With its new i20, Hyundai is hungry for large slice of the Polo pie
It takes some chutzpah for a car brand to take on a vehicle that has been unopposed for more than a decade as one of the best-selling passenger vehicles in the country. That’s what Hyundai SA intends to do with the recent launch of its five-door hatchback – the third generation, all-new Hyundai i20.
Up to now, the budget-friendly Volkswagen Polo Vivo has been the only passenger vehicle to give its big bro, the Polo, a run for its money. And with VW having regularly sold about 2,000 Polos a month before the Covid-19 pandemic, the South Korean brand can only be lauded for its audacity.
Even during motoring’s annus horribilis, the straight Polo sold 16,335 units last year against the Hyundai i20’s 5,277.
Since it was launched in South Africa in 2009, the i20 has netted sales totalling a very respectable 106,712 units.
Globally, the Hyundai Company sold 3.7 million Hyundais and 2.6 million Kia vehicles last year, putting it right up there with the world’s bestselling manufacturers.
It’s high time someone tried to take on the Germans and there is no doubt that the new i20 is a worthy rival. And, let’s face it, the outgoing i20, launched in 2015, was due for a whole new approach, especially when you look at the swag of some of its present rivals – think the new Peugeot 208, the Kia Rio and, of course, that VW Polo.
As the Hyundai brand has evolved over the past decade, it has attracted some of the finest designers in the world.
Peter Schreyer was snatched from Audi and the VW group by Kia, the other South Korean powerhouse, back in 2006.
The Hyundai group owns a sizeable chunk of Kia. Schreyer’s influence as the group’s head of design management has made both Kia and Hyundai brands to be reckoned with.
But it’s really been over the past couple of years that Hyundai hit the design sweet spot, hiring Belgian-born Luc Donckerwolke in 2016 after luring him from the VW group – are you starting to see a pattern here? – where he’d worked as chief designer for Lamborghini, SEAT and Bentley.
He took over from Schreyer as global chief designer, with Schreyer becoming president and chief design officer of the Hyundai Motor Group.
Things, however, went a little pearshaped for Hyundai during the pandemic. In April 2020, Donckerwolke took a long leave of absence, citing “personal reasons” for his sudden departure. He’d created a whole new, radical design language for the South Korean
brand, dubbed “sensuous sportiness”, in collaboration with Hyundai’s other wunderkind, SangYup Lee. According to Hyundai, “sensuous sportiness” is defined by “the harmony between four fundamental elements in vehicle design: proportion, architecture, styling, and technology”.
The gap that Donckerwolke left in the design room was serious,, so Hyundai honchos must have breathed a huge sigh of relief when he decided to rejoin the company in November 2020. He returned with a new title as chief creative officer and head of design communications for the Hyundai group.
Hyundai has clearly thrown enormous resources at design development to stand out when it comes to making a visual impact.
On local soil, the new “sensuous sportiness” directive can be seen in the exquisite, recently launched Santa Fe SUV and, of course, in the brand-new, five-door hatch, the i20. It may be on looks alone that the i20 will put a few spokes in the Polo’s alloys.
With sharper edges, a lower roofline and a much wider stance, the new i20 has grown in length to accommodate 88mm more rear passenger legroom and 40mm more shoulder room than the previous generation.
Increased boot space comes in at just more than 312 litres and the new i20 now has a handy ground clearance of 170mm – the highest in its class.
But the big news is the introduction of an all-new engine. At the top of the range of its three-choice offering sits the 90 kW 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder prince that’s available as a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch auto.
I drove both derivatives in top-of-therange Fluid trim on a scenic route between Somerset West and Hermanus. I found the drives surprisingly feisty and powerful. (When I initially saw the numbers of 89.5kW and 171.6Nm, I wasn’t expecting much.) Thanks to the turbocharge, there’s substantial power to overtake and get to speed.
I was particularly taken with the cabin, which is premium-looking with attractive contouring and very little of the cheap plastic often seen in this segment.
The tech is savvy – Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Bluetooth compatible, which will appeal to that young, image-conscious Polo-competing crowd, especially with the Fluid’s subtle interior lighting, which offers a choice of 25 colours, thanks to new blue LED ambient light technology. This is something I have rarely experienced in this price range.
Safety-wise, the new i20 has been built with a reinforced body structure. There are six airbags in the top of the trim Fluid derivatives,, and driver and front passenger airbags in the Motion variants.
Expect an ABS electronic brake-force distribution (EBD) and Isofix latches for child seats as standard across the range.
A concern of mine is that ESP (electronic stability programme) is not part of the mix. This is a safety system incorporating computerised tech that improves the vehicle’s stability by detecting when the car loses traction and corrects slipping or skidding.
A number of competitors in the B-segment, including the new Peugeot 208 and the Kia Rio, offer this superior safety. The i20 has not yet received a Euro NCAP crash assessment due to pandemic-related delays.
When it comes to fuel consumption, Hyundai claims 5.9l/100km for the 1.2-litre engine derivatives, while the 1.4-litre engine comes in at 6.9l/100km. The top-end 1-litre turbo manual is claimed at 6.5l/100km and 6.9l/100km for the auto. On my test drive, I averaged about 7.5l/100km.
So will the new i20 cause the VW Polo sleepless nights? I’m not entirely convinced die-hard VW fans are ready to change their pony, but if any hatchback can cause a dent in the Polo’s dominance, my bet is on Hyundai’s very worthy new i20.