Hyundai has revealed the 2014 Hyundai Elantra facelift in South Korea (where it known as the Avante). Changes to the car are mainly cosmetic, though the car does get some new features. Hyundai has not confirmed any plans of launching the facelift Elantra in India, we do expect it to be launched here by early 2014.
The Hyundai Elantra was launched in India in August 2012, and units have been flying off Hyundai’s dealerships since then with sales averaging about 400 units a month. The design refresh and addition of more features could attract more customers to the car, it seems unlikely that Hyundai would not launch the facelift Elantra in India.
What’s New?
The basic silhouette of the car hasn’t changed, you’d have to look a bit closely to notice any differences between this car and the 2012 model. So the shape of the headlight housing hasn’t changed, but the elements inside have; The multi-reflector lamp unit is replaced by a projector unit, the white highlight around the lamp is different. The new Elantra gets LED day-light running lamps. The single bar in the upper grille now gets more pronounced, the bumper is slightly redesigned with a new fog lamp housing. You’ also notice the new stylish alloy wheel design. Apart from that everything remains the same, it still looks pretty sharp, smart and fresh thanks to Hyundai’s ‘fluidic’ design theme.
Move to the rear and the story remains the same, the basic shape of the car has not been fiddled with. The rear lamp at first glance may look similar, but the multi-reflector element for the brake light has been replaced by LEDs. The rear bumper has been revised slightly too, it receives a black skid-plate like treatment instead of the ‘plain’ bumper of the 2012 model.
What you can’t see in these pictures is the fact that the 2014 car has grown by 20 mm to 4550 mm. Though the company has not released photos of the interior, we are told that the air-vents on the dashboard has been moved further up, a 3.5-inch OLED screen has been added to the centre console and the front arm-rest has also been raised up. Apart from that, the 2014 Hyundai Elantra facelift also gets rear-A/C-vents and a Smart Parking Assist System (SPAS). The SPAS automatically parallel/perpendicular parks the car, similar to the system found on the VW Jetta.
We do not expect Hyundai to do any changes to the car in terms of mechanicals. The two engines offered in 2012 model will be carried forward to the new car as well. As of now, the Hyundai Elantra is powered by a 1.6-litre, 126 BHP/260 Nm diesel motor or a 1.8-litre, 147 BHP/178 Nm petrol motor mated to either a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic transmission.
We will be updating this story as we get more news about the features on the 2014 Hyundai Elantra facelift.
Let us know what you think of the car in the comments.
