Hyundai has revealed its smallest SUV yet, but Hyundai has confirmed it’ll ghost Australia.
Named after a skateboarding trick and not a certain friendly ghost, the Casper will slot in underneath the Venue and will be built and sold in both Korea and India.
According to reports in Indian media, the Casper will measure 3595mm long, 1595mm wide and 1575mm tall.
That makes it 105mm shorter, 65mm narrower and 20mm taller than a Suzuki Ignis, and identical in length to the Kia Picanto with which it’s understood to share its platform.
That makes it an SUV counterpart to the i10 city hatchback not sold here.
While it features split-level front lighting like the rest of Hyundai’s SUV range, it differs with its funky, circular headlights.
There are other neat touches like atom-shaped wheels, patterns on the tailgate, and round lighting elements in the rear bumper.
The flared wheel arches, chunky B-pillars and roof racks give it a more SUV-like appearance than a Picanto.
Hyundai has yet to release images of the Casper’s interior.
The company hasn’t released any technical specifications other than to confirm it’ll offer a choice of naturally-aspirated and turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder engines.
According to figures obtained from a Korean government database and published on The Korean Car Blog, the atmo three-pot will produce 56kW of power while the turbo triple will produce 74kW.
Both will reportedly be available with a four-speed automatic transmission, with the Korean outlet reporting an all-electric version of the Casper is in the works.
Since discontinuing the Accent in 2019, Hyundai hasn’t offered anything quite as affordable as the Picanto from its corporate stablemate Kia.
That’s despite Hyundai making its name in Australia on the back of sub-$15,000 drive-away Excel and Getz hatchbacks.
Hyundai briefly offered the base Venue and i30 Go with sub-$20,000 prices, albeit before on-road costs, however these models have since had their prices increased.
Currently, the most affordable Hyundai is the base Venue manual at $20,690 before on-road costs.
