Hyundai Will Bring Tesla-Like Screens to Next-Gen Tucson and Elantra
The first product of Hyundai's new Pleos software division, Pleos Connect will arrive in the Elantra (sold as the Avante in Hyundai's home market of South Korea) in the second quarter of 2026, followed by the Tucson in the third quarter of that year.
Pleos Connect is based on the Android Automotive Operating System. The initial glimpse Hyundai provided earlier this year indicated the new system would minimize physical controls in favor of a touchscreen interface that, following the Tesla template, dominates the dashboard. That looks set to translate to production. The report claims the next-generation Tucson will have a large central touchscreen that incorporates most controls.
Hyundai has already acknowledged that doubling down on screens might not go over well with customers. In an interview with Korea JoonAng Daily published last November, HDNA (Hyundai Development and Manufacturing of North America) vice president Ha Hak-soo said that, in North America at least, Hyundai was looking to bring back more physical controls in response to negative feedback from customers. So perhaps the screen-reliant version of Pleos Connect described in the ET News report won't be the one we see in the United States.
Pleos Connect will be about more than screens, too. Hyundai has promised a range of software-based features, including AI-based voice recognition and the ability to sync user profiles across multiple vehicles. The automaker also hopes to cultivate an app store, called Pleos Playground, where third-party developers can offer apps for compatible vehicles.
Based on the automaker's recently-published second-quarter sales results, the Tucson remains Hyundai's bestselling model in the U.S., with 113,310 sold between January and June 2025. That's an increase of 23% over the same period last year. The Elantra was the second-bestseller, with 74,768 units shifted in the first half of the year.
Hyundai estimates that Pleos Connect will be in over 20 million cars by 2030, and given their popularity, it's likely that the Tucson and Elantra will make up a significant chunk of that. So there's a lot riding on Hyundai's ability to strike a balance between tech features and customer preferences for physical controls in these popular models.
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