Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid: Built For daily adventures

If there's one car that can be considered as the king of reinvention, it's the Hyundai Santa Fe.

- By ULYSSES ANG

In the five generations it's been around, each one feels like a complete re-think of the one before; it's made even more obvious when you start putting them side-by-side. The latest one, codenamed MX5 (no relation to the Mazda sportscar), is the most striking one yet. But with a price tag that's as head-turning as its looks—P 3.3 million—can the Santa Fe Hybrid live up to the hype?

Straight to the point, you can't get a diesel anymore with the newest Santa Fe. Instead, it gains the services of three kinds of 4-cylinder gasoline engines capped off by the turbocharged and electrified 1.6-liter Smartstream G. In terms of max numbers, this one's pretty impressive—235 horsepower and 367 Nm of torque. Broken down, 180 horsepower and 265 Nm comes from the combustion engine, but just 65 horsepower and 264 Nm are contributed by the electric motor.

Hyundai's decision to outfit the Santa Fe Hybrid with a modestly-powered electric motor already tells you something when it comes to its power delivery and efficiency. As far as hybrids go, it's not the most efficient system out there; neither does it offer the same low-end grunt and oomph associated with hybrids or EVs. True enough, its 9-ish-second century sprint is nothing to write home about. Equally, its fuel economy—12.65 km/L—is good, but nowhere as high as other hybrids equipped with stronger electric motors.