The crowd favourite clearly seems to be the ‘Santro’ badge, for Hyundai’s upcoming hatchback, so far. Over 1.5 lakh people have taken part in Hyundai’s ‘Naamkaran‘ contest that seeks to crowd source the name of the upcoming, AH2 code-named, entry level hatchback. The contest will run until September 15th, and the car will be officially unveiled in early October. The actual launch including the price announcement will happen by the end of October, just in time for this year’s Diwali. Hyundai expects to close the contest with at least 5 lakh responses by September 15th, and it’s highly likely that the new car will be called the Santro considering the high demand for the name.
Puneet Anand, Senior General Manager and Group Head for marketing at Hyundai India said,
“It is clear that Santro has emerged the top favourite among respondents and takes up the single largest chunk of the entries received thus far.”
The Santro was Hyundai’s first-ever car in India, and was launched way back in 1999. This car was promoted by Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, and soon became a household name in India. Hyundai’s MD YK Koo has conceded that both dealers and customers want the Santro badge to be brought back in the AH2 code-named entry-level hatchback, which will eventually replace the Hyundai Eon in India. Initially though, both cars will sell side by side. The all-new car will be much larger than the Eon, and is expected to have a size similar to that of the previous generation i10, which Hyundai discontinued from the Indian market a few years ago.
The all-new Hyundai Santro (AH2) will be the first car from the South Korean automaker to have an automated manual transmission (AMT), which will eventually filter down to more affordable Hyundai cars. The car will be powered by a petrol engine, with petrol-CNG and petrol-LPG options for specific markets of the world. It’ll have a tall-boy form factor, just like the original Santro. As for pricing, expect it to start from close to the Rs. 3 lakh mark. Power priced variants are expected to be launched in a few months from now. The new entry-level car will also meet Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Program (BNVSAP) norms, and is expected to get ABS and airbags.
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