Paris show: Hyundai to roll out more i30s soon

HYUNDAI will reveal further body styles for its new third-generation i30 small car within months, according to the head of the European design studio responsible for the new range.

“You will know more in a few months,” general manager of Hyundai European Design Raphael Bretcher told Australian journalists at the Paris motor show. “I can’t tell you exactly when.”

So far, only the five-door hatch has entered the public arena, stepping out this week at the Paris event ahead of its global rollout that will include Australia in the second quarter of next year.

The South Korean company has already said the three-door version will be killed off this time due to low sales, but that the wagon will continue, for Europe at least.

A coupe-style four-door sedan or liftback is expected to be added, if a sketch shown to journalists at a recent Hyundai i30 preview is any guide. A crossover is also a possibility.

Mr Bretcher, a former Volkswagen and Audi designer recruited by Hyundai 12 years ago, has been involved in the design of all three generations of the i30.

He said that this time, the German-based designers wanted to give the popular hatchback a more timeless design.

He said people got bored with the design of the current model after a few years.

“We said we are not going to do that again,” he said. “We want this one to last.”

Mr Bretcher said the five-door i30 was designed with Europe in mind, because that was its prime market.

He said designing such a Euro hatchback was a challenge because “it’s hard to get noticed in that segment” against a raft of strong competitors.

The design had to walk the tight-rope between sporty and constrained, appealing to young and old, singles and families.

For Australia, the new i30 is set to open with a choice of three engines – a 2.0-litre normally aspirated petrol four-cylinder, a feisty 150kW 1.6-litre turbo petrol and a 100kW 1.6-litre turbo-diesel.

Later in 2017, buyers can expect the first i30 hot hatch – the i30N – that is likely to get a 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine pumping out at least 192kW.

Further down the track, perhaps in 2018, a wicked all-wheel-drive bitumen burner with a potential 280kW of power has been mooted.