With the increase in demand for structures that can absorb high energy in automotive and aerospace applications, noticeable amount of research was conducted to design reliable, efficient, and light weight energy absorbers. In recent years, nested tubes under lateral loading found to exhibit appreciably higher absorbed energy and increased efficiency of crushing force than single tubes having the same space subjected to lateral loading. In the current research paper, analysis on aluminum, glass and hybrid aluminum-glass/epoxy combined tubes subjected to lateral loading were carried out. Empty and polyurethane foam filled combined tubes of hexagonal-circular, hexagonal-rectangular, and hexagonal-hexagonal cross-sections were modelled using LS-Dyna finite element software. Length and diameter of the outer hexagonal cross-section tube were maintained as 50 mm. Each tube consists of four layers, each layer 1 mm thickness. Effect of tube cross-section, foam filler and material used on lateral force–displacement and efficiency of the crushing force was investigated. Absorbed energy of the combined tubes were determined and discussed. Failure mode of the fractured combined tubes was compared. Results show that the empty and foam filled hexagonal-rectangular combined tubes withstand higher load and absorbed higher energy than the hexagonal-hexagonal followed by hexagonal-circular tubes. Foam filled hexagonal-rectangular nested tubes of aluminum-glass/epoxy absorbed energy higher 5.88% and 20.5% than hexagonal-hexagonal followed by hexagonal-circular nested tubes respectively. The foam filler enhanced deformation stability, lateral load, and absorbed energy of the nested tubes.