Check out this digitally rendered image, which imagines the recently spied Hyundai AX as an electric vehicle
Last month, Hyundai Motors confirmed that it is planning to launch a mass-market electric vehicle in India. The EV is currently in development, and is expected to debut sometime during 2022. Not much is known about the vehicle at the moment, but speculations suggest that it would be a crossover-style vehicle, much like the upcoming Tata HBX mini-SUV.
Considering the popularity of crossovers and SUVs in the Indian market, this does seem like a reasonable assumption. Here, we have a digitally-created rendering of the upcoming EV, based on the Hyundai AX, the spy pictures of which are floating around the internet. The vehicle gets a vertically split headlamp design, inspired by the Venue and new-gen Creta.
The front bumper gets a pair of integrated fog lamps, and we see a faux cascading grille on the face. The sculpted wheel arches add a little muscle to the design, and there’s black plastic cladding all around. The car has a tall-boy design, and a pair of roof rails can be seen as well, for added SUV flavour. The rear door handle is mounted high near the C-pillar, which gives the vehicle a fake two-door look.
The dimensions of the vehicle are quite small, just as the spy pictures show. The final production model will probably end up looking a little different though, as this is just a speculative rendering. Details about the specifications of this upcoming EV are a complete mystery right now. However, we do know that the South Korean carmaker will heavily localise the vehicle, to keep costs low.
The battery and a few other powertrain components will probably be imported. Hyundai believes that although the demand for EVs is low in the Indian market, things would change with the arrival of a well-positioned entry-level product. We’ll have to wait and see if Hyundai can actually manage gain success with this strategy.
Upon launch, this upcoming Hyundai EV will compete against the Mahindra eKUV100 and Tata HBX electric, both of which are yet to launch. Hyundai will price the vehicle competitively, and we expect the price tag to be below Rs. 10 lakh, when the car launches in 2022.