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What's the difference?
The Hyundai Santa Fe is a seven-seater SUV that slips in-between the enormous Palisade and mid-sized Tucson in Hyundai’s line-up.
And while it seemed to be the SUV that had everything, from unconventional good looks to cool tech, there’s never been a hybrid version despite rivals such as the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and Kia Sorento hybrid being on the market... until now.
Yep, 'better late than never' isn’t just the motto of my punctuality-challenged family, it’s also the case with the Santa Fe Hybrid.
In many ways, the Santa Fe Hybrid makes up for its lateness with a drive experience better than the regular Santa Fe - and you’ll save fuel, too.
I’ll tell you how much fuel you’ll save below, along with how much more you’ll pay to own a Santa Fe Hybrid over a regular Santa Fe. I’ll also cover off its safety tech, standard features and practicality.
Volvo’s brand renaissance is a gift that keeps on giving.
The Swede alternative to more mainstream European premium players needs to keep offering something different to survive and has thus far found success in giving buyers design-focused alternatives to the strong performance lineage of its predominantly German rivals.
Like its rivals, though, Volvo is facing a once-in-a-generation conversion from combustion to electrification, and thanks to its Chinese parent company, Geely, it is uniquely positioned to rapidly make the switch.
Despite that, we're only just seeing the brand’s first purely electric model, the XC40 Recharge. Does it have what it takes to edge in front of rivals for the electric era? We took one for a week to find out.
The Santa Fe Hybrid is a better Santa Fe to drive than the V6 petrol or the diesel variant. It’s also a lot more fuel efficient, but the value isn’t as great at this price. Also keep in mind that the Hybrid has a much lower braked towing capacity relative to the diesel and V6 petrol Santa Fes.
The Elite grade will save you money, and you’re not missing out on many luxuries.
Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with accommodation and meals provided.
In such a rapidly evolving electric car space, the XC40 Recharge definitely finds its place. To me, this is a more appealing offering than something like the similarly equipped and priced Mercedes-Benz EQA, with the Recharge feeling particularly coherent for an EV on a combustion platform.
With the healthy range, easy-to-use tech, and impressive performance on offer, I can see how the sums might add up against its less-premium long-range rivals, especially since the price is not so much higher that it might rule it out for first-time adopters.
However, it would be nice to see a trimmed back version in the future with a more efficient 2WD drivetrain and smaller battery option to put price pressure on rivals, particularly the likes of the also design led and much larger Hyundai Ioniq 5. Until then, you can always wait for the similar Polestar 2, which brings much of the same in an interesting package, arriving early in 2022.
There’s only one way to tell the hybrid version of the Santa Fe from the petrol and diesel variants - the wheels. The hybrid's wheels are smaller and have a sort of ‘cog’ design to them. I’m not a fan of the styling, but they’re supposed to be aerodynamic and save fuel.
Overall, I am a fan of the Santa Fe’s looks which were given a major change in 2020 with a completely different grille and interior.
I like the way Hyundai has moved away from giving all its cars the same face, with each model now having its own visual identity.
The Santa Fe’s wide, cat fish-like gaping mouth grille might not be for everybody, but it sure doesn’t look like the front of any other SUV on the market.
The rear of the Santa Fe is far more conservative but looks prestigious enough to stop short of the boredom threshold.
It’s far from boring inside with the dash sculptured into what appear to be rock pools, with geyser-like air vents and a floating centre console.
Again, no sign this is a hybrid in the cabin either, which is the way it should be, or will be when electric vehicles become the norm.
The cabins of the Elite and Highlander are filled with leather and modern tech. It’s a plush place made even plusher on the Highlander with its Nappa leather upholstery.
The Santa Fe is a big, mid-sized SUV at 4.8m end-to-end, but it’s not as large as a Hyundai Palisade. That's huge at five metres long.
It’s been a while since I’ve driven an XC40, and although this car launched back in 2018, it is ageing very well. The exterior is still as sleek as ever, having been slightly and tastefully tweaked for this fully electric version, and the interior remains, in my opinion, one of the best examples of design in the entire small SUV market.
Starting from the outside, though, one thing I’ve always liked about Volvo’s current design ethos is how it doesn’t try to scream about its alleged performance or how prepared for the future is. It’s quiet, elegant, and understated, with confident lines, gentle but meaningful highlights, tasteful wheel designs, and sturdy proportions.
