Hyundai Venue will be the smallest SUV within the brand’s global lineup and it will compete against Vitara Brezza, Nexon, EcoSport and XUV300 in India
Hyundai has a slew of new products lined up for launch this year but the most significant of them all has to be the Venue. The subcompact SUV’s arrival has been a long time coming and ever since the Carlino concept was showcased at the 2016 Auto Expo, Hyundai was expected to launch its production version. However, it did not turn out to be the case.
As the old saying goes, it is better late than never! The sub-four-metre SUV segment has now been crowded with highly capable vehicles as the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza leads the charge ahead of Tata Nexon, Ford EcoSport and recently launched Mahindra XUV300. Hyundai, with its knack of positioning its products aggressively, may follow the same strategy with the Venue.
Do not expect the Venue to come cheap though as it gets a number of segment-first in-car connectivity features. Hyundai’s Global Blue Link technology is making its way into India with 33 features and 10 of them are specifically made for the domestic market. The system will enable accident notification, live traffic updates, AI-powered voice recognition and it uses an embedded SIM card to include cloud-based services.
The Hyundai Venue will make its global premiere at the 2019 New York International Auto Show on April 17 and will concurrently be showcased in India before reaching showrooms on May 21. But ahead of the global debut, Hyundai India releases the first sketch of Venue to give the hint of the front, rear in Interior design. The five-seater will be launched in several global markets including Australia, South Korea and the United States.
It will be powered by three engine choices: a 100 horsepower and 172 Nm producing 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, a 1.4-litre petrol and a 1.4-litre diesel engine. Both six-speed manual and automatic transmission will be on offer while the smaller turbo petrol will gain a dual-clutch auto at least at a later stage of its lifespan.
The Venue will feature a whole host of equipment like touchscreen infotainment system, reverse parking sensors and camera, automatic climate control, engine start/stop, and notable safety and driver assistive technologies.