Hyundai Steps Up Its Big SUV Game With 2026 Palisade

Since debuting for the 2020 model year, the Hyundai Palisade has really become established as the flagship of the brand. Unlike many flagship models that tend to sell in relatively modest volumes, the Palisade sold more than 100,000 units in 2024 and has sold more than 70,000 units through July of this year. At the New York Auto Show in April, Hyundai unveiled the second generation model and we’ve now had the chance to drive it.

It should come as no surprise that the Palisade has grown a bit larger, but not by a huge amount. The length and wheelbase are up by 2.5 and 2.7-inches respectively while width and height are up by 0.2 and 0.6 inches. Despite those modest increases, the new Palisade has much more presence on the road thanks to some key changes in the design.

The grille and the whole front fascia is more squared off and from front angles, the change in the greenhouse is particularly noticeable. There is now less “tumble-home” meaning the side glass is more upright than before rather than being tapered toward the top. Another change in this area is that the A, B and C-pillars are all blacked out giving a more floating roof appearance. On the more off-road oriented XRT Pro, this extends to the D-pillar. However, on other trims including the top-of-the-line Calligraphy that we drove, this rearmost pillar is finished in brushed metal look.

Back at the front, the vertical lighting theme has also been enhanced. In place of the slimmer vertical running lamps, there is now a wider stack of horizontal light bars with the headlights just inboard of these. A similar approach is executed with the taillamps at the rear.

In the cabin, Hyundai’s designers have really stepped up their game. The previous Palisade already looked fairly premium, but the new edition takes it to another level. Like many other current Hyundais, the Palisade features a curved piece of glass with two 12.3-inch displays, one for the instrument cluster and another for the infotainment system. However, unlike the previous model where the display structure stood on top of the dashboard, the dash now curves up and over and the displays appear more integrated. However, this also makes the dashboard feel much more prominent.

Below the touchscreen are a good mix of physical and touch controls for climate and media. There are four rotary knobs for volume, tuning, and temperature for the front zones. There’s also a row of shortcut buttons to the main areas like navigation, search, media, home and setup. The left of this are buttons for auto hold, drive/terrain modes and toggle to select the modes. These are partially obscured behind the steering wheel and you may have to lean over a bit to see them until muscle memory develops. However, since they are less used, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Between the temperature knobs are touch buttons for the heated and ventilated seats, defoggers, fan speed and other controls.

Thankfully, Hyundai has seen the foolishness in strategies taken by brands like Tesla, Rivian and Lincoln and retained fully manual vents on the Palisade. Touchscreen controlled vents are one of the dumbest trends of the last decade and they must be eradicated.

The most problematic control is the engine stop/start button. There is a third stalk on the steering column with a twist control at the end to select the transmission, with the stop/start button inboard right by the column. This control first appeared on the Kia EV9 and has now appeared on other Hyundai Motor Group models.

Another major change is the center console which no longer sweeps up toward the dashboard. It’s now more standalone having an oval shaped profile from front to back and what looks like a section carved out in the forward portion. That’s where you’ll find the cup holders, wireless charging pad and 3 USB-C ports. One is a data port for phone connections (although wireless Android Auto and Carplay are present. The others along with four more for the second and third rows are tied to a 100W power hub. The power is shared among the six ports but it can easily charge modern laptops if only a couple of other ports are being used for phones or tablets. The forward portion of the console is also well positioned to act as a palm rest when using those touch controls for climate.

The extra couple of inches of length have created more room for both the second and third rows and that back most row can be readily used by adults up to at least six-feet tall. On the top Calligraphy model, there are even power controls to move the third row back and forth to adjust the balance between cargo and passenger space. In the cargo area there is even a button to fold all of the second and third row seats with a single touch when you need to carry a large load and then raise them back up again.

The Palisade will be offered with 2 powertrain options, a new 3.5-liter V6 or an all-new hybrid system with a 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. The hybrid isn’t arriving until later this fall but we did get to drive the V6. It’s new naturally aspirated 3.5-liter based on the engine used in some Genesis models and produces 287-hp and 260 lb-ft of torque which is about 5-hp less than the outgoing 3.8-liter. Combined with a curb weight that is about 350-lbs greater than the old model, it doesn’t sound like the performance will be sparkling, but I’ll come back to that.

There’s still an eight-speed automatic transmission with front wheel drive as standard and all-wheel drive optional on all trims except for the more off-roady XRT Pro which comes only with AWD. The Calligraphy trim rides on 21-inch wheels and tires while the XRT Pro gets 18-inch wheels with Continental CrossContact all-terrain tires with significantly more sidewall that should do better on trails.

Once we got settled in, it was quickly clear that the front seats were surprisingly comfortable and supportive. As mentioned, the stop/start button is a bit awkward to use near the steering column. Giving the end of the stalk a twist to engage drive or reverse is straightforward though.

While the power to weight ratio has been degraded a bit from the old model, it’s not really a problem. The Palisade isn’t meant to compete with the likes of a Mercedes-AMG GLS, this is a mainstream family hauler that offers a surprising degree of luxury and premium features. In that context, while it’s not going to win a drag race against the same brand’s Ioniq 9, it still offers more than enough acceleration to easily merge onto the highway or any other typical tasks.

Notably, the Hyundai engineers have actually done a really nice job on the throttle response. Many vehicles with combustion engines typically have a bit of lag when you first tip in the throttle. The Palisade actually starts to respond almost right away but very smoothly without jerking off the line. It’s sort of like driving an EV with its instant torque response, but in a more muted way and it feels quite good.

Ride quality even on the low-profile 265/45R21 tires on the Calligraphy trim was also surprisingly good. All trims ride on steel coil springs with passive dampers and have self-leveling at the rear axle. There’s MacPherson struts at the front and a multi-link layout at the rear. It’s not particularly fancy or sophisticated, but it just works.

We also got a chance to spend some time on an off-road trail with the new XRT Pro model. The XRT Pro has a 1-inch lift, dedicated bright red recovery hooks and some more ruggedized looking lower body trim. The lift brings the ground clearance to 8.4-inches and improves the approach and departure angles to 20.5 and 22.4 degrees. This isn’t going to challenge any Wranglers or Broncos but it will be more capable for those that need to take a bit rougher trail to get to a cabin in the woods.

The test course took us along some narrow shelf trails where the “invisible hood” camera view helped keeping track of where this quite large machine was. I managed not to scrape any of the rocks or trees on my right or fall off the edge on the left. There was a little mogul section, but we only got to run it downhill rather than up so it’s hard to gauge the traction capabilities. The XRT Pro does include an electronic limited slip differential on the rear, but there is no additional underbody protection so you’ll need to be careful and not go beyond what the ground clearance offers.

The V6-powered Palisades are arriving at dealerships now with the hybrid coming late this fall. The front wheel drive SE with a second row bench seat starts at $39,890 including the $1,495 delivery fee. This is technically an 8-seater with 3 seat belts in the third row, but realistically, only 2 will comfortably back there. All wheel drive is an extra $2,000 on all trims except for the XRT Pro which gets it as standard. The XRT Pro goes for $50,865 and the loaded Calligraphy is still a surprisingly reasonable $57,555 with AWD. Front drive models are EPA rated at 19 mpg city, 25 mpg highway and 21 mpg combined while AWD cuts 1 mpg from each of those numbers. That’s not terribly impressive, but competitive in the class. The hybrid is expected to get numbers in the low to mid 30s.

Relative to competition like the Toyota Grand Highlander, Ford Explorer and Chevrolet Traverse, the new Palisade is very refined, room and feels premium, especially in the upper trim levels.

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