2023 Hyundai Santa Fe spied

The Hyundai Santa Fe is about to bear its most dramatic visible transformation but.

Spy photographs reveal the next-generation mannequin will characteristic bluff, boxy styling extra within the vein of the Land Rover Defender than any Santa Fe earlier than.

The photographs had been taken at Incheon Worldwide Airport in South Korea and shared on the Instagram account chung_sik_an.

It’s unclear when the following Santa Fe will debut, although the presence of finished-looking – if closely camouflaged – prototypes suggests a debut is imminent.

There’s an upright greenhouse, showing to afford the Santa Fe an ethereal cabin.

Whereas it’s nonetheless coated in a substantial amount of camouflage, we will see the D-pillar seems to sit down bolt upright, in distinction to the slanted pillar of the Palisade, giving the Santa Fe a good bluffer look than the flagship crossover.

We will’t make out a lot of the entrance finish, although earlier spy images have recommended the headlights might include LED daytime working lights that kind the letter H, a motif repeated on an embossed sample on the entrance seats.

A full-width LED gentle bar connecting these components may additionally seem, à la the Staria.

The rear finish is roofed in much more camouflage, although it seems the Santa Fe might have a very upright tailgate.

As is changing into frequent with the newest Hyundai Motor Group merchandise, there are eye-catching wheel designs.

The spied prototype additionally options distinctive alloy wheels with an inverted look, with slotted, black-finish spokes bracketed by brushed-metal triangles the place gaps would ordinarily be.

A beforehand spied prototype, in distinction, featured easy, five-spoke brushed-look alloy wheels, albeit additionally forming a star sample.

It’s unclear how a lot if the adjustments beneath the pores and skin with the following Santa Fe shall be fairly as dramatic as its new look.

The Santa Fe moved to a brand new platform in 2021, giving it entry to hybrid and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrains – although solely the hybrid has been confirmed for Australia, and it has been repeatedly delayed.

Each electrified Santa Fe fashions use a turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine paired with an electrical motor, lithium-ion battery and a six-speed automated transmission, shared with hybrid and PHEV variations of the Kia Sorento.

The Santa Fe is at present accessible in Australia solely with a selection of two.2-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder and three.5-litre naturally-aspirated petrol V6 engines, although the latter has been largely phased out outdoors of our market.

Markets like Korea and North America get a turbocharged 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine in lieu of the V6, whereas a naturally-aspirated model can be provided in some markets.

Hyundai performed it extraordinarily protected with the present Santa Fe’s styling, which regardless of the brand new platform appears to be like virtually similar to the earlier era.

Likewise, the primary 4 generations – though extra distinguished from one another – represented a transparent design evolution.

However with the Santa Fe shedding floor in Australia and Korea to its pricier Palisade stablemate and its Kia Sorento company cousin, Hyundai’s designers seem to have been given the go-ahead to pen a extra radical design.

To the tip of August, Hyundai has bought 2936 Santa Fes in Australia, placing it solely narrowly forward of the Palisade (2891 gross sales) and behind the Sorento (4304).

The Santa Fe and Sorento had been neck-and-neck in 2021, with the previous being pipped by the latter (5048 gross sales vs. 5126 gross sales).

It was the primary time since 2005 that the Santa Fe had been outsold by the Sorento in Australia, and this sturdy efficiency by the Sorento is emblematic of Kia’s ascendancy within the Australian market that has seen it outsell its sister model some months.

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