These Two Hybrids Might Be the Heroes of 2025: Quickie
Happy day-after President’s Day! I spent it thinking of presidents that aren’t in office right now, and mentally betting that they wish they spoke up more before a clown was elected and the circus followed.
This was a good time to recognize a growing anomaly in the auto industry that doesn’t get talked about enough. Something I believe is essential, because it saved my bacon once before, and I cannot believe that this is a feature that’s going away in new cars.
The feature in question lies in the trunk:
Why am I showing you two photos of a seemingly mundane spare tire? Because they are disappearing from new vehicles, with a tire fix kit to take its place while more storage solutions occupy the remaining space saved from deletion of an additional wheel.
There are reasons for this. One being that run-flat tires are becoming the norm for certain manufacturers, so if you encountered a nail you had a window of 50 miles or so to retreat to the nearest tire shop. Thus, the vehicle engineers make the somewhat logical decision to ditch it all together because that’s just lugging extra weight that could compromise the agility of the vehicle.
The other main reason has to do with hybrids. With manufacturers stepping back on EV plans on the whole, hybrids and electrified options with a gas backup are coming into the fold in an attempt to offer the best of both worlds. Hybrids require batteries and batteries need to be placed somewhere under the floor. So the trunk is a popular preference.
Not all manufacturers think equally though. Honda deleted the spare wheel whether you opt for a hybrid or not. On the flip side, Toyota reigns supreme as king of the hybrids, as they were the first to mainstream battery-assisted propulsion with the Prius in the 2000s. For 2025, it took a major leap with its bestselling sedan.
The redesigned Camry is hybrid-only. And smart packaging of the battery on behalf of its engineers means it doesn’t lose the spare wheel. Even better, opting for all-wheel-drive (AWD), which can take up even more room beneath the floor, doesn’t compromise it.
Mazda doesn’t sell quite as many vehicles in the U.S. compared to Toyota. But it does have the momentum thanks to selling over 400,000 units for the first time in company history thanks to a growing SUV lineup. Now it launches its first-ever hybrid in the CX-50.
Two things to know: Mazda has never gotten rid of the spare wheel in its of its passenger vehicles, and AWD is standard if you go for an SUV. Diving into partial-electrification, it’s clear that it wasn’t going to buck against these two attributes.
So it should come as no surprise that the CX-50 Hybrid also sees a spare under the trunk floor. Not only that, but serves as the location for the subwoofer if you opt for the premium Bose stereo. This is a layout that is identical to the non-hybrid CX-50.
How did Mazda pull it off? By tweaking the subframes and adjusting the mounts behind the rear seats so there’s room for the hybrid battery, spare, and without compromising cargo space—also a common flaw in choosing a hybrid over its non-electrified counterpart.
The fact is stuff like this just doesn’t get talked about enough in general, and should be commended for successfully accommodating without compromise. I will never take for granted when I had to change a tire for the first time in 2023 (in my late 20s no less), and my 2012 Buick LaCrosse was equipped with a spare good enough to limp me to a tire shop a few blocks away. I’ll burden myself with the action of changing a tire over a fix kit any day, and you should too.
That doesn’t change the fact however, that it’s a rare commodity. The list is getting shorter on what vehicles are equipped with a spare, and it’s an exclusive club when looking for a hybridized, AWD vehicle.
The Mazda CX-50 Hybrid and the Toyota Camry are your best options. There are a few more, such as the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. But that’s about to get redesigned and is never as fun to drive as a sedan. Meanwhile, Mazda offers a pair of plug-in EVs such as the CX-70 and CX-90. Beyond that, it’s an extraordinarily small scope.
So that’s the two cents for the day. An extremely long two cents but that’s what to expect of what goes on in my head.
-TA