New Hyundai i30 heads upmarket

Quality and equipment improvements are at the heart of the local offering for the all-new Hyundai i30.

Bigger, better looking and unashamedly benchmarked against the Volkswagen Golf, the new PD-generation i30 aims to be a step-change for the brand.

And it largely succeeds.

Although Hyundai Australia is still to confirm specifications, model grade strategy and pricing, one thing’s for certain: the all-new i30 will be the best equipped and arguably safest Korean small car ever sold Down Under. It’s also one of the best looking.

The arrival of the new i30 is tagged for April and Hyundai Australia doesn’t expect to announce full details on its new car until just weeks before.

We can confirm that a significant suite of safety aids will be offered in i30 at the very least as options. These include Autonomous Emergency Braking, Smart Cruise Control, Lane Keeping Assist System, Driver Attention Alert, Speed limit Information and Blind Spot Detection.

The car will also arrive with LED lighting – both headlights and daylight running lamps. In top-spec models there’ll even be smart versions of the LED lights that include auto high beam and shaping functionality.

A new platform
The new i30 features an all-new platform that uses more than twice as much high-strength steel compared to the outgoing GD-series. That trims the weight of the body-in-white and boosts body rigidity by more than 20 per cent, the company claims.

The new platform was previously incorrectly categorised as a modified version of the existing underpinnings. In Korea this week, the i30 engineering program head Yu Chan Yang corrected that error – confirming in a discussion with motoring.com.au that key dimensions, suspension geometry, material types as well as structure have all been changed.

While the platform itself was designed in Korea, the new car was styled in Europe. That is also where chassis and other aspects of the car were “fine tuned”, says Yang.

Aussie i30s will benefit further from a local electric power steering and suspension tuning program, as has been the case with most Hyundai products over the last few years.

Three engines
Aussies will be able to choose from three powerplants. The entry-level engine is a 2.0-litre direct-injected petrol four-cylinder which replaces the existing 1.8-litre multipoint injected engine. The new 120kW/203Nm engine is matched to a choice of six-speed manual and automatic transmissions.

Initial fuel economy figures of 7.3L/100km have been quoted for the manual variant. Formal ADR fuel numbers will be announced closer to the car’s launch.

Hyundai has revised its 1.6-litre turbo-diesel four for its debut in the new i30. With 100kW and 300Nm, the engine is expected to be matched solely to a seven-speed DCT Down Under.

European figures have the diesel achieving 4.4L/100km when tested using a manual transmission. The DCT should do better.

The pick of the new i30’s powertrain line-up should be the same engine and DCT gearbox as featured in the very capable Elantra SR Turbo. In the new i30, the 1.6-litre turbo petrol four is rated at 150kW and 265Nm.

That torque comes at even lower revs than its diesel stablemate (just 1500rpm versus 1650) – and is delivered over a wider rev range.

Drive impressions of the new car are embargoed until next Friday (February 24). Suffice it to say, in our opinion, not too many drivers will be disappointed by the SR’s balance of poise and performance. And if they are, the smoking i30N hot hatch should be on sale Down Under before the end of 2017.

Models powered by the 1.6 turbo will be the only i30 variants fitted with independent rear suspension for our market. Both the 2.0-litre and turbo-diesel will be matched with a torsion beam rear suspension.

At launch, all Aussie i30s save for the i30N will be sourced from Korea. In previous generations, some variants have come from European factories.

Slap-up styling
If the new, less fussy (dare we say more grown-up) external styling isn’t enough to make it clear this is a very different car from the outgoing GD, the interior is a slap in the face… in a good way!

There’s been a step-change in styling inside the new i30 – away from the fussy, vertical layout of the old car to a much more European and premium horizontal orientation.

The move to a tablet-style treatment for the new-generation infotainment system may not be to everyone’s taste but the finished item is well executed and delivers Hyundai some additional flexibility in screen sizing and the like. Sat-nav, Apple Carplay and Android Auto are all integrated.

In general, materials and fit and finish have all been improved. New front seats are one of the highlights of the ergonomic makeover.

The hard numbers
Hyundai’s numbers place the i30’s headroom (front and rear) and rear legroom as marginally superior to the Volkswagen Golf 7 on which it was benchmarked. The Hyundai does, however, have a more appreciable advantage in terms of rear shoulder room and a bigger boot (395 litres v 380).

Externally, the i30 is 40mm longer than the car it replaces and a whopping 85mm longer than the Volkswagen. At 2650mm the wheelbase is unchanged from GD but is still 13mm longer than the Golf.

The biggest changes and those that benefit the car’s proportions and stance are width and height. The new i30 is 15mm lower and wider than its predecessor. Only the growth in the front overhang lets the home side down.

Blame the new “cascading grille” and look for it to feature in all the next generation of Hyundai models.

The $24,000 question
Pricing for the new Hyundai i30 will not be announced until close to the car’s launch – at least that’s the state of play today. Hyundai Australia sales boss Scott Grant has already flagged, however, that the new car is unlikely to continue the company’s ‘$19,990 driveaway’ tradition.

Grant says the PD series i30 delivers “a step change even at the entry-level”.

“That needs to be recovered in some extent in terms of pricing,” he adds.

Hyundai says it is not consciously seeking to move the new i30 into more premium territory, but you can expect at least a strong desire to richen the i30’s model sales mix Down Under.

To this end we would bet on a number of options packs being added to the normal three- or four-grade model walk in the i30 range.

These could include premium wheel and tyre packages, panoramic sunroofs, climate packages with heated and cooled seats – and then there’s the safety suite.

Welcome to the brave new world of Hyundai.