2025 Hyundai Tucson First Drive: Good Vibes and Useful Tech Upgrades
The refreshed compact SUV has an airier, less confusing first row and an angrier face.
Hyundai got the broad strokes right for this generation of Tucson compact SUV, but a handful of issues hold it back from performing better in our rankings. (That version currently sits 8th out of 14 as this is written.) Its spacious cabin and good features-per-dollar value have been generally lauded, and its exterior styling is somewhat outgoing for the segment. User interfaces and vehicle dynamics were the primary areas we thought needed attention.
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For 2025, Hyundai’s refreshed crossover tries to strike a few items from the list of things to improve. In addition to a handful of exterior tweaks, it gains a reconfigured dash and center console and several new tech features, some of them standard equipment.
A lot rides on a successful Tucson compact SUV. It isn’t simply Hyundai’s bestselling model. It also happens to take the fight directly to Honda and Toyota. On the same time Hyundai introduced a cool, new variant of the Ioniq 5 electric crossover, it also offered media drives with the updated 2025 Tucson, Tucson Hybrid, and Tucson Plug-In Hybrid. We got seat time in all three.
Kona Vibes
If the front row changes look familiar, it’s because the Tucson’s insides now echo what Hyundai gave the Kona for its 2024 update (which looks like a variant of the Ioniq 5’s cabin). The most obvious similarities are the new steering wheel and stretched housing for the cabin’s screens, seemingly plucked straight from the smaller crossover.
The newly standard curved display incorporates a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen, a huge improvement. Not only is it bigger than the previous standard 8.0-inch and upgrade 10.3-inch screens, but operating system improvements are said to make it run more smoothly and quickly, and we saw nothing to contradict that.
Options for the driver display include an available 12.3-inch screen or standard speedometer and tachometer with 4.2-inch multi-information readout. The upgrade screen is also a couple inches bigger than what the Tucson had before, and we found it as vibrant and engaging as the infotainment interface. Due to the new displays and their orientation higher on the dash, the front AC vents have been pushed lower and now sit below the screens.
The Tucson’s previous distinctive four-spoke steering wheel has been replaced with a more conventional three-spoke design like the wheels in the smaller Hyundais. Haptic driver-assist feedback carries over to the new unit.
The front passenger now gets their own shelf in the dash, wide and deep enough for multiple phones. Changes to the Tucson’s dash styling spill over onto the inner doors, as well, which now come without the horizontal accent line that used to stretch across the top.
Interface Rethink
For as appreciative as we are about the new dash layout, we expect that more than a few Tucson shoppers will be doubly grateful for the revised center console, especially on models with shift-by-wire transmissions like hybrid and PHEV models. Those Hyundais receive an elegant two-tiered solution, with relocated wireless phone charger, cupholders, additional controls, and a little bit of covered storage on top, while underneath there’s more space.
Previously, these Tucsons came with buttons on the center console to select which gear you wanted (a setup we weren’t especially keen on), but for 2025 the shifter becomes a steering column stalk. Like other models with this updated arrangement, it feels like it opens room in the front row. Non-shift-by-wire models like the gas Tucson XRT get a center console that sort of splits the difference, staying mostly the same as before but replacing the shift buttons with an old-fashioned lever.
The HVAC touch controls and small display that used to sit under the central touchscreen have been swapped for a design without the digital display. New knobs replace capacitive buttons for raising or lowering interior temps, as well as adjusting the stereo’s volume and station tuning. This panel also features more precise temperature control for the steering wheel and rear heated seats. All of this is good news, as these were pain points before.
New standard technology on all trims includes pushbutton start, over-the-air updates, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Hyundai also says the front USB-C ports are improved. The available 12.0-inch color head-up display we saw operated well even in bright sunlight, and soon users will be able to pay for an array of services through the Tucson’s Hyundai Pay app. For now, paying for parking is all that's available.
Hybrid and PHEV Drivability Upgrade
We’ve already had a good look at the 2025 Tucson and its more aggressively furrowed face. Employing a “kinetic dynamism” theme, designers went with fewer but bigger and wider headlight chiclets. The front intakes and daytime running lights are more defined, and the entire front bumper has been restyled to look thicker and better complement the new grille.
