In a world where electrified vehicles are in short supply, Hyundai Australia is bucking trends with its Toyota Kluger-rivalling Santa Fe Hybrid.
As it stands, the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid accounts for 21 per cent of sales, or a little over one in five Santa Fe registrations in Australia. For reference, the diesel accounts for 66 per cent, and the V6 petrol is 14 per cent of the mix.
Further to the healthy sales mix, Hyundai Australia says it has Santa Fe Hybrid stock on the ground in Australia right now, with “good consistent supply arriving over the next couple of months”.
“I understand a customer could walk into a dealer right now and buy a Santa Fe Hybrid [and shortly take delivery],” said Tim Rodgers, product planning and development manager for Hyundai Australia.
“It’s quite unique, actually,” Mr Rodgers added, in reference to supply-stricken rival makes struggling to supply electrified vehicles to the Australian market.
The 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid is priced from $63,000 for the Elite specification, and $69,550 for the flagship Highlander – a $3000 premium over equivalent Diesel AWD models. All prices exclude on-road costs.
Hyundai opted to only bring in the all-wheel drive (AWD) variant to Australia, despite a cheaper front-wheel drive option being available overseas, as well as in the related Kia Sorento Hybrid which is currently on stop-sale due to supply that’s been described as “tokenism at best”.
As such, the Santa Fe Hybrid uses the same 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol hybrid drivetrain as its Sorento cousin, offering system outputs of 169kW and 350Nm, and claiming combined fuel use of 6.0L per 100km.
Local models exclusively drive all four wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission, which also integrates the 44.2kW/264Nm electric motor.
For reference, the Kia Sorento HEV quotes 5.3-5.8L/100km (FWD-AWD) and the Toyota Kluger Hybrid claims to use 5.6L/100km on the combined cycle.
MORE: 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid review
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