Range Rover Evoque vs Hyundai Palisade

What's the difference?

The Range Rover Evoque is more highly specified and more luxurious than ever, and this plug-in hybrid version makes the most of what’s on offer with its slick but familiar feel from behind the wheel. 

Unfortunately, it does have an eye-watering price tag to go with its classy design and the options list is a bit rude, all things considered, but the core offering is a solid luxury buy for city-slickers, nonetheless. 

What makes the Evoque P300e stand out for me is its impressive EV driving range and excellent charging specs which make it as convenient as possible to make the most of its electrified features.

It’s up to the buyer whether these conveniences and the Range Rover badge are worth swapping into a car a full size down from its luxury plug-in rivals for the same money.

The Palisade Calligraphy is a nice SUV to drive on road. It’s composed and refined, and as an eight-seater, it makes a sensible daily driver, especially for those of us with more than a couple of children.

My teenagers loved this Palisade because there were charge points for everyone – namely them – and that second row, according to them, is very comfortable.

It has a few niggles, but, while it’s not perfect, the Palisade Calligraphy does so many things so well that you are willing to forgive it its few quirks and AWD gives it a handy advantage over any of its 2WD rivals. 

The Evoque has always been a car all about its sleek, city-slicking design, an iconic piece of modern SUV art from Jaguar Land Rover head of design, Gerry McGovern.

With its shapely proportions, clever descending roofline, and a silhouette which successfully reflects a miniaturised version of the Range Rover, the Evoque is at once classy with a faint suggestion of toughness under the skin.

The blacked-out grille, slimline headlights, and contemporary strip across the tailgate all serve to add intrigue to this SUV, and the extra detailing in the front bumper, shapeliness of the bonnet, and contrast black trims (with extra contrast panels on our test car matching the gloss black wheels) serving to add to its premium appeal.

It’s important to remember, while the Evoque slides into a busy small SUV landscape now, it was one of the first to make a premium car so successfully appealing in this small SUV space way back in 2011 with the first Evoque, following Land Rover’s historic trend of being in front of the SUV curve.

Rival small SUV designs may have caught up in the minds of many with the likes of the Audi Q3, BMW X2, and Volvo XC40 shining in recent years, but few have won as many design accolades as the Evoque.

Range Rover seems to be leaning into a more upper luxury trend, not just with the pricing, but with the vibe of the car’s interiors, too.

The new generation Evoque, for example, took a big jump in the look and feel of its interior appointments when it launched in 2019, and over time has only consolidated its market positioning.

The HSE grade which our P300e hybrid arrives in is lavish on the inside, with lovely suede-like seats, intricate contrasting grey cloth trims in the doors (do I detect an influence from Volvo here?) and a plush-looking dash, all finished in soft-to-the touch materials.

Attention to detail, like the silver bezels which adorn the centre console and media screen, add to the premium flair which lifts the Range Rover badge above the Land Rover one, and I do like the way the additional function screen seamlessly melts into the piano finish and integrated dials. While it’s always a nightmare to keep gloss piano finishes clean, it looks oh-so primo.

It’s a little odd the P300e has analogue dials, which seems to miss the premium edge which a fully digital dash might provide although the 7.0-inch centre dash screen has a great resolution and speed, as well as a mostly well laid out operating system.

I found the R-Dynamic modes, which can sharpen up the accelerator response and steering buried two menus deep, unnecessarily hard to find, as were various EV information screens and other less important functions.

This is a nice looking SUV in a generic, non-offensive way.

The Calligraphy is in the top ranks of the Palisade range, so, in terms of design you'd expect it to be a bit easy on the eye and it is, especially the exterior, from the big grille all the way back.

Our test vehicle’s colour looks a lot like black to me. Hyundai calls it 'Robust Emerald' and I started to not strongly dislike it after a few days.

The interior has a real premium look and feel to it with Nappa leather accents and expanses of soft-touch surfaces adding to that prevailing overall impression.

This is a cleanly designed space – it's really quite easy on the eyes – and it's comfortable to be in. Bonus: the build quality is great, it all feels so well put together. 

This Palisade is also a prime example of a car maker effectively blending high-tech displays and controls into a cabin in a low-key way – nothing really seems out of place here and everything is easy to locate and operate.

While it still plays the role of Range Rover’s smallest SUV, the current Evoque is much bigger than the car it replaced in 2019. I would go so far as to say it’s deceptively large on the inside.

