If you are buying the hybrid for the mileage, don't.
We've had the 2023 Tucson Hybrid Limited almost a year and have a little over 12k miles on it. The majority of miles are around town, but we've taken one 700-mile round trip and one 1,800 mile round trip. The car feels well-built and the features and tech on the Limited Hybrid are everything we hoped for. There are a LOT of menus and features to get through and it definitely takes some reading and online user videos to get the hang of it all. The ride is smooth and quiet, particularly for an SUV of this size. There is plenty of power for merging onto a highway from a short merge ramp and I’ve never felt like I was “in trouble” due to lack of acceleration. I put a Curt Class III hitch on the car and was pleased to find the hitch was perfectly drilled to the preexisting holes in the frame for the hitch, and the electrical harness is already located under the rear driver’s side. You have to buy a “pigtail” to adapt it from the harness to the trailer, but it is a very quick and easy installation; 30 - 45 minutes at most. The one disappointment I have, and it’s a big one, is the gas mileage. After about 5k of break-in miles, we could get anywhere from 35 - 39 mpg around town in the summer months. We’ve noticed cold weather takes a significant toll on it. Dayton OH winters are enough to take 4 or 5 mpg off the city mileage rating. I assume it’s because it runs the internal combustion engine more to warm things up (compartment heat, seat heaters, heated steering wheel, mirrors and rear defrost). The highway mpg is not good at all. On the 700-mile trip, we averaged 32 mpg, which was acceptable, but not great. On the 1800-mile trip the car struggled to average 28, which I find frustrating and unacceptable. This was with very little cargo (less than 100 lbs) and we are both small people (under 140 lbs each). Additionally, the geography wasn’t particularly tough (not a lot of hills), there was no significant headwind, and we typically had the cruise control set to the speed limit (mostly 65/70) or 2 to 3 mph over the speed limit. Max speed was 73 mph, and we are both conservative drivers with regard to gentle acceleration and braking. I even took the roof crossbars off before the trip to get less wind resistance. Bottom line, we like the car and all the comfort features, but the mpg (or lack thereof) is a HUGE disappointment. It was the main reason we spent the additional money on the hybrid, and it seems it was a waste. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had just gone with the non-hybrid version or perhaps gone with the other car we considered, the Hybrid Toyota Rav4. A neighbor bought the 2022 model and is averaging 40 mpg OVERALL after 2 years of owning it. The final deciding factor was the longer Hyundai warranty.
Verified Owner
