SPY PICS: Hyundai Ioniq hybrid

The Hyundai Ioniq is taking on Toyota's Prius at its own game in the home of hybrids – the USA – and as these images show, it's got a more handsome design.

Spotted completely undisguised during a big-budget TV commercial shoot, the ground-breaking new hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric model also displays a more progressive exterior design that could be just what the controversially-styled fourth-generation Toyota Prius doesn't need.

Due to premiere in February in Korea ahead of its global public debut in March at the Geneva motor show, the Ioniq hybrid will arrive in Australian dealerships during the second half of 2016 and could be priced under $35,000, smack bang where the Prius is pitched.

Like the Prius, the standard Ioniq combines petrol and electric motors to reduce fuel consumption, but it could be more efficient because it runs a smaller 1.6-litre petrol engine (the Toyota gets a 1.8) hooked up to an electric motor.

Unlike Australia's Prius there will also be a plug-in hybrid version that would allow extended electric-only cruising — potentially up to 50km. The Ioniq PHEV is under consideration for Australia, but the pure-electric, battery-only version won't be sold here.

Getting back to the exterior styling of the Ioniq, it boasts a front-end design with more than a hint of Audi – no great surprise when you consider Hyundai's chief of design penned the Audi TT. Ultimately, however, the Ioniq hatchback is a blatant clone of the Toyota Prius in terms of dimensions and practicality.

Perhaps the only blot on the Ioniq's aesthetic resume is the rear-end, which seems to be channelling Malaysian car-maker Proton rather than a European brand.