1 month ago
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Time is slowly ticking down for Hyundai's long-running small hatch, with no successor waiting in the wings.
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The end of the road is in sight for the petrol-powered Hyundai i30 hatchback, after close to 20 years in showrooms.
The i30 hatch was Hyundai's top seller in Australia for 14 years straight from 2009 to 2022, but it has been overtaken in popularity by SUVs here and around the world, and has steadily departed key markets internationally in recent years.
As previously reported by Drive, it is widely expected this generation – launched in Europe in 2016, and recently given its second styling update – will be the last with petrol power.
There may be a next-generation model with electric power – as Hyundai has expressed interest in fielding electric cars in a range of vehicle segments – but it is no guarantee to wear the i30 name, which debuted in 2007.
The South Korean car maker is yet to set a date for when the i30 hatch will reach the end of the road, when the sedan would be left to carry on the nameplate locally.
But with the current i30 hatch now eight years old, it is likely to eventually fall foul of future emissions or technical regulations.
Hyundai Europe product lead Pascal Fahl told Australian media including Drive the i30 hatch "will live for a bit more time, but it will end at some point."
He said it is "currently still under discussion" whether the i30 hatch will be engineered to meet Europe's next set of emissions rules, Euro 7, the introduction date of which is yet to be set in stone.
The i30 hatch is available with mild-hybrid technology, as well as Hyundai's latest 'SmartStream' series of petrol engines, but it does not offer a 'full' hybrid or plug-in hybrid capable of driving the wheels on electricity alone.
Its twin under the skin, the Kia Ceed – the European counterpart to Australia's Kia Cerato – is available with plug-in hybrid power, but this has never been applied to the i30.
The European-made Ceed will soon be axed – replaced by the Mexican-built Kia K4, which will also succeed the Cerato – leaving the i30 as the last vehicle on its ageing underpinnings.
About 34,000 Hyundai i30s were reported as sold in Europe over the first 10 months of 2024 – compared to 50,000 apiece of the smaller i10 and i20 ranges.
The Czech Republic factory produced about 55,000 examples for export in that time – plus some for the local market.
Australia has long been the largest single global market for the i30 hatch, though with only 4744 of the 10,543 i30s reported as sold locally so far this year being five-doors, it's unclear if that will remain the case in 2024.
About 2400 of those hatchbacks were Czech-built – across the newly-updated N Line, as well as the N hot hatch, which has always been made in Europe for Australia – as only 2350 of the old South Korean-made versions were sold, as stock ran out.
The i30 name could continue on a future electric vehicle, but it is yet to be disclosed.
Hyundai has not confirmed plans for an i30-sized electric hatch, but it would be a reasonable addition to its expanding battery-powered portfolio.
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Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.
