Reimagined Santa Fe seven-seat SUV to arrive in Australia later this year.
Hyundai has revealed a heavily facelifted Santa Fe ahead of its arrival in Australia later this year.
The new-look model continues to be based on the current-generation seven-seat SUV, but it brings new tech and redesigned exterior and interior styling.
Upfront is an obvious change, with the new stereoscopic 3D mesh grille running the full width of the nose. It’s a complete change for the Santa Fe and from BMW’s new 4 Series grille – also unveiled today – which went tall rather than wide.
The LED headlights also now feature a ‘T’ shape design running down to the bottom of the grille insert, the design somewhat reminiscent of Volvo’s Thor’s hammer design. Around back, the LED taillight arrays on each flank are connected by a full-width running LED bar, such as you’d find on some premium Euro SUVs from the likes of Audi. For the model shown here, it rides on large 20-inch alloy wheels.
Moving inside, the interior isn’t immediately different when looking above the beltline, with the dash top and steering wheel carrying on much the same aesthetic, though a new, buttonless 10.25-inch infotainment display sits on top, surrounded by soft-touch materials.
However, below that, things are much different. Hyundai introduces a new wide centre console that creates the feeling of more room between the front pews. It is filled with buttons and dials, one of which replaces the old gearshift stick with a rotary selector that’s much more contemporary.
The seat trims also look to have been revised, and there’s now a Terrain Mode selector that never existed before in the Santa Fe.
For Australia, specifications are yet to be announced. But we can expect the 2.2-litre diesel turbo and more powerful 3.5-litre V6 petrol engines (the latter a relatively new addition) to carry on. We might also see hybrid power in the Australian-spec Santa Fe for the first time, with both a hybrid and plug-in hybrid on the list of options, the plug-in generating a total output of 195kW.
The new MY21 Santa Fe is expected to arrive in Australia later this year.
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Expect the diesel variant locally to require AdBlue. We are now expected to get the same Euro 6 compliant oiler as Europe. The current R series diesel locally is only Euro 5.