Front occupants are treated to a cabin which now feels almost as wide as an actual Range Rover, with plenty of room for elbows on either side, which are, of course, met by lovely soft-touch surfaces.

The raised console helps with the upmarket feel, as does the plush dash. The standard 14-way adjust front seats help to accommodate most passengers, with my only criticism being the large A-pillars and height of the dash can make it feel a little bit claustrophobic compared to some rival luxury SUVs.

Storage is offered through a set of large door pockets, a centre console box, dual bottle holders behind the shift lever, and a healthy nook underneath the climate controls, which also hosts a wireless charging bay.

The rear seats share the same comfortable rim as the front ones, and also have large pockets in the doors. Despite the descending roofline, I had just enough room for my head at 182cm tall although it is notable the space in the PHEV feels smaller with the raised floor needed to accommodate the batteries.

I had a little airspace for my knees behind my own driving position, too. The main drawback for rear passengers is the large transmission tunnel, making it difficult to accommodate an adult in the centre position.

There are adjustable air vents for rear passengers, but it is frustrating Land Rover has chosen to make rear USB-C charging ports an arbitrary $270 option.

The boot is also deceptively large for such a small SUV, measuring in at 472 litres (VDA), it’s above average for the small SUV class and fits the full CarsGuide luggage set, provided you remove the parcel shelf as it's just a smidge too high.

You'll also need to keep your charging cables in the boot, as there's no underfloor storage, the entire space being taken up by a space-saver spare wheel.

Once you've spent any time in the Palisade Calligraphy cabin, you get to realise just how comfortable it is. 

The driver and front-passenger seats are very comfortable and very supportive, and these are both power adjustable. The driver’s seat is 12-way power-adjustable so you can precisely dial in your position.

There are so many handy features to the interior that if you can find something that's missing, I want to hear about it. 

There are plenty of storage spaces and cupholders* and lots of charge points, including a USBs up the front and two USB-Cs for each row’s passengers.

* Hyundai reckons there are 17 cupholders throughout the Palisade interior but I didn’t count them so we’re taking the company's word for it.

The second row is quite spacious and on the right side of comfortable and the passengers have access to sufficient controls including climate control. 

The outboard seats are heated and there are controls for the fan on the back of the centre console. There are USB-C points on the inside edges of the front seats for the second-row passengers, a couple of cupholders either side as well as sun shades on each second-row window.

That’s helpful if you're trying to get your little ones to sleep, or at least prevent the sun from blasting them in the eyes. 

In terms of child restraint points in the second row, you have three top tether points and two ISOFIX anchors and in the third row you have two top tethers and one ISOFIX location. 

The third row is the domain of children, or two adults if you don't like them. There's not a lot of room. I racked the second row forward just a bit to give me some much-needed knee room.

There are a couple of cupholders either side in the third row and passengers there do have access to air vents. This is sufficiently comfortable for children, but it's a no-go zone for adults. 

With all three rows in use, there is a claimed 311 litres of cargo space in the boot area, which doesn’t mean a lot until you can see what fits in there, for better or worse.

Now, normally in a Family review, you might expect to see groceries and maybe a pram in the rear cargo area as an illustrative measure of what you can or cannot fit in there. Well, that’s not my style.

This is an AWD vehicle, and I drive on dirt roads as part of any AWD test, so I wanted some items from my vehicle-recovery kit onboard, including a set of four MaxTrax (vehicle-recovery boards, if you don’t know already), an air compressor (to re-inflate a punctured or intentionally deflated tyre), a first-aid kit, and a tyre-puncture repair kit.

All of these things fit easily into the rear cargo area with the third row up and theoretically in use.

That listed cargo space increases to 704 litres with the third row stowed away.

Then, with the second and third rows down you’re at 2447 litres.

Kerb weight is 2070kg and GVM is 2755kg, so you have a little bit of wiggle room in terms of how much you can pack onboard. A full-size spare sits under the body at the rear. 

The Calligraphy is available as a 3.8-litre petrol front-wheel drive with an eight-speed automatic transmission and eight seats, or with the 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engine, eight-speed auto and AWD, as in our test vehicle, priced from $82,175 (excluding on-road costs).

Standard features include a 10-inch head-up display, heated steering wheel, Nappa leather-appointed seats, 12-way power-adjustable driver’s seat (with preferred position memory), ventilated first- and second-row seats, heated second-row seats, dual sunroof with tilt function, remote park assist (forward and reverse), a digital rear-view mirror and 20-inch alloy wheels with a full size spare wheel.

