New York Auto Show - Hyundai is hoping that its new Venue will attract trendy folk that otherwise would have considered a compact SUV like the EcoSport, as well as those that might have settled for a regular hatch.
Similar in dimension to the aforementioned Ford, the Venue will be Hyundai’s most affordable SUV when it goes on sale in South Africa during the second half of 2019.
The baby crossover follows a similar design script to the Kona, with a two-tier frontal design dominated by a cascading grille and large cube headlights, but the compact also gets some funky touches like the option of a contrasting white roof colour. You can even order it in a denim inspired hue with matching interior cloth, or turn heads with an Apple Green exterior colour.
The Venue made its public debut at the New York Auto Show on Monday, where Hyundai’s US vice president of product, Mike O’Brien remarked: “The all-new Venue might be small in size, but it’s big on practicality and personality.”
While what you see here is the US-spec Venue, South Africa will get the Indian-built model, which has a different engine line-up and other minor spec differences.
Whereas the American model comes with a normally aspirated 1.6-litre petrol engine only, the Indian model offers a choice of three motors - an 88kW 1-litre turbopetrol, 61kW 1.2-liter normally aspirated petrol and 66kW 1.4-litre turbodiesel.
The SA engine line-up has yet to be confirmed, however.
Same goes for the features list, but US models do offer all the latest mod-cons that you’d expect in the segment, including a 20cm touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, as well as driver assist features such as Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, Blind-Spot Collision Warning, Driver Attention Warning and Rear Cross-Traffic Warning.
We’ll bring you the local information as soon as it becomes available so stay tuned.