Hyundai Eon Vs Maruti Alto K10, Maruti Alto Vs Hyundai Eon- Compare Hyundai Eon and Maruti Alto. n

Eon sports the 'Fluidic' design characteristic of the restyled Verna that threw a serious challenge to its rivals like Honda City and Volkswagen Vento after its makeover. Although the company officials refused to divulge the price of the car other than saying that it would be "competitively priced and finalised only closer to the launch in October", ET has learnt from its sources at two Hyundai dealerships that the base version of the car is being priced between Rs 2.50 lakh and Rs 2.60 lakh. The upper end of the car will cost less than the base variant of Hyundai's bigger sibling i10. Rival Alto sells at Rs 2.32 lakh (base variant ex-showroom price Delhi).

While Alto may be the nearest rival to Eon, the company said the comparison is not really oranges to oranges as Eon comes with a number of high-end features. With an 814 cc engine, Eon promises a mileage of 21.1 km. Eon compares with Alto in length (3.5 metre), but is wider and taller by 75 mm and 40 mm, respectively.

Asked if it would not cannibalise its successful and only slightly higher priced Santro (Santro base price is Rs 2.80 lakh in Delhi), Saxena said, "The Eon will expand our market share by cannibalising into our competitors' products. Santro is positioned very differently from the Eon. We have no plans of withdrawing the Santro when it is doing so well."

Eon appears to score over its rivals with features that one sees only in bigger cars, like keyless entry, driver air bags, front power windows, fog lamps, central locking, two-tone interiors. "Eon is targeted at the first time buyer who is young, who has just started earning. It is also targeted at the young family that is looking for its first car," Saxena told ET.

Hyundai said Eon was conceived, designed and produced exclusively for the Indian market. The Eon project director YH Song said that the car, the smallest ever produced by the company, was in the making for the past four years. The sporty design and the functional interiors of the final product were the result of a series of interactions the company's global R&D officials have had with National Institute of Design, Indian auto journalists, renowned Indian auto designer Dilip Chhabria and a number of other designers. "The company's R&D centre at Hyderabad was totally involved with the project, especially in developing important components for the car," Saxena said. Eon, however, will have to brace for competition from the country's largest car maker Maruti when it launches its latest version of the earlier 800. But that would be at least a year away.

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(The writer was in Seoul to test drive the Eon at the invitation of Hyundai India)