Hyundai's sporty i30?

Hyundai was careful concerning any mention of a sportier i30 for Australia during the launch of the new range earlier this week.

"Have to wait and see," was the answer from Ben Hershman, Hyundai's Senior Manager for PR and Events. "There's nothing on the table at this point."

Asked what Hyundai would like to see in a sporty i30 variant, Hershman handed the floor over to the company's Senior Manager for Product Planning, Scott Williams.

"It does have a halo effect on the brand," Williams said, citing the Mazda3 as an example of a sport variant's marketing pull. "If we could get a 2.0-litre GDI engine — 130kW or something in that area — that would be a job... well done. But there's a long way to go yet — under review."

Another Hyundai spokesman later told motoring.com.au that Mazda's halo car sales in the Mazda3 range accounted for as much as 20 per cent of the total. For a volume seller like the i30, that would translate to a lot of sales. The spokesman looked forward to such a car coming to Australia and enhancing the i30 range.

Anticipating a warmed-over i30 is currently a matter of second-guessing the importer, but one thing the company has confirmed: Australia won't see a wagon model in the new i30 range. Hyundai Australia sources its Aussie-spec cars from Korea, but the new generation wagon is built at the company's Nosovice plant in the Czech republic, as are the i30 hatch variants for European consumption. Landed cost for the wagon would be prohibitive. It's also why we don't get some of the features available on i30 hatches in Europe — features such as auto-stop/start or Daytime Running lights (DRLs).

"The wagon is not available out of the Korean market, which is where our vehicles are coming from," Hershman said.

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