Mild-hybrid 2024 Hyundai i30 hatch confirmed for Oz

The updated and now Euro-sourced 2024 Hyundai i30 hatch will be offered in Australia with mild-hybrid power when it arrives here in the second half of this year, as the Korean brand looks to prolong the lifecycle and expand the appeal of its venerable small car.

This will be the second facelift for the latest PD-generation Hyundai i30 since its launch in 2016 and its new electrified engine was previously confirmed for the European market but not Australia, however, details remain thin on the ground.

The announcement was made at the WA Hyundai Electrified conference last night as regional top-brass exposed dealers and fleet customers to the current and future range of electrified Hyundai and Genesis products.

Two new mild-hybrid powertrains are available for the upgraded i30 hatch in Europe: a 1.0-litre turbo-petrol three-cylinder and a bigger 1.5-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder, but only the latter comes with electrification tech as standard and across both transmission choices (six-speed manual, seven-speed dual-clutch automatic).

Odds are Hyundai Australia won’t bother with the pint-size turbo-triple and will instead offer only the gutsier 1.5-litre unit, which outputs a healthy 117kW/253Nm plus an extra 4-10kW contributed intermittently by the starter/generator during hard acceleration.

With both a six-speed manual and seven-speed DCT available in Europe, there’s a good chance the mild-hybrid powertrain will replace the existing 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine (120kW/203Nm) as the i30 hatch’s default powerplant, given the latter isn’t offered on the Continent.

carsales understands the N-Line’s venerable but punchy 1.6-litre turbo-petrol ‘Gamma’ engine (150kW/265Nm) is also on the chopping block, with the N-Line treatment set to become more design-focused than performance-oriented, as per the latest Kona and Tucson SUVs.

This isn’t much of a surprise since Kia is also doing away with the older donk in favour of the Korean auto group’s more modern, versatile and tractable ‘SmartStream’ 1.6T, as seen in the latest Hyundai Kona, Tucson, Santa Fe Hybrid, i30 Sedan N-Line and i20 N, and the Kia Seltos, Sportage, Sorento Hybrid/Plug-in Hybrid and upcoming K4, plus the fact the Gamma isn’t produced in Europe.

Not only will the new force-fed mild-hybrid powertrain provide stronger and more tractable performance than the outbound 2.0-litre, it will also make the i30 hatch smoother in stop-start traffic, lower CO2-emitting and dramatically more fuel-efficient, with combined fuel economy down from 7.3-7.4L/100km to 6.1-6.3L/100km depending on the transmission.

The i30 hatch facelift will also bring a new dash and centre console trim, plus a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster for higher-end variants which – in tandem with its new powertrain and sourcing shift from Korea to Europe, attracting a five per cent import tariff – should result in notable price increases across the board.

A sub-$30,000 starting price should still be on the cards, but we’ll have to wait until later this year for confirmation.