Hyundai is stretching the Tucson. The still very young SUV will get a version with a longer wheelbase. The extended Tucson is not reserved for the Chinese market, but you do not have to expect it in the Netherlands.
Hyundai markets the Tucson L in China, the longer version of the new Tucson presented in September for the European market. The European Tucson is 4.5 meters long and has a wheelbase of 2.68 meters. The longer Tucson L extends over a distance of – depending on the version – 4.63 to 4.67 meters. This makes the Tucson L 13 to 17 centimeters longer than the version that you can buy in the Netherlands. The wheelbase of the Tucson L is of course also larger. At 2.76 meters, the Hyundai Tucson L has 8 centimeters extra between its wheels compared to the European model. In fact, the European Santa Fe only has a 1 centimeter longer wheelbase. Fortunately, Hyundai in China has a different, longer Santa Fe in the range.
Hyundai Tucson (Europe)
Longer versions of existing models are often reserved for the Chinese market, but in the case of the Tucson it is different. The Tucson L is the only version of the Tucson that Hyundai carries in the United States and in its home country South Korea, the short and long Tucsons are brotherly next to each other in the showrooms. On the outside, the Chinese Tucson L is hardly different from its Korean and American equivalents. However, the car gets (fake) exhaust tailpipes in its rear bumper, but with that we have had the appearance differences.
Hyundai Tucson L (China)
The Chinese Tucson does differ on the inside from the European, American and Korean versions. For example, the Hyundai Tucson has a 10.25-inch horizontally oriented touch screen in the center console with touch-sensitive buttons underneath for, among other things, the climate control. In China, that unit is completely different. Hyundai places a new system in the Chinese Tucson L with a 10.4-inch large screen that is placed vertically. There are touch sensitive shortcuts on either side of it. The system runs on Baidu software in China and is completely different from Europe.
Also on a motor level, the Tucson is different from the version that you can buy in the Netherlands. Here, the Tucson is available with a 160 hp mild-hybrid 1.6 T-GDI, as a 230 hp Tucson Hybrid and as a 265 hp Plug-in Hybrid. The Chinese Tucson L gets a 200 hp 1.5 T-GDI under the hood.
Would the extended Tucson be something for the Netherlands, or would that version end up in the waters of the Santa Fe? Let us know in the comments!