The compact SUV is booming unlike ever before. Within two years after the launch of the Ford EcoSport, the car which kickstarted the compact SUV trend India, the segment is crowded with the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Tata Nexon and the Mahindra XUV300. Hyundai, however was the one big player who hadn’t entered the game yet. Though, not anymore. Hyundai has revealed the first teaser of the upcoming Hyundai QXi compact SUV.
We see the car coming out of the company’s Sriperumbudur manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Chennai and it appears quite striking. It looks bulkier than its rivals and features the split headlamps and DRL setup resembling the one on their Kona SUV and even similar to that of the Tata Harrier. The wheel arches also look more muscular and the test mule has a sunroof. There’s a strong possibility of Hyundai equipping the QXi with segment first features like ventilated seats. Currently the XUV300 leads on that front, and outperforms the competition in terms of better variant-to-variant features. It also has the most powerful diesel engine in the segment along with the torquiest petrol mill.
While there’s no official word on the powertrain of the QXi, we suspect that the company will equip the compact sedan with the 1.4-litre four cylinder turbo diesel engine and the 1.4-litre petro mill from the Verna. There’s also the possibility of a 1.0-litre three cylinder turbo petrol making 99bhp and 172Nm powering the Hyundai QXi.
Hyundai will officially reveal the QXi at the New York International Auto Show next month. We expect the India launch to be a couple of months after that. All Hyundai cars are extremely well equipped and we can expect the same from the QXi compact SUV. However, the segment its entering is very crowded and competitive and pricing is a crucial element that the Korean car manufacturer will have to get spot on to tackle the Brezza and the XUV300.