Hyundai Bayon Upcoming SUV Confirmed: To Rival Even Its Bigger Brother, Creta

With Hyundai’s success in the compact SUV space, they have been wanting a bigger push in the SUV market. Hence, rumours of the arrival of another SUV to the market have been floating around. And today, finally, Hyundai have confirmed the name of the upcoming SUV to be called the ‘Bayon’.

2026 Hyundai Bayon: Name Confirmed

Since we expected a new compact SUV to come, the industry had been speculating that the name would be the ‘Bayon’ since the nameplate already exists for a crossover SUV in European markets.

The Bayon will sit above the Hyundai Venue and will be either alongside or slightly below the segment king, the Hyundai Creta.

2026 Hyundai Bayon: Overview

The Hyundai Bayon will be a grown crossover SUV which will carry a sporty look compared to the more boxy-shaped Hyundai Creta or Kia Seltos of the segment. 

While styling hasn’t been revealed yet, there have been we have been seeing the car being tested on Indian roads for some time. The shape of the car indeed suggests a sporty crossover shape with a modern and edgy design. 

The new Hyundai follows the latest trend of split headlamp designs. This is thanks to the slim LED DRL being mounted on the upper half of the fascia, and the bumper houses the LED tail lamps. 

On the side, the Bayon has the typical crossover look thanks to the stretched and raised hatchback-like style. What accentuates the SUV profile are the chunky roof rails, tall ground clearance and the large dual-tone wheels.

Over to the rear, we can make out the slim LED tail lamp design, which follows the theme from the front. Although we aren’t sure if it is connected or a two-piece design as we see traditionally. 

Being a Hyundai, we expect features like a dual-screen setup on the dashboard, which will include two 12.3-inch screens, a branded audio system, connected car technology, automatic climate control, and powered and ventilated front seats.

Safety-wise, we expect the upcoming Bayon to pack in Level-2 ADAS, multiple airbags, ABS with EBD, hill-hold control, all-wheel disc brakes and ISOFIX child seat mounts. 

Powertrains are expected to be shared with the existing Creta. That means the 1.5-litre trio of engines. The naturally aspirated with the iVT, turbo-petrol with the DCT and the diesel with the torque converter. Do note that manual transmissions will be available for select engine options.

Expected Price And Rivals

The upcoming Hyundai Bayon is likely to be priced between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh (ex-showroom) onwards. It will go against the likes of the Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Maruti Grand Vitara and Victoris, Toyota Hyryder, Honda Elevate, Volkswagen Taigun, Skoda Kushaq, Renault Duster, Nissan Tekton, Tata Curvv and Sierra and the MG Astor. 

ZigSays...

The Indian market is seeing big growth in car sales, and we expect further growth to take place. While Hyundai already has cars in most of the mass market segments today, its strategy to have most of the sales pie is evident with the soon-to-arrive Bayon, beyond their massively popular Creta. This will be more true since the upcoming Creta is expected to grow in size, like how the Kia Seltos has. Hence, bridging the gap between the Venue and the Creta will be the Bayon’s job.

Just like Maruti having multiple models in the same segment overlapping each other, it makes sure that the customer has a higher chance of buying a car from the same brand if not exactly in the same segment. The cannibalism will be intentional in the interest if higher options and a higher probability of a sale to the brand because the customer has not walked out due to a lack of options.

What do you think of the upcoming Bayon? Let us know in the comments.

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