Which Toyota SUV Has the Best Gas Mileage?
The Toyota bZ4X is the most fuel-efficient Toyota SUV as the automaker’s only electric vehicle currently on the market. Learn more here!
Written by Cameron Thiessen
Reviewed by Jessica Barrett
The 2023 Toyota bZ4X is the most fuel-efficient Toyota vehicle you can buy since it’s powered entirely by electricity instead of gasoline.
Before the release of the bZ4X, the most fuel-efficient Toyota SUV was the RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid. As gas continues to get more expensive every year and environmental concerns continue to increase pressure for transportation to become more electrified, fuel-efficient vehicles that use little-to-no gasoline are in high demand.
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is here with an easy guide if you’re looking to reduce your gas consumption with a fuel-efficient Toyota SUV. We’ll look at the automaker’s most efficient offerings, including electric, hybrid, and fuel-sipping gas-powered options. We’ll even show you how to optimize your Toyota insurance costs
to save even more money in the long run!
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Which Toyota SUVs have the best gas mileage/fuel economy?
The top three Toyota SUVs for gas mileage and fuel economy are the Toyota bZ4X electric vehicle, the Toyota RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid, and the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Here are the EPA ratings for all three:
- 2023 Toyota bZ4X EV: up to 119 MPGe combined
- 2022 Toyota RAV4 Prime: up to 94 MPGe combined
- 2022 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid: up to 40 mpg combined,
However, there are a lot of variables at play if you analyze the fuel economies of these vehicles in more depth—let’s take a look!
2023 Toyota bZ4X
The all-new 2023 Toyota bZ4X is based on a RAV4 compact SUV/crossover platform. It’s the only fully-electric vehicle that the Japanese automaker currently offers, although the Toyota Tacoma Electric and Toyota Compact Cruiser battery electric vehicles (BEV) are slated to appear in the 2024 model year.
The bZ4X is available with a single-motor front-wheel drive (FWD) or a dual-motor all-wheel drive (AWD) powertrain. The XLE FWD trim gets the best range—rated for up to 252 miles on a single charge. The Limited FWD trim gets 242 miles, followed by the XLE AWD with 228 miles, and lastly the Limited AWD with 222 miles.
The bZ4X XLE FWD also gets the best equivalent (MPGe) of 131 miles per gallon in the city and 107 MPGe on the highway. The Limited trim comes with larger 20-inch alloy wheels, resulting in a reduced 125 MPGe in the city and 103 MPGeon the highway. If you’re committed to driving an AWD SUV, you’ll get 114/94 MPGe(city/highway) with the bZ4X XLE and 112/92 MPGe on the bZ4X Limited.
Pricing for the 2023 Toyota bZ4X starts at $43,335, and AWD drive adds another $2,080. However, the bZ4X is eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit as well as some state incentives, depending on where you live. It also comes with a free year of unlimited charging at EVgo charging stations.
The bZ4X’s top competitor is likely to be the 2023 Kia Niro EV. It starts at a more affordable $40,745, but it’s only available with FWD. It gets 126/101 MPGe and a 253-mile range, certainly placing it in league with the bZ4X’s specs.
2022 Toyota RAV4 Prime PHEV
If you’re not ready to commit to an all-electric SUV, then the 2022 Toyota RAV4 Primeplug-in hybrid is your next best bet. It offers many of the benefits of an electric vehicle while still allowing you to power it with gasoline.
Operating solely on electric power, the RAV4 Prime PHEV can drive up to 42 miles with an efficiency rating of 94 MPGe. Switch it into regular hybrid mode, and you can drive up to 600 miles on a full battery tank, getting 38 mpg combined.
The RAV4 Prime has a slightly lower starting price than the bZ4X, but it’s still eligible for some federal electric-vehicle tax credit. Without applying this incentive, the starting price for a RAV4 Prime SE is $41,635.
The Ford Escape SE Plug-In Hybrid may be a more affordable alternative, starting at $36,930. It gets 105 MPGe in EV mode, but only 37 miles of EV range. In regular hybrid mode, it gets 40 mpg and has a range of 520 miles. The Escape PHEV’s better price and fuel economy prove to be stark competition against the RAV4 Prime.
