How different is the new Hyundai Tucson?
In fact, if you put the current and new model together, you'd never know they were the same car. The only commonality is the extended wheelarches and the way the rear wheelarch blends into the back doors, which you can see on the current Tucson, but the new model takes it to an extreme, clearly influenced by the Hyundai Boulder and Crater concept cars.
The overall shape is much boxier, with more of a 4x4 look than the current Tucson's softly curved style; in fact, the Tucson now looks more aligned with the bigger Santa Fe in styling terms, with a flat roof and a more upright profile. It's a new look that Hyundai calls ‘Art Of Steel'.
Does it carry over the current Tucson's lighting signature?
No, the current Tucson hides its lights in a big, wing-shaped grille, but the new Tucson goes for a very different look, with a squarer front end that features a wide LED light strip just below the leading edge of the bonnet, with upright side LED strips for the daytime running lights, and main beam units tucked in closer to the top of the bumper.
At the rear, there's a similar effect: a thin LED strip running horizontally across the boot lid, with upright, slightly angled elements at the outer edges of the bodywork. The Tucson name is much more prominent on that bootlid, and Hyundai has kept its stylised H badge at the back, rather than following the herd and having the word ‘Hyundai' spelled out in letters.
The side view is dominated by the boxy wheelarches, and a shallow glasshouse that includes a distinct angled kink at the rear pillar. Actually, is there a hint of the (very distantly related) Kia EV5 in the side profile? It looks a bit like that to us.
There's also going to be an XRT version, with even more rugged styling for a proper off-road look, but we don't know if that's coming to Ireland yet.
What about the inside of the Hyundai Tucson?
You can see the influence of the smaller Hyundai Ioniq 3 (which actually went into production in Turkiye just last week, and which arrives in Ireland in about six weeks) with a large, square touchscreen in the centre of the dashboard that features Hyundai's latest ‘Pleos' operating system software but which also still has physical buttons. The slightly squared-off steering wheel is quite small, and also has proper buttons, while the main driver's instruments move to a slim strip on top of the dashboard, close to the base of the windscreen, which obviates the need for a projected head-up display.
The dashboard has deep recesses, almost like those of a Land Rover Defender, and they are backlit with ambient lighting effects. The centre console seems quite slim, but clearly incorporates two cupholders, a wireless phone charging pad, some storage, and, rather charmingly, some wood veneer trim.
The new Tucson should be very spacious - it's 180mm longer than the current model, and 100mm of that is between the wheels, so rear seat space ought to be pretty spectacular. The new Tucson is also 40mm wider and has more rear headroom too.
What about engines?
No details yet on the Tucson's mechanical package, but we'd expect the current hybrid and plug-in hybrid engines to carry over, with some updates and possibly more electric range for the PHEV. Might there be a fully electric version? It's doubtful, although Hyundai will eventually start having to combine its regular and Ioniq-badged ranges into one coherent whole, but for the moment we'd expect the Tucson to major on hybrid power to take on the likes of the Toyota RAV4.
What do we think?
Alongside the compact, electric Ioniq 3, Hyundai is again laying down a styling marker with this new Tucson, giving it a genuinely bold new look that other mid-size SUVs will now have to be judged against. We can't wait to drive one.
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