Hyundai’s new Santa Fe to be launched in India in the New Year

Hyundai will launch the revamped version of the Santa Fe in the Indian car market early in 2014. The carmaker, for the first time, will locally assemble the car at its Chennai plant as earlier the Santa Fe came to India via the CBU route.

The 2014 Santa Fe has been spotted testing several times in South India. It was hard to gauge details of the car as it was in a camouflaged avatar. However, the revised car is supposed to be more imposing than its earlier version. From what we have gathered, we expect that there will be important changes to the interiors of the seven-seater vehicle keeping in mind space and modern features for the car. Since Hyundai believes in futuristic and quality features for their products, one may also see better material used in the interiors.

          

The current Santa Fe is powered by the 2.2-litre diesel engine churning out 195bhp. It comes mated to either a six-speed automatic or a manual transmission. The new Santa Fe is expected to be equipped with the same engine specifications, with an exception of the front-wheel-drive variant getting an automatic transmission. Developments have been done to improve the handling and to offer a better ride.

The new Santa Fe is expected to overcome the shortcomings of the previous variant and make a better place for itself in the Indian car market. The base version of the Santa Fe is expected to be priced from Rs 22 lakh onwards, slightly lower than its direct competitor- the Toyota Fortuner.

Hyundai will also add the upcoming sub-four-metre sedan based on the Grand i10 and the new i20 to its portfolio in 2014. We expect the Korean manufacturer to launch the Santa Fe in February, the new sedan by mid-2014 and the new i20 by end of next year.