After launching a slew of premium hatchbacks in India ranging from Santro and Santro Xing to i10 and most recently the i20, Hyundai is now preparing to introduce small car priced below Rs. 3 lakh.
The car, to be called Eon, will compete against Maruti Suzuki's best-selling car Alto. Expecting to hit Indian markets between October 10 and 15, days ahead of Diwali, the car is likely to be priced between Rs. 2.50 lakh to Rs. 2.60 lakh.
The car, to be called Eon, will compete against Maruti Suzuki's best-selling car Alto. Expecting to hit Indian markets between October 10 and 15, days ahead of Diwali, the car is likely to be priced between Rs. 2.50 lakh to Rs. 2.60 lakh.
Hyundai says Eon will be an entry-level car but with no compromise as it is will be a spacious car with a large boot. The car will be powered by an 814 cc engine with a mileage promise of 21.1 km. Eon will be same in length as of Alto (3.5 metre), but wider and taller by 75 mm and 40 mm, respectively
The pictures here are of the exact production version of the Hyundai Eon, as the Project HA offering it will be known as when it is unveiled in India in the coming month. In one fell swoop Hyundai seems to have re-written a new chapter for entry level small cars and it is here in the Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3.0 lakh space, where most entry level buyers are to be found searching for their first spanking new automobile. While the Tata Nano may be cheaper, the Indian consumer is looking at better value, more substance and style rather than just focus on pricing. And in this era where every detail counts, the Eon should be the one which could ignite an all-new and more meaningful race in this segment.
with the Eon, the Hyundai design team has really pulled out all the stops and emerged with a package that is fresh, contemporary and appealing. Casey Hyun, the Australian-born Korean who headed the design team, was clear in his mind that style was as important as the interior detailing needed to prepare a product which had to stand the test of time in a class which would see newer competition arrive sooner rather than later.
A quick comparison with the Alto is in order here and the figures tell their own story. The Alto measures 3620mm front to rear, while the Eon’s overall length is slightly shorter at 3495mm. However, the real story emerges when you factor in the 2380mm wheelbase of the Eon, which is 20mm longer than that of the Alto and the cabin just starts building up from there on. Clever design of the dashboard, optimising the H-points for the occupants plus also proper thought on entry and egress helped liberate more space in the interior. If that wasn’t all, the seats impressed as did the width and the height, both these being dimensionally larger than that of the Alto (1550mm width and 1500mm height for the Eon as against 1495mm and 1460mm for the Alto). So much for the occupants but the Eon also caught the eye in another department, a substantially larger boot space to gobble up 215 litres of luggage.
The level of fine tuning the interior can be gauged by the fact that Casey Hyun’s team ordered no less than 31 different makes of branded mineral water from India in various sized bottles to determine the positioning of no less than seven to eight bottle holders dotted all around the cabin.
The engine is an all-new 814cc sohc three-cylinder one (actually based on the i10’s IRDE four-cylinder mill with one cylinder deleted), which is compact and takes up minimum space under the hood – also a design cue to the ample cabin space! This three-pot motor develops 56PS (at 5500rpm) and 75Nm of torque (produced at 4000rpm), figures which are ample to move a full complement of four and their luggage briskly and without blowing a hole in their wallets. It also of course betters the Alto’s three-pot 800cc motor in the process (47PS and 62Nm).
The launch is expected somewhere between 10-15 October, with this we would say an era of new 800-cc engine has come, its just that time the leader of the era would be Hyundai instead of Maruti.
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