The South Korean carmaker Hyundai has revealed the Sub-compact SUV concept codenamed HND-14 Carlino at the recently wrapped up Indian auto Expo. The Carlino SUV concept was the show stopper and grabbed a lot of attention. According to Hyundai, the car has been specifically designed for India and the outline of the SUV has been made at its Namyang design center in South Korea.
Christened on the same platform as Elite i20 hatchback and Creta, the Carlino will follow the company’s latest fluidic design philosophy. A huge team of 750 engineers are working on the designing, R&D of the product and company is trying to take localization levels close 85-90 percent in order to price it competitively.
The car will be launched in 2018 and will sit in between i20 Active and Creta in the lineup. Under the hood, it is expected to get same powertrains of i20 hatchback i.e. 1.2l Kappa Dual VVT petrol engine developing 81bhp@6000rom and 114Nm of high torque@4000rpm and 1.4l U2 CRDi diesel mill which is good for 89bhp power and 220Nm torque@1500-2750rpm.
The prototype flaunts a big front grille, next gen headlamps with LED daytime running lights, futuristic LED fog lamps, hug wheels with flared wheel arches, side air intakes, squarish LED tail lights at rear adds to its upmarket feel. However no clear details have been available but it would get electric ORVMs, big color display with Smartphone enabled navigation, voice recognition, push start button, six airbags and much more.
Apart from Carlino SUV, Hyundai will launch the Tucson SUV in India this year and Santa Fe facelift in 2017. Expected to be priced in the range of Rs.7-10 lakhs (Ex-showroom), it will lock its horns with Mahindra KUV 100, Ford EcoSport and upcoming Tata Nexon.
