Sao Paulo show sticks with crossover theme

THIS year's Sao Paulo International Motor Show has continued the trend from the 2012 South American automotive extravaganza with a number of car-maker's ripping the covers off new Latin-American-only crossover concepts.

Fiat unveiled its futuristic-looking FCC4 concept, an aggressively styled large-sized SUV with a coupe-like profile that could even make the BMW X6 blush.

A sporty front fascia, sloping roofline and sculptured doors all make for aggressive look, but a quirky design element is the floating glass rear windscreen covering a ute-like tray with fully functional asymmetrical doors.

After the 2012 reveal of the Hyundai HB20X crossover, the South Korean-manufacturer continued its focus on the emerging South American market as it threw the covers off its performance-orientated HB20 R-Spec.

Based on the South American-only HB20 small car, the R-Spec benefits from lower side skirts, aggressively redesigned front and rear bumpers, new headlights, a matte blue paint job and 17-inch wheels to fill the wider wheel-arches.

Not to be outdone, Chevrolet also took the wraps off a bespoke Onix, a small-sized Latin America-only hatchback.

The Onix Track Day concept – like its name suggests – benefits from a full sports bodykit, sports seats, bigger alloy wheels, a flat-bottomed steering wheel, a stainless-steel exhaust and retuned ECU to boost power to 112kW.

Citroen was in attendance to showcase its new AirCross Lunar concept, based on the C3 Aircross – another South American exclusive model.

The Lunar concept gains black plastic wheel arches, side-mounted “air bumps” similar to the Citroen C4 Cactus, off-road tyres and blue highlights throughout.

Fellow French car-maker Peugeot had on show a unique-looking 208 concept dubbed the 208 Natural.

With an eco-friendly theme, the small French car was built using sustainable and recyclable parts and was even finished off in fuzzy, textured brown material.