Hyundai unveils the Curb crossover concept

The Curb is Hyundai's answer to Nissan's oddball Juke crossover, and the Korean carmaker dubs the Curb as a compact Urban Activity Vehicle (UAV) that is aimed at young city dwellers. The Curb features Hyundai's "Fluidic Sculpture" design language that is seen on the latest Sonata and Elantra, and was styled at Hyundai's California design studio.

"We wanted the Curb to be urban tough without looking like a Brink's truck," said Jason Brown, Hyundai designer. City driving was going to be its forte, not crossing the Rubicon trail, but we wanted it to have urban armour for daily driving on city streets. It needed to empower its passengers in this setting."

Among the features found on the Curb include a fluid-like display screen that flows around the contours of the cabin, and there are also monitors on the steering wheel and the rear headrests. There is also Hyundai's Blue Link telematics technology that can send the vehicle's location to a social networking site through a location sharing feature.

The Curb, which was codenamed the HCD-12, was the seventh car to be designed at Hyundai's California studio, and has a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine with direct injection under the bonnet, matched to Hyundai's Direct Shift Gearbox. The unit produces 175bhp and 229Nm of torque, and comes with Idle Stop and Go (ISG) technology.