Question of the week: Why am I getting below the official fuel economy figures?
Fri, 14 Nov 2025
Dear Honest John,
"I purchased a brand new Hyundai Tucson Ultimate and I am generally happy with all the toys. But a big disappointment is the fuel economy. I did take a test drive and thought the economy of the drive was due to the 'around town ' symptom.
I have had the car three months now and driven 190 miles four times on motorways and with cruise control and not going much over 1500/1700 revs with a fairly smooth and soft right foot. My average mpg for all those trips has not got over 36 and considering my car is a hybrid I would have expected low to mid forties at least,
I bought through a broker and contacted him about this and he advised that this has come up several times with the Tucson and the official line is the mpg does not really improve until around 15,000 miles. I didn't think you still had to run in cars to that extent to get the best out of them. Am I missing something or is this a general view on Korean cars and Hyundai in particular?"
- TH
Dear TH,
You can see what MPG other owners of this car have achieved in our Real MPG guide here. Hyundai Tucson Hybrid owners achieve an average of 46.4mpg, which is 93% of the official claimed fuel consumption.
It is important to consider that the official MPG figure is derived from the WLTP test, which incorporates a mix of driving conditions and speeds. Hybrids also operate at their best in mixed driving conditions, as on motorways the speeds are typically too high for the electric motor alone to power the car.
Slower speeds and traffic, where braking will charge the battery and acceleration from lower speeds creates the opportunity for the electric motor to operate, which of course uses no petrol. Extending your braking distances in order to maximise regeneration and minimise the amount of work the actual brakes perform will also help to boost economy.
It's also worth considering that it may be a matter of the trip computer is not as accurate as you might assume. For a true economy figure the tried and tested method is to brim the fuel tank, reset the trip computer and drive as you normally would for a period before brimming the tank again and noting the mileage.
By taking the fuel used in between fill ups and the distance travelled you can calculate a more precise miles per gallon.
Some Hyundai Tucson owners have also noted the units on their trip computer was set to US gallons - changing to imperial gallons should provide a more accurate figure.
