Some might say Hyundai is late to the compact-SUV party, but hey, better late than never. And knowing Hyundai, the car will be loaded to the gills and will surely bite into sales numbers of the competition. In 2016, Hyundai showcased the Carlino concept for the Indian market, a compact-SUV to rival the likes of Ford EcoSport, Mahindra TUV300, Tata Nexon and Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza. Now, this compact-SUV has started road testing on Indian soil, hinting at an early 2019 debut in our market.
The Carlino concept based SUV, this product is internally codenamed as the QXi. The spyshots reveal that the styling cues could be taken from the likes of Hyundai Kona & the new Santa Fe. You can easily notice the new cascading front grille which is look rather good and the headlamps being uniquely positioned a little lower and just a LED DRL placed under the bonnet shut line. This would surely make it look different in the compact-SUV segment. However, we do know that similar styling is expected on the upcoming Tata Harrier.
Also, from the spyshots, the car is not really looking small, a sub-4 metre product. It seems to have carried over a similar stance like the Hyundai Creta, which will surely work in its favour.
Since this is a compact-SUV, the engines will be 1.4L petrol and diesel units, which we’ve already seen on other Hyundai cars. Rumours suggest that Hyundai might also introduce an AMT gearbox on this compact-SUV. There’s some more news about a 1.0L turbo-petrol and a all-new 1.5L motor being developed for this QXi, but let’s wait till we get concrete details about the same.
Pricing is expected to be in the range of INR 7.5 – 11.5 lakh, and that is pretty much the segment standard.
