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Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy Hybrid Pre-production 2026 Review
Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy Hybrid Pre-production 2026 Review
New technology and more features, a larger platform, and a new hybrid powertrain all bundled in one single model that’s about $10K more expensive than its direct replacement, are the headline take-aways for the 2026 Hyundai Palisade, arriving in October. With eight seats as standard (seven optional), a long list of luxury appointments, the promise of not just plenty of power but also fuel-efficiency, the new Palisade would appear to be a refined SUV for a large family. Yet the price may put off some, the new SUV feels big on narrow roads and fuel consumption may not be as low as you’d hope.
How much does the Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy Hybrid cost?
We drove a pre-production version of the 2026 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy Hybrid on a private test road in Sydney (the HART facility at St Ives), with much of the finer detail such as confirmed pricing still to be locked in.
However, Hyundai has said that it estimates a price of around $90,000 (plus on-road costs) for the new model. While new Palisade will be covered by Hyundai’s new seven-year warranty, other aftersales provision details such as capped price service pricing is yet to be locked in.
The new Palisade will arrive only in top Calligraphy trim (to begin with, at least) primarily because 83 per cent of buyers preferred it over the Elite in the outgoing range.
The headline equipment new to the Palisade includes dual tilt/slide sunroofs, Digital Key 2.0, Fingerprint recognition, Hybrid V2L, Hybrid stay mode, 16-way power adjustable driver’s seat (12-way for front passenger), Premium relaxation seats in the front (and relaxation seats for second row in the seven-seater model), winged outboard headrests in the second row, heated front, centre and rear outboard seats and auto-folding third-row seats.
This is on top of carry-over features such as privacy glass, roof rails, alloy wheels (21-inch), keyless entry/start, Nappa leather interior with suede headlining, heated steering wheel, ventilated front and rear seats. New for the infotainment system is the 14-speaker Bose audio and USB ports in all three rows, while there’s also a 12.3-inch infotainment screen and 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, Bluelink with OTA updates, sat-nav and wireless charging.
Active safety is well rounded, with improvements over the outgoing model including In Cabin Camera (driver monitoring), Highway Driving Assist 2 and visual rear door opening.
Other features we’ve seen before include Intelligent Speed Limit Assist, Lane Following Assist 2, Lane Keeping Assist, Manual Speed Limit Assist, Rear Occupant Alert with sensor, Rear Blind-Spot Collision Avoidance; Smart Cruise Control 2; with Stop & Go and Tyre Pressure Monitoring System.
There are eight airbags, front, front side, side curtain - extending to the third row, driver’s knee and front centre. The new Palisade has yet to be ANCAP tested but Hyundai believes that a five-star result is on the cards.
The new hybrid powertrain consists of a 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine and six-speed automatic linked to dual electric motors, with total combined output of 245kW and 460Nm (up from 147kW and 440Nm for the outgoing 2.2 diesel). One 13kW motor generates power, while the other 54kW motor drives the wheels. With a transversely mounted powertrain, the Palisade employs an on-demand AWD system.