Hyundai has stopped selling the Palisade SUV in Australia as it responds to a safety problem involving the vehicle’s powered electric seats, after a fatal incident in the United States.
In a statement from Hyundai’s US arm, the company said it “is aware of a tragic incident involving a Palisade”. The statement continued: “While Hyundai does not yet have the full details and the incident is still under investigation, a young child lost her life,” and added, “Hyundai extends its deepest sympathies to her family.”
The incident that triggered the action reportedly involved the death of a two-year-old girl in Ohio on March 7.
Modern vehicles fitted with powered seats, doors, windows and tailgates are generally designed to detect an obstruction and reverse direction to help prevent injury. Hyundai’s statement says Palisades fitted with electric folding seats in the second and third rows “may not adequately detect contact with an occupant or object as intended”.
“This condition may occur during second and third-row power‑folding operations, as well as during use of the second-row one‑touch tilt‑and‑slide function,” the statement said.
Hyundai has urged owners to take care when using these functions. “Hyundai urges owners to use caution when operating the second and third-row power seat functions and to ensure that no person or object, including children, is in the seat or seat-folding area before operating the power seat,” it said. It also warned: “When using the second-row one‑touch tilt‑and‑slide feature to access the third row, customers should avoid pressing the seatback button during entry or exit.”
Hyundai is prioritising a software update aimed at improving obstruction detection for the folding seat system, ahead of a broader recall process. In the US, around 68,000 vehicles are said to be affected.
In Australia, Hyundai is preparing its own recall, focusing on the latest Palisade model that arrived in November last year. Owners of the current-generation “LX3” Palisade will be contacted. The Hyundai Santa Fe is not affected.
Hyundai sold 2364 Palisades in Australia in 2025.
