Hyundai Exter & Verna To Get Their Mid-life Refresh In First Half Of 2026 | V3Cars

About 2026 Hyundai Exter Facelift

The Exter’s prime rival, the Tata Punch, continues its streak of strong performance despite not having received any design refresh in 4 years. It is worth noting though, that the Punch has routinely received small touches to accommodate customer feedback.

Besides looking objectively better than the Exter, the Punch is one of the few cars that has managed to strike off 6 of its negatives since launch while adding to its strengths. While many other cars have managed to tick off a few items from the Cons section of our Pros & Cons list, the Punch leads the pack in this regard.

In fact, the Punch is a car that started the whole trend of offering CNG cars with a usable boot space. Hyundai were quick to adapt to the evolving market needs created by Tata among CNG car buyers as the Exter soon got 2-cylinder CNG tanks to offer better and more usable boot space. Maruti Suzuki, the leader in CNG cars, also had to recently give into the pressure as they launched the Victoris CNG with a much larger boot than we normally see from their CNG cars.

For the Exter 2026, we should expect Hyundai to offer a radical new design to help the Exter gain some market share in the B1-segment SUV space. Tata may also update the Punch in 2026. However, given that it already looks so good and proportional, we don’t expect the Punch facelift to shake things up like it did back in 2021. Moreover, Tata designers wouldn’t want to mess with the formula that’s working quite well for them.

About 2026 Hyundai Verna Facelift

The Verna used to bully the Honda City with better performance and a longer list of features but the City retained its top position among its peers with Verna following in the 2nd spot. Now, though, neither the City nor the Verna seem to be able to make enough of an impression on the sedan buyers. First of all, the demand for sedans has fallen off a cliff in the last half-a-decade or so. Secondly, even among the sedans, the Slavia and Virtus remain top sellers while the demand for the Verna and the City has fallen sharply.

Platform and powertrain sharing also makes it quite efficient for the VW Group cars to maintain fatter profit margins. Meanwhile, the City and Verna require their own dedicated R&D and production setup only to survive on 3-digit monthly sales. With the City, it’s somewhat easy to say that it doesn’t have a turbo petrol engine, which might be the reason for the limited sales. But in the case of Verna, even that excuse doesn’t work as the Verna has just as many powertrain options as the Virtus and Slavia.

Even on the feature front, the Verna and City offer ADAS, which is not available in the Slavia and Virtus.

The only cause for its limited appeal could be the ground clearance. Even sedan lovers are probably not willing to compromise on the ground clearance, which is what SUVs stood for in the old days. The Virtus and Slavia, while offering a typical 3-box sedan styling also offer an SUV-like 179mm unladen ground clearance. That makes these two cars quite practical on our “roads”. The C-segment sedans are not only longer than most C-segment SUVs, they also offer a sedan-like, sporty driving position while SUVs have a more upright ergonomics, which is less comfortable for longer driving.

We can’t say if Hyundai will transform the Verna into 2026 Verna Cross or something but that may be the secret sauce that’s making sedans much more palatable for even when most buyers are flocking to the SUVs.

Also Read: November 2025 — Hyundai Verna, i20, Nios, Venue Aura Discount Offers

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