With some exceptions, just about every car, truck, and SUV you can buy today gets a fuel economy rating from the EPA. You can spot the rating on the vehicle's window sticker (also known as a Monroney) at the dealership, or see the manufacturer brag about the rating if it's high enough. It's not a perfect system, but the EPA's fuel economy numbers can help consumers find the vehicle that's right for them by comparing rivals and calculating the cost of ownership. But what if you're interested in looking
for the most-efficient vehicle on the market? Something with class-topping numbers and a bit of space inside to shuttle your friends around?
Excluding purely electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, the highest rated-SUV on sale in the United States right now is the Kia Niro. Even though it looks more like a raised hatchback, the Niro is technically classified as an SUV, and according to the EPA, it will return an average of 53 mpg combined (53 city/54 highway). That's not just good, that's great. With a gas-tank capacity of just 11.1 gallons, the EPA estimates that the Niro can go 588 miles between fill-ups. And the next-closest non-plug-in SUV in terms of fuel economy is the Lexus UX 300h, which offers 43 mpg combined --a far cry from the Niro's 53.
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How The Niro Does So Well
There's a lot that goes into making such an efficient vehicle. The Niro is powered by a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine that's paired with an electric motor. That's relatively small displacement, but the addition of the electric motor means it has average output. Together, the engine and electric motor put out 139 horsepower and 195 lb-ft of torque. While that's certainly not a big set of numbers, it's enough torque to make the Niro relatively peppy in city-driving scenarios.
It's also plenty of power to move around such a small vehicle. And sure, the Niro is called an SUV, but it has a curb weight (depending on the trim level) that's somewhere between 3,071 and 3,247 pounds. That's roughly the same as a Toyota Corolla hatchback, which is to say, it's light. The Niro also has small 16-inch wheels, which help improve fuel economy too (the larger 18-inch wheels drop its rating to 49 mpg combined).
In our review of the 2023 Niro we found it to be practical, equipped with a long list of standard features, and seriously frugal at the pump. It couldn't quite meet its EPA numbers during our test, but the Niro averaged almost 45 mpg, and that was with no extra mind paid to driving with a light foot. There are some drawbacks, like a loud powertrain and no all-wheel drive option, but overall, the Niro is appealing.
Other Top-Ranked Fuel-Sippers
When it comes to SUVs, the Niro outperforms rivals by a significant amount. The Lexus UX mentioned earlier has a 43 mpg combined rating, but only a few other SUVs get anywhere close to that. The Kia Sportage ties it at 43 mpg combined, while the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid is nearby at 42 mpg combined. The Honda CR-V hybrid slips a bit lower, checking in at 40 mpg combined and from there, everything else falls into the 30s and below.
To compete with the Niro, you need to go into other vehicle categories. The Toyota Prius is an efficient and spacious hatchback that we enjoyed in our review, and it has EPA estimates that range between 49 and 57 mpg combined, but it's no SUV. A few other small hybrids do well here too, like the Hyundai Elantra (54 mpg combined) and the Honda Civic (49 mpg combined).
On the other end of the spectrum there are powerful, large, and inefficient models that return the worst fuel economy amongst SUVs, like the Ferrari Purosangue and the Cadillac Escalade-V. According to the EPA, they'd respectively return 12 and 13 mpg combined, making for very frequent and very expensive trips to the pump. To put that in cost terms, the EPA estimates that it would cost about $900 per year to drive the Niro with 15,000 miles being added to the odometer and a mix of 45/55% highway/city driving. Annual fuel cost for the Ferrari? $5,150.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.
