Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro Wants $3,400 to Drop the Hybrid

Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro costs $79,900, a $3,400 premium over the hybrid Elite, and it’s the only Palisade in the range you can’t have as a hybrid.

Palisade has 4 grades now.

• Elite hybrid, $76,500
• XRT Pro, $79,900
• Calligraphy hybrid, $89,828
• Calligraphy hybrid with Black Ink and the 7-seat layout, $93,400

All list prices, add delivery and on-roads on top.

Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro is the first XRT Pro badge Hyundai sold here, and reaches dealerships in September. The Palisade sells as a large 8-seater, see our story here Elite joined the range. XRT Pro keeps the family mover and bolts a pretty bush kit to it.

Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro Buys 25mm and a Rear Diff

Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro has 212mm of ground clearance, up 25mm on the hybrid’s 187mm. Although the pitch is a bridge between a traditional 4WD and an all-wheel drive SUV, it is still very much a soft roader. It’s still a monocoque with no low range.

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The rear axle gets an electronic limited-slip differential. Wheels are 18-inch alloys in black and machined finish, and Continental all-terrain tyres versus Elite with 20s and Calligraphy 21s. XRT Pro is the only Palisade you can order on all-terrain rubber. Front dampers are high-performance and the rears self-level. Brakes are 345mm by 30mm up front, 325mm by 20mm at the back. As a nod to true off-roaders, there are red recovery hooks at both ends. Braked towing goes up 200kg to 2,200kg, with a factory towbar and wiring fitted.

A metallic grille treatment has the ubiquitous front horizon light. To further emphasise the up-market, door handles and the roof rail are blacked out, there’s an XRT PRO on the tailgate, and the rear spoiler houses a high-mount stop light. Titan Charcoal is a new colour unique to the XRT Pro trim.

A Suspension Tune Signed Off in Sydney

Hyundai Motor Company engineers worked with the local tuning team in Sydney, and the localisation work went through dampers, springs, anti-roll bars, and steering. The off-road hardware and geometry are entirely different from Elite and Calligraphy. Hyundai Motor Company Australia’s chief operating officer, Gavin Donaldson, called the tune and the off-road capability a new dimension on the Palisade formula.

XRT Pro, he said, gives “adventurous families the freedom to explore further, without compromising the qualities that make PALISADE such a compelling flagship SUV”. A corrugated back road is one thing, but buyers must be realistic about expectations beyond that.

Terrain Mode offers Mud, Sand, or Snow. A ground-view monitor, unique to Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro, shows wheel trajectory at crawling speed. The XRT button on the steering wheel flips the cluster and the infotainment into plucky off-road themes. This dedicated page graphs pitch and roll angles alongside power distribution and e-LSD operation. Calligraphy costs $9,928 more and adds suede trim and a head-up display.

What the Money Buys in a Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro

XRT Pro uses the 206kW/422Nm 2.5 T-GDi Theta III petrol engine with an 8-speed automatic and Active On-Demand all-wheel drive. Elite and Calligraphy pair a 192kW version of that engine with a 54kW electric motor for 245kW combined and 460Nm from 1,800rpm, through a 6-speed. So the model built for dirt gives away 39kW and 38Nm to the family models, and it sits out the electric drive we wrote about when the second-generation Palisade went hybrid.

Service intervals are 12 months or 10,000km, whichever comes first, out to 84 months and 70,000km. Warranty is 5 years as standard, stretched to 7 years and unlimited km when all services go through a Hyundai dealer. That applies to passenger cars first registered from 1 June 2025. Sat nav updates and premium roadside support have the same conditions.

The dashboard has XRT branding, as do the black synthetic leather seats. Unique treatment continues with blacked out control finishes and cloth roof and pillar trim. Elite has a rather sophisticated melange knit and Calligraphy has suede. There’s a single sunroof instead of a dual panel. The head-up display and the 7-seat layout come with the $89,828 Calligraphy only. The heated steering wheel adjusts by hand.

Both screens measure 12.3 inches and the audio is a 14-speaker BOSE. Climate is dual-zone up front, single-zone in the back. The spare is a full-size alloy rather than a space saver, which suits the all-terrains it sits under.

Standard equipment takes in:

• Bluelink with over-the-air updates
• Digital Key 2.0
• Column shift-by-wire
• 7 USB ports
• 10-way power driver’s seat
• Heated and ventilated front seats
• Remote smart parking assist

SmartSense covers:

• Forward Collision Avoidance 2.0
• Highway Driving Assist 2
• Lane Following Assist 2
• Blind-spot View Monitor
• Surround View Monitor
• Smart Cruise Control 2 with stop and go
• In-cabin camera

Rear Occupant Alert is the version without the sensor.

No low range, no ladder frame, and 212mm of clearance puts Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro in a narrow slot between the family bus it starts as and the 4WDs it borrows from. It’s a monocoque SUV with a factory lift and recovery hooks at both ends. How the Sydney tune holds up won’t be known until someone drives it on dirt.

Hyundai Palisade XRT Pro Key Numbers

Spec	Detail
Price	$79,900 MLP, excludes delivery and on-road costs
On sale	Dealerships from September 2026
Engine	2.5 T-GDi Theta III petrol
Power and torque	206kW, 422Nm at 1,700 to 4,000rpm
Transmission	8-speed automatic
Drive	Active On-Demand all-wheel drive, rear e-LSD
Ground clearance	212mm, up 25mm on the hybrid
Approach, departure, ramp-over	20.5, 22.4, 18.3 degrees
Wheels and tyres	18-inch alloys, Continental all-terrain
Towing	2,200kg braked, 750kg unbraked, 160kg towball
Seating	8 seats, 3 rows
Servicing	$3,752 over 7 visits to 84 months or 70,000km
Warranty	5 years, 7 years unlimited km with Hyundai dealer servicing

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