only one available with two-wheel drive. Compounding the issue is the fact that the i-Force Max hybrid is reserved for the 2025 4Runner’s upper trims, which are going to incorporate all the off-road features that enthusiasts crave, most of which (4WD, extra ground clearance, knobby tires, etc.) aren’t awesome for your gas mileage.
With the standard gasoline engine, the 2WD SR5, Sport, and Sport Premium are rated at 20 mpg city, 26 mpg highway, and 22 mpg combined; the Limited model offers the same city and combined figures, but only 24 mpg highway. Stepping up to 4WD drops those figures to 19/25/21 for the SR4, Sport, Sport Premium, Off-Road, and Off-Road Premium trims; if you opt for the Limited, it actually improves to 20 mpg city, 24 highway, and 21 combined.
Meanwhile, the i-Force Max hybrid is available exclusively with 4WD. All six trims (Off-Road, Off-Road Premium, Limited, Trailhunter, Platinum, and TRD Pro) are rated for the same fuel economy: 23 mpg city (a marked improvement), 24 mpg highway, and 23 mpg combined.
That a hybrid works best around town isn’t news. In a heavy truck or SUV that taxes propulsion systems right off the line, electric assistance provides a torque boost that can pay huge dividends in fuel consumption. Sustaining that torque at highway speeds is what proves challenging for hybrids; as the constant travel depletes the battery’s state of charge, that torque boost goes away. Throw in the not-so-aerodynamically friendly choices made with the 4Runner’s more bristly off-road packages, and suddenly things aren’t looking so hot.
Remember, when you’re talking about something that only returns 20-22 miles per gallon on a good day, small improvements mean a lot in terms of real-world cost. The 5-mpg city improvement from the 4Runner’s 4WD ICE to the 4WD hybrid represents a jump of more than 25%—that’s a lot farther you can go for the same money. A Toyota Prius trim improving from 45 to 50 mpg, on the other hand, is a gain of just 10%.
Toyota isn’t alone in this either, strictly speaking. The Jeep Wrangler 4xe is notorious for its so-so fuel economy with its battery depleted, and it has a much larger battery to carry around than the 4Runner. Since it’s a plug-in, Jeep doesn’t publish separate city/highway fuel economy numbers for the 4xe, but its mixed driving figure (20 mpg) is worse than its gasoline equivalent’s (21 mpg). We’re not sure what hurts the 4xe worse: the weight of the battery around town, or the less-than-optimal highway aerodynamics of its few trim selections. Either way, it paints a very similar picture to the 4Runner’s.
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