Upcoming Hyundai Creta EV spotted testing for the first time
It is no surprise now that Hyundai is preparing an all-electric version of its popular SUV Creta, a hint of which was given by the bosses at Hyundai recently. According to Hyundai, the new Creta Electric will officially arrive sometime in 2025, for which the development works have already begun. Now, a test mule of the Hyundai Creta Electric was recently spied on trial runs on Indian roads, indicating that the electric SUV is almost ready, much before its speculated arrival timeline.
An early prototype of the Hyundai Creta Electric was recently spied on by an automotive enthusiast at a charging station, where this Creta took a halt for a recharge for its battery. According to the eyewitness Nitin Tyagi, the Creta Electric had its front and rear bumpers in different colours compared to the rest of the paint scheme of the SUV. He also clicked a picture of the Creta Electric, which reveals a couple of other key details.
In the pictures of the Hyundai Creta Electric shared, we can see that the undisguised test mule of the SUV has a slight protrusion at the bottom of the floor pan. It is speculated that this protrusion is of the structural member, which acts as the lower support of the battery pack. Apart from the floor pan extension and different-coloured front and rear bumpers, there are no other changes in the electric Creta compared to its ICE version.
With these changes introduced, Hyundai has followed Tata Motors and Mahindra in modifying an existing IC-engine platform and making it suitable for a fully-electric vehicle. While Tata Motors followed the same procedure for its current range of EVs based on Tiago, Tigor and Nexon, Mahindra did the same with the XUV400, which is based on the XUV300. Rather than relying on the born-electric E-GMP architecture, Hyundai chose the current platform for Creta electric to keep the production costs in check.
Expect to get over 400 km range
While the powertrain details of the Hyundai Creta Electric are still under wraps, we are expecting that it might retain the battery and motor configurations from the Kona Electric. It means that the Creta electric might come with a 100 kW electric motor and a 39.2 kWh battery pack, which should result in an ARAI-claimed range of over 400 km.
It is expected that the new Hyundai Creta Electric might make its global debut at the 2025 Auto Expo. While India might be one of the first auto markets to receive the Creta Electric, it can also serve as an export hub for other countries where it will be launched in a phased manner. Once it launches, the new Hyundai Creta will compete with the production-spec version of the Maruti Suzuki eVX and MG ZS EV.