Photo: SB-Medien
When we first saw these pictures we were like "Oh my, is that the all-new Nissan Cube?" Well, not quite. The Japanese box has been discontinued for poor sales, but SsangYong is cooking up an alternative for those car buyers that need a right-angled lifestyle machine for their daily commute.
So what's the deal with this mysterious X100 model currently in development? After Indian group Mahindra bought a 70 percent share in the South Korean manufacturer a few years ago, saving SssangYong from bankruptcy, the bigwigs over at Mahindra started turning the company around with better designed models, better reliability, better customer care, the lot.
Under Mahindra's control, SsangYong is trying to change its ways of doing cars for the better. With the upcoming X100, the automaker will try to break the highly competitive B-segment crossover territory, which is laden with models such as the Nissan Juke, Renault Captur, Jeep Renegade and the soon to be launched Fiat 500X, among other nameplates. Slotted just below the Korando SUV, the X100 needs to wow potential customers in order to steal customers from more mainstream carmakers.
A while back, our spy photographers caught test mules of the X100 cold weather testing in Scandinavia, but this time around, the cheeky little crossover appears almost ready for mass production. On this occasion, the prototypes were spied in Eastern Europe, which is a tell-tale sign that SsangYong is planning to sell this car in this part of the world as well. If you take out the black cladding and checkered camo of the A and B pillars, you're left with a pretty well proportioned car with a very small rear overhang and a good looking profile.
In terms of styling, the upcoming model surely borrows the XLV Concept's aesthetics, but it's impossible to tell how much because of the heavily camo'd body shell. Under the skin it's highly probable to find a new type of chassis. In terms of oomph, a 1.6-liter gasoline mill and a similarly sized four-pot turbo diesel will make up the engine lineup. Thanks to start and stop technology and six speeds in either manual or CVT flavor, both powerplants are shaping up to be good on fuel economy. Even though there's nothing official at the present moment, we expect to see the SsangYong X100 to be presented in the first-quarter of 2015, hitting showroom floors by spring.
Under Mahindra's control, SsangYong is trying to change its ways of doing cars for the better. With the upcoming X100, the automaker will try to break the highly competitive B-segment crossover territory, which is laden with models such as the Nissan Juke, Renault Captur, Jeep Renegade and the soon to be launched Fiat 500X, among other nameplates. Slotted just below the Korando SUV, the X100 needs to wow potential customers in order to steal customers from more mainstream carmakers.
A while back, our spy photographers caught test mules of the X100 cold weather testing in Scandinavia, but this time around, the cheeky little crossover appears almost ready for mass production. On this occasion, the prototypes were spied in Eastern Europe, which is a tell-tale sign that SsangYong is planning to sell this car in this part of the world as well. If you take out the black cladding and checkered camo of the A and B pillars, you're left with a pretty well proportioned car with a very small rear overhang and a good looking profile.
In terms of styling, the upcoming model surely borrows the XLV Concept's aesthetics, but it's impossible to tell how much because of the heavily camo'd body shell. Under the skin it's highly probable to find a new type of chassis. In terms of oomph, a 1.6-liter gasoline mill and a similarly sized four-pot turbo diesel will make up the engine lineup. Thanks to start and stop technology and six speeds in either manual or CVT flavor, both powerplants are shaping up to be good on fuel economy. Even though there's nothing official at the present moment, we expect to see the SsangYong X100 to be presented in the first-quarter of 2015, hitting showroom floors by spring.
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