2014 Hyundai Santa Fe spied in India

Everyone is expecting the new 3rd generation Santa Fe in India by 2013. Well we have got some spy shots of the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe test driving in India. The 2013 Santa Fe was unveils globally at the 2012 New York motor show. The new Santa Fe has some major changes to the skin.

The test mule spied is the same 3rd generation Santa Fe. The SUV looks to be styled more fluidicaly rather than the plain boxy current gen Santa Fe. The test mule was completely covered in camouflage so we don't know much about the design. How ever this suggests that the new Santa Fe will be completely revamped for sure.

Current gen Santa Fe was not a successful car for Hyundai in the Indian market. The SUV is steeply priced at the higher end of the segment at 24 lakhs. Buyers at this stage looked at closely priced Audi Q3 and BMW X1 as far more better options. So Hyundai has two options. One is two assemble the car locally and set an aggressive price tag or spice up the car to compete with BMW and Audi. Most probably Hyundai will assemble the new Santa Fe in their Chennai plant and price the car more attractively.

The new Santa Fe will not have any changes to the power train. The SUV will be powered by the same 2.2 l diesel engine which produces 194 HP of power and 422 Nm of torque. The engine will be mated to 6 speed manual on lower specs and 7 speed automatic on higher variants. The new Santa Fe will be available as a 7 seater with a spiced up cabin. The interiors will be tweaked to make the cabin more blush and premium. We can expect some extinguish features too.

The likely features to be offered are:

• Safety features like ABS EBD ESP 7 airbags Hill assist and Traction control
• Fully Electric seats
• Electric button type parking brake
• Xenon headlamps with day time running LEDS
• Dual zone climate control with rear AC
• Reversing Camera
• Touch screen Multimedia
• One touch folding seats
• Key less entry

The key strength of Santa Fe will be its assured safety has the SUV managed to get Five stars on NCAP safety test.

Currently Santa Fe's stage is very pathetic with an average of 55 units per month. While the segment king Toyota Fortuner sells a in decent number of 1300 units per month. The game will change however after the launch of New Santa Fe will be locally assembled and priced 2-3 lakhs cheaper than before. The base variant will be priced at 20 lakhs the top end variant will be priced at INR 23 lakhs. This make s the new car's price dangerously close to the Fortuner's. So lets wish better luck for Santa fe in the new version.