New Hyundai Santa Fe unveiled

Hyundai has revealed the third generation of the Santa Fe SUV at the ongoing 2012 New York Auto Show. The new Santa Fe has received engine tune-ups, reworked styling and plenty of new technology. Hyundai has sold over 25.60 lakh units of the Santa Fe worldwide since its launch in 2000 though in India, the SUV hasn’t quite revved up sales the way it was expected to. The Korean car maker expects the new Santa Fe to capture over 5 percent of market share in its segment in Europe. 

The new Santa Fe now sports Hyundai’s signature fluidic design language and the design theme for the soft-roader is called ‘Storm Edge,’ which has been tailored to make the vehicle look more aggressive than its predecessor. The new vehicle is also longer, lower and wider than its predecessor – its roofline has been lowered, the windshield has been swept backwards, the lower edges of the rear side windows have been upswept and the rear windshield has been raked. 

The third generation Santa Fe comes loaded with features like cruise control, rain wipers, light sensing headlights, Smart Parking Assist System with reverse guide camera and 7-inch display screen, electric seats up front with memory settings on the driver’s seat, one-touch control for folding and sliding the middle row seats, single frame panoramic sunroof and an optional 220V power socket that can be used to power a host of equipment from laptops to vacuum cleaners to printers. 

The new Hyundai Santa Fe will come with three engine options including a 2.2-litre diesel engine with a variable geometry turbo charger (VGT) that churns out 200PS of power and 431Nm or torque. A smaller 2.0-litre diesel VGT mill also on offer, will churn out 150PS of power and 382Nm of torque. The petrol engine is a 2.4-litre GDI unit that generates 193PS of power. 

Six-speed manual and automatic gearboxes are on offer for the new Santa Fe.  However, the 2.0-litre diesel engine is available only with the six-speed manual transmission. 

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The Santa Fe comes with Hyundai’s Flex Steer system which incorporates three driving modes, namely - normal, sport and comfort for different driving styles. The vehicle has MacPherson struts up front and a multi-link rear suspension. The rear suspension is also self levelling to preserve drive dynamics while carrying heavy loads. 

The third generation Santa Fe is essentially a front-wheel drive vehicle with the all-wheel drive system that kicks in under slippery conditions when up to 50 percent of the engine’s power can be sent to the rear wheels. While off-roading, AWD can be engaged to maintain a 50/50 power distribution to the front and rear wheels up to speeds of 40km/h. 

A host of active and passive safety systems have been integrated into the new Hyundai Santa Fe so that it scores a five-star safety rating in line with the 2012 Euro NCAP crash testing procedure. 

On the passive safety front, its high tensile steel and aluminium structure provides good body shell rigidity. The vehicle also comes with seven airbags as standard and an active hood that pops up in case of an impact with a pedestrian. 

As for active safety features, the new Hyundai Santa Fe is equipped with Anti-lock braking system (ABS), Electronic Stability Programme (ESP), Vehicle Stability Management (VSM), Downhill brake control (DBC) and Hill Assist Control (HAC). 

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