The 7-seat large SUV market has just welcomed a new proposition in Australia, with the arrival of the 2021 Hyundai Palisade. It comes in as the company’s biggest SUV and the company’s new flagship model.
As confirmed earlier this year, Hyundai is offering two engine options for the Palisade in Australia. There’s the 3.8-litre naturally aspirated V6 that produces 217kW and 355Nm, available only with front-wheel drive. Alternatively, the premier option is a 2.2-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder that develops 147kW and 440Nm.
Both come matched to an eight-speed auto transmission as standard, with the 2.2 diesel featuring all-wheel drive as standard. Fuel consumption on the combined cycle is 10.7L/100km for the V6, and a respectable 7.3L/100km for the diesel.
Just two trim levels are being presented, including the regular Palisade and the top Highlander. Both powertrains are available in both trim levels. Even in standard form the new model is very well equipped and comes with all of the latest mod-cons and high levels of safety technology.
Inside, the on-board media and connectivity runs through a 10.25-inch touch-screen interface, offering Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, with tunes played through a 12-speaker Infinity sound system. There’s also a 7.0-inch LCD screen for the instrument cluster, and wireless phone charging on the centre console.
Three-zone climate control is also standard, ensuring optimum comfort for all three rows of seats. Also helping with overall comfort is a reclining third row seat, cup holders for all rows, and USB ports for the second row. Two ISOFIX child seat anchor points are featured in the second row, and one for the third row.
As standard, all model come with Hyundai’s latest SmartSense safety suite which includes a heap of active systems, such as blind-spot warning with collision avoidance assist, rear cross-traffic alert with collision assist, lane following assist, and autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection.
The new model is on sale now from the following prices (excluding on-roads), and is available in seven- and eight-seat form. PerformanceDrive will be attending the official media launch event this week – reviews are under embargo until December 18.
2021 Hyundai Palisade 3.8 V6 2WD: $60,000
2021 Hyundai Palisade 2.2 diesel AWD: $64,000
2021 Hyundai Palisade Highlander 3.8 V6 2WD: $71,000
2021 Hyundai Palisade Highlander 2.2 diesel AWD: $75,000
