The Hyundai Santro launched in the late 90s has been one of the most successful cars for Hyundai in India. It also helped Hyundai establish itself as a mainstream car maker. The Santro was phased out to bring in the modern i10. Now that the i10 is nearing the end of its life cycle, Hyundai is planning to bring the Santro back to replace the i10.
Work on the new Hyundai Santro is already at full swing in South Korea and the car is expected to be ready within a year or so with the company planning an early 2018 launch for the new Santro. While we are not sure what platform the new Santro might be built upon, the new Santro might not go back to its tall-boy looks. Instead the new car might be designed with the Fluidic 2.0 design language that has been very well received by the Indian customer.
Expected to be priced between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh, the new Santro will certainly be offered with the 1.0-litre petrol engine with manual and automatic gearboxes. Depending upon how Hyundai wants to position it, it will either get the 800cc option or the 1.2-litre Kappa engine. Ideally, the new Santro should compete with the 1.0-litre Renault Kwid, Maruti Celerio and Wagon R.
Santro as a brand has been a great success for Hyundai and bringing back the moniker should work in the favour of the new compact car from Hyundai. The new Santro will be instrumental in helping Hyundai achieve its goal of 1 million sales by 2020.
