Hyundai has always been a major player in the poker game of India car market. With cars that range from the small city-runabout – Eon, to the big and luxurious Santa Fe SUV. Helped by a line-up that has been constantly refreshed and in the recent years, better and more widespread service networks has made Hyundai a popular pick for Indian customers to confidently lay down their cheques at the showrooms.
Hyundai realises the importance of this emerging market and have actually decided that they will be performing live road tests of their upcoming compact crossover, the ix25, on the Indian roads. The car is to be launched next year and was revealed to the public at the Beijing Motor Show earlier in the year. Hyundai spotted the boom in this rather new market of crossover SUVs in India and has conclusively sprung into action with their ix25. This car will, when launched, go head-to-head with Renault’s Duster and Ford’s EcoSport. But unlike the latter, the ix25 could be longer (it measures 4.27-metres in the Chinese market) than the ”juicy” 4-metre mark which most manufacturers try and envelope in their designs to benefit from the not at all well understood excise duty commissions in India.
The Hyundai ix25 concept at the Beijing Motor Show
In China, the Hyundai ix25 is to be launched with two powerplant choices and both of them will run on petrol as the fuel of choice; a 1.6-litre 4-cylinder and a 2.0-litre four-pot. Both of these cars will be available with either a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed slushbox transmissions. After the People’s Republic, Hindustan is to be the second market for this crossover.
Image courtesy and source – Motorbeam