Hyundai previews 2020 Venue ahead of NY debut

The company's entry-level model is taking shape.

Normally, automakers look at the annual New York auto show as a venue in which to unveil cars. This year, Hyundai will travel to the event to unveil the Venue, a new crossover positioned below the Kona.

The Venue will compete in a segment of the American market Hyundai has never been present in before. It's one that's booming in Europe and in other global markets, but that automakers have shied away from in the United States because they argue that small cars don't make money, and that consumers don't want them to begin with. Hyundai seems to have cracked that code.

We don't know what the Venue looks like yet. The teaser sketches released by Hyundai suggest the model shares styling cues with its other crossovers, and it's not as alien-like as the Kona. The hood line flows into a sharp crease that continues all the way around the car, underlining a fin-shaped C-pillar as it approaches the rear end. Of course, sketches are often misleading.

The preview images of the interior show a clean, uncluttered dashboard with a medium-sized touch screen flanked by a pair of air vents. They confirm the Venue comes standard with Apple CarPlay and, presumably, Android Auto.

The 2020 Hyundai Venue will break cover on April 17, the first press day of the New York show. Leftlane will be on-location, in a Venue within a venue, to bring you live images and full details as soon as it's unveiled. Sales will begin in the months following its debut, and pricing is expected to start in the vicinity of $18,000.

What's in a name?

Looking at the Hyundai line-up, we'd have expected its next crossover to wear the name of a city or a place. The company explained it intentionally avoided weaving more geography into its portfolio.

"Hyundai's naming theme for CUVs has typically been a city or place. Venue embodies the characteristics of 'the place to be', en route to the final destination, wherever that may be," it wrote in a statement.