Hyundai Santa Fe (2021 - ) review

With the same petrol engine at its core the updated Santa Fe is available as a ‘full’ hybrid where the electric motor helps out and can power the vehicle on its own for short distances, or as a plug-in (also known as a PHEV), with a bigger battery and more powerful motor. In theory this can save you at the pumps on the basis you can do short journeys without using the petrol engine at all, but the reality is most people will choose it for its tax efficiency, rather than fuel efficiency. That’s because if you’re buying it as a company car you can save hundreds a month in Benefit In Kind so can claw back the extra cost of the PHEV over a typical three-year finance term. Unless you can plug it in at home and are diligent about only using the electric motor for short journeys the savings for private buyers are less clear cut – if that’s you the cheaper standard hybrid may be the better bet.

While previous versions of the Santa Fe haven’t reflected Hyundai's normally strong position in reliability rankings this is an all-new generation, so we’ll hope it’s now up to the standards of the rest of the range. If anything should go wrong you have the reassurance of the brand’s five-year warranty, which is more generous than most but still lags behind the seven years you get on an equivalent Kia Sorrento.

Buyers of family-oriented cars like the Santa Fe rightly prioritise safety, and Hyundai has you covered here with a much improved range of driver assistance systems to keep you out of trouble. Automatic emergency braking is a given these days, the Santa Fe’s system responding to unseen pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles turning across you at junctions. A system to stop you inadvertently pulling out into vehicles in your blindspot is also standard, which is good on the basis many rivals make you pay extra for this. On the top model you even get camera generated blindspot views projected into the instrument cluster when you put the indicator on, which is nifty but near useless if rain gets on the lenses. Good, old-fashioned mirrors are still your friends here. For those who drive in all weathers the option of all-wheel drive (standard on the PHEV) is welcome, but don't kid yourself the Santa Fe is a proper off-roader.

With its focus on squishy leather and lots of silver painted plastic trim Hyundai’s interpretation of luxury feels quite old school these days, but the Santa Fe looks after the occupants in all seven of its seats. These are heated as standard for the driver, passenger and the outer two places on the rear bench and there’s lots of power-assisted adjustment up front to find a comfy driving position. In five-seat mode there’s lots of space in the second row and a big boot for your stuff, the third row deploying with a single lever but meaning those in the middle have to scoot up a little closer to the front seats. As such it’s probably fine for six and a bit of a squeeze for seven but if it’s your designated day on the after-school club taxi rota and you need to cram a few extra bodies in for a short distance the flexibility is really useful, though the way the rear parcel shelf snags the rearmost seatbelts is a constant pain. On the road the Santa Fe (correctly) delivers an easy-going driving style geared to comfort rather than driving thrills. While it’s refined on a run thanks to the switch from diesel to petrol-hybrid we still found the suspension a little crashy around town, though.

Obvious updates to the Santa Fe’s styling include a more distinctive front end with bigger lights either side of the imposing grille and a premium looking rear light treatment with full-width reflector reminiscent of what Audi and Mercedes have on their SUVs. In trim terms Hyundai keeps it commendably simple with just two levels, both very well equipped. There’s a new, bigger central touch-screen with smart graphics, all the connected functionality you need built in (supported with a free five-year subscription) and the option of CarPlay or Android Auto if you prefer your apps. The higher grade also gets the fully digital instrument display. The new centre console is a case of be careful what you wish for, on the basis previous moans about the industry trend to replacing buttons with touch-sensitive surfaces is one Hyundai bucks with a bewildering array of switches. There has to be a sensible middle-ground somewhere…

Range anxiety is a big topic around electric cars but the Santa Fe shows it can also be an issue with hybrids, the plug-in version we tested struggling to cover 300 miles on a full tank of petrol and fully charged battery. That doesn’t sound too bad but gets pretty inconvenient if you do big miles and goes to show hybrids aren’t in their element on the motorway, the projected triple-digit fuel consumption also plummeting once the battery was drained and you were back to relying on the petrol engine. The integration between the engine, the motor and the automatic gearbox wasn’t the smoothest either, responding to sudden demands for power with some unpleasant lurches. For all that, and the fact your real-world fuel consumption may actually be better, unless you need the PHEV to claim those tax benefits we’d probably save the upfront cash and stick with the regular hybrid.