Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid vs. Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid: You Really Can't Go Wrong

• Two of our favorite three-row SUVs square off.
• And as a bonus, both vehicles are a part of our One-Year Road Test program.
• The Toyota has a size advantage, but the Hyundai's stylish interior and great value proposition make this competitive.

Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid

• Starting price: $39,925
• As-tested price: $51,425

Good: Value

It's hard to narrow this down to a single attribute for both of these vehicles; there's a lot of good stuff going on. For the Santa Fe, this could have been its strong technology offerings, its cohesive styling inside and out, or its copious amounts of small-item storage with a center console bin that can also be accessed by second-row passengers. But we had to go with value here, because the number of features and the interior quality that you're getting for the price are truly astounding.

Our Santa Fe Hybrid was a fully loaded Calligraphy model and even came with the optional (and expensive) Earthy Brass Matte paint and it came with an impressive list of features: dual wireless charging pads, heated and ventilated front seats, heated second-row seats, white Nappa leather upholstery, matching 12.3-inch screens, Bose audio, a rearview camera mirror, and even an extra bin in front of the passenger that will disinfect items with UV light. And you're getting all of that, along with Hyundai's exceptional five-year/60,000-mile basic and 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranties, for a hair over $50,000. In an automotive world where everything feels overpriced, there's finally something that feels (and is) a screaming deal.

Bad: Real-world fuel economy

It's fair to assume that if you're springing the extra dough for a hybrid version of one of these SUVs, that fuel economy is important to you. And on the spec sheet, our all-wheel-drive Santa Fe Hybrid delivers with an EPA-estimated 34 combined mpg. (For some perspective, that matches what you're getting in the Kia K4 and that's a compact sedan.) But as a part of our testing program, we track fuel economy closely, and unfortunately the Santa Fe Hybrid missed the mark — by a lot.

In its roughly 20,000 miles with us, the Hyundai averaged only 27.5 mpg, and while we had single tanks get up above 30 mpg, we never really came close to threatening that EPA estimate. So while we found the hybrid powertrain to be pleasant enough to drive, the fact that it didn't deliver the expected efficiency was very disappointing.

Why you'd buy one: It was never here

The biggest endorsement that we can give this thing is that whenever our staff needed a vehicle to take on a road trip, this was the one that was asked for the most. It took trips from our offices in Los Angeles all over California and beyond, and I put about two of those 20,000 miles on the Hyundai myself. It was just easy to live with, and everything from the technology to the driver aids to the thoughtful interior touches like that center console made it a fantastic partner for long and short drives alike.

And for one of the smaller midsize three-row SUVs, it was surprisingly roomy with a third row that was big enough to fit adults (unlike the Toyota [non-Grand] Highlander). Though it's about 6 inches shorter than the larger Hyundai Palisade, if you measure from the dashboard to the tailgate, the Santa Fe is actually longer thanks to its clever packaging. We're sad to see this thing leave our garage so soon.

Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid

• Starting price: $45,705
• As-tested price: $57,163

Good: Space for days

I mentioned above that the Santa Fe Hybrid enjoys a spaciousness advantage over the Toyota Highlander. Well, meet big brother. The Grand Highlander Hybrid is probably the size that the Highlander should have been all along, and it enjoys a significant size advantage over the Hyundai for both passengers and cargo. On the spec sheet, it has about 3 extra inches of third-row legroom, but sitting back there, it feels like way more. It almost feels like a minivan level of space back there, and that is among the best compliments you can pay an SUV.

And the Toyota also enjoys a big cargo advantage, especially behind its third row, where it has an extra 6 cubic feet (20.6 cubes vs. 14.6 cubes) — and that means it can fit a large piece of checked luggage back there while the Hyundai cannot. And when you start folding seats down, the advantage grows as the Grand Highlander offers 57.9 cubic feet and 97.5 cubic feet behind its second and first rows, respectively, while the Santa Fe can only manage 40.5 cubic feet and 79.6 cubic feet, respectively. 

Bad: Boring styling

When it comes to personality, the Grand Highlander Hybrid is lacking. There wasn't a reason for Toyota to take a big risk with this SUV's styling, but you could say the same thing for Hyundai with the Santa Fe and look what they came up with. That thing is aesthetically pleasing from multiple angles and has a fun "H" design pattern in its headlights that gets repeated throughout the cabin on the seats, air vents and trim.

The Grand Highlander Hybrid is as inoffensive as they come, but it has such a nondescript look and feel to it that even though I spent about a week to prepare for this video, I had to go back and look at images of it to refresh my memory while writing this article. At least the materials are good for the most part, faux carbon-fiber trim pieces excepted.

We know that Toyota can produce interesting designs; the new Land Cruiser, for example, does many things right and even the Crown Signia makes you look twice. Consider this our plea to the company to let its hair down a bit more. And to stop with the silly subscriptions that are required to use the maps and voice commands. That's also nonsense.

Why you'd buy one: Hybrid choices

Apart from space, another reason to consider the Toyota is powertrain diversity. Saying that there's a Grand Highlander Hybrid in our fleet isn't specific enough, because it offers a pair of hybrid powertrains with different goals. There's the regular one (just called hybrid) that focuses more on efficiency, but then there's the Hybrid Max, which offers some unexpectedly great performance. It has 362 horsepower to the regular hybrid's 245 hp and it gets the big SUV from 0 to 60 mph in just 6.1 seconds and that is over 2 seconds quicker than the Santa Fe Hybrid.

You do give up some fuel economy in the bargain. The Max powertrain offers an estimated 27 mpg combined, which matches the Hyundai. But if you're more worried about saving at the pump, the regular hybrid's up to 36 combined mpg will be more your speed. 

Picking a winner

To pick a winner in this very close battle, we turn to the Edmunds rating system. The Grand Highlander Hybrid ekes out a win with an 8.4 overall rating versus the Santa Fe Hybrid's 8.2. And for the Toyota, that was enough to land it the Edmunds Top Rated SUV award for 2025, with its formidable mix of space, comfort and family-friendly features.

But there are compelling reasons to pick either of these SUVs, and if you don't need the extra room or won't be using the third row as often, the Hyundai is very compelling (especially if style is important to you). It's not often we get such close battles in these comparisons, and rarer still that we can wholeheartedly say that both vehicles get a big thumbs-up from us.