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The Safest Hybrid SUVs of 2025: Award Winners and What Their Ratings Mean

The Tucson Hybrid, CX-70 PHEV, CX-90 PHEV and XC90 Plug-In Hybrid lead a 2025 safety-backed shortlist—but awards are not a universal ranking.
Entry214 Date Time4 min MechanicCarCody Team
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The strongest safety-backed shortlist of 2025 hybrid SUVs includes the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid, Mazda CX-70 PHEV, Mazda CX-90 PHEV and Volvo XC90 Plug-In Hybrid, each recognized with an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award for qualifying 2025 vehicles. That is a shortlist, not a universal ranking: safety results depend on vehicle size, exact model and build date, and no single award establishes which SUV is safest for every buyer.

Which 2025 hybrid SUVs have the strongest award evidence?

The table separates the vehicles explicitly identified as hybrid or plug-in-hybrid award winners from the Santa Fe, whose IIHS award is documented but whose hybrid-trim parity is not established by the cited model information.

Vehicle Award evidence Important qualification
Hyundai Tucson Hybrid Hyundai identifies the TUCSON Hybrid as a 2025 IIHS Top Safety Pick+. IIHS lists the 2025 Tucson as a Top Safety Pick+. The award page applies to 2025–26 models. IIHS reports a Marginal rating for the standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system; see the test results below.
Mazda CX-70 PHEV IIHS lists it as a 2025–26 Top Safety Pick+ midsize SUV. Plug-in hybrid. Confirm the exact vehicle and model year when checking award eligibility.
Mazda CX-90 PHEV IIHS lists it as a 2025–26 Top Safety Pick+ midsize SUV. Plug-in hybrid. Confirm the exact vehicle and model year when checking award eligibility.
Volvo XC90 Plug-In Hybrid IIHS lists it as a 2025–26 Top Safety Pick+ midsize luxury SUV. The award applies only to vehicles built after December 2024.
Hyundai Santa Fe IIHS lists the 2025 Santa Fe as a Top Safety Pick+. Eligibility is for vehicles built after November 2024. The cited information does not establish that every hybrid trim has identical results, so verify the specific hybrid’s applicability.

IIHS awards are intended to identify strong choices within vehicle-size categories, not to rank every SUV against every other SUV. IIHS also cautions that larger, heavier vehicles generally offer more protection than smaller, lighter ones. A midsize award winner is therefore not automatically the safest choice for a buyer comparing vehicles of different sizes.

What the Tucson Hybrid’s detailed results show

The Tucson illustrates why it is useful to look beyond the award badge. IIHS’s 2025 Tucson results rate the small-overlap front, updated moderate-overlap front and updated side crashworthiness tests Good. Pedestrian front crash prevention is Good, while the standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system is Marginal. These are different measures: a strong crashworthiness result does not make every crash-avoidance rating equally strong.

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For the Santa Fe, the IIHS model page reports Good ratings in the small-overlap, updated moderate-overlap and updated side tests; Acceptable headlights; and Good standard vehicle-to-vehicle and pedestrian front crash prevention. Its award applies to vehicles built after November 2024. Because the cited results do not establish that every hybrid trim is identical, check the exact vehicle rather than assuming all powertrains share every result.

How IIHS and NHTSA ratings differ

IIHS Top Safety Pick+

For 2025, IIHS requires Good ratings in the small-overlap front, updated moderate-overlap front and updated side tests for Top Safety Pick+. The vehicle must also have Acceptable or Good standard headlights and pedestrian front crash prevention. The standard Top Safety Pick threshold allows an Acceptable rating in the updated moderate-overlap test. These criteria make the award a useful screening tool, but they do not cover every feature or predict every real-world outcome.

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NHTSA 5-Star Safety Ratings

NHTSA evaluates frontal, side and rollover performance. Its comparison rules matter: frontal and overall ratings may be compared only among vehicles in the same class and within 250 pounds of one another. Side-crash and rollover ratings can be compared across classes. Do not treat an IIHS award and a NHTSA star rating as though they were points on one shared scale; they assess safety in different ways.

On October 23, 2024, NHTSA announced 37 vehicles selected for model-year 2025 testing. The selected models included the Kia Niro Hybrid, Mazda CX-70 Hybrid, Mazda CX-70 PHEV and Toyota Land Cruiser Hybrid. Selection for testing is not a completed star rating. NHTSA said the selected models, together with previously tested vehicles without significant changes, represented approximately 87% of the new-vehicle fleet. That is a fleet-coverage estimate, not a safety score or the share of hybrid SUVs rated.

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How to choose among the award winners

  1. Match the vehicle to your size and passenger needs. Compare vehicles in a similar size class where possible. Safety awards are not a universal cross-size ranking.
  2. Confirm the powertrain and exact model year. A result for a model name does not by itself prove that every hybrid or plug-in-hybrid version has identical test applicability.
  3. Check build-date restrictions. In particular, the XC90 Plug-In Hybrid award applies to vehicles built after December 2024; the Santa Fe award applies to vehicles built after November 2024.
  4. Read the underlying crash and avoidance results. Review individual IIHS ratings, including headlights and front crash prevention, instead of relying only on the award label.
  5. Look up completed NHTSA ratings for the exact vehicle. A selection for testing is not a rating, and NHTSA restricts which vehicles can be compared for frontal and overall scores.

The available ratings support a safety-focused shortlist, not a complete buying comparison. They do not establish comparative price, fuel economy, electric range, reliability or trim-by-trim safety for all of these vehicles.

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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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