New i30 revealed
More space for compact hatch Advanced safety kit and tech
Official pictures and details of Hyundai’s new VW Golf battler
THIS is the new Hyundai i30, the latest generation of the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf rival, which has been unveiled ahead of a public debut at the Paris Motor Show this month.
The new i30 has to build on Hyundai’s improved profile in Europe to deliver mainstream sales – and its styling is clearly aimed at the masses. The overall look is neat but conservative, with less of the dramatic bodywork surfacing of the outgoing model. The new i30 also gets inverted curves as part of its hexagonal grille; this is a design cue that will appear on all future Hyundais.
The new model is a little longer and wider than the car it replaces, although the roofline sits slightly lower. Its wheelbase is the same at 2,650mm, so the packaging will feel pretty similar to the outgoing car’s. Boot capacity has risen to 395 litres – which is ahead of the VW Golf (380 litres) – and there are 1,301 litres with the rear seats folded.
Three petrol and three diesel engines are available at launch. The entry-level petrol is a 1.4-litre four-cylinder unit producing 99bhp and 134Nm; it’s offered only with a six-speed manual gearbox and can take the i30 from 0-62mph in 12.7 seconds. Next up, and also manual only, is a 1.0-litre threecylinder turbo producing 118bhp and 171Nm. It does 0-62mph in 11.1 seconds.
For now, the range-topping petrol is a 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbo with 138bhp and 242Nm. With this motor you’ll be able to choose between the six-speed manual box and Hyundai’s new seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. The 0-62mph time with the manual is 8.9 seconds.
The diesel line-up is actually a 1.6-litre engine offered in three states of tune. The modest versions, with 94bhp and 280Nm or 109bhp and 280Nm, are offered with the six-speed manual, while the 134bhp version gets a different torque figure depending on whether it’s paired with a manual (280Nm) or seven-speed auto (300Nm).
Later in 2017, there will be a hot hatch version of the i30. It will be the first model
to be produced by Hyundai’s newly founded N performance division, and is likely to get a highly tuned motor producing in excess of 250bhp, as well as a more focused chassis set-up that’s been honed at the famous Nürburgring race circuit in Germany.
Although much of the new i30’s construction makes greater use of hightensile steel to shed kilos, the overall weight of the car is roughly the same as the old model’s – a result of extra sound deadening and the addition of new safety equipment. Still, Hyundai’s revised engines and transmissions help the new i30 to achieve improved efficiency figures, and CO2 emissions are as low as 95g/km. Inside, the i30 does away with the old car’s LCD displays and uses a central touchscreen on all models. Most editions get a five-inch colour screen incorporating a rear-view camera and Bluetooth, and there will also be an eightinch system mounted high up and ‘floating’ in the centre of the facia. It brings Apple Carplay and Android Auto compatibility, along with sat-nav featuring Tomtom live traffic updates. There’s also an induction charging mat for smartphones.
In addition to autonomous emergency braking, other safety kit includes blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, rear cross traffic alert and lane keep assist.
UK specs and pricing have yet to be announced, but we’d expect the new i30 to stay broadly in line with the figures of the car it replaces. That should give it a starting price of around £15,500.