Hyundai is stretching the idea of “compact” with its 2024 Santa Fe SUV, which stretches 190 inches and packs three rows of seating inside. This new squared-off Santa Fe doesn’t simply borrow some styling inspiration from Land Rover, it additionally borrows that model’s give attention to tailgating, with an enormous rear hatch opening that’s meant to make days spent spectating out the rear of the Santa Fe as comfy as attainable, even when Hyundai drivers could also be much less vulnerable to watching polo or different equestrian occasions than Land Rover drivers.
The Santa Fe’s rear hatch opening stretches practically six inches additional than that within the outgoing mannequin, reaching 50.2 inches throughout. It additionally provides 2.0 inches in top, making the opening 32 inches from ground to roof.
When the rear seats are folded down, they supply a flat floor that’s extra conducive to lounging for occasions or sleeping for tenting.
Designer Kevin Kang, who heads Design Hyundai Design North America, says the Santa Fe’s cubist look is the logical results of the will to maximise the out there inside house inside a fairly sized automobile. That is true, though it additionally occurs that at the moment’s consumers are gravitating towards boxier SUV styling.
The outgoing Santa Fe is a good-looking design, however in a crowded market, it isn’t a particular design. The brand new Santa Fe’s square-edged styling turns heads and attracts discover whereas additionally offering more room inside.
Sadly, the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security has performed an evaluation displaying a forty five % elevated chance of fatality when tall, boxy automobiles strike pedestrians in comparison with automobiles and slope-fronted automobiles like minivans. Hyundai was not in a position to describe any particular measures within the Santa Fe taken by engineers to mitigate this concern, which appears to go away the chance for future enhancements in pedestrian safety.
What engineers had been in a position to mitigate is the aerodynamic drag that the Santa Fe’s form suggests can be larger than that of the earlier mannequin. However cleansing up airflow beneath the automobile by mounting plastic panels to the underside helps whittle the Santa Fe’s coefficient of drag to simply 0.294, in comparison with 0.33 for the 2023 Santa Fe and 0.34 for the Subaru Outback.
Inside Design
The inside design is equally clear because the faceted exterior. Fortunately, this doesn’t imply, nonetheless, that the instrument panel has been swept away from buttons and knobs for controlling essential features as we’ve seen in different automobiles, most notably the Volvo EX30,
The Santa Fe has rotary knobs on the dashboard for infotainment quantity and tuning in addition to for driver’s-side and passenger’s-side local weather management temperature. “My group and I are all in regards to the buttons,” Kang informed Design Information. “We’ll hold preventing for these.”
In contrast to in some earlier Hyundais that additionally had these knobs, those within the Santa Fe are sufficiently differentiated in dimension and look to reduce the chance of by accident adjusting the HVAC once you’re making an attempt to alter the amount.
That leisure may very well be by the Santa Fe’s native Amazon Music app that runs on the dashboard infotainment system, or it may very well be by Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. The Sante Fe now streams these wirelessly, so prospects can merely lay their cellphone on the middle console wi-fi charging pad to maintain its battery topped off without having for wires.
There are left- and right-side charging pads, so there’ll be no competitors over whose cellphone wants the electrons extra. This house is made out there by the designers’ determination to maneuver the shift operate to a twist change on a stalk on the steering column.
You twist the highest away from you to have interaction Drive and towards you to have interaction Reverse. This shifter appears more likely to be the identical that Hyundai will use in electrical fashions so there’s some sense in making shifters the identical in combustion and electrical fashions, although I’d favor to see the usual PRNDL shifter that has lengthy been the business customary.
A hidden exterior seize deal with offers simpler entry to the Santa Fe’s roof rack. DAN CARNEY
New Tech
Driving the Santa Fe is made extra handy by the supply of a digital key, which lets drivers unlock, begin, and drive away within the automobile simply by having their cellphone with the digital key with them. I skilled this with the Rivian R1S examined not too long ago and located that it’s a good comfort, even when it induces some anxiousness in drivers with a lifetime of needing the automotive’s keys.
