The Hyundai Tucson with a plug-in hybrid powertrain isn’t a light vehicle with its weight of around 4,235 pounds (1,921 kilograms). This isn’t surprising, though – a compact SUV that has a combustion engine, an electric motor, and a battery was never meant to be lightweight. But does that fact affect its road behavior? Sure – no one can beat physics, but it’s actually significantly better around the cones in the moose test than we expected.
Before we head to the results from the test filmed in the video at the top of this page, let’s take a quick look at the dry numbers. While relatively heavy, the Tucson PHEV is quite efficient with its fully electric range of 33 miles (53 kilometers) according to the EPA thanks to its 13.8-kilowatt-hour battery pack. The South Korean SUV has an all-wheel drive with a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine and an electric motor for a combined output of 261 horsepower (195 kilowatts) and 258 pound-feet (350 Newton-meters) of torque. A six-speed automatic transmission distributes that power.
