2022 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid Plug-In Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The two-row, compact SUV market is scalding hot. With excellent options like the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester, and Mazda CX-5 filling only a corner of the space, there’s significant pressure on a company like Hyundai, which is attempting to capture further market share with a fully redesigned new Tucson.

If it wasn’t obvious based on the new sheet metal, Hyundai is taking a big swing with the 2022 Tucson’s styling. A dramatic grille gives the new Tucson a distinctive face that is unlikely to be confused with any other brand on the road. The grille incorporates the headlights in a way that makes them blend in seamlessly with the overall design until they are illuminated, at which point they flank either side of the Tucson’s face with aggressive blades of light. From a design perspective, the PHEV Tucson is indistinguishable from the gas- and hybrid-powered models, save for its charging port’s door on the passenger side.

On the Tucson’s rear end, you’ll find toothy taillights with a stardust effect in each element. This is a fantastic design cue and betrays the Tucson’s mass-market status. Down either side of the car, sharp creases break up the body panels. Barely ten years ago, the complex stamping patterns necessary to create these body panels wouldn’t have been cost-effective for a vehicle priced in the mid-$30,000 range. Advances in manufacturing have made it cheaper and, thus, possible to add dramatic design language to a mass-market compact crossover. The 2022 Hyundai Tucson PHEV doesn’t take that possibility for granted. Whether or not the dramatic styling will age well is up for debate. Today, at least, the Tucson is a distinctive individual in a sea of conforming crossovers.

We tested a Tucson PHEV in Limited trim, which carries different front and rear fascias and boasts a dark chrome grille and gloss-black pillars. Despite sharing parts with other Hyundai models, the Tucson has an interior design all its own. The flat, button-controlled transmission shifter opens up lots of space between the front seats, and the cabin manages to feel very open and airy despite its relatively compact dimensions. Our Limited-trim vehicle had leather-trimmed upholstery and a leather-wrapped steering wheel; the SEL trim employs cloth seats. Heated front seats come standard on all Tucson PHEV trims, but the Limited also adds heated rear seats.

Interestingly, the Tucson doesn’t have any sort of covering or shade resting over its driver information display. We were pleased to see that this doesn’t result in any glare on the screen, but we did notice that dust gathered on the screen pretty easily.

Hyundai equips the non-hybrid, non-PHEV Tucson with a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine. It makes 187 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque, and it’s not a quick car, taking nearly 10 seconds to make it from zero to 60 miles per hour.

The hybrid Tucson is a fair bit quicker, with 226 horsepower thanks to a powertrain anchored off a more powerful 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. But the PHEV is the most potent of them all. With impressive specs, including a total of 261 horsepower, the PHEV benefits from the combined efforts of the hybrid’s 1.6-liter turbo engine and a 13.8-kWh battery pack.

The battery powers a single electric motor mounted on the front axle rather than the rear. A mechanical all-wheel-drive (AWD) system comes standard, and the Tucson PHEV manages its power with a six-speed automatic transmission rather than a continuously variable transmission, which is common in other hybrid and PHEV crossovers. Thanks to the conventional automatic, the Tucson doesn’t suffer from any “rubber-band effect,” when moving through gears. It’s reasonably sporty, with a well-controlled ride and a terrific suspension tune. The Tucson feels smooth and comfortable without feeling overly soft or floaty. Its standard 19-inch alloy wheels (non-PHEV Tucsons put 17-inch wheels on their lower trims) help keep the Tucson controlled in spirited driving.

It's not a performance SUV by any measure, but it’s better to drive than many cars in its class. Hyundai uses regenerative braking to act as a torque-vectoring system in corners, and various drive modes help drivers dial the Tucson to their liking.

33 miles of EV range is enough for many commuters—particularly those living in urban areas. After the battery has been depleted, the Tucson should return fuel economy of 35 miles per gallon, per the EPA.

However, we noticed in winter testing that the Tucson PHEV’s heater doesn’t run without the engine running. There is no auxiliary, electric heater, so even with a fully charged battery, you’ll need to have the engine running if you want to have heat. This was likely a cost-saving measure, but it means that in a winter climate, the Tucson PHEV effectively won’t be able to drive anywhere on electric power alone. To us, this hugely saps a large part of the car’s value proposition.

Drivers and passengers alike are going to appreciate the 2022 Hyundai Tucson’s comfortable seats. Although there’s about 2 inches less headroom in the PHEV, it still feels spacious and pleasant. In particular, the ergonomics of the seats, armrests, and steering wheel make this a car that is easy to drive over long periods.

In the back, a reclining rear seat lays much further back than we had expected—you can take a pretty good nap in the back of this car. As mentioned earlier, our Limited-trim test vehicle also boasted two-stage heated rear seats.

The trunk is also spacious, albeit a bit less so than the gas- and hybrid-powered Tucsons. 32 cubic feet of cargo space is competitive in the segment, and the total 66 cubic feet available with the rear seat folded is more than you’d get in a Toyota RAV4 Prime.

The Tucson PHEV has a smaller gas tank than the Tucson Hybrid. Given that it delivers a touch worse fuel economy than the standard hybrid once its electric range has been expended, this is a bit of an oversight. You simply won’t be able to go as far on a tank of gas in the PHEV as you would in the regular hybrid.

Hyundai, as with its corporate relatives Kia and Genesis, has built a very strong technology offering in recent years. Crisp displays, stylish icons, and impressive feature sets make the Tucson PHEV’s tech look more impressive than the competition.

A few highlights include the standard 10.25-inch touchscreen display fitted to our Tucson PHEV Limited tester. Although it doesn’t support wireless Apple CarPlay or wireless Android Auto (something the 8-inch display in the SEL trim level does), the wired version of both is included. Further, the wider screen real estate can be used to show a second information panel; swipe through navigation, radio, phone projection, or weather updates on the small display while you keep your main information on the larger portion.

There are, however, a few quirks. Notably, the Tucson uses only touch-sensitive buttons for navigating the infotainment and adjusting the climate control. Paired with piano black plastic housing, these are hard to see in direct sunlight and a pain to use, regardless of the sun. Also, many of the more compelling features, like dynamic voice recognition, traffic data, and the Bose premium audio system are only available on the much more expensive Limited trim.

Hyundai includes plenty of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) as standard equipment. Included in the list are automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, cyclist detection, and junction-turning detection, which identifies cars turning across your path in an intersection, braking the Tucson if necessary. Blind-spot warning and collision avoidance are also standard, as is a driver attention warning, lane-keeping assist, lane-tracing assist, adaptive cruise control, rear cross-traffic alert, and safe exit warning—the latter being a handy system designed to alert you if there’s an upcoming car or cyclist before you open your car’s door.

Hyundai’s Highway Driving Assist, a semi-hands-free driving assistance system, is standard on the Limited trim but not available on the SEL. Likewise, the blind-view monitor is only available if you pay for the higher trim level. We’re particularly fond of the blind-view monitor, which shows the respective blind spot in your gauge cluster when you hit the turn-signal stalk, and we wish it was standard equipment across all trims. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not rated the PHEV, but the Tucson Hybrid received five out of five stars in overall crash testing. Similarly, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) awarded the 2022 Tucson a Top Safety Pick+ award.