Yet none of this makes the XC40 anonymous; it’s still striking to appreciate, set well apart from the designs of other brands. It slots seamlessly into Volvo’s very attractive line-up of SUVs, and I dare say it will continue to look good for years to come.
The car’s interior only builds on this theme, with an attractive and well-proportioned dash design, premium-feeling materials throughout, and heavy digitisation via the portrait media screen and digital dash cluster.
The seat designs continue the comfortable and attractive motifs of Volvos past, while the newer design elements - like the carpet lining in the doors (constructed of recycled plastics, no less) and the ‘cutting edge’ pattern that makes up the highlight cutaways - set it apart from rivals.
The abundance of piano-black gloss highlight panelwork looks classy, but you should keep in mind how easy it is for materials like this to get covered in fingerprints. Dust and scratches always stand out, too.
Regardless, the interior has a sense of balance and flow that mirrors this car’s exterior, and the commitment to a cohesive feel for the interior and exterior is to be applauded.
The only thing I will note is how the portrait touchscreen has dated. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an excellent design element, but at 9.0-inches it doesn’t feel as striking as it did just a few years ago, now that many vehicles are offering massive 10 or even 12-inch multimedia panels.
The Santa Fe is among only a handful of mid-sized SUVs offering seven seats. The third-row seats are really designed to be used occasionally. They’re flat and fairly hard and the passengers back there aren’t fully covered by the side curtain airbags.
The second row offers plenty of room. Enough, even for me at 191cm, to sit comfortably behind my driving position.
And if you’d like more space then the Highlander grade allows you can replace that bench seat with two captain’s chairs in the six-seat version.
Clever cabin storage spaces can be found throughout. I particularly like the floating centre console with an area underneath big enough for a small backpack, and the shelf above the glove box in the dash is also good for throwing a wallet or phone.
Big door pockets, cupholders and a deep centre console storage box are also on board.
For charging devices there are five USB ports (two up front, two in the second row, and one in the third), two 12-volt outlets (front seats and cargo area) and a wireless phone charger.
While there isn’t three-zone climate control. There are directional air vents in all three rows and the Elite and Highlander grades also come with pull-up sun shades for the rear windows.
As for the boot, most of the time you’ll probably have the third-row seats folded flat, and that’ll give you a cargo capacity of 571 litres.
Or, if you are using the third row there’s 130 litres of space left for you to use.
The XC40 is in a bit of a Goldilocks-zone when it comes to the size of a ‘small-SUV’ (which, unlike the mid-size hatch segment, is not very well defined). This grants it a healthy amount of cabin space for four adult occupants, as I can fit myself with comfortable knee room and plenty of headroom behind my own driving position, despite a seemingly taller floor.
The seats are comfortable regardless of where you sit, and there are big bottle holders in the door and two stepped ones in the centre console. There’s a wireless phone-charging bay under the multimedia unit, with some extra space for objects, and a decently sized armrest console box, with an odd little removable box.
The cool carpet trim continues to line the bottom of the bottle holder in the door. Don’t spill anything there. It will be a nightmare to get out.
Adjustability and visibility is excellent for the front passengers, too, and although the climate functions and most of the multimedia system has moved to touch functions, I’ll hand it to the layout of this Volvo’s touchscreen for being one of the easiest on the market to use.
Boot space is down a little on combustion variants at 418-litres (VDA), and the Recharge makes up for it by swapping an otherwise busy engine bay out for a frunk, which not every combustion-platformed electric car manages. It measures in at 31L. There is even some underfloor space in the boot for your charging paraphernalia, although you only get a tyre-repair kit rather than a space-saver spare wheel for emergencies.
Hybrids cost more than their petrol and diesel equivalents, but how much more depends on whatever the car manufacturer decides you should pay.
Hyundai is charging $6500 extra for the Santa Fe hybrid over the petrol version and $3000 more than the diesel.
Also, for now, you can only get the Hybrid on the Elite and Highlander grades, the two most expensive levels in the Santa Fe line-up.
This means you’ll pay a list price of $63,000 for the Santa Fe Elite Hybrid and $69,550 for the Highlander Hybrid.
The standard features for the Elite Hybrid and Highlander hybrid are exactly the same as their petrol and diesel equivalents, except for the wheels. The hybrids have smaller 19-inch wheels (they’re 20-inch alloys on the regular Santa Fe) that Hyundai says are designed to be more aerodynamic.
