2026 Hyundai Palisade Hybrid Review | Top Of Its Class?

We’ve waited a long time for this, but here it is. The Hyundai Palisade Hybrid in Australia in production trim, but is it in the box seat if you’re looking for a lux three row hybrid? This is our first opportunity to drive it on Australian roads. So, let’s get into it. The basics first. Pricing has been released for the Palisade, which for the time being at least comes solely as a topsp spec calligraphy hybrid. It’s about where we expected it to land. The 89,900 plus onroads, sitting it nicely between the Santa Fe hybrid calligraphy below and the electric Ionic 9 flagship above. In standard guys, it seats eight, but pay an extra $1,000 for the optional second row captain’s chairs, and it’s a sevenseater. Power comes from a $2.5 L turbocharged 4-cylinder petrol engine, good for 245 kW with 460 new m of torque. The hybrid system is new and features a pair of electric motors between the engine and the six-speed dual clutch automatic transmission. Between these two E motors is a clutch pack, which without diving too far into the technical weeds, allows the hybrid system to operate in a number of different modes. To simplify it as much as possible, one of the motors is chiefly engaged in energy regeneration, while the other largely drives the wheels, both feeding off a compact 1.6 kWh battery pack. It also has a few other tricks up its sleeve, which we’ll come to later. At the risk of stating the obvious, this is a very big car. It measures over 5 m from front to back. So, make sure that that one fits in your garage. And Hyundai have taken a few measures to minimize the visual bulk of the car. As a result, Palis features this sweeping tapered boat-like back, which is quite elegant. It’s got these massive 21-in wheels and tires. This is kind of reminiscent of a Range Rover Sport, don’t you think? Um, and the bright work at the top and the bottom is another clever little trick that disguises the visual bulk of the car. Yes, this is a four-wheel drive SUV, but ground clearance is only 187 mm, so don’t go too far off the beaten track. I like this uh stacked LED light cluster. It’s distinctive and fresh. And there was previously a full width LED much like you got on the Kona, but unfortunately that the big one due to encap crash restrictions. Hyundai claims that the interior designing of the Palisade is inspired by high-end furniture and it all feels pretty she-y in here. Although this optional pale gray Nappa leather would probably be described as a bold choice if you’ve got small children. The two 12.3 in displays are a familiar home day thing to many of us now. But this is so packed with kit I’d probably be here all day if I tried to go through all of it. Just a few of the highlights for you. There’s a big 12in head-up display up here. Stacks of storage. USBC’s everywhere in all three rows. Double sunroofs. And these really interesting and thoughtful features like the UVC sterilization glove box with a tray above it. And the hybrid drive system also brings some very very clever features such as vehicle to load. You can plug your appliances into this one and you can even do a stay feature where you can program into the satnav that you’re going to be driving somewhere and it will charge the vehicle’s battery ahead of that so that when you arrive to work in the car or something like that, you’ll always have a full battery to work with. The Palisad is one of the very few three row vehicles where adults could conceivably sit comfortably in each row. This differentiates it from the Santa Fe, where the third row is a little bit of a squeeze. What’s more, Hyundai has equipped each row with a stack of equipment. The second and third row outer seats are heated, while the outer second row seats are also ventilated. There are USBC outlets and cup holders for each row. And with Trizzone climate control, rear occupants get to set their own temperature. The rearmost row also slides and recines, so even I can get pretty comfortable in the back. The luggage bay is bigger than the outgoing Palis too with 300 L behind the third row, 712 L with the third row folded. You can not only motor the seats up and down from the luggage bay, but you can even slide the third row electrically, which is a neat touch. Rather refreshingly, there’s also a full-size underslung spare wheel and tire. Towing is limited to 2,000 kgs with a brake trailer. Something to bear in mind if you’re migrating from a heavyduty diesel. Because Hyundai has fitted so much equipment to the calligraphy version of this Palisade, there’s not a whole lot left for the options list. We’ve already covered the captain’s chairs, but other than that, you’ll pay $750 for any of the seven paint finishes that isn’t white and $295 for one of the three interior colorways that isn’t black leather. And that’s it. The overriding impression you get in the Palisade is one of refinement. Hyundai have put a lot of effort into cutting noise, vibration, and harshness