How does the 2025 Ram 1500 Hurricane real-world MPG compare to the outgoing Hemi? It depends.
I recently had the 2025 Ram 1500 with the new standard output 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged inline-6 Hurricane engine for a week of testing. This new powertrain replaces the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 in the light-duty trucks.
[Related content: First time with 2025 Ram 1500 towing! Is Hurricane any good?]
2025 Ram 1500 Hurricane real-world MPG
During the week, I had to make a 180-mile drive to the Denver International Airport to catch a flight to South Carolina. This drive took me through the western part of Nebraska, through Cheyenne, Wyoming, and into Colorado.
This drive is nearly all highway with speeds around 75 mph.
It also includes a significant change in elevation starting at roughly 4,000 feet up to 6,000 feet then down to 5,000 feet. Also, it is often, like it was that day, into a westerly breeze. This combination of factors is a recipe for poor fuel economy, and the 2025 Ram 1500 showed it with 17.2 MPG readout once I got into Cheyenne.
However, turning south out of Cheyenne, going down hill and away from the wind, the truck quickly improved reaching up to 19.5 MPG by the time I got to the airport.
Interestingly, the truck showed 21.5 MPG for nearly the same trip when they delivered the truck to me coming up from Denver to my house. Basically reversing my drive.
Not meeting EPA?
According to the EPA estimates the truck should return 17/24/19 MPG city/highway/combined fuel economy. Clearly, I’m well short of that number for this drive.
Why am I not even close? Mostly physics and geography.
It has been my experience that naturally aspirated engines, like the Hemi V-8, return about the same fuel economy no matter how you drive them. For example, doing the same drive with the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 and I’ve gotten the EPA highway number.
With the smaller displacement, turbocharged and higher compression engines like the Hurricane, the fuel economy numbers vary greatly. These new engines simply have to work harder in certain driving conditions to move the same amount of weight. Driving up hill, into the wind and at fast speed? It’s just a killer.
I would bet money if I drove from my house east and downhill at 70 MPH, I’d get the EPA number all day.
How does it drive?
Looking past fuel economy, the new 2025 Ram 1500 is a blast to drive in the standard output version putting out 420 horsepower and 469 pound-feet of torque. It is smoother and feels powerful behind the wheel.
It is also much faster than the outgoing Hemi V-8 as I showed in a video where I did a 0-60 test with the outgoing model. My friend’s 2016 Ram 1500 just couldn’t keep up, and that’s with me spinning my tires at the start.
Also, towing with this engine is going to be even better as I showed in past towing tests with comparing a hybrid, a V-8, a turbocharged engine and the 3.0-liter Duramax diesel.
The exhaust note might not have the same rumble sound, but the performance of the Hurricane is really impressive.
The bottom line
The reality is simple. Where you drive, how fast you drive, if you drive aggressive or cautious, all will have a sizable impact on fuel economy. This impact is simply greater in the new turbocharged engines.
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