► Hyundai Tucson gets mid-life nip/tuck
► Design tweaks, wider grille, new alloys
► Interior follows Kona, other Hyundai EVs
Hyundai has revealed the mid-life facelift for its popular Tucson SUV. Featuring a mildly updated exterior and redesigned dashboard and centre console, the new Tucson will make its full European debut next year.
For this update, Hyundai has softened the front end of the car slightly, replacing the sharp-edged daytime running lights with new more rounded models. The grille has a wider appearance, while the headlights remain underneath the DRLs. A full-width skidplate-style silver element adds greater visual width. It’s perhaps testament to just how futuristic the Tucson looked at launch in 2020 that it still looks ahead of the times even with such a mild facelift.
The car’s intricately surfaced flanks and squared-off wheelarches remain, and they’re filled with new alloy wheels.
Inside, Hyundai’s redesigned the dashboard with a single piece of glass covering both infotainment and driver information screens – the old car had these in separate binnacles. The air vents now occupy a full-width strip of the dashboard, and are set lower than before. There’s also a new climate control panel sitting above a redesigned centre console, prominently incorporating a wireless charging pad.
The new steering wheel eschews the Hyundai ‘H’ badge in favour of the small horizontal strip found on its Kona model – there’s also redesigned switchgear. The gear selector has also moved to the steering column, again echoing the Kona.
The new dash certainly doesn’t appear to have any room for a manual transmission shifter – it’s possible Hyundai may do the same as Kia does with the base-spec Sportage and offer a radically different centre console for models with a manual gearbox.
It’s also possible that Hyundai may slim down the Tucson’s model range to remove the manual models. The Tucson currently offers a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine with a manual gearbox – every other model is either mild, full or plug-in hybrid and has a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic.
If that is the case, and as is common with mid-life facelifts, we’d expect a slight increase in starting price beyond the current car’s £31,500.
The new Tucson will be revealed in full in 2024 and on sale shortly after.
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