The Evoque now sports Jaguar Land Rover’s hybridised ‘Ingenium’ engine family across the range, and the set-up which appears in the plug-in hybrid model might be the most interesting.

It consists of a 1.5-litre three-cylinder combustion engine which is said to produce 147kW/280Nm, and an electric motor powering the rear axle producing 80kW, the two of which combine for an impressive quoted total output of 227kW/540Nm, driving all four wheels.

The motor sources its power from a 15kWh lithium-ion battery pack under the floor of the car, which provides a claimed 62km of fully-electric driving range.

Land Rover also replaced the mechanical brake pedal with a drive-by-wire one to allow for improved ‘blended’ regenerative braking.

Our test vehicle has a 2.2-litre four-cylinder, common-rail, turbo-diesel engine sending 147kW (at 3800rpm) and 440Nm (at 1750-2750rpm) to all four wheel via an eight-speed automatic transmission. 

This Palisade has an AWD system called 'HTrac' (Hyundai Traction) and it operates on a similar principle to most other AWD systems in city-going SUVs, and that is it directs power to the appropriate wheels to optimise traction. 

This vehicle also has multiple drive modes – 'Comfort', 'Sport', 'Eco' and 'Smart' – for on road and 'Sand', 'Mud' and 'Snow' for when you go off-road.

These off-road drive modes are absolutely no substitute for 4WD, but they are fine for when conditions get slippery, for example, if there’s a little bit of rain on the bitumen or the dirt track becomes slightly muddy.

Claimed energy consumption on the combined WLTP cycle for the Range Rover Evoque P300e is 2.0L/100km. As with all plug-in hybrids though, this will heavily depend on how it is driven.

The 15kWh battery is said to provide a 62km driving range (again, on the WLTP cycle), which seems healthy for a PHEV, and I was pleased to find that my car was reporting about 56km on a full charge, not far off the claim.

Importantly, the Evoque has stellar charging specifications, which make it ideal for a city-slicker with minimal time to conveniently charge.

I was shocked to find a DC charging port when I flipped open the panel, which is capable of charging the tiny battery up in just 20 minutes (at a peak rate of 35kW), while on a slower but easier-to-find AC charger, it can extract 7kW allowing a charge time of around two hours.

This is well above par for a plug-in hybrid, and makes charging quick, painless and convenient, even for those who can’t charge at home.

As a result of this ease-of-charging and therefore minimal time spent in the hold or hybrid modes, my car reported an astounding 1.0/100km of fuel consumption during my week, covering mostly urban kilometres.

The only drawback is the need to fill this small turbo engine with mid-shelf 95RON fuel.

Fuel consumption is listed as 7.3L/100km on a combined cycle. On this test, I recorded 9.0L/100km. 

The Palisade has a 71-litre fuel tank. So, going by that on-test figure, you could expect a driving range of almost 800km from a full tank.

But remember you’ll be carrying more people and gear onboard so fuel economy will be affected accordingly.

The second-gen Evoque is still the lovely, luxury, small SUV it was when it launched in 2019, and this plug-in hybrid version only serves to improve the formula, adding sleek electric driving characteristics to the already-smooth turbo engine and torque converter automatic.

Interestingly, and like its Volvo XC60 rival, the electric motor is located on the rear axle, giving this car the odd characteristic of being rear-wheel drive when driven electrically, or predominantly front-wheel drive when driven in combustion mode.

Speaking of modes, this car does the bulk of the management, with only three driving modes available to the pilot. These include the default ‘hybrid’ mode, which as the name suggests, blends the two power sources with more of an emphasis on electric driving when the battery is charged.

There's also an electric mode, which will only use the rear axle motor until the battery runs out, and a ‘Hold’ mode which will still blend the two sources but predominantly rely on the combustion engine to maintain the car’s state of charge.

You might want to use the last mode if you're travelling long-distance, to maintain the electric range for where it is most efficient - in low-speed stop-start driving.

The regenerative braking is not adjustable, having just a single mild level. It’s far from the single-pedal driving you can experience in a fully electric car, but Land Rover has made the brake pedal fly-by-wire so it can blend increased regen with the mechanical brakes.

It makes for a familiar experience from behind the wheel for those coming straight out of a purely combustion vehicle.

The electrified brake pedal does have the consequence of removing a bit of feel for a keen driver, and the same can be said for the rather slow steering tune in the default settings which makes the Evoque feel more luxurious and less sporty or reactive than it could be.

