The Hyundai Santro is a city car produced by the South Korean manufacturer Hyundai between 1998 and 2014. The nameplate was revived in 2018 to replace the Eon, and was produced until 2022. The "Santro" nameplate was applied during its first generation to the Atos Prime model, while the second generation is a standalone model.
Hyundai derived the name Santro for the Indian market from Saint-Tropez, a French city famous for fashion, because the company wanted to project it as a ‘fashionable’ car.[1][2]
First generation (MX; 1998)
The first generation Santro was introduced in 1998 and went on sale in early 1999. It was also sold in Europe as the Atos Prime and in South Korea and Indonesia as the Kia Visto. It was also known as the Santro Zip in India from 1998 to 2006.
Before the Kia Visto was replaced by the Kia Picanto in 2004, the facelifted Santro was launched in 2003.