The Hyundai Creta has been one of the largest-selling SUVs in the country, with lakhs of sales clocked in a time span of exactly 4 years
The Hyundai Creta has been one of the most popular SUVs on sale in the country, with the small SUV easily outselling every other car in its price bracket. The Creta is a derivative of the China-spec ix25 but has been developed suitably to appeal to customers of growing markets like that of India and Brazil. Today, this SUV completes 4 years in our market. Here are 5 things you should know about this vehicle –
1. Price
The consistently high demand for the Hyundai Creta, along with the ever-increasing production costs, has ensured that this SUV has become a lot costlier than what it was back when it was launched in the country.
The Creta was launched at an ex-showroom price of Rs 8.59 lakh to Rs 13.60. Today, this SUV retails in a price bracket of Rs 9.6 to 15.68 lakh. This is a significant increment over the original price but that doesn’t seem to have deterred the potential buyers from putting their money on this SUV.
2. NCAP Rating
In December 2015, Latin NCAP subjected the LHD version of the Hyundai Creta to its crash testing regime, where the SUV bagged a score of 4/5 stars. The tested version was made in India and came equipped with dual front airbags. It tipped the scales at 1,496 kg. The Body Shell Integrity of the Creta was rated ‘stable’.
The test car featured front seatbelt pre-tensioners & load limiters, dual front airbags, ABS, seat-belt reminder for the driver, and ISOFIX child seat mounts. The Creta scored 15.57 out of 17 marks for adult-occupant safety (4-stars) and 29.87 out of 49 marks for child-occupant safety (3 stars).
3. Creta Facelift Launched Last Year
In May 2018, the India-spec Hyundai Creta received its mid-cycle facelift, which was introduced in a price range of INR 9.44 to 15.04 lakh. The updated Creta features a reworked front-end that comes with a bigger, bolder grille. There are some other styling updates, like the availability of new design alloy wheels and exterior colour options. The interior gets some additional equipment, like a wireless charger, while the top-spec version comes with an electric sunroof.
4. Five lakh units sold
Earlier this year, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) announced the sale of 5 lakh units of the made in India Hyundai Creta around the globe. The 5 lakh figure is for only those models that have been produced at the company’s Sriperumbudur-based facility off Chennai and doesn’t include models that have been manufactured in Brazil, Russia and China.
Exports of the Hyundai Creta commenced from Hyundai’s Indian plant soon after the car was launched in the local market in July 2015. By February 2018, the company had already sold over 3,70,000 units of its SUV in the domestic market and more than 1,40,000 units in the export markets.
5. Next-gen model already unveiled, will launch in China next month
The Hyundai Creta is fast approaching the end of its lifecycle and will be replaced by an all-new model in almost every market it’s sold in. However, like the last time, it’s the Chinese market that will receive the new SUV before the same is launched in markets like that of India.
The next-gen Hyundai ix25 has already been unveiled and will launch in China next month. Even its India launch is in the offing and should take place next year. Like the last time, even this time, the India-spec derivative of the ix25 will feature enough changes to suit the tastes of the Indian audience.