Next year, Hyundai will look to plug a gap in its SUV offerings for developed markets by making a subcompact model to compete directly with the HR-V, Juke and CH-R. This new compact SUV is under the project name “OS” – in South Korea and it will be for sale at home, in the United States and Europe. Hyundai makes sub-compact SUVs locally in China, India and Russia. The OS will carry the design DNA of the best selling Santa Fe (pictured here) with compact muscular dimensions.
Hyundai has been pushing sales of bigger, higher-margin models like the Azera, or Grandeur, and its Genesis luxury line. Its smaller sedans, including the Elantra and Sonata, have lost ground to rivals like Honda Motor’s Civic and Toyota’s Altis.
Hyundai is working on a next generation of cars with “a different flair” to hit the market from 2019.