Seats within the first and second rows are comfy, however the Santa Fe’s third row is a kid-only, short-drive house. They gained’ t be blissful in the best way again for lengthy journeys, however it’s advantageous for around-town carpooling obligation. The panoramic skylight retains the rear seats ethereal and light-weight, which makes sitting there much less claustrophobic.
My take a look at was a completely loaded $50,000 Santa Fe Calligraphy, which provides one other gadget that can certainly be common: an ultraviolet sanitizing compartment for killing germs on telephones and different small objects. When you spend sufficient cash, the Santa Fe’s higher of two glove compartments comprises an ultraviolet mild robust sufficient to disinfect the surfaces of small objects in ten minutes. You simply put the cellphone, keys, or different object contained in the field and press the button on the middle console to activate the cleansing cycle.
Hyundai has lengthy boasted of its democratization of expertise and particularly of security options, so I hope that we’ll see the UV sanitizing field made out there as an possibility throughout all Santa Fe trim ranges, if not made customary on all of them.
Drivetrain Selections
The Calligraphy’s customary engine is the 277-horsepower turbocharged, direct-injected 2.5-liter four-cylinder. This offers a typical 3,500-lb. towing capability. The off-road-centric XRT trim degree is rated to tow 4,500 due to extra grille openings for improved cooling. Hyundai stated there are not any different bodily variations that contribute to the additional thousand kilos of capability. The EPA gasoline economic system score for this drivetrain with all-wheel drive is 20 mpg in metropolis driving, 28 mpg on the freeway, and a mixed estimate of 23 mpg. The front-drive model is rated at 1 mpg higher.
This engine drives by an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission with moist clutches. The pc’s management of clutch engagement is unimpeachable, because the Santa Fe is adept on the difficult low-speed creep wanted to position the automotive exactly in a parking house that’s the hallmark of transmissions geared up with torque converters. Different not too long ago pushed automobiles utilizing computer-controlled clutches, such because the Mazda CX-90, have demonstrated inferior clutch management in delicate conditions.
There’s additionally a 1.6-l engine out there that’s the coronary heart of a hybrid-electric system with a complete mixed system output of 231 hp. This automobile was not out there for testing, so we’ll should drive it later. It drives by a standard 6-speed automated transmission. The hybrid is rated to tow 2,000 lbs. and it’s rated at 36 mpg metropolis, 35 mpg freeway, and 36 mpg mixed for front-drive, and the AWD system once more prices 1 mpg in mixed driving.
The Santa Fe Calligraphy has a surprisingly good journey even with the 21-inch wheels and their corresponding low-profile tires, however the usual 18-inch wheels with their extra tire sidewall can be even cushier and supply higher safety towards blowout injury when placing sharp potholes.
Off-Highway Functionality
Some off-road driving the XRT trim mannequin confirmed that the Santa Fe has some authentic off-road capabilities, because it negotiated a course with sufficient twist to carry a wheel off the bottom with no need to have interaction the out there differential lock. The Hyundai crew reported that the course had been wetter and slipperier beforehand and that in these circumstances the Santa Fe was in a position to present the good thing about the differential lock characteristic.
The XRT additionally options hill descent management, which is when the automotive’s stability system mechanically maintains the automobile’s pace with out the motive force having to brake and probably lose traction making an attempt to stop the Santa Fe from gaining pace whereas happening steep hills. The system both maintains the pace at which it’s engaged or whether it is engaged at a cease, it maintains about 2.5 mph. This pace might be elevated utilizing the steering wheel-mounted shift paddles.
Even with these options, nobody will mistake the Santa Fe for a Land Rover. However they do give it the flexibility to money at the very least a number of the checks its blocky sheetmetal is writing. Prospects who’re involved in regards to the capacity to succeed in a cabin on a rutted highway when there’s snow can hedge their bets by selecting this extra succesful XRT trim degree.
Although it boasts no breakthrough expertise or a tremendous electrical drivetrain, anticipate the 2024 Santa Fe to be successful with prospects due to Hyundai’s considerate utility of incremental enhancements, its further passenger house, and its burly stance.
