GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Hyundai's next generation i30 sheds cee'd
Swiss motor show marks parting of the ways for Hyundai and Kia's small Euro-style hatchesHyundai revealed its next generation i30 at the Frankfurt show last year — and the company will follow up with the wagon version of the car in Geneva next month.
Both are expected to be sold here, unlike the Kia cee'd, which is also being unveiled in Geneva in its new generation guise.
While the current i30 hatch and the cee'd are basically the same car, different frontal styling treatments and other details set the two apart. In the case of the two new models, however, styling is different at a sheet metal level and any hint of copy-cat cosmetics has been expunged.
Hyundai is already preparing for a local launch of the new i30 come mid-year, motoring.com.au was informed by the company's Senior Manager for PR and Events, Ben Hershman, but Kia Australia definitely won't be bringing the cee'd here, said Hershman's counterpart at Kia, Kevin Hepworth.
"Cerato's the car... the thing with cee'd is it would just be an unnecessary add-on to that segment," said Hepworth, Kia's National Public Relations Manager. "And Cerato is due for replacement next year — that will be an all-new model then. The only attraction cee'd had was a couple of years ago when it was fresh, and Cerato wasn't."
The i30 wagon, according to press material from Hyundai's UK office, is 10mm longer (4485mm overall) with an increased load capacity — up to 528 litres with the rear seat in place, or 1642 litres with the seat lowered. Those figures may come down for Australian delivered vehicles, since the standard Hyundai uses for measuring boot space in Australia seems more conservative than that applied in Europe.
The wagon has been designed at Hyundai's European R&D centre in Russelsheim, Germany, and is built in the Czech Republic, just like the current model sold in Australia. Engines for Europe are carried over from the current model sold there and comprise three petrol and three diesel powerplants.
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