Hyundai Santa Fe review - MPG, running costs & CO2 emissions

The fully-hybrid model can return up to 41.5mpg with two-wheel drive, which isn’t too bad for a car with up to seven seats, but won’t set the world alight either. This figure drops a bit to 38.7mpg on the WLTP cycle for the same powertrain and four-wheel drive, so we’d forgo this unless we lived in a rural area prone to slippery conditions. Emissions from 155g/km also won’t enamour the Santa Fe with company car choosers.

The plug-in hybrid gets a much higher official figure of up to 166mpg, but be aware that in real-world conditions plug-in hybrids are unlikely to achieve these lofty on-paper mpg figures unless you keep the battery charged up frequently and run on electricity for the vast majority of the time. The Santa Fe can travel for up to 38 miles on electricity which could come in useful for shorter trips around town. Regardless, this results in a low 38g/km CO2 figure for taxation that’s easier to swallow for business drivers. It’s worth noting, however, that this is higher than the 9-11g/km of the Kodiaq PHEV, which has double the Santa Fe’s engine-off driving range.

How much does the Hyundai Santa Fe cost to insure?

The Hyundai Santa Fe starts in group 33 for the front-wheel drive Hybrid and moves up to 36 out of 50 for the Plug-in Hybrid model. That means it’s fairly expensive to insure, but no worse than other large SUVs.