Hyundai is one of the few manufacturers to have presence in almost all segments. The Korean automaker sells cars right from entry level hatchbacks to premium luxury saloons. However the company misses out in the SUV segment, where it doesn’t have many offerings. SUV is a growing segment not just in India but even worldwide and it’s an obvious move for Hyundai to turn attention to this fast growing segment. After having confirmed it’s working on a compact SUV, a Hyundai test mule was spotted in South Korea recently.
This test mule is undoubtedly a compact SUV as the dimensions clearly show the same. Although there are little details on the specifications of this vehicle, we expect the length to be just around the 4-metre mark, while engines doing duty under the hood would include a 1.2-litre Kappa2 petrol unit and a 1.4-litre CRDI diesel motor, which are already powering a few Hyundai cars in India. Globally Hyundai might offer different powertrains on the compact SUV, which will certainly be sold in Brazil and Europe.
So when can we expect this Hyundai to go on sale in India? We can guess the launch date once we see the compact SUV being tested on Indian soil but a 2015 launch is quite likely. Hyundai does a lot of platform sharing and this vehicle is likely to be underpinned with the i20’s platform. It will take traditional Hyundai design cues, which includes bold fluidic styling, seen on the new Santa Fe facelift. Expect Hyundai to offer a wide range of variants when their compact SUV arrives to compete with Renault’s Duster and Ford’s EcoSport.
The Hyundai ix-onic Concept (pictured below) could give the upcoming compact SUV some styling directions.
Spy Pictures Source – Blog.Naver.com
