Front impact
Several of the structures in the dashboard presented a risk of injury to the pelvis, femurs and knees of the driver and passenger.

Side impact
The Santa Fe scored maximum points for its performance in the side impact test. However, in the pole test, the head-protecting airbag did not fully deploy as intended by Hyundai and the car lost one of the two points available for that test.

Child-protection
The car was awarded full points for the protection it offered the three year old dummy in the dynamic tests. The passenger airbag can be disabled to allow a rearward-facing child restraint to be used in that seating position. However, information given to the driver regarding the status of the airbag is not sufficiently clear. Inadequate warning is given of the risks of placing a rearward-facing child restraint in the front passenger's seat with the airbag still enabled. The presence of ISOFIX and top-tether anchorages is not clearly marked.

Pedestrian protection
The Santa Fe scored no points and was awarded no stars for the protection it offered to pedestrians. Manufacturers are offered the opportunity to nominate test zones which they expect will perform better than those tested by Euro NCAP. Hyundai did not nominate any such zones for the Santa Fe.