Hyundai bringing i40 sedan to Oz

Hyundai is anticipating a lot more sales to flow from the medium-car segment when it introduces the i40 sedan to Australia at the end of next month.

Sharing its platform with both the larger i45 sedan and the i40 Tourer already on sale here, the i40 sedan (pictured) will bring to the local market a booted body style with a diesel drivetrain. It will serve up competition to Mazda, for instance, with its diesel version of the Mazda6, plus Ford's diesel Mondeo or Volkswagen's Jetta and Passat.

Hyundai's sole sedan in the medium car segment until now has been the i45, which makes do with petrol engines only. There's a hybrid version of the i45 in America, but that vehicle is only built in left-hand drive. Diesel variants haven't been developed because the i45/Sonata is not sold in those markets where diesel gets equal billing.

But the i40 sedan — diesel powered — will plug that hole in Hyundai's local product range. And that, in fact, is the exclusive reason for Hyundai bringing the i40 sedan here. There's no marketing sleight of hand at work; Hyundai is not aiming to replicate Honda's two-model strategy — with Accord and Accord Euro — simply to offer different flavours of mid-size car for differing buyer tastes.

"In our case it's a little simpler than [Honda's], in that the i45 isn't available as a diesel," said Oliver Mann, Hyundai's Director of Marketing. "So if we want a diesel sedan, i40 is the solution; i40 was engineered for the European markets, where obviously diesel is the dominant fuel supplied — and so we've had the option to bring that product in..."

Mann said that the i40 sedan would be diesel only at launch and any prospect of procuring petrol variants would be contingent on supply. Pricing is likely to be lower than the Tourer's, but Mann was very cagey on that point.  Sales of the wagon are currently "meeting its expectations... it's [selling] roughly 150 units a month", said the Hyundai executive.

"When we have the sedan, we should more than double that," Mann said. That would elevate the i40 — based on combined sales of Tourer and sedan — to the rank of top-selling mid-size car in the Hyundai range. In year to date sales for 2012, the i45 has sold 1313 units, versus 543 for the i40 Tourer. But if the sedan can double the sales of the wagon, the two combined will overtake the i45's sales... even assuming the i45 won't lose buyers to the i40 sedan.

On an unrelated subject, Ben Hershman, Hyundai's Senior Manager for PR and Events, has confirmed the new Santa Fe is due to arrive here around the third or fourth quarter of this year. The new SUV will be available in a short-wheelbase configuration only, but with seven-seat capacity.

"The long-wheelbase is a left-hand drive only, so what they're doing is they're launching the standard wheelbase with five seats and the long-wheelbase with seven. Seven will be available for us in the standard wheelbase, for this market.

"We'll have one standard wheelbase — and seven seats will be in the mix."

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