Hyundai has stopped selling a certain line of their SUVs after a 2-year-old has died due to a critical issue with their power-folding seats.
As reported by Fox Business, a 2-year-old girl from Ohio tragically died. Hyundai have paused sales of the 2026 Palisade. More specifically, the Limited and Calligraphy trims. While the full details are not known, the company has noted that the power-folding seats do not detect contact with occupants or objects. They are planning on uploading an over-the-air software update to fix the issue.
The company said in a statement on Friday, "Hyundai is aware of a tragic incident involving a Palisade. While Hyundai does not yet have the full details and the incident is still under investigation, a young child lost her life. Hyundai extends its deepest sympathies to her family".
As well as the over-the-air software update, Hyundai are also introducing a recall repair to mitigate the issue. They plan on working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the recall.
The company has told users to make sure no person or object is in the seat before operating the power seat function. "When using the... [power seat] feature to access the third row, customers should avoid pressing the seatback button during entry or exit,"
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Hyundai Has Recalled 68,500 SUVs
Hyundai has recalled almost 70,000 Palisades because of the incident. But while that's a big number, they sold a lot more than that in 2025.
According to Autoblog, last year Hyundai sold over 200,000 Palisade SUVs. The car ranked fifth in the battle between three-row midsize SUVs, marking a pretty good result for the Korean manufacturer. One of the big selling points was the redesign they did in Summer 2025, which the recalled Palisades are a part of.
There's no question that this shocking incident might cause people to not want to buy the car. Could it cause a downturn in sales?
Either way, a young girl has died, and the company needs to do some serious work to make sure this doesn't happen again. May she rest in peace.
