Abstract: To reveal energy absorption mechanism and improve crashworthiness of aluminum (Al)/carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) hybrid front rails, firstly, the dynamic axial impact tests of net aluminum rails and Al/CFRP hybrid rails with carbon fiber sheets embedded into aluminum hollow were carried out. The experimental results show that the energy absorption W_\texte and special energy absorption W_\texts of Al/CFRP hybrid rail are improved by 46.1% and 17.5% compared to the net aluminum rail. Next, the material model MAT54 was adopted to build the finite element model (FEM) in commercial software LS-DYNA and validated by the experimental data. The FEM was used to reveal the mechanism of improvement in energy absorption and the damage mode of the hybrid rail. The result indicates that the W_\texte of aluminum rail and CFRP laminate in hybrid rail is improved by 30.7% and 43.4% compared to the net corresponding constituent, respectively, and the friction dissipation energy of hybrid rail is improved by 217.8% than that of the sum of single component. Further, a theoretical model is adopted to predict the mean crushing force P_\textc generated by the aluminum rail, interactive effect and the overall hybrid rail, and the theoretical results are in good agreement with the numerical results and experimental results. Finally, parametric studies of aluminum wall thickness, CFRP laminate thickness and CFRP laminate stacking sequence on the crashworthiness were conducted by the FEM, and results show that the energy absorption and peak crushing force of hybrid rails increase with the increase of aluminum thickness and CFRP thickness.