Hybrid vehicles pulled in 22% of new-car shopper consideration in the first half of 2026, up from 20% a year earlier, while pure EV interest actually slipped to 10% from 11%, according to Kelley Blue Book’s own H1 2026 Brand Watch report. That single swap in preference is quietly rewriting which automakers gain ground and which stall out.

The Data Behind the Shift

Kelley Blue Book’s Brand Watch tracks roughly 12,000 shopper interviews a year, surveying people actively in the market for a new vehicle within the next 12 months about which brands and body styles they’re actually considering — a leading indicator that shows up in sales months later. The August 4, 2026 release found SUV consideration hit an all-time high of 71% among non-luxury shoppers and a record 79% among luxury shoppers, up 4 percentage points year-over-year in the luxury tier. Sedan interest, by contrast, fell to a record low of 25% among non-luxury shoppers.

Vanessa Ton, senior manager of Market & Customer Research at Cox Automotive, called the strength of SUV demand notable given the affordability pressure many households are under, since SUVs typically carry a higher price tag than comparable sedans.

Winners and Losers by Brand

Three brands stood out as gainers in the same report. In the non-luxury field, Kia and Subaru both improved their shopper-consideration scores year-over-year — both brands lean heavily on hybrid powertrains (Kia’s Sportage and Sorento hybrids, Subaru’s Crosstrek and Forester hybrids) and SUV-only or SUV-heavy lineups, putting them squarely in the two categories gaining ground. In the luxury field, Audi was the only brand among the top 10 luxury nameplates to post a year-over-year improvement in consideration, aided by its Q3, Q5 and Q7 SUV range and expanding hybrid and EV options.

Most other non-luxury brands held flat or slipped, according to the report — a sign that in a market where SUVs and hybrids are absorbing a growing share of shopper attention, brands without a deep bench in either category are losing mindshare even before a single sale is recorded.

Key Points

• Hybrid shopper consideration rose to 22% in H1 2026, up from 20% in H1 2025 — a new high.
• Pure EV consideration fell to 10%, down from 11% a year earlier.
• Non-luxury SUV consideration hit an all-time high of 71%; luxury SUV consideration hit a record 79%.
• Kia and Subaru gained the most ground among non-luxury brands; Audi was the only top-10 luxury brand to improve.
• Data comes from roughly 12,000 annual shopper interviews tracked by Kelley Blue Book.

The pattern that emerges from Kelley Blue Book’s numbers is less about any single automaker’s marketing and more about product mix: brands that happened to already be stocked with SUVs and hybrids before 2026 are the ones riding the wave, while brands still weighted toward sedans or pure-EV bets are watching their shopper interest erode in real time.