So, along with those futuristic wheels, also coming standard on the Elite Hybrid are LED headlights and tail-lights, a gesture tailgate, privacy glass, proximity key with push-button start, a 10.25-inch media display, 12.3-inch instrument cluster, 10-speaker Harman Kardon stereo, leather upholstery, heated front seats with a power driver’s seat, dual-zone climate control, a wireless charger, sat nav, plus Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The Highlander Hybrid has all of that, but adds Nappa leather upholstery, a power front passenger seat, ventilated front seats and heated window seats in the second row, a head-up display and a panoramic sunroof.
The Elite and Highlander are both seven seaters, but you can ask for six seats in the Highlander and have that second row bench seat replaced with two captain’s chairs.
There’s no question Volvo is continuing to present as a premium brand with this first electric offering. Despite dabbling its toes in the mainstream market in the past, the Swedish brand is only offering a fully bells-and-whistles approach to the XC40 this time around.
Wearing an MSRP of $76,990, the XC40 Recharge looks to specifically cross swords with the Mercedes-Benz EQA 250 ($76,800), but in reality, its rivals also include the Tesla Model 3 (Long Range $73,400), and all-new and much larger Hyundai Ioniq 5 (AWD - $75,900), both of which have big appeal to early EV adopters who may or may not be so fussy about brand.
This is interesting, because Volvo’s all-electric sister brand Polestar, which just launched in Australia, is offering its first car, the Polestar 2, with a far leaner price. This is clearly designed to take sales from not only its existentially threatening Tesla rival, but also mainstream players, like Nissan, with Polestar's base pricing set at $59,900.
It shares the same platform and much of the same technology as our XC40 Recharge , so if you’re turned off by this bells-and-whistles top-spec-only approach from Volvo, waiting a little longer will give you an intriguing and more affordable alternative.
Returning to the standard spec of the XC40 Recharge; it only comes with a single, large 78kWh battery pack and a dual-motor all-wheel drive system, offering twice the power of its nearest combustion version, a range between charges of 418km, 20-inch alloy wheels, a 9.0-inch portrait multimedia screen, dual-zone climate control, a panoramic opening sunroof, power adjustable front seats with memory, leather-accented interior trim, heated front seats with a heated steering wheel, ‘R-Design’ interior and exterior design highlights, ‘Thor’s Hammer’ LED headlights with cornering function, a Harmon Kardon audio system, 360-degree parking camera suite, tinted rear windows, and the full safety suite.
To clear things up, this means everything that can possibly be fitted in the XC40 range is standard on the Recharge electric version. You can even choose any of the eight exterior paint options at no extra cost.
Added to the standard equipment is a new version of the brand’s Android-based operating system, with an integrated SIM card and fully online Google services.
Not having any options helps this car regain some of the $10k price difference between it and the next model down (the PHEV version), but perhaps less on the $20k price difference between it and the conventionally powered T5 R-Design that sits below that.
Like the Mercedes-Benz EQA, it may also be a bit of a tall order for an EV which is naturally a bit compromised by sharing its platform with a combustion car. That might be enough for true EV enthusiasts to look right past this small SUV and onto the Tesla Model 3 or Hyundai Ioniq 5.
The Santa Fe Hybrid is not a plug-in hybrid like the Mitsubishi Outlander or Kia Sorento. That means you don’t need to connect the battery to a power outlet to charge it. Instead, the battery charges on the go as you drive it, and through regenerative braking.
Under the bonnet is a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine and an electric motor. They have a combined output of 169kW/350Nm.
That’s pretty good grunt. Just as a comparison, the V6 makes 200kW/331Nm, while the diesel engine produces 148kW/440Nm.
If you’re planning on towing, then the diesel and petrol are clearly the better choices with their 2500kg braked towing capacity, compared to the hybrid’s 1650kg.
The Hybrid Santa Fe is also all-wheel drive and a six-speed automatic transmission shifts gears smoothly.
The XC40 Recharge is ridiculously powerful for its size class. It’s nearly twice as powerful as the nearest combustion version of this car and packs a Tesla-rattling punch from its dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup.
It’s always nice to see something with more power than it needs, especially with all the added weight of its massive 78kWh battery pack.
On offer are two motors offering 150kW/330Nm each, combining for a total of 300kW/660Nm. The XC40 Recharge will accelerate from 0-100km/h in just 4.9 seconds and has a single-speed reduction gear transmission.
While having the full-fat performance and security of all-wheel drive helps justify the cost of this SUV, it has drawbacks when it comes to efficiency, which we’ll explore next.
