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Hyundai Elantra to take rebirth in India, August launch expected

2012 Hyundai Elantra would again test its mettle in the Indian market as the Korean car company Hyundai is all set to launch it most likely in August. The fifth generation model of Elantra would soon be made available in the India car showrooms. It is expected that that the car would be sold at Rs 15 lakh. Hyundai has worked hard on Elantra to give it a stunning look with a lot of features to appeal the customers. Elantra was launched by Hyundai in 2004 in India. But at that time it had to stop the production of the car due to low demand in 2008. It was made available in petrol and diesel engines. Since then a three other models of Elantra were developed but none of them were launched in India.

Now, as the fifth edition some real good features, the company has decided to bring it to India. The auto industry sources said that the Elantra that was launched in 2004 failed to appeal the customers as its looks were not impressive. But, now to develop the car, the company has taken some lessons from Verna and Sonata. After the success of Verna and Sonata, Hyundai has decided to give Fluidic design treatment which it gives to Verna and Sonata too. It’s a sedan with a sleek look. Moreover, Hyundai has not compromised while designing interior of the car. It has given a much better interior look than its earlier Elantra model.

Elantra is powered by 1.8 litre multiport injection petrol motor producing 150 PS of power with 165 Nm of torque. The diesel variant of Elantra comes with 1.6 litre CRDi engine generating 126 PS of power with 260 Nm of torque.  As far as safety of the driver and passengers is concerned, the car has four airbags. But Elantra may face tough competition from Renault Fluence, Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Cruze, Honda Civic, Skoda Laura and the Volkswagen Jetta.