Hyundai Venue Convertible looks cutesy in this rendering and brings a sportier stance to the high-riding SUV
Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) has the Venue subcompact SUV as its biggest launch this year and it has already been showcased to the media while making concurrent world debut at the New York International Auto Show. The Venue will officially go on sale on May 21 and it will compete against segment-leading Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300, Ford EcoSport and Honda WR-V.
The Venue will sit at the bottom of the South Korean brand’s SUV range not just in India but across the globe. The smallest Hyundai SUV till date will be launched in developed markets like the United States and Australia, and it carries plenty of importance due to its high volume garnering nature. The latest trend sticking by the affinity towards SUVs and crossovers is their convertible variants among buyers.
X-Tomi, known for his unconventional renderings, has come up with a two-door Convertible Venue and weirdly it does blend in quite well. Not that we would expect Hyundai to put it into production though, but the overall idea does fit rightly on the design theme followed in the Venue. People wanting to own a convertible sub-four-metre SUV with fabric rooftop should be non-existent we presume.
To accommodate the two-door persona, the Venue’s front doors are bigger and immovable rear side panels sit where the traditional rear door used to be. The digital imagination goes on to show that the Venue convertible can comfortably give room to four people. The chopped roof enables sportier demeanour compared to the tall pillars encountered in the standard SUV.
If you want more of the Venue, Hyundai will likely offer an N Line variant with cosmetic upgrades at a later stage in overseas markets while a hotter N performance version is not ruled out either. In India, the Venue will be sold with three engine options: a 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol, a 1.2-litre petrol and a 1.4-litre diesel.
The 1.0-litre T-GDI petrol produces 120 PS and is connected to first-in-class seven-speed DCT automatic transmission while the other two powertrains can be had with manual gearboxes. Hyundai is expecting to sell around 8,000-9,000 units of the Venue per month in its first year and is targetting audience with segment-first Blue Link connectivity.