Hyundai New Elantra Preview
The Hyundai Elantra has emerged as a steady seller in the slow moving D-segment in India. Known for its stylish looks and fancy equipment, the Elantra has been able to sell itself as a good option for Indian car buyers looking for a premium sedan. The Korean car maker has now decided to replenish the Elantra’s appeal by bringing in the next generation Elantra, also known as the Avante in global markets, to India in August.
The Elantra will continue with the fluidic philosophy of design but the curves are a bit conservative when compared to the existing car. Built on a new platform, the Elantra will be wider and longer and gets the horizontally slatted hexagonal grille in the front. The headlamps are projector units and have embedded LED DRLs with boomerang shaped mesh vents on the air dam housing the fog lamps. The coupe-ish roofline continues into the chiselled boot which now gets beautiful tail lamps inspired from the Elite i20.
The cabin will be in beige and black hues unlike the black with silver accent interior of the global car. Hyundai is known to stuff its cars with a feature list that stumps the competition and the new Elantra will continue with it. Push-button start, rain-sensing wipers, auto dimming internal mirrors and electrically foldable wing mirrors and more such gadgets are all expected to be a part of the standard equipment. The top-spec car gets ventilated front seats – something that even some of the premium executive sedans miss out on.
The India bound car is likely to debut Hyundai’s new 130+ bhp 1.6-litre GDi engine. Hyundai will also continue to offer the Elantra with existing 1.6-litre diesel engine. The four cylinder turbocharged engine develops 126bhp of power and 260Nm of torque. The CRDi engine may be tuned for better power delivery and torque and both the petrol and diesel engines will be offered with a six-speed manual and a six-speed automatic gearbox options.
The new Hyundai Elantra will continue to compete with the other D-segment sedans like Skoda Octavia, Chevrolet Cruze, Toyota Corolla Altis and the Volkswagen Jetta. As for the price, there will be a marginal increase on the tag and is expected to be around Rs 16 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
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