중국2 0 On July 21, Hyundai officially unveiled CRETA for the Indian market at the launching event held at a hotel in New Delhi, India. Hyundai Motor India president (left) and Byung-kwon Rhim, senior vice president at Hyundai‘s international sales division are seen next to the car./ Photographed by Ha Man-joo

Hyundai Motor has made its first step to the compact SUV market in India. On July 21, Hyundai Motor India held an official launch event for its highly anticipated compact Sport Utility Vehicle Creta (ix 25) at a hotel in Delhi, India.

According to the Indian subsidiary of Hyundai Motor, Creta received a tremendous response with over 12,500 pre-orders.

A Hyundai Motor India official said, “It‘s remarkable that Creta received more than 10,000 pre-orders in Indian vehicle market. Creta is additionally launched in the Indian SUV market alongside Santa Fe, which is expected to gather momentum. We expect to sell around 6,000 to 7,000 units of Creta per month.”

Leading business magazine Economic Times (ET) reported that Creta will create new milestones for Hyundai Motor to enter compact SUV market.

Hyundai Motor India has been promoting Creta’s impending release through official website and commercials, but kept silent with its price and other specs to raise curiosity of its customers. Ahead of the release, customers couldn‘t even access to Creta’ official website for a while.

03 0 On July 21, Indian models introduced Creta at the launch event held at a hotel in Delhi, India./ Photographed by Ha Man-joo

The actual price of the vehicle was unveiled at the official launch event held in a hotel in Delhi, India.

The Hyundai Creta is offered with two diesel and one gasoline engine options. The gasoline engine is a 1.6-liter Gamma VTVT motor generating 121bhp of power with 6-speed manual gearbox.

The diesel options come with 1.4-liter and 1.6-liter engines. The 1.6-liter CRDi VGT engine produces 128PS of power with 6-speed manual and automatic transmission.

The gasoline model is priced from 860,000 rupees (15,700,000) up to 1,110,000 rupees (20,170,000). For the diesel variant, 1.4-liter model is priced from 950,000 to 1,150,000 rupees (17,260,000 to 20,900,000) while 1.6-liter is priced from 1,160,000 to 1,360,000 rupees(21,080,000 to 24,710,000).

ET stated that Creta‘s price is attractive and picked Renault Duster, Nissan Terrano, Mahindra XUV 500, and soon-to-be-released Maruti Suzuki S-Cross as its rivals.

Hyundai Motor India has annual production capacity of 680,000 units at its two plants near Chennai, and markets nine models - EON, i10, Grand i10, Xcent, Elite i20, i20 Active, Verna Elantra, Santa Fe, and GS Creta.