Latest News & Reviews from Indian Auto Industry
Hyundai India has revealed that they will be bringing the hybrid sedan Ioniq to India early next year. The launch will happen at the 2018 Auto Expo and once launched, the car will be competing against the Toyota Prius in the Indian market.
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The prices of the popular SUV, the Creta have been hiked by Hyundai. The price rise comes following a recent upsurge in demand for the car and has been raised by up to Rs.20,000 for some models. Even though it is placed in an ultra competitive segment which has the likes of the Mahindra XUV500 as well, it has been doing quite well recently and this is being laid down as a major reason for this hike.
The Creta is presently available in three engine choices. These are a 1.4 litre diesel option, a 1.6 litre petrol option as well as 1.6 litre diesel option. All come mated to a six speed manual gearbox while the larger diesel variant also has the option of an automatic transmission.
In terms of bookings, the Creta has seen more than 10000 pre launch bookings, which was quite unprecedented by Hyundai. Not only this, in the weeks following the launch, the number of bookings went above the 40000 units mark as well, making this one of the biggest SUV launches this year. In fact, so popular is the car that it has a waiting period of three to four months for the manual variant while it also has a waiting period of between six and eight months for the diesel automatic model. Hyundai will now look to make the Creta its flagship offering in the SUV market which till now has been dominated by the likes of Mahindra and Ford.
Hyundai India is on a roll indeed. After the super successful launch of the Creta crossover, the company has even more good news here in India. They have registered their highest monthly domestic sales ever in September 2015 and looking to do even better in the coming months.
42505 units were sold by Hyundai in September and in addition to this 14030 units were exported as well. This means that a whopping 56535 units of the car were sold by the auto giant showing the demand that it has managed to create for its line of cars.
Compared to the same period last year, Hyundai had sold 42000 units, which means that there has been a massive growth of 21 per cent as compared to September 2014.
The present line up of cars from Hyundai is quite popular and can be regarded as the next-gen line up from the company. One of the most successful offerings from the brand has turned out to be the Creta SUV, which was launched just in July but already has more than 50000 bookings to its name. The next-gen i20 too has been immensely popular with older cars like the Grand i10, Verna and the i20 Active continuing to do good business, thereby enabling the manufacturer to record its highest ever sales. With the festive season almost here, expect this number to only grow.
Hyundai has recalled about five lakh cars in the US after a manufacturing defect was found in their engines. This comes in the wake of the Volkswagen emission scandal and comes at a time when things are not looking up for the auto industry. The Sonata accounts for about 90% of the recall with the 2 or 2.4-litre petrol models from 2011 and 2012 appearing to be most at risk.
According to Hyundai, the major issue is that there are certain vital parts of the engine, which may fail due to a manufacturing defect. In fact, it is possible that a crash might be caused as a result of the defect and a complete engine failure too.
The engines will not only be tested and checked in order to find defects, they would also be replaced in case it is necessary. The recall is to begin once the company has parts available with them. In addition to this, Hyundai would also lengthen the warranty period of the engine to 10 years or to 120000 miles.
Not only Hyundai and Volkswagen, Honda too is facing major technical hurdles. The company has recalled cars in India owing to faulty airbag inflators. The entire industry seems to be reeling from poor manufacturing issues and it will be interesting to see how the Government and various regulatory bodies react to these recent revelations from the biggest manufacturers.
The new Elantra sedan has been unveiled by Hyundai in South Korea. The car, which is now in its sixth generation, appears to be longer by as much as 20mm and 25mm wider than the previous generation. This will mean that the interior is now much more spacious and as per Hyundai, this will compete with the space offered on higher-end vehicle classes. The car also has improved quality material and uses soft touch material for the interiors. There is also a cockpit display that looks great and the dashboard buttons and centre console have also been regrouped.
The car also features a reworked suspension, which would result in better handling and ride with the steering tweaked to have better feel at different speeds. The Korean market will see the car being launched in three engine options:
The car is to come mated to a six-speed manual or an automatic transmission with the diesel variant also available with a new seven-speed DCT transmission. The company had recently updated the fifth-gen edition of the Elantra in India, though they are yet to release any news about the new model being bought to the Indian market. Either way this launch is a signal of things to come from the brand.
Hyundai has unveiled a sporty version of its i20 hatchback named the i20 N Sport. This car has been unveiled for the global markets and no news of it being launched anytime soon in India has yet arrived.
