SANTRO REBORN
Hyundai will have the media preview of its new car
AH2(codenamed) on 4th October .The company recently launched the Hyundai namkaran contest for its car. As per the reports Santro
has emerged the most popular suffix.
The 2018 Santro will be based upon old Hyundai i10 HA
platform. The new car will sit between Hyundai Eon and Hyundai Grand i10.The
Santro will be the company’s first product to feature an Automated Manual
Transmission(AMT).Hyundai will market it as ‘Smart Auto'. The 2019 Hyundai AH2
will rival the likes of Renault Kwid,Maruti Celerio and the Tata Tiago.The
Santro nameplate was really the gamechanger for Hyundai and it helped Hyundai
to establish its foothold in India.
Lets have a look at the brief history and sales statistics
of Hyundai Santro.
History
The Santro (also known as Atos and Amica) was the city car
produced by Hyndai.The original Santro was introduced in the year 1997.Hyundai
called it as ‘the sunshine car’.
Hyundai Santro is
sold under different names in various regions
Hyundai Amica –United Kingdom
Dodge Atos –Mexico
Kia Visto- Indonesia and South Korea
Inokom Atos –Malaysia
Electric Version :-
Hyundai also unveiled an electric car based on the santro
,the Atos EV.The car has the range of
193 km and can reach a top speed of 130 km/h
In Indian market Hyundai Santro was launched in the year
1998.It was produced at Hyundai’s plant in Chennai. Santro crossed around 100000
unit sales in 2000.It was selling around 30000 a year when Hyundai decided to
stop its production in 2014.
The first gen Hyundai Santro was powered by 1.0 Epsilon 4
clyimder engine producing 61 bhp and 110Nm of torque
Hyundai Santro 1998
The Santro got a mid
life facelift in 1999 and was called Santro Zipdrive.
Hyundai Santro Zipdrive
In 2003 the car underwent a complete facelift and was named Santro Xing. The Santro Xing was powered by 1.1
l Epsilon 4 cylinder engine producing 65 bhp and 98Nm of torque.This model had a dream run for its full lifecycle until 2014 without any significant changes.
Finally Hyundai stopped its production inorder to accommodate newer models like Elite i20 in the assembly line.
Hyundai Santro Xing
Sales statistics of Hyundai Santro in India
Sources:Hyundai India ,Wikipedia and IndianAutosBlog
(This article is written by Gourav Saksham, a dentist by profession and a Petrohead by passion. You can connect with him at gouravsaksham@gmail.com)
Hyundai Santro's Sports version has all the facilities that a common man needs with good santro mileage.
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