The Korean carmaker will add its third EV to its portfolio, and it will be in the all-important mass-market segment.
23 Jan 2024 | 16621 Views | By Rivan RS, Autocar India
The Hyundai Creta, which recently got a significant nip and tuck, has been a runaway success for the Korean brand. Considering the 12,000-odd units sold on average per month, expanding the Creta’s line-up is a sure-fire way to create even greater economies of scale, thereby increasing margins by a ...
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The Hyundai Creta, which recently got a significant nip and tuck, has been a runaway success for the Korean brand. Considering the 12,000-odd units sold on average per month, expanding the Creta’s line-up is a sure-fire way to create even greater economies of scale, thereby increasing margins by a notable amount. Hyundai is looking to do exactly that by introducing two new versions of the popular midsize SUV early in 2025. The Creta-based Alcazar three-row SUV is also due a facelift.
The Korean carmaker will add its third EV to its portfolio, and it will be in the all-important mass-market segment. As spy shots of the Creta EV showed it’ll have unique exterior styling, even when compared to the Creta facelift, and share some interior bits with the Ioniq 5. In addition, we’ve reported that the all-electric Creta will be powered by a 45kWh battery pack, supplied by LG Chem, and share its 138hp, 255Nm electric motor with the latest-gen, entry-level Kona EV available overseas.
When it comes to affordable EVs, Hyundai is seen as late to the party. While it had brought out the Kona Electric in 2019, and more recently brought in the Ioniq 5 (incidentally, it bagged Car of the Year at the 2024 Autocar Awards), neither of these models have struck a note with mass market buyers as the latter’s Rs 45.95 lakh price point is on the higher side, while has been a consistent slow-seller.
Commenting on this, Tarun Garg, Chief Operating Officer, Hyundai Motor India, said, “We are trying to see how we can introduce more EVs to India as we feel we have been late, and have a lot of catching up to do. We want to come in the high-volume EV segment. We anticipate around 20-22 percent penetration of EVs in the PV market by 2030,” he added.
He also expects EVs to contribute a similar number to Hyundai Motor India's sales by the end of the decade “and for that we need to have more models,” Garg told our sister publication Autocar Professional. However, he was non-committal about the number of EV models the company will be introducing in the Indian market in the future.
Garg mentioned that the company is evaluating both ICE-derived, as well as ground-up EVs for the Indian market, as the size of the country offers it the potential for introducing both types of EVs. “India is such a big market that both will work, and going forward, there will be the introduction of both types of EVs from Hyundai in India. Both ICE-derived as well as ground-up EVs have their own merits, and even with an ICE-derived EV there is benefit of economies of scale for the common parts,” he said.
The Creta-based EV will make its India debut at the end of 2024, with prices likely to be announced in the first quarter of 2025. Rivals will come in the form of the MG ZS EV, Maruti’s upcoming eVX, and the Tata Curvv EV.
Hyundai India is also expanding its performance-oriented N Line line-up by introducing a third model – the Creta N Line, which will also arrive in early 2025. Like the i20 N Line and Venue N Line, the Creta N Line will get minor tweaks to the exterior, N Line-specific red accents, clubbed with gloss black and faux-brushed aluminium bits, when compared to the recently launched Creta facelift. The interior will also get all-black theme, N Line specific gear lever and steering wheel with red stitching, among other bits.
The Creta N Line is expected to be powered by the new 160hp, 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine though whether it will be available with a manual gearbox option is still unknown; the Creta facelift has this engine mated to a 7-speed dual-clutch auto only. Hyundai is likely to put in a sportier suspension setup, a sportier-sounding exhaust and tweaked steering dynamics, like it does with the other N Line models.
A facelift for Hyundai’s three-row Creta-based SUV, the Alcazar, is scheduled to arrive in the middle of 2024. Although the powertrain options will not see any change, the exterior and interior design of the Alcazar facelift are likely to see similar updates as the refreshed Creta. Heavily camouflaged test mules have been spied testing, revealing only bits – a split headlamp setup is expected, along with a new front grille and bumper, and a redesigned tailgate with wraparound style, connected tail-lamps positioned horizontally.
With inputs from Mayank Dhingra and Ketan Thakkar
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2024 Hyundai Creta facelift review: Even more wholesome now