Sketch vs Reality: Why The 2023 Verna Will Not Look Exactly Like The Teasers

The upcoming Hyundai sedan has buyers excited with a powerful and sporty new design as showcased in sketches, but experience tells us to temper our expectations

Update (21/03/2023): Hyundai has launched the sixth-generation Verna in India with prices starting from Rs 10.90 lakh (introductory ex-showroom).

Automotive design is a long process with many stages that includes using various types of materials before deciding on the final look. It all starts with an idea, which is drawn on a piece of paper as a sketch. An idea becomes a design and eventually makes it to manufacturing. Even if the design has been locked in, the final product looks fairly different from the sketch, usually due to limitations of cost-effective mass production and suitability to the market’s driving conditions.

Most recently, Hyundai shared sketches of its next offering, the sixth-generation Verna, which has got the target audience quite excited. The sketch shows us its latest design language with sharp lines and big wheels for a sporty and premium stance. But chances are that the compact sedan will not look exactly like what the carmaker has teased.

Also Read: Could Creta EV Be Hyundai’s First Mass Market Electric Car For India?

To better illustrate our point, we have got five examples of cars that show how the pre-launch teaser sketch differs from the final product, with many of them from Hyundai itself.

Hyundai Creta

The difference between the sketch and the SUV we got is clearly visible. While the front profile looks almost the same, the side profile of the sketch has exaggerated proportions and looks nothing like the actual car. In the sketch, the windows and ORVMs look sleeker and the doors seem to be huge. And the biggest differentiators are the wheels, which fill up the arches a lot more than the 17-inch ones present on the actual car.

Hyundai Aura

The Aura is an even greater example of the final product being quite different from the teaser sketch. In the sketch, the pre-facelift Aura looks more like a sports car than the actual car with its flared wheel arches, deeply indented profile and low-riding stance. When Hyundai took the covers off the actual car, it was just a conventional sedan with squished subcompact proportions. 

Hyundai Alcazar

Here is where Hyundai’s sketch is closest to the final product. Both the sketch and the actual car look quite similar to each other, except for the rake of the A-pillar and the higher ground clearance as drawn.

Skoda Kushaq

Skoda is another of the few brands to tease its new models for India with a design sketch ahead of the unveil. Compared to Hyundai’s recent ones, this brand’s sketches are still a closer representation of the actual car, especially in the case of the Kushaq. The drawn teaser and the actual SUV have only one notable difference, the size and design of the alloy wheels, which is the case for all the sketches. 

Skoda Slavia

Following the Kushaq was the Skoda Slavia, a sedan. Once again, the major differences between the teaser sketch and the actual sedan were to do with the wheels and how they changed the stance of the car. Even though the design details of the sketch can be seen as is on the production car, the sketch makes it look sharper. 

So what does this mean for the 2023 Hyundai Verna? To put it simply, the design sketch teased by the carmaker is the closest representation of what the actual sedan will look like, but there will be some changes to make it more suitable for production and Indian driving conditions. The biggest difference to expect is the size of the wheels and ground clearance, and how that affects the sedan’s road presence.

Also Read: The New Hyundai Verna Could Be The MOST POWERFUL Sedan In Its Class!

Bookings for the new Hyundai Verna are open and it will be launched on March 21. The compact sedan is expected to be priced from Rs 10 lakh (ex-showroom) onwards and will continue to rival the Skoda Slavia, Volkswagen Virtus, and the facelifted Honda City.