Announcing a car’s new generation frequently leads the public to think it’ll be totally different. New trends, tougher competition, intention of migrating to new countries, creating a new project with no relation at all to its predecessor could be justified by several aspects. However, in some cases the winning strategy could be the opposite. Examples like Land Rover Range Rover or Volkswagen Golf affirm that it’s also possible to succeed by evolving a well-accepted concept. That’s what Hyundai will try to do with its city hatchback.
Even though a brand should invest on creating a certain identity between its vehicles, there are some limits to respect in order to do this right. Applying a design language into vehicles from different price ranges becomes a complex task because there’s more to do than creating several scales of roughly the same shapes. After all, each category has a specific kind of customers, and therefore specific wishes. Upscale vehicles need to look elegant and discreet, while cheaper ones converge into a playful sportiness. That’s why Renault’s hatchbacks in the early 2000s, for instance, started with Twingo’s flashy colors and Clio’s V6 Sport trim and ended with Laguna and Vel Satis’ “luxury-meets-modern” style. When it comes to Hyundai, this is what explains i40 and Santa Fe’s classy shapes and, at the same time, Accent and i10’s bubbliness. The latter was released in Europe in 2007 to replace Atos Prime, but without changing the European concept of supermini even though releasing a whole new model: tall and short, with a “happy look” created with big lights, round elements and several color options. i10 looked better, but its real improvement was using a more modern platform.
Some years ago, it was time for the same i10 to adapt to the changing times. That hexagonal grille looked way too big for this car, but since it had such a magical effect on Hyundai’s sales… And now it’s time for the Korean automaker update its entry-level once again. Six years might look too early for a whole new car, but not when its competition includes Citroën C1, Volkswagen up! and each one’s badge-engineered brothers. This new phase is interesting because made i10 more opulent. The car stopped to look like a bad interpretation of the Japanese kei cars to give a feeling of solidness, whose mention might be giving you a strong déjà vu because it was the very same process through which its Kia sibling went few years ago – take a look at the old and the current Picantos, if you became curious. The new i10 doesn’t look classy or elegant because its segment doesn’t demand that. But the second phase of the Fluidic Sculpture language still looks good in it because of how it was interpretated for it. There are smoother corners, more attractive creases and much better-proportioned elements: the lights also look much better, but it’s simply impossible to compare front grilles with the facelifted old i10.
This superiority feeling is maintained by the interior. Not so much for its design because there weren’t released any pictures of it so far, but for the expressive dimension changes. Becoming 80 mm longer, 65 mm wider and 50 mm lower made i10’s outside look somewhat sportier, but pairing this to the 5-mm wheelbase increase and a 10-liter trunk increase makes the new car perfectly suitable even for small families. Hyundai claims i10 to have better internal space than up! (and Seat Mii and Škoda Citigo), while the revised suspension is granted to deliver improved driving. Besides, Hyundai will invest on pleasing the European customer by offering better-quality materials at the cabin, as well as more efficient noise-reduction treatment. This car will be produced in Turkey, since it’ll be focused mostly on Europe. The intention is to start producing the new i10 next September, after the official release during the upcoming Frankfurt show. The expected powertrain will count only on gasoline options: the carried-over 1.0L and 1.2L units might boast some improvements on performance and efficiency.
Even though Hyundai has avoided to keep selling too older cars since Fluidic Sculpture became its biggest sales argument, the Indian market won’t drop the first-gen i10 yet. However, since the upcoming i20 will also become a bigger car, the increased gap between these two will be filled with Grand i10, projected exclusively for there. It’s essentially a long-wheelbase new i10, whose 100 extra mm on that measure will take advantage of its bigger proportions to become fully prepared to satisfy a family – they are much better buyers of this kind of car in emergent markets than in Europe. The size increase is best seen on the sides, which use a more horizontal lower line for the windows and smaller rear windshield, enough to restrain it to the trunk lid (in the European it takes some space of the sides, too). The latter change also provides some cost reduction, just like the lights’ simpler design (Grand i10 won’t have i10’s LEDs at the front), which suits budget cars much better. Hyundai’s intention is to deliver a modern option of compact hatchback with more mature styling, avoiding the mistakes made with Eon.
