2025 Hyundai Palisade revealed – boxy new look hides up to nine seats, 2.5L turbo hybrid rumoured

Hyundai’s upmarket aspirations continue with the unveiling of the new Palisade in its home market of South Korea. While its six-year-old predecessor was a fairly conventional take on a premium three-row SUV from a mainstream make, this new model is far more radical.

Clearly drawing inspiration from the latest Santa Fe, the Palisade is quite a bit less Land Rover-aping than its smaller sibling, but the boxy theme is clear nevertheless. The daytime running lights and taillights feature the same stacked vertical design that bookend the long body, with the DRLs in particular also framing a large and imposing grille. Neatly tucked away in the grille surround are the headlights, playing a similar trick to the lamps on the current Tucson.

Hyundai says the new Palisade’s longer wheelbase and rear overhang and shorter front overhang give it more “solid proportions”, an impression aided by massive 21-inch multi-spoke alloy wheels. As befits the car’s flagship status, you get lashings of chrome both on the D-pillars (which integrate with the upper window line trim) and the flanks and lower bumpers.

2025 Hyundai Palisade revealed – boxy new look hides up to nine seats, 2.5L turbo hybrid rumoured

Inside, the Palisade carries the theme “Premium Living Space” to provide a spacious cabin with a horizontal layout inspired by furniture design. To that end, the dashboard consists of an upper layer that wraps downwards in the corners to envelop the main lower layer, the latter serving as a shelf of sorts for the curved widescreen display panel housing twin 12.3-inch instrument and infotainment displays.

On certain models, you also get an “island-style” centre console that’s separate from the dashboard, housing a 100-watt USB-C charging port (good for charging even laptops), a Qi wireless charger, large cupholders and an armrest that opens from both sides.

2025 Hyundai Palisade revealed – boxy new look hides up to nine seats, 2.5L turbo hybrid rumoured

That “certain models” bit is important, because the console can be replaced by an additional seat, turning the Palisade from a seven-seater (with second-row captain’s chairs) to a nine-seater (with bench seats on all rows). This means that in Korea, the car will not only be able to use bus lanes but also get tax exemptions for private buyers and VAT refunds for businesses.

Hyundai has not released any technical specification for the new Palisade, treating this as a design reveal. However, rumours suggest that the car will be offered with a 2.5 litre turbocharged hybrid powertrain pushing out 335 PS and 456 Nm of torque, replacing the 3.8 litre naturally-aspirated V6. This should greatly reduce road tax in our market while providing significantly higher outputs.

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