The New York International Auto Show is less than a week away and the first of the teasers arrived today courtesy of Hyundai, which offered a glimpse at the new Palisade.
The 2023 Palisade is “significantly enhanced,” according to the South Korean automaker. The brand’s largest sport utility made its debut in 2018 at the L.A. Auto Show as a 2020 model, coming as the company was looking to fill the holes in the line-up of utility vehicles.
Now it gets some updates to keep up with — or surpass — the competition.
“The design of the 2023 Palisade conveys dignified refinement with clear differentiation worthy of a flagship SUV,” the company noted in a statement.
“A wider cascading grille form outlines rugged parametric shield elements for a premium appearance. The new forward lighting signature features vertically connected LED composite lights that frame the grille creating a sharp-edged, technical appeal. New, multi-spoke alloy wheels fill the wheel openings for a solid, premium appearance.”
Time for some updates
The current Palisade is largely unchanged from the model that hit U.S. roads for the 2020 model year. The updates that have occurred are trim levels, such as the Calligraphy line that arrived for 2021 as the SUV’s top trim level.
The Calligraphy model was essentially the upscale Palisade, with 20-inch alloy wheels, a new grille, rear accent lighting signature, quilted leather door panels, perforated-leather steering wheel and a snow mode. All of that rolled over for the 2022 model year.
The arrival of the Palisade acted as a signal to consumers the brand was serious about its sport-utility line-up and sales were strong initially. It’s still a strong seller, although through the first quarter of this year, its down 1%, although that can be traced to a difficult March where sales tumbled 21 percent.