There are no big powertrain changes for the Tucson refresh, but there are some small ones. Improved electric motors in the hybrid and plug-in hybrid mean small gains in horsepower. The 2025 Tucson Hybrid now makes 231 hp, an increase of 5, while the 2025 PHEV makes 268 hp, 7 more than before. Torque remains unchanged in both models.
It was hard to gauge what impact, if any, the new output means for driving the compact SUV. The hybrids we drove were exceedingly familiar, offering a good ride and handling balance and enough grunt for daily driving. Steering remained direct and brakes felt natural. The refreshed Tucson is by no means sporty, and is still probably not as quick as rivals, but as before it does seem ideally suited for a more prosaic existence.
Hybrids gain driver-adjustable levels of regenerative braking this year, which could mean improved efficiency. A slew of driver assists is standard, too, features that aren’t offered on the CR-V or RAV4 base models, like blind-spot monitoring, automatic high beams, and adaptive cruise control. Among those features is the new Forward Attention Warning driver attention monitor.
Updated Trim Walk, Pricing
Prices mostly go up for the 2025 Tucson compared to last year’s models. Its destination charge increases $20 to $1,395, and the SE FWD and AWD gas base models start $875 higher than they did for 2024, at $29,750 and $31,250.
Combustion SEL prices go up $585, and Hyundai adds a new SEL Convenience trim to the gas lineup above SEL and below XRT. It comes with LED taillights, H-Tex upholstery, the bigger gauge cluster screen, a power sunroof, and more. SEL Convenience and XRT models cost the same: $34,060 for the FWD and $35,560 for the AWD. Curiously, XRTs start $1,640 less than they did last year.
Not surprisingly, Limited top models of each powertrain increase the most in MSRP. Tucson Limited gas models go up $1,555 to $39,690 for the FWD and to $41,190 for the AWD. Tucson Hybrid Limited models start at $42,340, an increase of $1,250. This year’s biggest jump in price goes to the Tucson Plug-In Hybrid, which comes with a $48,485 sticker, $1,660 more than last year’s version. Combustion-only models are already on sale, with the hybrid versions landing at dealerships before the end of summer.
My dad was a do-it-yourselfer, which is where my interest in cars began. To save money, he used to service his own vehicles, and I often got sent to the garage to hold a flashlight or fetch a tool for him while he was on his back under a car. Those formative experiences activated and fostered a curiosity in Japanese automobiles because that’s all my Mexican immigrant folks owned then. For as far back as I can remember, my family always had Hondas and Toyotas. There was a Mazda and a Subaru in there, too, a Datsun as well. My dad loved their fuel efficiency and build quality, so that’s how he spent and still chooses to spend his vehicle budget. Then, like a lot of young men in Southern California, fast modified cars entered the picture in my late teens and early 20s. Back then my best bud and I occasionally got into inadvisable high-speed shenanigans in his Honda. Coincidentally, that same dear friend got me my first job in publishing, where I wrote and copy edited for action sports lifestyle magazines. It was my first “real job” post college, and it gave me the experience to move just a couple years later to Auto Sound & Security magazine, my first gig in the car enthusiast space. From there, I was extremely fortunate to land staff positions at some highly regarded tuner media brands: Honda Tuning, UrbanRacer.com, and Super Street. I see myself as a Honda guy, and that’s mostly what I’ve owned, though not that many—I’ve had one each Civic, Accord, and, currently, an Acura RSX Type S. I also had a fourth-gen Toyota pickup when I met my wife, with its bulletproof single-cam 22R inline-four, way before the brand started calling its trucks Tacoma and Tundra. I’m seriously in lust with the motorsport of drifting, partly because it reminds me of my boarding and BMX days, partly because it’s uncorked vehicle performance, and partly because it has Japanese roots. I’ve never been much of a car modifier, but my DC5 is lowered, has a few bolt-ons, and the ECU is re-flashed. I love being behind the wheel of most vehicles, whether that’s road tripping or circuit flogging, although a lifetime exposed to traffic in the greater L.A. area has dulled that passion some. And unlike my dear ol’ dad, I am not a DIYer, because frankly I break everything I touch.
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