Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid 2025 Review

The short answer is $59,600 plus on-road costs, making the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid a $60,000-plus proposition once a few accessories like a dash mat, floor mats or a cargo liner are thrown in.

That might not sound too bad given the vast array of creature comforts you’ll be getting (see below), but factor in the state-specific on-road costs and you could be staring down the barrel of $70,000 drive away depending on your accessories or optional extras.

Items like roof racks, seat covers and tow bars etc can quickly add up…

Headlining the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid’s spec sheet are heated and ventilated front seats with power-adjustment, heated rear outboard seats, leather upholstery, a panoramic roof with opening front, dual-zone climate control, a heated steering wheel, 19-inch alloy wheels and projector LED headlights.

Other more subtle inclusions comprise rear privacy glass, ambient mood lighting, express windows front and rear, alloy scuff plates, a space-saver spare wheel, memory function for the driver’s seat and a powered tailgate.

As you might expect from an industry giant like Hyundai, there are dozens upon dozens of genuine accessories and optional extras available across the Tucson portfolio, all of which are applicable to the Premium Hybrid.

All the usual suspects like floor mats, dash mats, cargo liners, scuff plates, cargo organisers, tow bar ($1441), roof racks (from $488) etc are included alongside some more niche offerings like an awning ($372), electronic brake controller ($785), locking wheel nuts ($141) and black alloy wheels (from $396 each).

Metallic paint will cost an extra $595 while the sporty N-Line treatment will add another $1500 to the equation.

All Tucson Hybrids are covered by a par-for-the-course five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, although the 10,000km/12-monthly service intervals lag the 15,000km intervals of the Toyota RAV4 and closely related Kia Sportage Hybrid.

The first five services will cost between $340 and $560 each, depending on the interval.

The 2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid, like all current Tucsons, carries a five-star ANCAP safety rating that dates back to 2021.

While the Australian hybrids didn’t arrive until the mid-life facelift in 2024, the electrified powertrain has been on sale in Europe since 2021 and was therefore tested previously by Euro NCAP, allowing its top rating to transfer across to our market.

And it’s little wonder too, given the amount of acronyms listed in the brochure – we might fill up the internet if we listed every single one of them, but the headline inclusions comprise forward collision-avoidance assist (FCA), multi collision-avoidance brake (MCAB), intelligent speed limit assist (ISLA), rear cross-traffic collision-avoidance assist (RCCA), safe exit warning (SEW), brake assist system (BAS), crosswind stability control (CSC) and blind-spot collision-avoidance assist (BCA).

If skid comes to crunch, every 2025 Tucson is fitted with seven airbags in total, comprising two frontal, two side (front), two curtain and one centre (front).

Modern vehicles are going big on screens and the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid is no different, coming with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and matching 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen housed behind the same panoramic piece of glass.

A coloured head-up display adds to the tech-heavy cabin, as does the wireless charging pad, wireless smartphone mirroring, native sat-nav with live traffic updates, blind-spot view monitor, 360-degree camera, connected services and a pumping eight-speaker Bose sound system.

All of the interfaces are crisp, quick to respond and intuitive to use, both when stationary and on the fly.

What powers the Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid?

Under the bonnet of the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid you’ll find a 1.6-litre turbo-petrol-electric hybrid system producing a combined 172kW/367Nm that drives all four wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission.

The singular electric motor is sustained by a 1.49kWh lithium-ion battery pack which, in our experience, can deliver more than a kilometre of zero-emission driving at a time.

Unlike some other small-capacity powertrains, the Tucson Premium Hybrid happily accepts 91 RON fuel and only loses two litres of fuel capacity compared to the petrol variants (52L versus 54L), albeit at the cost of a full-sized spare – Hybrids get a space saver.

Hyundai Australia claims its premier medium SUV will sip 5.3 litres of fuel per 100km on the combined cycle, although the figure we returned during our time with the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid was more in the realm of 6.2L/100km.

That’s by no means anything to scoff at and quite reasonable for an all-wheel drive family hauler, though it should be noted only about 30 per cent of our seat time was spent in stop-start traffic, the environment in which hybrids typically thrive.

And that fact is reflected on the spec sheet, where Hyundai lists an ‘extra urban’ fuel consumption claim of 6.5L/100km, so we’re well and truly in the ballpark.

