It is close to 14 years to the day when Hyundai opened its innings in India with a tall boy smallie to present not just its first car in the India market but also to present the first major challenge to Maruti Suzuki’s domination of the peoples’ car segment. Both Hyundai and Santro were unknown names in the Indian market but with some nifty marketing backed by sound engineering and design, the quirkily styled Santro helped establish the product and the brand in the minds of the Indian motorist. Now discussing about the price point of the new vehicle which should be on or about the Rs 2.5-lakh ex-showroom sticker tag for the base Alto. Hyundai would have worked out what it had to do with a brand new modern design to try and engineer it not just to the pricing of the Alto but more importantly, allow it to deliver more in terms of style, occupant space, performance, fuel efficiency than the established segment leader. The Eon is built on a completely new platform which has no bearing on the ones used before, either for the Santro or the svelte i10. What clearly denotes the Eon is its stylish exterior with hints of Hyundai’s fluidic design language showing. It is no secret that trying to style a small package is much more difficult than a larger sized hatch or saloon. But with the Eon, the Hyundai design team has really pulled out all the stops and emerged with a package that is fresh, contemporary and appealing. Casey Hyun, the Australian-born Korean who headed the design team, was clear in his mind that style was as important as the interior detailing needed to prepare a product which had to stand the test of time in a class which would see newer competition arrive sooner rather than later.
Design and style haven’t compromised what remains one of the key attributes punters look forward to in this class of car: usable occupant space. The packaging engineers have come up with a winner in this area, with class leading head, elbow and leg room, front and rear. I managed to spend quite some time getting my colleagues to move and slide front seats back and forth as I switched from front to rear seats. And this perfunctory course did suggest that the Eon would be impressive in its space efficiency and comfort. A quick comparison with the Alto is in order here and the figures tell their own story. The Alto measures 3620mm front to rear, while the Eon’s overall length is slightly shorter at 3495mm. However, the real story emerges when you factor in the 2380mm wheelbase of the Eon, which is 20mm longer than that of the Alto and the cabin just starts building up from there on. Clever design of the dashboard, optimizing the H-points for the occupants plus also proper thought on entry and egress helped liberate more space in the interior. If that wasn’t all, the seats impressed as did the width and the height, both these being dimensionally larger than that of the Alto (1550mm width and 1500mm height for the Eon as against 1495mm and 1460mm for the Alto). So much for the occupants but the Eon also caught the eye in another department, a substantially larger boot space to gobble up 215 litres of luggage.
On to the drivetrain which is now so very critical in this day and age of high fuel prices. Many would have forgiven Hyundai were it to have adapted the 1.0-litre mill from the Santro and tweaked it for the times but Hyundai opted to do things differently and created a whole new engine and transmission pack for the Eon. The engine is an all-new 814cc sohc three-cylinder one (actually based on the i10’s IRDE four-cylinder mill with one cylinder deleted), which is compact and takes up minimum space under the hood – also a design cue to the ample cabin space! This three-pot motor develops 56PS (at 5500rpm) and 75Nm of torque (produced at 4000rpm), figures which are ample to move a full complement of four and their luggage briskly and without blowing a hole in their wallets. It also of course betters the Alto’s three-pot 800cc motor in the process (47PS and 62Nm). Hyundai’s Arvind Saxena said that apart from all other attributes mentioned above and the price of course, the Eon would set the new standard in class for fuel efficiency. Judging by the way the five-speed gearbox (based on the unit employed on the Santro but with a few modifications added in for better shifting and engagement) delivered seamless forward thrust while swapping from cog to cog and matching the torque peaks on each upward shift, first impression of the driveability was pretty impressive. Hyundai will have an early mover advantage in this class because market leader Maruti Suzuki isn’t exactly lagging behind with development for its own new offering in the Alto league. And the signs are that there should be some more new entrants joining the fray from other OEMs. Just like the premium hatchback category has hogged much of the automotive limelight in recent years, and with justifiable reason, expect action to be heightened in the entry level category once Hyundai unveils the Eon some time in mid-October. A new dawn beckons for the 800s but this time it is Hyundai and not Maruti Suzuki which is setting the pace.
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