2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid Review and Test Drive

The refreshed compact SUV offers more versatility, comfort, and tech than ever.

Jack Nerad | 

Oct 8, 2024 | 5 min read

Jack R. Nerad

Refinements in several areas make the 2025 Hyundai Tucson an even better value in the crowded compact SUV segment. Building on the consumer-friendly traits that have made it popular, the 2025 Tucson gets new design and dynamic upgrades to ensure people seeking a high-value, tech-savvy crossover with room for up to five passengers will find it appealing.

Already a formidable competitor in the compact SUV class, the new-and-improved 2025 Hyundai Tucson is now an even more potent force to reckon with, backed by the added assurance of its generous warranty, complimentary scheduled maintenance, and connected service offerings. Better yet, the new Baby Mode isn't just for babies.

This SUV is a rarity in that you can get gas, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid powertrains. This review concerns the 2025 Tucson Hybrid, available in Blue, SEL Convenience, N Line, and Limited trim levels. Base prices range from the mid-$30,000s to the low $40,000s, including the destination charge for shipping the SUV from the Ulsan, Korea, factory that builds it to your local dealership.

For this Tucson Hybrid review, I test-drove the Limited in central California. The Limited is the top trim level, and the test vehicle had no options. The manufacturer's suggested retail price was $42,340, including the $1,395 destination charge. Hyundai provided the vehicle for this review and paid for lodging and meals during the evaluation period.

Jack R. Nerad

The 2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid Has All the Right Moves

Only a few compact crossovers offer consumers a choice between gas, hybrid, or plug-in hybrid powertrains. These include the Ford Escape, Kia Sportage, and Toyota RAV4, and I think the Tucson is equal to any of them.

Better yet, thanks to its new tech, the Tucson Hybrid does so many things right it's hard to identify any shortcomings, especially with Limited trim. Those upgrades go beyond making the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid a good SUV; they ensure it.

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What's New for the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid

Hyundai packs the latest advanced technology and driver-focused enhancements into the 2025 Tucson Hybrid.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, new for 2025 and long overdue, is part of a new infotainment system with faster response, an improved user experience, and over-the-air updates. The 12.3-inch touchscreen lives under a new panoramic curved display with a 12.3-inch digital driver display, and together they look like something out of a luxury vehicle.

New biometric authentication technology allows Tucson owners to start and drive the SUV with a fingerprint scan. Digital key technology does the same — without fingerprint scanning — and a new 12-inch head-up display keeps vital information in your line of sight. Hyundai also offers Bluelink+ connected services free of charge and Hyundai Pay capability at gas stations and parking garages.

A new gear shifter juts out of the steering column and works intuitively. By moving it off the center console, Hyundai frees up some storage space. In addition, the Tucson's exterior styling and interior get design changes, and parents might appreciate the new Baby Mode.

Jack R. Nerad

Hyundai Tucson's Baby Mode

When driving a hybrid vehicle, I like how the electric-assist motor provides all of its torque almost immediately upon stepping on the accelerator pedal. But that abrupt torque application and jerky response prove disconcerting to some people, including my wife. To mitigate it, the 2025 Tucson Hybrid includes a new Baby Mode.

Baby Mode softens the intensity of initial acceleration, providing a gentler ride for babies, older adults, and those who don't want their necks yanked back when the light turns green and the driver hits the accelerator. Baby Mode also delivers torque less abruptly when in reverse, making it easier to avoid crushing the bicycle into the back wall of the garage when parking for the night.

Jack R. Nerad

For 2025, Hyundai squeezed a little more power out of the Tucson's turbocharged hybrid powertrain, netting a 5-horsepower increase to an estimated 231. Torque output is boosted slightly from 258 pound-feet to 271 lb-ft.

Thanks to turbocharging, a conventional automatic transmission, and e-Motion Drive technology, the Tucson Hybrid is enjoyable to drive. It feels peppy at low speeds, cruises silently and swiftly on freeways, and handles better than most rivals. My observed fuel economy was 33.5 mpg, a little short of the official EPA rating of 35 mpg, but not by much.

The 2025 Tucson Hybrid also offers driver-adjustable levels of regenerative braking via the steering-wheel-mounted shift paddles. This feature allows you to fine-tune the braking feel from obvious heavy regen that kicks in when you let up on the accelerator pedal to light regen that behaves like the brakes in a conventional vehicle that is coasting.

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Redesigned Interior Gives the 2025 Tucson More Wow Factor

If anything about the 2025 Tucson generates a wow factor, it's the redesigned interior. The crown jewel is the panoramic curved display, and the new dashboard makes the SUV feel wider and more open than before.

The user experience improves, too, for several reasons. For example, the infotainment system's faster processing speeds and crisper graphics are a significant upgrade over the previous Tucson. Less obvious at first glance but certainly welcome is the reintroduction of knobs and switchgear for frequently used controls such as audio volume, radio station tuning, and climate control functions.

Jack R. Nerad

Many automakers have succumbed to the allure of incorporating those controls into a touchscreen, as Hyundai did in the previous Tucson. However, I find that when I'm driving, reaching for a knob in its known location is much easier than trying to finger punch an on-screen icon to change the temperature or find that elusive AM radio station.

Another welcome addition is a new dashboard shelf above the glovebox. It isn't deep and is most useful when not underway, but it offers a handy place to put smaller objects. The new gear shifter opens space on the center console for a relocated 15-watt wireless smartphone charging pad close to the multiple USB ports under the climate controls.

Jack Nerad

Helping people make good car-buying decisions is one of my great joys in life. I've always had two passions — cars and writing — and they melded into what has become my life's work. I come by it honestly; an inveterate reader from the first time I saw the written words "See Dick run," I became a fan of car magazines well before I could own a car myself. I learned to drive at 13, bought my first car at 15, and started my career as an auto journalist in my 20s. A bit older now, I still get a thrill from giving others good advice about cars.