It is true if we said that the latest generation Hyundai Santa Fe, known internally as MX5, isn’t suffering the expected success. In countries like South Korea, has been beaten by the Sorento and more recently by a MPV, the KIA Carnival. It’s not even in the top three.
The Hybrid and SUV trend still not enough for Santa Fe
Hyundai Motor launched the 5th generation model Santa Fe in August 2023 and started selling it only with a gasoline engine. In the first two months when the new Santa Fe sales began, the hybrid model was not available, making it difficult to enjoy the full new car effect.
Back in October, deliveries of the Hybrid model started and sales have jumped significantly. While initially recorded 550 units in August and 4329 units in September, began to enjoy the effect of new car, selling 7946 units in October thanks to the added Hybrid powertrain. Again in November, the Santa Fe reached 8,780 units sold (the best month so far). During December sales decreased to 7,682 units while in January sold 8,016 units, the best data so far, but in February a new rival took the second place. March or April placed Santa Fe in the 5th place and now sales keeps dropping.
What was unexpected was Santa Fe sales drop in May and June, with Sportage, Hyundai Grandeur, Kia Carnival forward or even Hyundai Sonata forward. Did the All-New Santa Fe failed again even with the new generation?
Refreshed model to get a completely makeover
Our colleagues at NYMammoth imagined how the refreshed Santa Fe could look, applying several solutions from another Hyundai cars. At the top of the front, they have applied Hyundai’s side to side DRL light we have seen in another models like Grandeur, Staria or more recently in the Sonata with several success.
Below this line, the designer applied a pair of headlights that are pretty similar to what we have seen in the next-gen Hyundai Palisade prototype. The 5th generation Santa Fe was extremely liked and disliked because of its unconventional design, which was completely different from the previous generation. If Hyundai apply the new Palisade design cues to the facelift model could get a more balanced appearance, so the popularity of Santa Fe could increase. What do you think?