This is what it’s all about isn’t it? How much fuel does the Santa Fe Hybrid use?
Hyundai says this hybrid will use 6.0L/100km after a combination of open roads and urban driving. That is excellent, but if this was a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) that figure could be as low as 4.0L/100km.
Still, the Santa Fe hybrid is much more fuel efficient than the V6 variant which uses 10.5L/100km.
I took a look at the drive history of the Santa Fe Hybrid I tested at the end of the Australian launch.
According to the trip computer the car had travelled 967.2km and had used an average of 7.3L/100km.
About 500 of those kilometres were done by me with peak hour city traffic, country roads and motorways all in there. That’s great fuel efficiency, but a Santa Fe PHEV would do better.
As I said earlier, there’s no need to plug the Santa Fe into an external power supply to charge its lithium-ion battery, it’ll charge itself automatically through normal driving.
Powering the XC40 is a 78kWh battery pack, which grants this all-wheel drive an officially rated 418km of driving range. This is more than enough for an EV, although this car’s sister product, the Polestar 2, uses the same motors in 2WD with significantly more range from the same battery.
The XC40’s consumption is higher than I would like, with an official/combined consumption figure of 25.5kWh/100km. For a bit of perspective, most EVs this size will get under 20, with the best I’ve ever seen being the FWD Kona electric, which scored just 11kWh/100km.
In my testing of the XC40, consisting of mainly urban driving (where EVs are at their best, courtesy of their use of regenerative braking) I scored 21.3kWh/100km. Better than the official claim by quite a bit.
The XC40 Recharge has a European-standard Type 2 CCS charging port, and can charge at a maximum rate of 150kW on DC, or 11kW on AC.
At maximum DC-charging speed, you can expect a 10-80 per cent charge in around 40 minutes, while at the more common 50kW DC charging locations, you can expect a charge in just over an hour. At maximum AC speed, 11kW at a home or car park AC location, you can expect a full charge in around eight hours, and a wall socket will charge the car from empty to 100 per cent in around 33 hours.
Charging specs are bang-on for a car in this class, as 22kW AC charging is extremely rare, while a DC-charging rate higher than 150kW generally requires more elaborate and expensive cooling systems.
You’re not just getting better fuel economy in the hybrid version of the Santa Fe, you’re getting a better SUV to drive.
That’s what I found when I tested the Santa Fe Hybrid at its Australian launch. The ride is more comfortable and the steering feels more responsive and lighter than the V6 petrol or diesel Santa Fe, both of which I’ve driven extensively.
The better ride I think comes down to the stabilising effect of extra weight situated low from the batteries (they’re located under the driver). Hyundai told me the front suspension had been revised to deal with the added weight, too.
So, I feel the ride is now more comfortable, less jittery with a smidge more planted feeling to the handling.
The lighter and better steering feel may have something to do with having a smaller engine in the nose of the Santa Fe. The 1.6-litre four-cylinder weighs less than the 2.2-litre diesel engine and the V6 petrol. That lighter font end now has a more ‘pointable’ feeling.
That said, the electric motor would add more weight to the Santa Fe hybrid’s nose, too.
Another difference to the way the hybrid drives is the take-off acceleration. It’s quite sudden and forceful for a family SUV in this class and that’s due to the 350Nm of torque, available from 1000rpm.
That’s great for moving away out of a car space and quickly blending into traffic, or accelerating away from traffic lights.
Visibility as with the regular Santa Fe is excellent and parking is easy, too, given this isn’t a large SUV.
For a car that shares its underpinnings with a combustion vehicle, there are a lot of little things the XC40 does right which its rivals don’t. It starts as soon as you hop in. Like Teslas, Volvo has quite correctly removed the need for an ignition, you just hop in, put the car in drive, and you’re ready to go. This combines with four-door keyless entry for a great first impression.
The Google integrated services are all sleek too, not really requiring phone mirroring, again in a similar fashion to the Tesla model 3. Just chuck your phone in the charging bay, and you’re good to go with a Bluetooth connection.
The software suite has also improved out of sight, and while I’m never a fan of 90 per cent of a vehicle's functions being moved onto a screen, at least this Volvo does a great job of making all the climate settings easy to use with the portrait layout. As is inputting an address, should you need to use the navigation.
