Hyundai’s 7 seater Creta will be called the Alcazar
The much-awaited Creta-based SUV will be introduced in the Indian market by June this year.
The Hyundai Alcazar personifies reliability & indulgence while drawing its inspiration from the royal lineage of Castles & Palaces denoting grandeur, spaciousness & solidity – Hyundai’s words, not mine. Nonetheless, why the hype? It’s just another SUV, no? Well, it happens to be more than that. Especially because it aims at doing the impossible, making the Creta’s design likeable.
For starters, it’s the first seven-seat Hyundai in a long time. Secondly, the Korean carmaker would want to win over its customers, something they couldn’t with Santa Fe. For obvious reasons may I add. Thirdly, and most importantly, with the competition of the 7-seat SUVs growing every minute, it’s not all an insane decision.
So then, what can the Indians expect from it?
- Will be sold in six and seven seating layouts.
- To share almost all the mechanical pieces with the ‘standard’ Creta.
- Price and introduction to the Indian market expected by June this year.
Unlike the five-seat Creta, for obvious reasons, the Alcazar will arrive with either a 6-seat, or 7-seat layout, meaning the former gets captain seats for the middle row, and the latter gets bench seats. In the six-seat version, by looking at the spy shots doing the media rounds, we can confirm that the middle-row will receive a dedicated armrest along with cup-holders, and provision for storage and wireless charging. Put shortly, a second center-console.
To further differentiate the Alcazar from its five-seater cousin, Hyundai has decided to throw in a slightly-redesigned front-fascia. The alloys and a few of the other exterior bits will look a tad-bot different to the Creta. On the inside, it is going to be more-or-less the same, when a direct comparison is done with the Creta.
On the engine side, expect it to borrow Creta’s petrol and diesel motors along with a range of gearbox options. To keep adding, sources from the media have hinted at the Alcazar boasting Hyundai’s SmartSense tech (ADAS) which would see features like forward collision assist including automatic emergency braking, blind-spot collision avoidance assist, driver attention warning, automatic emergency braking while reversing, and rear cross-traffic alert on offer.
As expected, the upcoming Alcazar will rival the MG Hector Plus, recently-launched Tata Safari, Mahindra XUV 500 (and its upcoming next-gen).
