Hyundai will be launching the all new Sonata at the 2012 Auto Expo. The latest generation Hyundai Sonata possesses an eye-catching design and has changed what people think about the Korean automaker. The new Sonata was introduced for the first time in 2009 and has been very successful in the U.S. Hyundai has been testing the all new Sonata around its Chennai plant for quite some time now and multiple test mules have been spotted recently. The company has been very open about brining the new Sonata to India and had recently revealed its plans to locally manufacture the car. Local manufacturing will help Hyundai save on import duties and thus we can expect the Sonata to be priced competitively, starting at around Rs. 18 lakhs.
Hyundai has not yet revealed any details on the trim levels and variants it plans to offer. We expect the company to offer both petrol and diesel versions of the Sonata in India. Expect both manual and automatic variants of the Sonata to go on sale in India, although not all these versions will be launched initially. The Fluidic Sonata will replace the current Sonata Transform and will be powered by a 2.4-liter GDI petrol engine. A 2.2-liter CRDi engine will also be offered, which does duty in the Santa Fe. This oil burner produces 197 BHP of peak power at 4000 RPM and a tarmac scorching peak torque of 44.5kgm between 1800-2500 RPM. The new Sonata (i45) could give tough competition to the Skoda Superb and Volkswagen Passat.
