Hyundai’s Ecosport competition coming by late 2016

Hyundai has been planning two small SUVs for India, one is the Creta (which is just a tad longer than four metres) and the second is the sub 4-metre one that will be competing with the Ecosport.

Our sources confirm that Hyundai’s Ecosport is already half way through in development and soon we can expect the testing to commence in Korea and even in India. This will be a good product for the European market, but we reckon this will compete with the i20 Active to a certain extent in India.

This product is predominantly for the Indian and European market against the Maruti YBA in India and while Europe has multiple of such SUVs.

Hyundai’s clear focus has been to first capture the Duster segment and then move on to the compact SUV as that won’t be a major game changer. Now with a long waiting period for the Creta, Hyundai is preparing to increase its SUV dominance with the new compact SUV. This SUV will be based on the Grand i10 platform, and will be a five-seater.

The compact SUV will likely come into picture after the company would have increased its production capacity. At the moment, it is under 7 lakh annual units and this will increase once the new production facility will be ready. The Grand i10 platform is also used to make the new MPV, which will be launched in early 2016 and will be powered by a 1.4-litre petrol and 1.4-litre diesel engine option. This will be direct competition to the Honda Mobilio and the Renault Lodgy. Hyundai has been aggressive with its product strategy for India and will carry on the momentum.