Photo: SB-Medien
The Hyundai i30 hatchback has kind of already gotten a facelift. Shortly after its launch, the fresh face of the i30 Fastback was retrofitted for a streamlined look. But a real mid-life refresh has just been spied undergoing testing in Europe, where it will probably debut next year.
The i30 is a compact hatchback designed to compete with cars like the Golf and Focus. Despite a general slowdown in the European market, there's still a lot of competition for Hyundai, including from sister brand Kia. And just to make sure you don't spend all your money on crossovers, Hyundai is doing an aggressive, sporty new design.
Previous generations of the i30 never got huge facelifts that left them unrecognizable. But despite the heavy camo, you can tell that this prototype wants to change everything it can. The grille is its most prominent feature, pushing against the black tarp to reveal its shape.
The styling is like a warped hexagon and we've already seen it twice, first on the Nexo hydrogen-powered EV crossover and about a week ago on the prototype for the all-new Tucson.
It's also pretty rare for a facelift to change the headlights completely, but one of the prototypes seems to have an adaptation of the old lights and the other brand new ones which are super-narrow like those of the Kona crossover. Meanwhile, the profile appears largely unchanged while the back just sports a huge piece of black trim with a honeycomb pattern on it, sort of like a fake diffuser.
The reason for the design split could be some kind of new i30 model, either a 200 horsepower GT or a hybrid of some kind. Hyundai and Kia are working on a plug-in system for cars like this. It's already on the Kia Ceed models and combines a 1.6-liter with an electric motor and 8.9 kWh battery to deliver 140 HP and up to 60 km (37 miles of range).
Previous generations of the i30 never got huge facelifts that left them unrecognizable. But despite the heavy camo, you can tell that this prototype wants to change everything it can. The grille is its most prominent feature, pushing against the black tarp to reveal its shape.
The styling is like a warped hexagon and we've already seen it twice, first on the Nexo hydrogen-powered EV crossover and about a week ago on the prototype for the all-new Tucson.
It's also pretty rare for a facelift to change the headlights completely, but one of the prototypes seems to have an adaptation of the old lights and the other brand new ones which are super-narrow like those of the Kona crossover. Meanwhile, the profile appears largely unchanged while the back just sports a huge piece of black trim with a honeycomb pattern on it, sort of like a fake diffuser.
The reason for the design split could be some kind of new i30 model, either a 200 horsepower GT or a hybrid of some kind. Hyundai and Kia are working on a plug-in system for cars like this. It's already on the Kia Ceed models and combines a 1.6-liter with an electric motor and 8.9 kWh battery to deliver 140 HP and up to 60 km (37 miles of range).
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