Hyundai’s Upcoming B-Segment SUV Will Be Christened ‘Bayon’

Hyundai Bayon teaser

The Hyundai Bayon is scheduled to debut in Europe during the first half of 2021, and will go on sale there a few months later

Hyundai Motor will be introducing a new entry-level SUV next year, which will be named ‘Bayon’. The upcoming Hyundai Bayon is slated to join the South Korean auto giant’s European lineup initially, and might make its way to other international markets later. A teaser image for the same was released recently, which showed the taillamp design of the upcoming little crossover.

Although the teaser doesn’t show a lot of details about the vehicle, plenty of spy pictures have been floating around the internet. From the spy pictures, we know that the Bayon will get a muscular exterior design. At the front, it will get a vertically-split headlamp setup, much like the Hyundai Venue. Its dimension will be extremely compact, but the car will feature roof rails for added utilitarian appeal.

The car will also get a set of pretty-looking, diamond-cut alloy wheels. The test vehicle also had a gently sloping roofline, with a shapely tailgate and roof-mounted spoiler. To complete the crossover look, there will be black cladding along the length of the vehicle, including on the wheel arches. Overall, this feels more like Hyundai i20-based crossover hatchback, especially considering its dimensions.

Hyundai i20 N rear profile

The name of the vehicle has been inspired by Bayonne, a city in France, which sits between the beautiful Atlantic Coast and the picturesque Pyrenees Mountains. Hyundai’s location-inspired nomenclature is also seen in a few other models in its lineup, like the Santa Fe and the Tucson.

Hyundai is strongly established in the European SUV market already, in terms of our model range as well as our sales success,” said Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, Vice President, Marketing & Product, Hyundai Motor Europe. “By launching a new, additional B-segment model as the entry point into our SUV line-up, we see a great opportunity to cover European customers’ demand even better and to increase our offering in a highly popular segment.”

Hyundai i20 Active Rendering
Source: SRK

It seems highly unlikely that Hyundai will introduce the Bayon in the Indian market. The carmaker already has the Venue is this market space, and the newly-launched Hyundai i20 is also priced in a similar range. The Bayon would increase internal competition, which could be bad for the brand. That said, an EV based on the Bayon could work, but we don’t know yet if that’s in development.