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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.
Kia has released the newly updated Niro, which is the smaller and less sporty sibling to Kia’s popular, EV6. As far as EVs go, it has a decent driving range and specs that should entice first-time electric vehicle owners to dip their toes into the EV pool.
However, the updated model does come with a price hike… which might not excite a budget-conscious buyer, especially with such affordable competitors like the MG ZS EV and Hyundai Kona Electric also available.
I’ve been hanging in it for a week with my family of three to see how it handles!
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.
The Kia Niro S Electric is a solid little SUV that has decent space inside and some nice specs, but it's more expensive than its nearest rivals. The EV powertrain can take a little getting used to and I would have liked a smoother ride, but the 460km driving range is good.
For first-time EV owners, this wouldn’t be a bad option if you wanted to dip your toes in the water but it will suit urban dwellers and smaller families, like mine, best. This gets a 7.5/10 from me.
My son wasn’t in love with this one. Not enough buttons for him to press and he did comment on how bumpy the ride was in the back. He gives it a 6.0/10.
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 a compact SUV with a footprint that's 4420mm long, 1825mm wide and 1570mm tall. But while small, I wouldn’t call it cute. It’s boxier than its sibling and without any of the swoopy design elements that make the EV6 look cool.
I do like the way the two-tone body panelling, which is seen most prominently on the C-pillar, breaks up the ‘blocky-ness’ and creates areas of interest. As do the high-mounted rear LED lights.
Speaking of lights, the base model makes do with halogen headlights, which unfortunately stand out against the LED daytime-running lights. You’ll notice the dimmer light at night, too.
The 17-inch alloy wheels are thick for better aerodynamics but the clever two-tone colouring stops them from looking unfashionable.
The interior has a lot style cred with the curvature of the door panelling blending in almost seamlessly with the dashboard.
The gently sloping panelling that houses the multimedia systems and switchable touchscreen interface for the controls creates a very pleasing cabin space.
There are some harder plastics mixed in here but enough soft touchpoints that you won’t be bothered by them.
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.
It’s surprisingly roomy inside and all passengers will enjoy decent leg and headroom, but taller passengers will find the backseat cosier than the front.
As such, two child seats will fit best but you do have ISOFIX child seat mounts on the outboard positions and three top-tether points, if you need them.
The synthetic leather/cloth seat trim cleans well and is nice to touch. The seats themselves, front and rear, are well-padded and super comfortable.
The backs of the front seats can double as coat hangers and have hardened kickplates, which are always practical for little feet.
The front row gets the most amenities and tech. The 8.0-inch touchscreen multimedia system has clear graphics but is different to other Kia’s I’ve sampled recently. It seems to have been simplified but you’ll get used to it quickly.
There are plenty of charging options available, too, with a USB-A and C port, plus a 12-volt socket. Not needing a cable for the wireless Apple CarPlay is a bonus, too!
The front row also has the most storage space with two retractable cupholders, dedicated phone tray, glove box, middle console and skinny drink bottle holders in each door.
Back seat passengers enjoy two USB-C ports, reading lights, drink bottle holders in each door plus an armrest with two cupholders. As well as, a standard three-pin socket in case you need to run electrical gear or charge anything up on the go.
The windows are wide and offer good visibility but I really like the 150mm ground clearance. It was super easy for my six-year old to climb in and out, plus he got a good view this week!
The boot is good for this size SUV with 475L of capacity available. It does look more like a hatchback, because while you can readjust the floor to sit lower, the back still slopes up.
However, it was fine for my weekly grocery and school run. The 'frunk' storage is small at 20L, which is just big enough for a charging cable.
You don’t get a spare wheel but you do get a puncture repair kit. And being the base model, it’s not a powered tailgate but it’s not heavy to close.
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 are two variants for the Niro, our base model, the S, and the range-topper GT-Line.
Despite being the base model, the Niro S will still set you back $65,300, before on-road costs. Which makes it about $5K dearer than the equivalent Kona Electric, and $20K more expensive than the ZS EV.
There is a hybrid Niro (also available in two grades), if you’re not quite ready to commit to a full EV life. The price isn’t as eye-watering, either, being just $44,380, before on-road costs.
The Niro is well-specified, though, and the driver will enjoy an electric seat with adjustable lumbar support while the passenger side remains manual.
