2023 Hyundai Palisade: No hybrid and no entry grade

There are no plans to electrify the big new Hyundai Palisade, which is now on sale with a raft of upgrades, until the large SUV is replaced sometime around 2025.

Speaking at this week’s launch of the MY23 Hyundai Palisade, Hyundai Australia’s head of product and future business, Andrew Tuitahi, said the brand won’t offer a hybrid, plug-in hybrid or full EV version of its flagship SUV because its current underpinnings aren’t package-protected for electrified powertrains.

“Not in this generation, that’s all I can say now,” said Tuitahi in response to questions around electrification for Palisade.

“Sure. We’re evaluating hybrids for every model in the range. We think there’s definitely an opportunity there and when that presents itself to us, we’ll bring hybrids to market.”

However, Hyundai Australia’s head of PR, Guido Schenken, was quick to point out that the Korean brand will offer a large SUV with pure-electric power as part of its IONIQ EV range.

“The IONIQ 7 will be the first large SUV for the electric vehicle launch,” he said.

But the Hyundai IONIQ 7 won’t arrive until late 2023 and it’ll be a battery-electric SUV, as opposed to a fuel-saving hybrid or plug-in hybrid (PHEV) model.

Hyundai Australia’s first hybrid model – the Santa Fe Hybrid – is scheduled to arrive later this year.

And for now the facelifted Palisade range will continue on with two carryover powertrains: 3.8-litre petrol V6 front-wheel drive and 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel all-wheel drive. Both come standard with an updated eight-speed automatic transmission.

Meanwhile, Hyundai was unapologetic about the deletion of its entry-level Palisade, saying there are no plans to offer an equivalent to the base-grade Palisade, which opened the outgoing MY22 range from $60,000 (plus on-road costs).

“I think fundamentally we monitor the market feedback as we go, with this car, but at this stage we only foresee having the Elite and Highlander in our range,” said Tuitahi.

Hyundai will only offer two Palisade variants from launch – Elite and Highlander – both with the choice of front-drive petrol or AWD diesel, priced between $65,900 and $79,900 plus on-road costs.

Justifying the decision, Hyundai said the previous entry-level Palisade variant only accounted for six per cent of sales, and that around 70 per cent of buyers chose the top-spec Highlander.

Hyundai expects that trend to continue with the facelifted Palisade, with around 60 per cent of buyers also forecast to opt for eight seats rather than seven, and diesel power to account for 80 per cent of sales.

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