Spied - Hyundai Eon facelift tests alongside the 2014 i10

Could launch in late 2013 or at the Auto Expo next year

The Hyundai Eon is the most affordable Hyundai you can buy in the world. Introduced towards the end of 2011, the Eon was the Korean car maker's answer to the Maruti Alto.

While Maruti averages about 23,000 units of the Alto every month, the Eon manages around 8,000 units. In fact, when Hyundai positioned the Eon below the Santro, we were expecting sales to fly. However, the Eon has not exactly set the sales charts on fire, and the Hyundai i10 (which costs nearly double the Eon) sells more units every month.

The introduction of the Alto 800 has certainly not helped Hyundai India any further. And now we notice that a facelift for the Eon has already commenced testing, even though the car is yet to complete its second year of sales.

These images were snapped by Overdrive's reader, Mr. Dorai M A Raj, and they seem to have been taken somewhere in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu. You can see an Eon wearing camouflage while two 2014 Hyundai i10s are directly ahead of it.

Based on the position of the camouflage, it appears that Hyundai would be changing/tweaking the bootlid, bumpers, hood and maybe the head and taillights to some extent.

Expect the 814cc petrol engine (which is also offered with an LPG option) to continue unchanged. We speculate that Hyundai would be looking for a year-end launch of the updated Eon (since it coincides with the car's 2nd year anniversary) if not an early 2014 launch (Auto Expo 2014 premiere is not unimaginable).

Hyundai's Chennai plant is the only site where the Eon is made. Apart from domestic consumption, it is also exported to markets such as Vietnam and Philippines.

[Images from Overdrive]