Hyundai Palisade 2026 review: Hybrid Calligraphy - Australian preview drive

Initially, Hyundai was adamant its three-row Palisade SUV wasn’t even on the agenda for Australian sale. But sure enough, it’s now been in market here for close to five years. And this is the one many prospective buyers have been waiting for - the all-new second-generation version to be offered here in petrol-electric hybrid form only.

For now, it’ll be available in one high-end Calligraphy grade, replacing all existing pure-combustion variants. And Hyundai invited CarsGuide to have a sneaky steer of a prototype example before the full production version hits showrooms next month.

This full-size seven- and eight-seater goes up against some heavy hitters in the large SUV weight division, like the Toyota LandCruiser Prado, Ford Everest and Isuzu MU-X.

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Can the Palisade hybrid possibly make a dent in their segment dominance? Let’s find out.

The new-generation Palisade is 65mm longer, tipping it over 5.0m end-to-end (5060mm), fractionally taller (1805mm) and wider (1980mm) while riding on a 70mm longer wheelbase, which is now 2970mm.

The nose is even squarer with an immense grille and stacked DRLs either side of it. The roof rails are more pronounced and they flow into a flashy metallic D-pillar graphic.

The tail-lights echo the multi-tier design of the DRLs up front and the drag coefficient is 0.31 which is impressive for a large, squared-off SUV.

The interior has been overhauled in the style of the smaller Santa Fe with twin curved 12.3-inch displays dominating the sweeping dash.

I’m not going to get into the weeds on practicality. We’ll leave that for a full review of the production version once it arrives.

Suffice it to say there’s lots of room and lots of storage. But it’s worth calling out the fact that, at 183cm tall, I can sit in the third row seat without being horrendously cramped.

Eight-seat is the standard configuration, with an optional seven-seat layout replacing the centre three seat bench with two multi-adjustable captain’s chairs. 

Boot space is up marginally on the 311 litres (with the third row in use) and 704 litres (with the third row lowered) of the first-gen version. Maximum braked trailer towing capacity is 2000kg and a full-size alloy spare is onboard. Bravo for all that!

Estimated pricing for the Palisade Calligraphy Hybrid is circa $90,000, before on-road costs, which is a close to 15 per cent increase on the out-going combustion-only equivalent, but the standard specification is sky-high, with existing highlights like Nappa leather trim, adaptive cruise control and three-zone climate control joined by a dual tilt and slide power sunroof, front seats that are power adjustable even more ways to Sunday, 14-speaker Bose audio, heated seats in all three rows (outboard only at the back), fingerprint recognition, unique 21-inch alloys and heaps more.

This car is loaded and stacks up well next to the likes of the Toyota Prado Altitude AWD at $92,700, but it is a reasonable step up from Ford’s flagship Everest Platinum at $82,990, both before on-road costs.

Hyundai says there’s potential for more trim grades and variants to be introduced at a later date, but nothing is confirmed at this point.

The engine is 2.4-litre turbo-petrol four, producing close to 200kW and a bit over 350Nm, with the motors tipping in around 70kW and more than 260Nm for healthy combined outputs of 245kW/460Nm.

Dubbed ‘TMED-II’, the Palisade’s dual-motor hybrid system automatically switches between pure-electric, pure-combustion and combined power modes as required to extend EV driving range and maximise fuel efficiency.

It’s a transmission-mounted set-up with one motor dedicated primarily to starting and generator duties, and the other sending drive directly to the wheels as well as providing regenerative braking to slow the car and charge the compact 1.65kWh lithium-ion battery.

The system also facilitates a ‘Stay Mode’ using the high-capacity battery to maintain all electronics and climate control without the engine idling for between 25 to 40 minutes.

And Vehicle-to Load (V2L) functionality is onboard, ready to power electric devices from a three-pin plug in the boot.

The official combined cycle (urban/extra-urban) consumption figure for the Palisade Hybrid is 6.8L/100km, which equates to a driving range in excess of 1000km. Not bad for a full-size SUV.

A quick introduction behind the wheel landed some firm first impressions. 

At partial throttle or light loads the electric motors are doing the driving. Squeeze harder and the petrol engine will kick in and you have both working for you. And the petrol engine isn’t a silent sewing machine humming away under the bonnet. It makes its presence felt when you are accelerating.

The six-speed auto transmission is smooth but changes are fairly leisurely. There are steering wheel paddles on the Calligraphy grade so you can change ratios yourself but it’s a laid-back process compared to the urgency of a dual-clutch auto transmission, which typically fires between ratios rapidly. 

Peak torque is available from around 1800 to 4500rpm, so from the petrol engine’s point of view there’s always plenty of urge available. And the electric motor will kick in low down, as well. So when you want extra acceleration the combination of the two gets things going nicely. There’s no lack of performance.

The suspension was tuned locally, in that a team from Hyundai Motor Company came out to Australia and worked with the local tuning group. They looked at the springs, anti-roll bars, bushings and dampers.

As it transpired the global set-up was fine for the majority of the hardware, but the collective team came up with a specific tune for the dampers. They’re not active or adaptive (though that’s available for the Palisade in Korea), they’re passive but the tune is specifically for Australian conditions and ride comfort is good.

This is a large car that sits high on the road and it remains nice and stable when cornering. It doesn’t feel wallowy. The body control is… under control. 

The ‘HTrac’ all-wheel-drive system works in conjunction with the electric motors and brakes for torque vectoring, which can help if you’ve pushed a little too hard into a corner. If you’re starting to understeer, it will bring things back into line. 

In terms of steering, the car is quite accurate. For a large car it remains nice and balanced and planted in cornering. But it must be said it is not the last word in terms of road feel. 

Physical braking is strong, as it is nice and progressive. And the regenerative braking system is smart enough to monitor traffic conditions to achieve maximum retardation while harvesting energy as effectively as possible.

Hyundai Australia is targeting a maximum five-star ANCAP score courtesy of local testing. As the Palisade isn’t sold in Europe, ANCAP’s sister organisation Euro NCAP hasn’t assessed it so there’s no opportunity for a shared result.

‘Smartsense’ active safety suite includes autonomous emergency braking (AEB), blind-spot collision avoidance, 360-degree cameras and a full complement of alerts, monitors and assist functions. And if all that doesn’t keep you out of trouble there are eight airbags onboard.

The new Palisade Calligraphy will be covered by Hyundai’s now seven-year/unlimited-km warranty, which puts pressure on rivals like Ford, Mazda and Toyota still sitting at five years/unlimited-km cover. Service interval and costs are yet to be confirmed.