Will these new features and changes be enough to attract customers?
[ads id=”0″ style=”float:left;padding:6px;”]The Hyundai Veloster has been an interesting model for the brand. We all know about the polarizing design and third door that drew so much attention to the model, with some naming it a “reverse halo car” because it showcases what Hyundai is capable of in terms of design and engineering while remaining near the bottom of the Hyundai lineup in terms of pricing.
The Veloster handily outsold its only true competitor in the US market, the Scion tC, at about 30,000 units a year compared to less than 20,000 tCs sold. Now that Scion is dead and the tC along with it, the Veloster doesn’t have any direct competitors in the US (the closest being the new Honda Civic Coupe, which is not a hatchback). Other markets didn’t fare as well for the Veloster; for example, it’s no longer sold in Europe despite the popularity of hatches because it never successfully attracted VW Scirocco and Citroen DS3 customers in Europe.
[ads id=”0″ style=”float:left;padding:6px;”]It’s done well enough globally to warrant a second generation, apparently. Our sources tell us that an 2019 Hyundai Veloster will be announced in mid- to late-2017 and that it will go on sale in early 2018, most likely as a 2019 model. It will retain the current three-door design. We’ve already snapped several spy photos earlier this year, and we are exclusively showing a new spy photo of the car where you can see most of the back of the car exposed.
We’ve also found out that the car will feature an Independent Rear Suspension (IRS), which is something that current Veloster owners have been asking for since the current Veloster came out. This should help it gain a little more credibility in the automotive community.
The car will be available in base configuration with a 2.0-liter Gas Direct Inject (GDI) engine or a quicker 1.6-liter turbocharged four cylinder for Turbo customers. Power numbers aren’t yet available, but we predict a slight bump for the base model over the current 1.6L base engine.
The 2019 Hyundai Veloster will also offer a Heads Up Display (HUD), suggesting that Hyundai will likely target the car towards the tech crowd.
So can Hyundai continue selling volume in the US market and potentially gain ground in other receptive markets like Australia with the next-generation Veloster? It will likely depend on how enticing the overall package is.
[ads id=”0″ style=”float:left;padding:6px;”]One of the reasons for the current Veloster’s success in the US is the balance of an attractive price, a quality, feature-rich interior, and a design that stands out on the road. With IRS, HUD, and a bigger base engine, the 2019 Hyundai Veloster seems to be on the right track, but it must maintain its value proposition to sell. The unknown variable, of course, is whether the dwindling market for compact hatchbacks will even still exist when it goes on sale.