in the cabin with thicker carpets and more insulation on the firewall. It’s not one of those hybrids where you can never hear the engine when it cuts back in, but when it does, it’s quite a refined thing. It’s certainly a lot less gruff than the 1.6 L in the Santa Fe hybrid. The steering is lightish and accurate, albeit without a great deal of feel. And there are a couple of little hybrid quirks with this vehicle. One is the brake pedal. You feel it when it’s regenerating. It’s not particularly linear and then it goes to friction brakes, which are huge and they get a bit firmer. So, it’s just something you’ll learn to drive around probably within the first week that you got the car. When you first get into the car, bear that in mind because they will feel initially a little bit under servoed. The ride quality is for a car of this size pretty good. The big wheel and tire set, you sometimes feel that dropping into holes in the road and there’s a little bit of bump thump. It’s not too bad. Interestingly, well, interestingly for a nerd like me, the dampers on this car are built by different people front and back. Up front, they’re a German Sax damper. At the back, it’s a Korean Mando damper. And now you know why I don’t get invited to too many dinner parties. They work reasonably well. They’re not adaptive. They’re not air springs or anything like that. But the back does have a little party trick. It’s self-leveling. So if you load the vehicle up heavily, the back will sit down and then it’ll ratchet itself up to level. The engine is it’s pretty peppy. It’s not going to set your trousers on fire, but uh it gets you where you’re going pretty quickly. and it’s got a nice torque fill with the electric motor. Another really nice trick that this car has is very, very good body control. And it leans on its hybrid system for that, believe it or not. If you hit a bump, it very, very quickly engages the electric motor to just give a little burst of counter torque to lift the front. So, it doesn’t squat or dive as you might expect it to. Another couple of tricks it’s got also um it’s got crosswind stability control which is a function where if the car detects it’s being moved by a crosswind it will do a very very subtle piece of counter steer or counter braking to keep you in line without even noticing it. There’s also torque vectoring which gives this car a little bit more agility than you might expect for a car that weighs 2.3 tons or 2.4 tons with yours truly on board. The mirrors on this car are quite interesting too. The exterior mirrors are fairly small. I think they’ve done that for aerodynamic reasons. This interior mirror is lovely. It’s a large one. You get a great view out the back. And if you just click a button, you turn it from a standard mirror into a camera. The camera is really bright and clear. And there’s a little washer on the back that keeps the camera clean at all times. From reading the comments, I know that a few of you find Hyundai’s ADAS systems a little bit intrusive. Some of you also love it. But Hyundai is listening and it is responding. And in this Palisade, you can now mute systems a lot easier. And you can even kill some systems permanently, such as the speed limit change bleep, for example. So, there’s less of that intrusive beeping and bonging when you’re driving along. And for most of us, I think that’s a good thing. Fuel consumption, well, that’s rated at 6.8 L per 100 km. We did a cross country drive yesterday, which is not always the ideal conditions for optimum fuel economy with a hybrid. We got just a smidge over eight and that’s not bad going. The fuel tank 72 L. So this car has some real legs if you’re going on a long journey. And then another bonus with this one is it runs on 91 fuel. This is an impressive debut. The Palisad Hybrid leans on its tech without really imposing it on the driver. And if you’re going to be using that third row on a regular basis, it more than justifies the additional 13 grand spend over a Santa Fe calligraphy. The range will be fleshed out in 2026 with non-hybrid models and a lot more besides. But in the meantime, that’s a heck of a start. Definitely one for your short list. Make sure you subscribe to Drive on YouTube so that you don’t miss forthcoming Palisade models. And yes, there are a few exciting ones in the works. We cover every important UAR on the Australian market. So to read the full review, head to drive.com.au.

Hyundai throws everything it knows at its all-new Palisade. It’s technically intriguing, but is that enough to send it straight to the top of its class?
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Read Full Story Here: https://www.drive.com.au/reviews/2026-hyundai-palisade-hybrid-review-australian-first-drive/

00:00 Introduction
00:27 Pricing & Specifications
01:41 Design
02:30 Interior
03:32 Backseat and Boot
04:29 Optional Extras
04:48 On-road driving
08:43 Summary

#hyundai #palisadehybrid #suv
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