Hyundai freshens Santa Fe family amid U.S. production boost

As it retools its U.S. factory to build more crossovers for truck-loving Americans, Hyundai Motor Co. is updating the midsize Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport.

The freshened 2017 crossovers, shown last week at the Chicago Auto Show, have new grilles, wheels and taillights, as well as larger touch screens with Google’s Android Auto smartphone interface and a bevy of optional safety features.

Both crossovers have carryover powertrains, aside from the addition of a drive mode selector with sport, eco and normal settings. Minor engineering changes increase the fuel economy of the Santa Fe Sport by 1 mpg across the board to between 21 and 24 mpg in combined city and highway driving.

Pricing on the Santa Fe, which is arriving in showrooms, starts at $30,800 plus shipping -- more than the rival Honda Pilot, Nissan Pathfinder and Ford Edge. Pricing for the Santa Fe Sport starts at $25,350 plus shipping.

Both represent $400 increases from the 2016 versions.

Santa Fe Sport production is slated to begin in early summer at Hyundai’s factory in Montgomery, Ala., adding to the more than 114,400 units that Kia built for Hyundai last year at its factory in West Point, Ga.

The new output of 50,000 units annually at the maxed-out Montgomery factory will come from reduced production of the Elantra compact car and Sonata midsize sedan.

Combined U.S. sales of the Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport rose 9.5 percent to 118,134 in 2015. The company does not break out sales for the two variants. When combined, the Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport ranked fourth in the midsize crossover segment behind the Edge, Pilot and Subaru Outback.