Hyundai Were the Kings of New York at This Year's NY Auto Show, Here's What Happens Next

For a healthy portion of floor space on the Javits Center's main exhibition space, Hyundai's fleet of passenger cars and trucks dominated the event space and the discourse surrounding this year's New York Auto Show in a way one single manufacturer seldom does, even at the most historic and well-remembered auto shows. Across a sprawling center display running nearly the entire length of Hyundai's event space, the veil was lifted off game-changing facelifts for two of the brand's most important models.

With the same shared platform that became Hyundai's bread and butter, the 2025 Tuscon and Santa Cruz take the same formula that contended admirably against Honda and Toyota and add a few more layers of refinement. It's all from the same Hyundai of North America manufacturing outlet in Alabama that's produced the two models since their inception. With plain ICE, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid options available across the board for the Tucson and a 2.5-liter turbo four-banger for the Santa Cruz, you won't be jonesing for choice walking into a Hyundai dealer any time soon.

 Add on tasteful exterior updates to please the eyes, and Hyundai is placing itself in a strong position to compete against the might of Ford, Mazda, Honda, and Toyota in the mid-size crossover and light pickup segments. At the other end of the exhibit, Hyundai's award-winning Ioniq 5 N, fresh from a dub in the performance car section of the World Car of the Year, proved that big-name automakers will remain attentive to the needs and wants of the exuberant driver even as we slowly sunset internal combustion power from America's highways. As we can personally attest, America's most driver-friendly EV was a riot to ride in at least attempts to excite you with its artificial gear shifts and exhaust notes, unlike most other EVs that hardly even try anymore.

Elsewhere on display, long-standing stalwarts of the Hyundai lineup like the Elantra, Kona (in ICE and EV form), and the all-new redesigned 2024 Santa Fe, styled to look like a working man's Land Rover, played fitting side characters in a spectacle headlined by two facelifts on stage. With the standard Ioniq 5 and its cousin, the Ioniq 6, also at the show, Hyundai easily contended for the title of most real estate in New York in 2024. When the absolutely asinine costs of venue space at the Javits Center, built exactly to city codes, are taken into account, this is no meager feat on the part of Hyundai

To help me make sense of Hyundai's grand display at the show and the company's long-term plan going forward, I talked with Andre Ravinowich, Senior Manager of Product Planning for Hyundai North America, on the very stage their two darling facelifts, said hello to the piranha-like press, eager photos of a refresh of the crossover that helped turn Hyundai into the force they are in 2024. "The focus in New York this year are the two products up here [Tucson and Santa Cruz]," Ravinowich remarked about Hyundai's game plan coming into New York in 2024. "But there's an entire section at the back of the booth focused on our N products, of course, our Ioniq 5 N just won the World Performance Car of the Year this morning, it's a great win for us."

Indeed, the sporty-focused Hyundai N line made for an interesting foil to the more sensible family passenger cars that have been the brand's bread and butter for decades now. At $33,700, the Elantra N, in particular, is an incredible value that nets you 276 horsepower and the option of a six-speed manual gearbox. Still, the same dollar per horsepower figure is equally impressive throughout the Hyundai N lineup. Like a more budget and family-friendly alternative to SRT, AMG, and M-Division, the N line offers hope to working-class folks that purchasing a cheap, fun daily driver is still possible.

 By "innovating on all fronts," as Ravinowich explained, Hyundai has spent billions of R&D money over the last 12 months to improve updated models from not just a power train perspective but a useability connectivity one too. Via the Santa Cruz and Tucson's revamped infotainment display with more screen space than ever, the accessibility side of things is more than taken care of. New Tucson and Santa Cruz owners will no doubt find use for Hyundai's new in-car payment and digital key accessibility features. The infra-red camera driver assistance feature might also come good when you least expect it to, regardless of whether it feels a bit like overkill.

As Ravinowich himself can attest, Hyundai's 30,000-plus employee R&D campuses in South Korea spend unfathomable sums refining a brand once maligned as bargain-basement and laughable to one that makes industry heavyweights like sweat. It's for this reason that the mid-cycle refresh for the Tucson and Santa Cruz feels more like a quantum leap for both vehicles than a simple facelift and clever marketing campaign. "I think it speaks to the strength of the Hyundai Motor Group," Ravinowich said of Hyundai's meteoric rise to titans of the North American domestic automotive market.

But where will Hyundai go from here? With a more even spread between regular ICE, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid offerings than any automaker that isn't Toyota, can Hyundai hope to meet its goal of reaching complete carbon neutrality by 2045?With the future of powertrain standards on American roads looking more like a more open question than first thought, a country perpetually indecisive about transitioning fully to battery-electric cars and trucks leaves Hyundai in a prime spot to sell cars to all sides of the ICE vs. EV aisle.

For a brand that some experts didn't expect to make out of the 2000s because their cars were so poorly built, Hyundai being the next big thing in North America's auto space is nothing short of a Cinderella story. The considerable presence of South Korean journalists and media personnel from Hyundai in New York this year is a testament to how seriously this year's show in NYC was to the Titans over in Seoul. This show means something to them; you can't say the same about other automakers who make it apparent they're barely trying anymore.

There's a definitive difference in corporate character at Hyundai compared to less ambitious automakers at the show this year. After speaking with Hyundai themselves through Mr. Ravinowich, it's clear this difference in attitude is paying huge dividends for a company no one expected to reach such heights. With Hyundai's luxury-oriented partners at Genesis right next door, debuting their all-new Magma line of performance vehicles, the share of real estate the company occupied at the Javits Center this year made a Keanu Reeves Q and A at Comic-Con look your average Tuesday.

It's all the more fitting, considering the venue. Many thanks to Hyundai for allowing us to hear the story of Hyundai's rise and its direction going forward from the proverbial horse's mouth. They ought to make a movie out of Hyundai's remarkable success story in the 21st century. It's least as riveting as any flick involving Henry Ford. But what do you folks think? Would you consider financing an all-new Tucson or Santa Cruz? Or are there still better options from more established legacy automakers?

Feel free to let us know your two cents in the comments below.