Hyundai's compact SUV-rivaling Vitara Brezza likely to debut in April 2019

Despite being second largest carmaker in India, Hyundai has still not launched a sub-four-metre SUV. The compact SUV is one of the hot selling car segments in India and Maruti Suzuki is the leader with Vitara Brezza followed by Tata Nexon and Ford EcoSport. Hyundai is not shying away from the fact and it has earmarked a model for 2019.

Hyundai had revealed the Vitara Brezza rivalling compact SUV in its concept form at the Auto Expo 2016 as HND-14 Carlino. The company has started working on the production-spec version codenamed QXi while there was no clarity over when can we expected the SUV in flesh. A report in Overdrive now claims, Hyundai will reveal the SUV in April 2019.

The project Qxi will be fourth Hyundai SUV in India after Creta, Tucson and Santa Fe. Since it will be an entry-level SUV pitted against Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza and Ford EcoSport, the Hyundai SUV is expected to be priced under Rs 12 lakh.

Though it's too early to comment about the design, the new SUV is expected to sport a design blend of new the i30 hatchback and the Tucson SUV. It will be based on the Fluidic 2.0 design philosophy and hence, cascading grille design is expected.

Reports claim the compact SUV will make use of stretched i10 platform and will share many parts of i20 and Creta to keep its price in check. The SUV will have a monocoque shell and front wheel drive layout. The AWD version is not expected in India.

Hyundai is expected to offer the Carlino based SUV with a 1.0 litre T-GDi turbo-petrol producing 120PS of power and 117Nm of torque. In addition, the tried and tested naturally-aspirated 1.2 litre Kappa petrol, that produces 84PS and 117Nm and the 1.4 litre U2 CRDi diesel motor that produces 90PS of power and 224Nm of torque are also expected. Apart from the standard six-speed manual transmission, the new SUV also expected with Automated Manual Transmission (AMT).