Hyundai just pulled the wraps off its much-awaited sub-compact crossover, the Creta, in India. Designed as the Korean brand’s answer to the likes of the Ford EcoSport and even the Honda HR-V, the Creta looks to be part Tucson, part i20 Cross Sport, and part Kia Soul.

The official release is still thin on details, but the Creta does wear the Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design language and this is seen in the hexagonal grille, “easy to understand and pleasant design”, and focus on premium materials and finishing of the car. Setting it apart from other sub-compact offerings, the Creta comes with 17-inch alloy wheels, LED positioning lamps, and a Shark’s Fin Antenna.

For the Indian market, where it was revealed first, the Creta comes with leather seats, a Supervision Cluster instrument panel, proximity smart key with push button start/stop, automatic climate control with cluster ionizer, a 5-inch touchscreen audio system, and even rear A/C vents.


Underpinning the Creta is a “Hive Structure” made up of ultra-high tensile steel ensuring it has high body stiffness for added strength, rigidity, and durability. It also improves the Creta’s crash worthiness as well as reduces NVH. Engineers have also employed thicker dash panels, use of anti-vibration floor panels, and optimization of center floor tunnel area rigidity to make it quieter.

Powering the Creta is a choice between one petrol and two diesel engines. The petrol is the 1.6-liter Gamma 4-cylinder engine with 121 horsepower and 155 Nm of torque. The diesels are the U2 CRDi 4-cyinders available in 1.4-liter and 1.6-liter configurations. In the 1.4-liter, it has 89 horsepower and 220 Nm of torque while with the 1.6-liter it has 126 horsepower and 260 Nm of torque. Available transmissions are a 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic.

The Creta comes available with a slew of advanced safety features such as dual SRS airbags, side and curtain airbags, reverse parking camera, electronic stability control, vehicle stability management, and hill-start assist control.