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As a class of promising cost-effective lightweight structures, metal-composite hybrids have rapidly emerged in automotive industry largely attributable to their outstanding multifunctional and crashworthy characteristics. The aim of this study is to investigate the potentiality of metal-composite cylinders for crash energy absorption applications. In this context, the crashworthiness performance, and the deformation history of jute (J)/glass (G) reinforced epoxy hybrid composite over wrapped aluminum (Al) cylinders were experimentally studied under quasi-static axial loading. Crashworthiness characteristics of the proposed cylinders were evaluated by measuring the average and peak crushing loads ($${\mathrm{F}}_{\mathrm{avg}}$$ F avg , $${\mathrm{F}}_{\mathrm{ip}}$$ F ip ), specific energy absorption ($$\mathrm{SEA}$$ SEA ), total absorbed energy ($$\mathrm{U})$$ U ) , and crush force efficiency ($$\mathrm{CFE}$$ CFE ). The influence of the number of J-layers on the deformation profiles has also been defined. Result revealed that the highest ($${\mathrm{F}}_{\mathrm{ip}}$$ F ip ), ($${\mathrm{F}}_{\mathrm{avg}})$$ F avg ) , and ($$\mathrm{SEA}$$ SEA ) noted for Al-3G-2 J-3G with values of 85.45 kN, 53.14 kN, and 39.99 J/g, respectively. The maximum ($$\mathrm{U}$$ U ) was documented for Al-8G with a value of 3535.89 J. The highest $$(\mathrm{CFE})$$ ( CFE ) was recorded for Al-2G-4 J-2G followed by Al-3G-2 J-3G with a value of 0.65 and 0.62, respectively. Al-3G-2 J-3G cylinders exhibit excellent energy-absorbing capacity and could be applied as energy-absorbing crashworthiness structures in automotive applications.