Hyundai city car on track for 2010

HYUNDAI remains on track to bring its i10 city car to Australia, but probably not before early next year.

The company’s local sales and marketing director, Kevin McCann, told GoAuto at the Melbourne International Motor Show the company’s global sub-light segment hatchback was still being looked at “very closely”.

Mr McCann said Hyundai Motor Company Australia was negotiating pricing for the Indian-built i10 with its Korean corporate parent, but that he anticipated an entry level price point “in the low-teens”.

With the slightly larger i20 expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year from about $15,000, it is essential for the i10 to be priced as close as possible to $13,000.

In terms of likely arrival here, Mr McCann said: “Optimistically, I think early 2010.”Power will come initially from a choice of small four-cylinder petrol engines, a 1.1-litre single-cam 12-valve unit (producing 49kW of power at 5500rpm and 99Nm of torque at 2800rpm) and a 1.2-litre twin-cam 16-valve (delivering 55kW at 5200rpm and 116Nm at 4000rpm).

“We see an opportunity for the i10, but it’s an emerging opportunity and it’s taking a little bit of time to measure,” said Mr McCann.



“We have ambitions to bring the car as soon as we see the logical time to get the right pricing and packaging to get it into our range.

“It’s got to be attractive to a certain type of customer in terms of what they can afford or what they want to spend. Research tells us two quite distinct groups of people will be interested – those who are spending as much as they can afford and those who want to spend as little as possible. We’re trying to find the right balance point for both those types.

“What I’m prepared to say is that (the entry price point) is in the low-teens.

“Obviously we’ll have a range of cars, a couple of engine sizes, a couple of transmissions, a couple of specification levels, so there will be a range of prices. We really have to test the market here.”To help test the market, Hyundai is previewing the i10 at the Melbourne motor show in the form of the eco-friendly i10 Blue, which contains some of Hyundai’s forthcoming low-emissions technology.

Although a diesel engine option is being developed for the i20 range and may be considered for Australia at some point, the i10 is likely to be a petrol-only model here because of the marginal efficiency gains for that size vehicle given the higher cost of diesel fuel.

The petrol-engined i10 with a five-speed manual gearbox promises to deliver hybrid-beating economy levels of just 3.6L/100km.

Importantly for Australia, the i10 will also come with a four-speed automatic option.

Mr McCann confirmed that the long-running and popular Getz light car, which is priced from $13,990, would continue to be sold in Australia after the similar-sized 1.2-litre i20 is launched early in the second half.

“The i20 gives us an opportunity to move upstream in the light segment because it really offers a quality/technology/value alternative to the Japanese,” said Mr McCann.

“The Getz is almost a perennial it has been very well accepted by the market over a long period of time … so we still see a consistent demand for that car at the value end of the light segment. It’s for that type of person who doesn’t want to spend a lot of money.

“I think there’s no problem with (selling the i20 alongside Getz) at all.

“We’ll probably see some volume-sharing, there’ll be some crossover, but I think it will give us a good span of coverage of the light segment because that segment covers from around $13,000 through to $22,000, so there’s a lot of room to fill in that range.”Although produced on different platforms, both the i10 and i20 will be built in Chennai, India, which helps HMCA logistically.

Another Indian-built sub-light city runabout, the Suzuki Alto, is scheduled to go on sale in Australia within months.

At the other end of the scale, the global recession may prevent Hyundai from producing the Genesis Coupe (which was also on display in Melbourne) in right-hand drive, although two cars will be sent to local race circuits for evaluation.

The Genesis sedan, which has already been launched in the United States, will only be produced in left-hand drive.

Read more:

Hyundai considers i10 for Oz

Hyundai shines its i20 light at Paris