By now we’ve all largely come to expect big things from Hyundai, a brand that doesn’t have a single poor vehicle in its line-up.

The current-generation Tucson already has a great reputation as one of the best mainstream medium SUVs on the market, and the latest Premium Hybrid reinforces that notion.

I was a vocal sceptic of Hyundai’s move to replace the brilliant 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine with this new hybrid set-up, but I’m not afraid to put my hat-in-hand and admit I was wrong – the 1.6-litre hybrid is a worthy successor to the lauded oil burner.

The system is quiet, smooth and deceptively punchy, so much so unassuming warm hatch drivers could be left blushing if they’re not on their game.

More importantly though, the switch between petrol and electric power is intelligent and subtle, with the motor not shying away from doing the hard yards, even at freeway speeds.

The six-speed automatic transmission is equally polished in being both smooth and casual around town but quick to kick down when required.

In the urban jungle the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid Premium is comfortable and quiet, with compliant suspension that does well in ironing out a wide range of lumps and bumps, with the same also true on the open road. This is certainly a comfortable car.

The trade-off is a little more body roll than we’d like when tackling some spirited corners, but the steering is accurate and the suspension doesn’t get tied up by mid-corner bumps – you just can’t hook in quite as hard as in, say, a Sportage Hybrid.

Visibility is good, especially out front thanks to the commanding driving position, while the brake pedal is supportive and consistent in its action.

Perhaps the biggest blemish on the Tucson Premium Hybrid’s score card is the continued tyranny of its driver assists, specifically the speed limit information and lane-keeping systems.

The former still bongs mercilessly if you stray over the posted speed limit by even 1km/h – though it can finally be silenced with a long hold of the mute button – while the latter has a tendency to intervene halfway through or at the exit of intersections, spontaneously grabbing at the wheel to either get us closer or further away from the kerb for no obvious reason.

Thankfully it can be turned off via the steering wheel, but the entire Hyundai Motor Group needs to work on the sensitivity and finesse of its lane-keeping systems, which have been criticised for years now.

Gifted with all-wheel drive by default, the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid can indeed go off-road… to a degree, albeit nowhere near as far as a dedicated off-roader like the GWM Tank 300 or Suzuki Jimny.

Keep to well-maintained, mild fire trails and you’ll be able to explore the great outdoors to your heart’s content thanks to the comfortable suspension, acceptable ground clearance and handy terrain modes that alter the throttle, powertrain and traction control depending on the conditions.

‘Bougie’ is the term that immediately springs to mind when you clock the panoramic cockpit, black leather upholstery, haptic climate control panel, ‘floating’ centre console and glass roof.

The next thing that’s apparent about the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid’s cabin is the abundance of space on offer, especially in the front row.

The multi-level centre console is huge, and you’ll fit plenty in the door bins, not to mention the handy shelf on the dash in front of the passenger, above the glovebox.

All of the major touchpoints feel decent and of reasonable quality save perhaps for the fitment of some steering wheel controls, but they’re entirely acceptable, easy to locate and highly functional.

There’s plenty of legroom in the second row – though the panoramic roof does eat into the headroom of the vertically-gifted or long-of-torso – with a healthy amount of adjustability to the 60:40 split-folding backrest, behind which you’ll find a wide and usable boot space.

If you’re in the market for a highly specified medium SUV without straying into the premium market, the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid is a very compelling option you should consider, even if you don’t specifically want a hybrid.

The electrified powertrain is the pick of the bunch in terms of performance, refinement and fuel efficiency while the reworked interior is fantastic and even more useable than before.

Pair these attributes with the comfortable ride and loaded spec sheet and you’re left with one of the best and most well-rounded medium SUVs on the market, and one we’d happily recommend to just about anyone with the right budget.

For those out there with sporting tastes, the optional N-Line package adds suede upholstery, red stitching, a sports body kit and sexier alloys for an extra $1500 – cash this author would cough up in a heartbeat for the even more svelte interior and better looks.

2025 Hyundai Tucson Premium Hybrid at a glance:
Price: $59,600 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol-electric
Output: 132kW/264Nm (electric motor: 37kW/264Nm)
Combined output: 172kW/367Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 5.3L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 121g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2021)

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