Hyundai has confirmed that its upcoming SUV, which until now was known by its codename QXi, will be called Venue. It is destined to break cover for the first time on April 17, 2019, at the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS). Hyundai claims the Venue will be a “Connected SUV”. Now that’s intriguing! A “Connected” car is one that can not only provide live information to the occupants and the driver but also receive OTA (over the air) updates from the manufacturer.

Will the Hyundai Venue get this feature in India? We sure hope so. If it does, this could be one of the several other segment-first features that the Venue is tipped to bring. That list also includes ventilated seats and semi-digital instrument cluster. As far as other features are concerned, the Hyundai Venue will surely get a touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, automatic climate control, powered sunroof, diamond-cut dual-tone alloy wheels and many safety gizmos.

To avail all the benefits reserved for the sub-4 metre car classification, the Hyundai Venue will have to offer a petrol engine no bigger than 1.2 litres and a diesel engine no bigger than 1.5 litres. Thankfully, Hyundai has such options as it fits them in the Elite i20. The Venue is likely to either borrow the 1.2-litre VTVT engine from the hatchback or debut a 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder turbo-petrol mill. Hyundai might just bring a go-fast version of the Venue with a larger 1.4-litre petrol engine from the Verna. Diesel duties will, in all probability, be handed over to the 1.4-litre CRDi engine. Obviously, a choice of manual and automatic transmissions will be available.

The South Korean carmaker is expected to land the Venue in India in May this year. Once launched, it will compete with the Tata Nexon, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Ford EcoSport, Mahindra XUV300 and the Honda WR-V. You’d agree that Hyundai is late to join the sub-4 metre bandwagon. But it has had a lot of time to package a product which can shake up the entire segment.