The driving position is immediately excellent, offering a superior view of the road from such a relatively small vehicle, with a high but not unsettling seating arrangement. Take off is nice and smooth with both axles providing power, and the XC40 Recharge has a single, aggressive regenerative-braking system, which can be entirely switched off if need be. The regen system is similar to the one in my Nissan Leaf long termer and is generally lovely to use.
The steering is generally nice and smooth and lending this little SUV some meaningful feedback, although it is a little overly electrically assisted for more spirited cornering, removing some of the feel from the front wheels at the extremes.
The ride is also firm, something the XC40 range is known for, especially compared to the softer ride of other Volvo models. This isn’t helped by this car’s weight. While things are generally very well controlled, road conditions like corrugations and sharp imperfections can really find their way into the cabin in the worst possible way. That having been said, undulations and bodyroll are kept remarkably under control, and traction from the all-wheel-drive system is also Tesla-like in its grip.
The cabin is very quiet around town, leading to a sense of security and comfort, but I was a little disappointed to find tyre roar really picks up at freeway speeds, perhaps courtesy of the large wheels and burdened dampers.
On a final note, for a car with such a quiet demeanour, the straight-line performance is ridiculous. Press the accelerator down and this car will seriously throw you into the back of your seat, reminding you of the huge potential of its electric motors. Suddenly the sub-five-second 0-100km/h sprint time becomes visceral.
Ultimately, this is a little SUV that has only been improved by electrification from behind the wheel, bringing some of that Tesla-like convenience and performance to a car which you might not expect to have such virtues. It could use a little sandpapering in a few areas, but it’s impressive for something that isn’t on a bespoke electric platform.
The regular Santa Fe scored the maximum five-star ANCAP rating when it was tested in 2018. You don’t need me to tell you the world was a different place back then, as it was in terms of automotive safety requirements.
New advanced safety tech has been added to this SUV over the years and this Santa Fe hybrid comes equipped with all of it, too.
There’s AEB which works at intersections, too, blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert, lane keeping assistance, rear occupant alert, auto high beam headlights and adaptive cruise control.
The forward AEB will bring the vehicle to a complete stop for cyclists and pedestrians at speeds between 10km/h and 65km/h or 75km/h for vehicles.
Above the speeds the vehicle will slow as much as possible in an attempt to avoid a collision.
The Highlander adds even more tech in the form of a surround view camera, blind spot monitor, and rear AEB.
This top grade also boasts remote parking that allows the you to drive the Santa Fe in or out of tight parking spots using the key fob as a remote control. It sounds incredible but it’s real. I’ve demonstrated this feature in the video above.
On a super serious note be aware that even though this is a three-row SUV, the curtain airbags don’t completely cover the third row windows.
The Santa Fe isn’t the only SUV with this airbag inadequacy - the Kia Sorento has the same problem.
Like the rest of the XC40 range, the Recharge EV comes with the full suite of safety features. This also helps set it apart from its more affordable Polestar 2 cousin, which has some key items as options.
Standard active stuff includes freeway-speed auto emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane-keep assist with lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert, rear auto braking, adaptive cruise control, and a 360-degree parking suite.
A few small items that are oddly missing for a brand so associated with safety include any form of driver-fatigue monitoring, and other more cutting-edge items like safe exit warning offered on some rivals.
Regardless, the XC40 also packs a suite of seven airbags, and the expected dual ISOFIX child-seat mounting points on the outer rear seats. The XC40 range has carried a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating since 2018, and this rating was recently approved by ANCAP to extend to this Recharge electric version.
The Santa Fe Hybrid has the same warranty as the rest of the range at five years/unlimited km. The battery is covered by an eight-year/160,000km warranty, which is pretty standard for hybrids.
Servicing is required every 10,000km/12months, however, the costs were yet to be finalised at the time of publishing.
Volvo models are covered by a five-year and unlimited-kilometre factory warranty, which is ahead of many rivals (like Audi and BMW) in the premium space. The high-voltage battery components are covered for the industry standard eight years and unlimited kilometres.
Volvo says the electric motors in the XC40 are ‘sealed for life’ and have no serviceable components, although other fluids, brakes, and minor serviceable items need to be attended to. The XC40 is covered by a service program that lasts for the first three years or 100,000km, normally at a cost of $1500, which is included in the purchase price for the Recharge.
A five-year service plan (which normally comes at a cost of $2500 for combustion variants) will also extend to the Recharge, although pricing has not yet been announced. With less to look after, the XC40 Recharge only needs to visit a service tech once every 30,000km or 24 months.