Hyundai collected five wins in U.S. News & World Report’s inaugural 2026 Best Adventure Vehicles awards, announced May 27. The IONIQ 9 won both Best Electric SUV for Road Trips and Best Electric SUV for Camping, the only vehicle to take dual honors in a single body-style category. The Tucson and Tucson Hybrid earned Best Compact SUV for Camping, the Kona took Best Subcompact SUV for Road Trips, and the Palisade Hybrid won Best Midsize Hybrid SUV for Road Trips.
U.S. News evaluated 148 new vehicles across 18 classes for the awards, the first time the publication has ranked vehicles specifically for adventure use. The awards split into four segments: Best Vehicles for Camping, Best Vehicles for Road Trips, Best SUVs for Off-Roading, and Best Trucks for Off-Roading. Hyundai entries swept the camping and road-trip categories but did not place in off-road.
The IONIQ 9 double win reflects the three-row electric’s 300-mile EPA range estimate and interior volume. U.S. News senior editor John Vincent credited Hyundai’s “benchmark-setting interior space, efficient powertrains and loads of standard features” for the wins. The IONIQ 9’s roomy cabin and convenience features, per the announcement, positioned it for both long-distance travel and camping-scenario utility, though U.S. News did not specify which convenience features tipped the category.
The Tucson wins came in both gasoline and hybrid forms. The Tucson offers an XRT Pro trim designed for trail access, though that trim’s off-road hardware was not detailed in the announcement. The Tucson Hybrid shares the compact-SUV camping win, combining eco-focused powertrains with the same cargo and passenger space as the gasoline version. U.S. News called out the Tucson and Kona as offering “huge cabins and travel-friendly features,” though specific cabin dimensions and feature lists were not provided.
The Kona took the subcompact road-trip category. Hyundai updated the Kona’s powertrain lineup for improved performance and efficiency, added the latest-generation Bluelink connected-vehicle system, and expanded active and passive safety equipment. The Kona competes in a segment where interior volume is constrained by wheelbase; U.S. News evidently found the Kona’s cabin volume and feature set sufficient for multi-day travel despite subcompact dimensions.
The Palisade Hybrid rounded out Hyundai’s wins in the midsize hybrid SUV road-trip category. The Palisade offers three-row seating and a hybrid powertrain option new for 2026. U.S. News grouped the Palisade Hybrid with the Tucson Hybrid and IONIQ 9 as vehicles that “blend room with high-tech efficiency.” The Palisade Hybrid’s fuel economy figures were not disclosed in the announcement.
Hyundai’s five-vehicle showing places it ahead of GMC, which earned four wins in the adventure awards, and Ford, which took three. The awards debuted this year, so no prior-year comparison exists. The road-trip and camping categories reward different vehicle attributes than U.S. News’s existing Best Cars rankings, which emphasize safety scores, reliability, and total cost of ownership. The adventure awards prioritize cargo volume, passenger comfort, fuel efficiency, and adventure-ready features, a term U.S. News uses but does not operationally define.
Ricky Lao, director of product planning at Hyundai Motor North America, said outdoor recreation and family road trips are growing consumer priorities and Hyundai has added features and technologies to support those uses. The statement is consistent with the industry’s broader shift toward SUVs and crossovers as the default family-vehicle format, though no sales or market-share data accompanied the announcement.
What the awards measure is how well a vehicle fits a use case most owners experience only occasionally. The average vehicle owner camps a handful of times per year at most, and most road trips are under 500 miles. The vehicles that win these awards are the ones that handle the 95% use case without penalty and add enough capability for the 5% use case to matter. The IONIQ 9’s dual wins suggest U.S. News believes an electric three-row can do both, which is a vote of confidence in range and charging infrastructure the EV market has not always earned.
Source: Hyundai. Images courtesy of Hyundai.
