Hyundai may speed up Avante launch

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New Delhi, Jan 16: The five year-old Hyundai Elantra is set to emerge in a new avatar - Avante. Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) is all set to replace the existing Elantra with Avante that is expected to hit Indian roads in mid-2008. The car is currently on display at the 9th Auto Expo.

“It was in mid of 2007 that we decided to phase out Elantra, which had been in India since 2003. And with Avante replacing Elantra across the globe, it is most likely to replace Elantra in India as well,” says the company spokesperson Rajiv Mitra. “Depending on the response at the expo, we will decide on the date of the launch of Avante in India,” he added.

Sources, however, said the car would be launched at the earliest, sometime in the middle of 2008, since Elantra was Hyundai’s only model in the executive segment and the company has lost a substantial market share in that segment ever since it decided to phase out Elantra.

The new Elantra, which has already hit the markets in the US and Korea, would be available in India in both petrol and diesel versions. While the petrol engine will be 2000cc, its diesel counterpart will have a 1600cc CRDi engine.

To be positioned with the likes of Honda Civic, Chevrolet Optra, Skoda Octavia and Toyota Corolla in D-segment, the car would be priced between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 12 lakh.