2022 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid
Alternatively, there’s the regular Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, which runs on a traditional hybrid system like the one in a standard Toyota Prius. Its EPA-rated gas mileage is 41 mpg in the city, 38 mpg on the highway, and 40 mpg combined. The EPA estimates a range of 580 miles with a full tank of gas.
While the traditional RAV4 Hybrid won’t be eligible for any tax incentives, it has a much lower starting price than the previously mentioned models. An entry-level RAV4 Hybrid LE starts at only $30,910—about $3,000 cheaper than a RAV4 Prime SE once the federal tax incentive is applied.
The 2023 Kia Sportage Hybrid proves to be an affordable alternative to the RAV4 Hybrid, but only if you don’t add AWD. It has a more attractive starting price of $28,585 with a standard FWD powertrain that gets 42 mpg in the city and 44 mpg on the highway. AWD adds $1,800 to the price and reduces both city and highway fuel economy to 38 mpg.
2023 Toyota Venza
The 2023 Toyota Venza midsize SUV is only offered as a hybrid, sporting the same AWD powertrain as the 2022 RAV4 Hybrid. It gets 40 mpg in the city and 37 mpg on the highway, making it only slightly less efficient than the RAV4 Hybrid. The Venza’s increased size classification places it at a higher price point, starting at $34,930.
The one drawback of the Venza is its lack of third-row seating. If you can stomach a slightly higher starting price to the tune of $37,885, we’d recommend the 2023 Kia Sorento Hybrid as a fair three-row alternative to the Toyota Venza. With standard FWD, its gas mileage is 39 city/35 hwy mpg, but AWD cuts this down to 36 city/33 hwy mpg.
Most fuel-efficient non-hybrid Toyota SUVs
Unfortunately, the main drawback to buying a hybrid SUV is price. Hybrid powertrains are more expensive to produce, giving hybrid vehicles higher price tags and long-term costs of ownership than their fully gas-powered equivalents.
The most fuel-efficient non-hybrid Toyota SUV is the all-new 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross. It's a small SUV crossover—a size down from the RAV4—and starts at only $23,780. It gets 31 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway with FWD or 39/32 mpg with AWD.
Another fuel-efficient option in Toyota’s non-hybrid SUV offerings is the 2022 Toyota C-HR subcompact SUV, with a starting price of $25,615 and a fuel economy rating of 27 city/31 hwy mpg.
However, we’d be quicker to recommend the 2022 Hyundai Kona if you’re looking for a non-hybrid SUV with good gas mileage. It starts at $22,595, and its standard four-cylinder engine gets 30/35 mpg with FWD or 28/33 mpg with AWD.
MORE:
Toyota AWD cars
Toyota SUV fuel economies by model
If you’re wondering about some of the larger, less-efficient Toyota SUVs, you can refer to this table to compare mileages—and click for tips to getting affordable car insurance for each model!
Model | City mpg | Highway mpg | Combined | Hybrid MPGe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 Toyota bZ4X | N/A | N/A | N/A | 119 |
N/A | N/A | 38 | 94 | |
41 | 38 | 40 | N/A | |
40 | 37 | 39 | N/A | |
36 | 35 | 36 | N/A | |
2022 Toyota Highlander Hybrid AWD | 35 | 35 | 35 | N/A |
16 | 19 | 17 | N/A | |
31 | 33 | 32 | N/A | |
13 | 17 | 15 | N/A | |
27 | 31 | 29 | N/A |
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How to save on Toyota SUV insurance costs
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FAQs
Which Toyota gets the worst gas mileage?
The 2022 Toyota Sequoia full-size SUV gets the worst gas mileage out of Toyota’s lineup, with only 13 mpg in the city and 17 mpg on the highway.
What is the best SUV for gas mileage?
The most efficient SUV is the all-electric Tesla Model Y Long Range, which gets 129 MPGe in the city, 116 MPGe on the highway, and 122 MPGe combined. If we’re strictly talking about gas-dependent powertrains, the best SUV for gas mileage is the new Ford Escape Hybrid, which gets 41 combined mpg, beating the RAV4 Hybrid by just 1 mpg.
