Hyundai has just launched the fourth-generation of its midsize Tucson in its home market of Korea, though it won’t reach us in Australia until the first half of 2021.
Although it’s built in short- and long-wheelbase variants only the LWB version will come here.
New Tucson has what Hyundai designers call ‘parametric dynamics’ with kinetic jewel surface details that to try and give it a different look from others in what is a rather crowded market segment. The interior comes in black or grey tones in either cloth or leather material.
The vertically-oriented, fully-integrated centre fascia has twin silver garnish lines that run from the centre fascia to the rear doors. Ambient mood lighting is adjustable to 64 colours in 10 levels of brightness.
Tucson offers advanced technologies on an 8-inch colour touchscreen coupled with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Customers can connect two phones simultaneously. Bluetooth allows driver and passenger to alternate between their playlists without disconnecting and reconnecting their respective phones.
Tucson’s second-row seats will feature ‘fold-and-dive’ functionality for optimised reconfiguration between passengers and cargo. Its cargo volume will provide up to 1095 litres of usable space.
New generation engines will be based on the current Australian range, that is 2.0-litre turbo-diesel, 2.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol and 1.6-litre turbo-petrol.
Hyundai’s HTRAC all-wheel-drive system will give the driver a choice of a number of modes. The current Tucson HTRAC has Eco, Comfort, Smart, Sport driving modes. The new model will also offer Mud, Sand and Snow in some markets. It seems likely Australians will be give access to this, but we will have to wait and see.
New Tucson will be available with advanced safety technology including: Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist (BCA), with Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (RCCA), Smart Cruise Control (SCC) with Stop and Go and Safe Exit Warning (SEW).
Hyundai will, of course, have a suspension and steering set up by engineers from Australia and South Korea to give it the feel and handling we like.
The full Australian model line-up and pricing will be provided later and we will bring them to you as soon as we get them. Followed by our initial impressions during the test drive at the launch event.