It’s a shame, because the two power sources combine to make for a thumping amount of power when you stick your boot in, and the all-wheel drive system and nicely balanced suspension keep this little SUV well under control in the corners.

As with my original Evoque range review in 2019, though, it is notable how heavy this SUV feels, particularly compared to some rivals like the Audi Q3.

The heftiness suits the Evoque's expanded dimensions and even more upmarket feel, but despite the power on offer it’s not an agile SUV to be carving corners in.

At least the ride quality and quietness is superb, making the Evoque an ideal SUV for driving around the centre of pothole-stricken Sydney, with a notable amount of poise. At the end of the day, isn’t that what this Range Rover was built for?

This is an easy driving wagon. It's nice and comfortable, it's refined, it's always composed and it's always controlled and it's just an all around nice drive from the engine and the auto, which are a really good pairing. 

As mentioned earlier, kerb weight is listed as 2070kg and this Palisade has an 11.8m turning circle, so it’s not an insubstantial vehicle to steer around.

It’s not very dynamic, not very lively, but it has a nice consistent feel to it all – and being composed and consistent is important with something that's intended as a people mover, as a family vehicle because that's what you want. 

Ride and handling are well sorted out and, though there’s a touch of firmness to the suspension, ride quality is smooth in general terms. 

There are the paddle shifters on the steering wheel if you want a little bit more input into shifting up and down in the automatic transmission, but it’s rather clever so you can just let it do its job as it does that nicely. 

There are four on-road drive modes – Comfort, Eco, Sport and Smart. Smart tweaks vehicle characteristics such as engine output, transmission settings and braking to suit your driving style, and depending on which of the other modes you select, it will adjust those characteristics and/or more to suit the terrain or the conditions you’re driving in. 

And while this Palisade is impressive in terms of performance and driving characteristics, there are a few niggles. 

Acceleration is a bit laggy and it takes a heavy right boot to get the Palisade moving at pace.

Some of the driver-assist tech is often abrupt and intrusive. The traffic-sign recognition (or speed limit assist) is clunky. It detects and reacts to signs that don't apply at that time of day, say school zone signs, or it picks up on signs that don't apply to that section of road.

So, it's forever chopping and changing between speeds you should be at and speeds you shouldn't. You can adjust those settings or switch them off in the Hyundai app via the touchscreen multimedia system, but those settings return as defaults when you next start the vehicle. 

Now for some dirty talk. The Palisade Calligraphy is an all-wheel drive SUV wagon that does sufficiently well on terrain that would be moderately challenging for a 2WD vehicle. 

Our light-duty test track is sandy and there are some very shallow wheel ruts – nothing serious – and this Palisade handled all of the minor challenges well.

Ride quality over some of the lumpier sections was good. It's a bit on the firm side as you'd expect because this is a SUV designed for the suburbs not the Simpson, but it is perfectly reasonable on a very easy dirt track in dry conditions. 

And that’s the good thing about an AWD over a 2WD vehicle; you have that extra degree of traction, especially if you get into a traction-compromised situation such as a slippery wet bitumen road or a slightly muddy, but otherwise well-maintained, gravel route. 

This Palisade has three terrain driving modes – Sand, Mud, and Snow – which each adjust throttle response, engine output, and the automatic transmission, among other things, to ensure you keep moving safely with controlled momentum. 

If you’re planning to use your daily driver / family mover as a towing platform it’s handy to note that the Pailsade’s towing capacity is 750kg (unbraked) and 2200kg (braked).

The Palisade has the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, from testing in 2022.

As standard the Calligraphy has seven airbags, as well as a stack of driver-assist technology including AEB, adaptive cruise control, a 360-degree camera, lane keeping assist and more.

As of April, 2021 all Land Rover products are finally covered by an industry-standard five-year and unlimited kilometre warranty, matching its key rivals, and beating out BMW which persists with an old three-year warranty promise. Five years of roadside assist is also included for the duration.

When it comes to servicing, the P300e is available to be purchased with a five-year plan ($2650 - $530 annually) which covers 102,000km of visits.

This pack is well worthwhile as Land Rover servicing is generally quite expensive when purchased a-la-carte.

Every Palisade is covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty and roadside assistance is complimentary for the first 12 months, renewed annually (for the life of the vehicle) if you have your Palisade serviced at an authorised Hyundai dealer. 

Service intervals are set at every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs soonest, and pre-paid plans are available over three, four or five years.

The latter costs $2445, which equates to $489 per service. Not cheap but not outrageous.