Sporty coupés usually offer reduced internal space and bad performance on city streets. Luxury ones, in turn, are too expensive for most people. And the first attempts of producing an urban coupé just looked too weird. This helps to explain why most generalist automakers have adopted the strategy of merging the coupé body with the three-door hatchback: instead of making the same car only with one or two doors at each side, the first one started to have lines of its own. This way, not only was it possible to offer coupé cars with more reasonable prices (because they don’t demand an exclusive project anymore), as this also reduced the internal competition with five-door hatches, which are dedicated to more conservative customers.
This is precisely what Hyundai did with i20’s latest generation. This is the hatchback’s three-door version, indeed, but their common visual elements are only headlights, hood and upper grille. i20 Coupé features different pillars, a more aggressive lower front grille (which looks like the regular one flipped upside down), new creases to highlight the rear wheel arch, and a 25-mm lower roofline that ends at a discreet spoiler. This, in turn, sits above exclusive tailgate, lights and bumper. It’s still far from traditional coupés, of course, but Hyundai did a great job nonetheless, effectively achieving all the aforementioned characteristics. In fact, i20 Coupé’s design is so good that it was even possible to increase trunk space: it takes 336 liters, beating the hatchback by ten.
Certainly so as to reduce costs, the exclusive items are much fewer inside. Basically, the conventional i20’s cabin was just adapted to a three-door body. The dashboard, for instance, is exactly the same. The central console is now divided into two hexagonal “zones”, just like Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 dictates: it looks more elegant than what would have been done under Hyundai’s previous design language. Of course, there must be some trim changes, specially at the most expensive levels. There isn’t much information about the equipment list, as well, but you can expect pretty much the same contents seen at the hatchback – the European one, since it’s very probable that i20 Coupé won’t be offered in the Indian market as well.
When it comes to engines, i20 Coupé keeps proving that it can also satisfy most of the needs of those who wanted a regular hatchback. There will be a 74-hp 1.1 and an 89-hp 1.4 with diesel, and an 83-hp 1.3 and 99-hp 1.4. Using the latter fuel, a third engine will join the lineup in a few months, featuring turbocharger and three cylinders. This vehicle will be produced in Turkey, and is expected to go on sale in this year’s second trimester.