India-made Hyundai Elite i20 Faces Safety Issues in Australia

Made-in-India Elite i20, the latest in the i20- line up of South Korean manufacturer Hyundai, has reportedly failed to meet safety standards of its Australian subsidiary, claim online reports.

A recent report in The MotorReport claims that the launch of Hyundai's next generation i20, (known as Elite i20 in India) is facing indefinite delay in Australia as the model may fail to score a perfect five in the crash test.

The Australian subsidiary of Hyundai believes that the same model manufactured in Europe could clock a score of 5/5, but the India-made model may not be able to make it the same way.

Another reason being talked about is the unfavourable exchange rate between the Australian dollar and the Euro. It is said that for this reason, Hyundai Australia may not be able to replace its older i20 model with the latest one.

The exchange rate and the crash test issues could push the launch of new i20 in Australia at least till the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the India manufacturing unit of Hyundai will continue to supply the older version of i20 to Australia, powered by 1.4-liter four-cylinder petrol engine coupled to a 6-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic transmission.

The Elite i20 model, which made its India debut last August, packs 1.2 litre petrol engine and 1.4 litre CRDi diesel motor. While the petrol engine of Elite i20 can churn out 83ps of power and peak torque of 114nm, the diesel motor is tuned to generate 90ps of power and peak torque of 220nm.

On the safety front, the new i20 offers Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), four-passenger airbags and reverse-parking camera. Other features include multi-steering mounted audio controls, Bluetooth integrated 2 Din audio with USB and Aux-in and 1GB internal storage, rear AC vents, push start-stop button and automatic temperature control.