2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid review: Feelin’ fancy

Becoming the center youngster is never ever enjoyment, but the 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid would make the most of it. Hanging out concerning the a few-row Palisade and its ever-so-a little lesser Tucson sibling, the Santa Fe depends on a fancier method to relatives-friendliness in order to justify its existence, and a new hybrid powertrain presents men and women a different purpose to look at out this midsizer, as very well.

Posh getup

The Santa Fe and Palisade rely on a lot of of the very same style and design staples, which is quite significantly a fantastic thing. The Santa Fe is a handsome midsize SUV. Its maw may well be a small large for some people’s preferences, but I imagine it integrates very well with break up-amount headlights and numerous parts of silver trim on the reduced aspect of the physique. It can be handsome plenty of to generate a compliment or two with out going far too tough in the styling paint, which is extra of the Tucson’s arena. And now that hybrids are offered across approximately all of Hyundai’s lineup, you might be not going to discover any garish brightwork signaling electrification it really is as usual as any other crossover out there.

The Santa Fe Hybrid’s interior really ramps up the plushness. My Minimal-trim tester rings in at $forty one,290 including $one,185 for vacation spot, and irrespective of hovering close to the ordinary new-motor vehicle transaction price tag in 2021, it must make families sense like they have moved up a course. The leather seats are relaxed and supportive, and they are equally heated and cooled. Comfortable products protect all the relevant touch details, and make top quality is substantial all-close to. The textured complete of the front door speaker grilles might be my beloved aspect.

An electronic press-button shifter hangs out on a center console that rides sort of substantial, but it would make room for a positively cavernous storage cubby beneath. If which is not plenty of, you can find a sizable pocket beneath the center armrest, and the door cards are deep plenty of for more bottles, masks, snacks, you identify it. An additional intelligent touch listed here is the wi-fi cell phone charger, which you slot your cell phone into vertically, stopping it from sliding close to and getting rid of link although driving. Out back again, you can find an ample 36.4 cubic feet of cargo house, which is on par with the outgoing Jeep Grand Cherokee, and it really is gentle a long time ahead of the Chevy Blazer and Toyota Venza, but the Honda Passport has it beat with a shade in excess of 50 cubes powering the next row.

Plush driving at a expense

The 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid does not just seem fancy, it feels it, far too. The initially thing I recognize is how dang silent the interior is at speed. Even in excess of some of Michigan’s gnarlier roadways, the Santa Fe Hybrid permits quite number of aural annoyances into the cabin, and these that do make it within appear largely from the powertrain on the other facet of the firewall. The ride top quality is fantastic, with set dampers mitigating all but the harshest highway surfaces, holding up that luxury-adjacent experience.

Under the Santa Fe Hybrid’s hood is the very same hybrid-electric powertrain that can be found in the a little lesser Tucson Hybrid. A one.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder motor combines with an electric motor to develop a web 226 horsepower, which is fed to all four wheels (conventional!) as a result of a 6-speed automatic transmission. This powertrain is just not going to acquire any awards for audio top quality, coming off a small tractor-ish for my style, but you can find a ample amount of money of ahead motion on tap. Off-the-line acceleration feels strong many thanks to that electric motor, and I can hardly sense the transfer from electric to ICE propulsion. It only really visits up when I test to depart a end sign far too swiftly, as the powertrain can take an more pair of ticks to determine out what it wants to do. The Santa Fe Hybrid does appear with a mode swap, but I discover the motor vehicle at its ideal when every little thing is remaining in its default state.

The powertrain will do a good career acclimating families to the hybrid lifetime, but gas overall economy leaves a bit to be ideal. The EPA estimates the 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid’s hydrocarbon thrift at 33 mpg town, 30 mpg highway and 32 mpg mixed. Which is superior than fuel-only competition will muster, but it pales in comparison to the crossover’s most important competitor, the Toyota Venza, which can attain forty mpg in the town and 37 on the highway.   

Fantastic tech

Hyundai has prolonged offered 1 of my beloved infotainment devices, and its most current iteration in the 2021 Santa Fe Hybrid only would make it superior. A 10.3-inch display screen rises from the center of the dashboard, carrying the most current edition of Hyundai’s telematics, which has been reskinned to match the most current from sister model Genesis. The outcome is extra visually interesting, with a minimalist household monitor and a menu web site that puts all the critical stuff in reach. Apple CarPlay and Android Vehicle are, as you may well anticipate, conventional across the lineup. A next monitor resides in the gauge cluster, furnishing the regular speedometer and hybrid electric power meter, in addition to a configurable part that allows me keep track of gas overall economy, hybrid technique procedure, what’s taking part in on the radio, the regular.

Korean automakers have standardized a prolonged record of energetic and passive security devices, and the Santa Fe Hybrid keeps that going. Normal kit incorporates ahead-collision warning, automatic unexpected emergency braking, blind-place monitoring, lane-holding help and full-speed adaptive cruise regulate. Freeway Drive Support combines some of these options to maintain the car or truck in its lane at the rate of targeted traffic, and as considerably as hands-on devices go, it really is a fantastic 1, controlling its placement very well with out swaying or bouncing about.

Down to brass tacks

At $forty one,290 out the door, the 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid is fairly darn very affordable for a little something this fancy, even extra so when you look at the base model can be experienced for a hair beneath $35,000. Though fuel-driven competition abound, from the Chevy Blazer to the Honda Passport, its most important electrified competitor is the Toyota Venza, which has the Hyundai beat on gas overall economy and general luxuriousness, and the two are fairly evenly matched on price tag. It is, even so, styled like a glass of room-temperature milk. There’s also the subject of the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid, which presents up a little bit of house within and out, but it has extra evocative styling, presenting a case wherever a car’s major competitor might be calling from within the property.

The 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid is totally well worth your time. Though the performance could be superior, a sleek powertrain and a posh stature have the makings for fairly the benefit play in its price tag variety, offering families a good way to ease into electrification.