Moscow Auto Show: Hyundai iX55 hints at BMW X5 rival
Hyundai ix55 (known as Hyundai Veracruz in the US market) to debut at Moscow Auto Show.
In the first quarter of fiscal year, Hyundai sold 65,458 cars in Russia and became the second best selling brand in the fast growing market. Sales so far, has risen 108% compared to the same period of last year, but Hyundai is not stopping here. Korean top automotive company revealed the plans, it aims to sell 200,000 vehicles in Russia by the end of this year.
To achieve these high sales numbers, Hyundai plans to introduce several new vehicles, as well as to build a factory in St. Petersburg, with an annual capacity of 100,000 vehicles.
First new vehicle that Hyundai plans to introduce in Russia (and later in Europe) will be the Veracruz SUV. Veracruz was presented to Russian consumers for the first time at the 2008 Moscow Auto Show. It was renamed to ix55.
In Russia, the xI55 will come equipped with 3,8L Lambda engine, mated to the six speed automatic transmission. This is the same engine as used on US Veracruz model and packs more than 260 horsepower.
Europe will get the V6 diesel powered variant with more than 200 horsepower. The ix55, with the same diesel engine, is already on sale in South Korea. It generates impressive 240 hp, which makes it more powerful than BMW x5 equipped with competitive 3.0L diesel powerplant.
Hyundai hopes to sell at least 5.000 units of the ix55 at the European and Russian market each year. [Source: Carclub]
Hyundai ix5 gallery:
December 12th, 2008 at 12:35 am
those grills looks better than US model.
January 25th, 2009 at 3:07 am
Man if there is one thing i wish they had done differently on this suv it would be the front end…for me it really doesn’t work
February 18th, 2009 at 3:53 am
WOW, I LOOVE IT
February 7th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
It made by cleverest engineers in the world , I think