For those who don’t know, Hyundai N is the new performance brand of Hyundai. The i20 N Sport though will be powered by the same 1.4-liter petrol engine that powers the existing i20 car in the international markets, but the engine has been given an upgrade and now it delivers a peak power of 114bhp instead of the 98.6bhp it delivers in the standard i20s currently being sold around the world. Similarly an increase in torque numbers will also be seen with this engine. Peak torque produced by the i20 N Sport will now 16.3kgm instead of the 13.6kgm that it used to produce earlier. The engine has been mated to a six-speed manual transmission.
Other features of the Hyundai i20 N Sport include front wheel disc brakes, stiffer springs as well as ABD and EBD. Design changes of the i20 N Sport include aggressive styling elements all around. Notable features amongst these are 17-inch alloy wheels, rear boot spoiler, rear hatch door, and N badging all around.
The D-segment offering from Hyundai, the next-gen Elantra, has been teased by the company through a digital rendering. This is the first glimpse that we have got of the car which has been kept under the wraps for quite some time now. It is expected that the formal reveal will happen at the Los Angeles Auto Show which is likely to be in November and the launch in India would be at the 2016 Indian Auto Expo.
From the teaser we can gather that Hyundai has gone for a radical change in terms of the design of the car. It is more elegant and looks fantastic with character lines across the bonnet, bottom side line and the shoulder line. The roof line too is coupe-like and the diamond cut alloy wheels add to the charm of the car. This is an indication of the future design mindset that the company has and from the first look, it does appear to be a winner.
The car is likely to come with a 1.6-litre T-GDi engine which would deliver 175bhp power both in India and abroad. It is also expected to be among the most aerodynamic cars in the segment with a drag coefficient of a mere 0.27. While an update on the interiors is still unavailable, it is likely to be quite amazing too with the complete package and this can easily be regarded as one of the most anticipated launches in the coming year.
Hyundai has launched the Anniversary edition of its much popular i20 hatchback in India. The car will be offered in both petrol and diesel versions and prices of both the variants have been kept below the 8 lakh mark. While the petrol variant will cost you Rs.6.69 lakh, the diesel i20 Celebration will come at Rs.7.84 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). With the launch of the i20 Celebration, Hyundai is celebrating i20’s one-year outing in the country.
The Hyundai i20 Celebration will be a limited edition car since only 600 units of it will be produced and sold. Some of the standard features of the i20 Celebration include automatic climate control, 2-DIN music system with six-speakers and Bluetooth connectivity etc. Dealership accessories for the i20 Celebration includes floor mats, seat covers, doors sil plates, the Celebration badging and parcel tray.
Since the i20 Celebration comes in two variants, it gets two different power sources – the petrol variant is powered by a 1.2-liter four-cylinder engine, while the diesel one is powered by a 1.4-liter engine. The petrol engine produces max power of 82bhp and a peak torque of 115Nm, while the diesel engine produces a peak power of 89bhp and a peak torque of 220Nm. Both the engines are mated to five-speed manual and a six-speed manual gearbox respectively.
After a few photos the Genesis brand of cars of Hyundai surfaced in India, rumor mills were rife with chatter that the Korean carmaker was planning to bring the Genesis in India. But now Hyundai officials have confirmed that they have no such plans and they are going to bring the Genesis to India anytime soon. This news was confirmed by Hyundai officials at the press conference of the launch event of Creta SUV.
In India, Hyundai is known for launching mainly small cars and at times, SUVs. But internationally it has some pretty sleek sedans up its sleeve, which it sells through the Genesis brand. The Genesis offers premium sedans which has powertrains ranging from 5.3-liter V6 to 5.0-liter V8. Some of the cars in the Genesis series can easily be compared with Mercedes E Class or BMW 5 Series.
But given Indians’ obsession with known brands when it comes to luxury sedans, we believe, Hyundai took a good decision not to launch the Genesis in India. After all, we have all seen the fate the Maruti Kizashi suffered, didn’t we?
New high-end variants of the Hyundai i20 and i20 Active crossover have been introduced. In total four new variants have been introduced – two each for i20 and i20 Active. All the new variants will come with AVN music system, while a touchscreen similar to the one in recently launched Hyundai Creta have been introduced all the variants. This new touchscreen unit will now offer navigation and standard Hyundai multimedia functions.
The i20 Active has got a new high-end petrol driven model. This particular car will now come with features like automatic climate control system, stop/start button, steering mounted buttons, dual airbags etc.
Here is the price list of the newly introduced models:
Hyundai i20 Active SX (Petrol) – Rs.8.30 Lakh
Hyundai i20 Active SX (Diesel) – Rs.9.61 Lakh
Hyundai i20 Asta O (Petrol) – Rs.7.49 Lakh
Hyundai i20 Asta O (Diesel) – Rs.8.69 Lakh