Hyundai PALISADE arrives to challenge the E-Segment

KUALA LUMPUR: This is the question that many are commenting on since the PALISADE was first spotted being unloaded from a trailer for delivery to the Hyundai headquarters in Ara Damansara and shared on our social media.

Hyundai in Malaysia and also the ASEAN region has been regarded for years as a third-class citizen in the hierarchy of brands. The Europeans as a collective take first position which is followed by the Japanese in second place and then come to Hyundai and its sibling, KIA.

In Europe, North America, and even Australia the situation is very different where Hyundai is regarded to be even on par with European brands.

This is why they have research and design centres in Europe and America to design and build cars to suit the tastes and requirements of buyers who are not focusing their purchasing on brand image and instead on value and engineering which Hyundai delivers even with its compact vehicles.

So, what about the PALISADE. This large, brawny-looking SUV arrives to be part of the E-Segment, which is dominated by SUV’s from German manufacturers. The BMW X7 and Mercedes GLS 450.

The BMW X7 is the largest model in the BMW X line-up combining practicality and versatility with three rows of seats. The BMW X7 is 5,151mm long, 2,000mm wide and 1,805mm tall, with a wheelbase of 3,105mm.

Then there is the Mercedes-Benz GLS 450. The 3rd generation GLS is longer (5207mm versus 5151mm) with a longer wheelbase (3135mm vs 3105mm), taller at 1850mm vs 1805mm and has more boot-space too. With all seats up, the GLS still has 355 litre of boot space versus the X7’s 326 litres. With the 2nd and 3rd row of seats folded down, the GLS opens up to 2400 litres while the X7 provides 2120 litres of cargo-carrying possibilities.

The GLS 450 4Matic AMG retails for RM899,888 whilst the locally assembled BMW X7’s selling price is RM673,324. Now, the PALISADE retails from just RM348,888 to RM358,888 for the top version. This is still about half the price of both the German SUV’s.

However, in Malaysia there will be very little convincing needed between the two German SUV’s, but when you include the PALISADE, the prospective buyer will have a lot of questions. The same situation happens when you include any model from Hyundai’s luxury car division, GENESIS.

GENESIS sells very well in North America but there is hardly any interest in Malaysia. In the Malaysian super luxury segment, brand image plays a very important role and even with popular boy band ‘BTS’ promoting the PALISADE in North America and giving in sales success, Malaysian buyers will just continue to enjoy Korean TV dramas and Korean food instead of enjoying Korean motoring luxury.

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