The crossover or SUV market is just going to be expanded to every segment. If we thought the Perodua Ativa/Daihatsu Rocky/Toyota Raize is pretty much as small as it can be, Hyundai has further gone down in product sizing.
The new Hyundai Casper is even smaller than the Bayon, Venue and the Stonic from its affiliate Kia. In terms of numerical dimensions, the Hyundai Casper is 3.6 m in length over a 2.4 m wheelbase and a width of 1.6 m. For perspective, a Japanese ‘kei’ car such as the Nissan Dayz occupies a slightly smaller footprint of 3.4 m by 1.48 m, length and width respectively.
Although smaller than a Perodua Ativa (4 m x 1.7 m) and Volkswagen T-Cross, the new Hyundai Casper will be offered with options of turbocharged and non-turbocharged engines, both displacing 1.0 litre. No mention of the performance of the engine units.
The designers have done a good job to mask the compactness of the Casper, with a futuristic parametric pattern grille and two-tier lighting arrangement. For models with the turbocharged engine under the Active variant, the front grille will have four circles thanks to the intercooler with a circular intake grille.
The DRLs are located within the large circular lower lamp, providing a happy looking ‘face’ for the youthful and active look. The rear tailgate not only has a repeat of the parametric pattern and circular lighting units but also a wide opening for added convenience.
Overfenders have also been cleverly stamped onto the rear doors, which also hides away the door handles like the Honda HR-V and Toyota C-HR. Hyundai designers managed to add some identity on the tiny rear door handles too by including the ‘Casper’ logo which resembles a smiling person.
The name Casper is however not inspired by the cartoon, but instead from a major skateboard flipping trick invented by Bobby “Casper” Boyden.
There are no images of the interior, but it looks like there will be a free-standing central infotainment display based on the overhead images of the dashboard. Hyundai is only planning to deliver the new Casper to customers closer to the end of the year.
GALLERY