The regenerative braking is customisable (levels 0-3), there’s an 'iPedal' function, a dual-zone climate system, reversing camera and the backs of the front seats even double as coat hangers.
The tech is also good, with an 8.0-inch touchscreen multimedia system, 10.25-inch digital instrument panel plus wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto all coming as standard equipment. More on the tech below.
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 Niro is a full EV and has a front-wheel drive drivetrain with a maximum output of 150kW/255Nm. It’s not as powerful as its stablemate and only has the single-motor which is powered by a 64.8kWh lithium-ion battery but going from 0-100km/h can still be achieved in 7.8 seconds. With specs like those, this is most suited for an urban setting.
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.
Such is the EV life but you can’t escape the charging.
The onboard DC charger has up to 85kW of capacity and that means on a 50kW fast charger station, you can get from 10 to 80 per cent in 65 minutes.
However, if plugged into a 350kW ultra-fast charger, you’ll only save 22 minutes because it can’t accept that faster speed.
On a 7.5kW system, you’ll go from 10 to 80 per cent in approximately nine hours, 25 minutes. On an 11kW, you’ll see that figure drop to six hours, 20 minutes.
The charging port is a Type 2 (CCS Combo2) and the car comes with an emergency charging cable that can plug into a standard three-pin domestic socket, if needed.
However, it’s slow going and you’re looking at a wait time of up to 27 hours, 30 minutes to get to a full charge. All other cables cost extra.
The official kWh/100km consumption is 16.2kWh and my average on-test figure was 14.3kWh after a mix of urban and open-road driving.
However, I did see figures getting closer to 20kWh on longer trips. Still, I would consider my average to be efficient.
The Niro S has a driving range of up to 460km (WLTP).
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.
This is a pretty simple car to drive but it doesn’t feel as fun as some other EVs I’ve driven. It can even feel sluggish when you accelerate from a full stop and that makes it feel laggy in stop/start traffic.
Once you’re on your way, the acceleration is fairly responsive. You feel confident overtaking on the open road, too.
The car feels connected to the road with minimal shuddering through the steering wheel. The car responds in a timely manner when you have to make sudden moves, which I like.
Sometimes, the lane keeping aids make it feel jerky and I turned it off in some situations.
The regen braking delivers a big physical presence like the EV6 but isn’t as refined and can feel almost ‘bunny hoppy’ at times.
You can customise it up to four levels, zero being low regen and four being the iPedal. I’m not overly fond of the iPedal, so didn’t use it that much this week and kept it at level 3.
You do have to change up how you drive an EV, so this wasn’t that surprising and something I’m sure you’d get used to.
The ride comfort is pretty mixed. Around town, it’s good but there’s quite a bit of passenger movement in this. You kinda feel like you’re bobbing along sometimes, which is jolting.
You also feel the road but the seats are so comfortable, they stop it from feeling too rough.
Surprisingly, the cabin gets very loud with wind and road noise. You can still chat but you won’t forget that it’s there, which is a shame.
I didn’t notice much difference between the drive modes, so it was kept on 'Normal', too.
This is very easy to park! It’s a good size for even a tight car park with a 10.6m turning circle and the reversing camera is super clear, which is great.
However, I would have liked to have seen front parking sensors, as well as the rear sensors. You can get them on the GT-line though.
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.
The Niro EV S has a good list of safety features, with the following being standard: LED daytime running lights, lane departure alert, lane keeping aid, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, a reversing camera (with dynamic guidelines), rear parking sensors, driver fatigue alert, check rear occupant alert and adaptive cruise control (with stop/go function).
It has auto emergency braking with car, pedestrian and cyclist detection as well as junction turning assist, which is operational from 5.0-85km/h.
The Niro was recently awarded a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2022. It has eight airbags and that does include the newer front centre airbag.
There are ISOFIX child seat mounts on the rear outboard seats and three top tethers, but two seats will fit best. And while there will be room for a 0-4 rearward facing child seat, it will encroach on front passenger comfort.
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.
The ongoing costs are great on the Niro. It comes with Kia’s ‘better-than-average-for-the-market’ seven-year/150,000km warranty, which also covers the battery.
You get a seven-year capped-price servicing plan and services average $250 per year, which is good.
Servicing intervals are more in line with a petrol car at every 12 months or 15,000km. It’s usual to see those intervals doubled on an EV but it’s still reasonable.