Hyundai ix25 spotted testing in India

Hyundai has a great spread of vehicles at every price point, but conspicuous by its absence is a compact SUV, which is the quickest-growing segment today. The ix25 was shown to the world at the Bejing Motor Show earlier this year and it held a lot of promise - it looks like a mini Santa Fe, which is no bad thing. 

The ix25 was spotted sporting camoflauge and undergoing benchmark testing with its obvious rivals, the Ford EcoSport and Renault Duster. The ix25 measures a little over 4.2 metres in length, so it will be interesting to see if Hyundai manages to shave off that precious 200mm and get under 4m in length like Honda did with the Jazz many years ago, or if they will leave it intact and try to woo buyers with value for money. It is powered by four-cylinder 1.6 and 2.0-litre petrol engines with both manual and automatic transmissions for the Chinese market, but we can safely expect it to change that for India and have engines that are shared with the Grand i10 and Elite i20. An automatic gearbox is improbable as well. However, what is interesting is that it may be available with 4WD in more than one trim level. Currently the Duster is scheduled for a single variant with that feature, and the EcoSport ignores it altogether.

When it launches, the ix25 will probably deliver class-leading features and value for money, which are now Hyundai standards. It will be launched in October in China, and India looks likely for a 2015 launch.

Source: MotorBeam