NEW DELHI: India's second largest carmaker Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) will launch its much anticipated sub-compact SUV Venue on Tuesday. With Venue, Hyundai would also be entering the very competitive sub-4 meter SUV segment, which at present is dominated by Maruti Suzuki’s Vitara Brezza and significant presence of Tata Motors’ Nexon and Ford EcoSport.
Multiple reports, citing leaked documents, said that the top-spec SX+ automatic trim (petrol variant) of the model is priced at `10.65 lakh (ex-showroom), while the top spec diesel trim SX (O) is priced lower than the petrol automatic trim at `10.42 lakh (ex-showroom). Hyundai hasn’t confirmed the leaked reports. If top variants of Hyundai Venue are priced below `11 lakh, it would undercut the prices of the recently launched Mahindra XUV300 and Ford EcoSport, and would go neck and neck with Brezza’s exshowroom prices.
At the moment, Brezza comes only with the diesel option and is priced between `7.68 and 10.65 lakh. On the engine and feature side, Hyundai Venue will be powered by three engine options: a 1.2-litre (borrowed from Elite i20 premium hatchback); an all new 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol and a 1.4-lite turbocharged diesel, which is borrowed from elder sibling Creta. The diesel variant will not be available with an automatic transmission for now. Venue is also touted to be India’s first connected car, as it debuts the brand’s Blue Link Connected car technology.
The Blue Link itself packs 33 features, 10 of which have been specifically developed for the Indian market. The success of Venue is very crucial for the Korean carmaker as its previous big launch, the hatchback Santro in a new avatar, couldn’t help it to beat the blues PV-makers are facing in recent times. The carmaker’s sale grew at a modest pace of 1.7 per cent during the last fiscal and registered a slump of over 10 per cent in April. While Hyundai had said Venue has received a record-breaking 2,000 bookings on the first day of starting the pre-booking process, the model will still have to overcome not only intense competition, but a demand slowdown, which is not expected to reverse anytime soon.
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Venue is also touted to be India’s first connected car, as it debuts Hyundai’s Blue Link Connected car
technology.