With the European C-segment hatchback market getting lots of new entries such as the award-winning new Peugeot 308, the Volkswagen Golf Mk7, and the recently facelifted Ford Focus, Hyundai has to play catch up with an update to its own C-segment hatchback entry - the Hyundai i30. Since the i30 is also sold in Malaysia, this update will eventually come to our shores as well.
The facelifted i30's face gets an updated grille that adds lot of horizontal bars. While that treatment reminds us of how Audis look like, but it also brings it in line with the new Sonata's face as well as what we've seen on the yet to be launched Hyundai i40's facelift so far.
Bigger changes could be under the hood. Hyundai's 1.6 litre and 1.8 litre normally aspirated engines mated to 6-speed automatic gearboxes could be replaced with downsized turbocharged engines which are now commonplace in the segment that the i30 is competing in. Since the new Sonata features a variant that uses a 1.6 litre turbo engine mated to a dual clutch gearbox, we could see it introduced in the facelifted i30.
Hyundai also announced 1.0 litre and 1.2 litre turbocharged engines back in 2012 but have yet to introduce them in a production car - these engines would make sense in an i30. The 1.0 litre engine does 106 PS and 137 Nm of torque - no details on the 1.2 litre engine yet.
But then again, these engines could skip the i30 facelift and only be introduced in a full model change such as the new ix35 compact SUV as well as the next generation i20.
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