The South Korean mid-size crossover SUV Hyundai Palisade shouldn't be considered old since it entered the market in 2018 and arrived in America as a 2020 model year product.
The replacement for the Maxcruz – or Santa Fe XL outside of South Korea, it became not only the flagship crossover SUV in the lineup but also a very popular model among Kia and Hyundai buyers alongside the Kia Telluride. Of course, just like the Santa Fe – inspired by the namesake city in New Mexico, the Palisade nameplate was chosen to have resonance in the United States.
On this occasion, though, it references both the term palisade as well as the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, plus the Hudson River palisade, which runs for almost forty miles opposite Manhattan, New York, towards North. That way, it's something that invites buyers from both coasts, right?
Anyway, in the highly competitive mid-size crossover SUV segment, they are both formidable contenders, and their continued popularity is due to their spacious interiors, advanced features, good overall value for money, and more tidbits. Interestingly, if we compare the sales head-to-head, it seems the Kia Telluride is gaining a subtle yet visible advantage over the Hyundai Palisade. Naturally, the automaker has also observed the issue and will soon address it with an all-new second-generation flagship CUV.
The 2026 Hyundai Palisade was first spied on in January, so we are still some time away from the actual reveal – usually, these test programs go on for a couple of years before the automakers sign them off into production and onto the market. Clad in heavy camouflage, the all-new Palisade still feels directly inspired by the smaller Santa Fe, and the interior setup is mostly similar with a new dual-screen layout.
As such, the rumor mill now expects it to feel and act like an oversized companion of the smaller Santa Fe, which is now again a three-row family-oriented crossover SUV. That means the Palisade will have to grow a little and offer even more interior space for the occupants and their luggage. With the CUV still clad in thick layers of camouflage, it's still hard to pinpoint the exact design details.
That is probably why some folks – especially across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators, hope the boxy rugged design won't apply and, by some sort of camouflage miracle, the next Hyundai Palisade will be as stylish as a Land Rover Defender 130, for example. More precisely, the digital creator NYMammoth loves both NYC and South Korea, which is why many of his virtual creations focus on the American lineup of Kia and Hyundai.
One of his passions as of late is also the second-generation 2026 Hyundai Palisade, which is why the pixel master has opted to show it on numerous occasions, both on social media and in unofficial videos, from all angles and also dressed in various ritzy colors. Obviously, in some of them, it's easy to see that the CGI expert used a Range Rover as a source of inspiration, so do take all of these renderings with a healthy dose of salt because we haven't seen any Hyundai-Land Rover partnerships for the production of the next Palisade iteration based on a British SUV. However, do you like it or not?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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