Design Hyundai Sonata hybrid

Design Hyundai Sonata hybrid

Despite what you might have heard, not every U.S. government agency is big enough to insert itself into every aspect of our lives. Witness the EPA, which does not test every make, model, and engine combination for which it publishes ratings.

Instead, it sets up procedures and guidelines for automakers to certify that their cars meet emissions regulations and achieve certain fuel-economy results. It’s kind of an honor system, but the EPA does test 15 to 20 percent of new models (as of our 2009 visit to its Ann Arbor labs) and performs occasional spot checks, and that’s how Hyundai and Kia recently were caught fluffing the mpg estimates on a large number of their models.

Engine Hyundai Sonata hybrid

The first “rebooted” model to surface is the 2013 Sonata hybrid, which saves some corporate face with its official 40-mpg EPA highway estimate.

Our band of enthusiastic drivers achieved 33 mpg piloting the 2013 Sonata hybrid in mixed driving, but that was a worthy improvement over the 27-mpg average we saw in our test of a 2011 model.

The updates for the 2013 model are significant. Hyundai installed a lithium-polymer battery that’s 38 percent larger and more energy dense than before.

The hybrid control system was reprogrammed to allow it to dip deeper into the battery’s charge before switching over to the gas engine, thereby spending more time in HEV electric-only mode.