Hyundai Elite i20’s off-road avatar is INSANE

Hyundai Elite i20 was one of the first popular premium hatchbacks in the country. Hyundai sells more than 11,000 units on an average of the Elite i20 making it the second-best selling model in the segment after Baleno. The Hyundai Elite i20 is very popular among the modification garages too and there are quite a few heavily modified examples of the Elite i20 in the market.

The current model of Elite i20 was launched last year with minor visual changes. The premium hatchback gets the sharp European styling. Here is a wild crazy idea of transforming the humble Elite i20 hatchback into an off-roader.

The render has been done by CarToq’s rendering expert Vipin Vathoopan and the result has come out to be totally wild. The rendered image shows the Hyundai Elite i20 in a soothing yellow blend mounted on huge off-roading tyres. To put these huge tyres in place, the vehicle’s body will have to be heavily modified. As shown in the picture solid axles have been put in place with long travelling suspension all around. The picture also gives a view of the live axle in the rear making it a 4X4 vehicle. The vehicle will have to be altered majorly to put the system in place.

The body itself is now two-door setup but the stock doors have been replaced with solid steel tubes, giving it a muscular look and adding an airy feel to the cabin. There are wide fenders mounted on the car that cover the wheels and will stop mud and muck from making a mess. The roof-top gets a wide LED bar that will be handy during the off-roading trails and expeditions. There’s also a snorkel installed on the right-hand side of the vehicle that increases the water wading depth but without any solid doors, we doubt that this vehicle will test the depth of a river. The front bumper is now made up of steel and will to remove the boulders or big rocks out of the way. On the inside, the off-roading Elite i20 only gets seating for two with bucket seats in place.

Well, with such a heavy set-up, we are sure that the engine also needs to be on the steroids just like the body of the vehicle. We would not mind getting the 2.0-litre diesel engine from the Tucson to get those heavy wheels moving. With this new set-up, we are sure that the Elite i20 would be able to capture all the attention on the road and reach the most challenging places.

Hyundai may not ever put this set-up into production but if an off-roading modification garage is looking for inspiration, here it is. This vehicle looks better than most boxy designed 4X4s in the market and can surely be made quite capable too. Currently, the only thing from Hyundai that comes close to this render is the i20 Active, a slightly higher riding version of the Elite i20. The i20 Active is one of the best selling hatchback-based crossovers in India.