With sharp styling and eye-balling headlights, this brand new Hyundai BAYON looks like it’s genuinely trying to stare-out the competition.
And that means it’s taking the fight to the brilliant Ford Puma and the ever-popular Nissan Juke.
The BAYON is an all-new SUV crossover, similar in size to the Puma and Juke, and with a similarly bold exterior design.
It’s also the firm’s most compact and entry-level SUV, sitting below the KONA in the Hyundai line-up. But what it might lack in stature, it makes up for with personality.
Hyundai says the BAYON is ‘distinctive through unexpected and eye-catching proportions and strong graphic features’, and it’s a good way to sum it up.
An aggressive bonnet, arrow shaped headlights and those razor-sharp running lights make it one of the most unique-looking compact SUVs on the market.
Full LED lights and indicators complete its modern look, too.
The BAYON is available with 15-inch steel wheels or 16- or 17-inch alloys, and there’s a choice of nine different colours, as well as an optional two-tone roof.
Step inside the roomy interior and you can expect a 10.25-inch digital cluster and either a 10.25-inch or 8-inch infotainment screen. Occupants can also benefit from LED ambient lighting technology integrated into the front passenger foot areas, door wells, and front door pull handle areas, as well as the storage area below the centre console.
Hyundai says there’s plenty of room for passengers whether they’re sitting in the front or rear seats while a 411 litres boot puts in slap-bang between the Puma, which has 456 litres, and the Juke, with 354 litres of luggage space.
And what’s perhaps most impressive is the range of driver assistance and safety tech systems available. There’s Lane Following Assist (LFA), which works to keep the vehicle centred in its lane, as well as Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist (FCA) which can hit the brakes to prevent a collision in case you’re slow to react.
Meanwhile Rear Occupant Alert (ROA) notifies the driver before leaving the vehicle if sensors detect movement in the back seat. You might, at first, wonder why that’s a thing you’d ever need - after all, are you really going to forget you’ve left a child in the backseat while you do your supermarket shop? But this is all part of Hyundai’s plan to try and prevent kids dying of heatstroke when left in hot cars - and it’s a worthy cause indeed.
Powertrain wise, the BAYON will get an efficient ‘T-GDi’ petrol engine - with power up to 120 PS - combined with 48-volt mild-hybrid technology, which should equate to fuel savings and better efficiency, as well as lower Co2 emissions.
It also comes with something called ‘Manual Transmission’, or iMT, which disengages the engine from the transmission when the driver releases the accelerator, which means you start coasting, thus saving fuel.
There’s no official word on when the BAYON will go on sale, or how much it’ll cost, but you can expect it to fall somewhere around £18,000.
We’ll bring you further details when we get them.
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