It was on May 21, 2019, when Hyundai Motor India entered the hotly contested sub-4 metre SUV segment with the Venue. The company officially started accepting bookings for the SUV on May 2, 2019. Launched with an introductory price list, which starts at Rs 6.5 lakh and goes up to Rs 11.105 lakh (ex-showroom India), it raced passed 17,000 bookings well before May came to a close.

Now, the Indian arm of the South Korean carmaker has announced that the bookings count for the Venue has surpassed the 33,000-mark since its launch. It also went on to mention that since the Venue was first previewed, over 2 lakh customers have expressed interest to buy one. On June 21, 2019, which marked the SUV’s one-month anniversary, Hyundai delivered over 1,000 units to customers across India.

The Hyundai Venue is available in a range of trim levels, covering four engine-transmission combinations. Apart from carrying the same 1.2-litre petrol (83PS/115Nm) with 5-speed MT and the 1.4-litre diesel (90PS/220Nm) with 6-speed MT from the Elite i20, the Venue also debuted a new 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder turbo-petrol engine which produces 120PS/172Nm. The engine can be had with either a 6-speed manual transmission or a 7-speed DCT (dual-clutch automatic transmission), which is also a first in the segment.

Speaking of first-in-segment features, the Hyundai Venue also offers a built-in air purifier, an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with HD resolution with support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, wireless mobile charger and projector fog lamps. The standout feature by a mile is the Hyundai BlueLink technology. It brings a bunch of connected car features which are bucketed in seven categories – safety, security, remote, vehicle relationship management, location-based services, alert services and artificial intelligence. The same technology will also be offered in next-gen Hyundai models like the Verna and the Creta.

In India, the Hyundai Venue competes with the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Honda WR-V, Tata Nexon, Ford EcoSport and two Mahindra SUVs – the TUV300 and the XUV300. Based on how well the Venue is gaining traction, expect Hyundai to shelve the introductory price list soon.