Recently in an interview with Drive Australian motor news site, Albert Bierman was asked about Hyundai i30’s fate. Mr. Biermann recognized that it was a difficult question but also gave a hint of what the hatchback and the car market are suffering these days with the SUV rise.
The current i30 is on its 3rd generation, internally known as PD, which could be the last. To the question of whether or not the i30 will have a new generation, “The hatchback market is coming down a lot, it’s definitely slowing down,” said Albert Biermann, now Hyundai’s Executive Technical Advisor.
“How long will we continue ? You cannot give one answer for the global business. It’s hard to tell at this point. I don’t know the current state of the decision. But definitely for different regional markets there are different challenges and different strategies.” He added.
According to Mr. Biermann, we can suggest that there’s a possibility that i30 could survive in some countries where still in good demand such as Europe or Australia. For some other markets it is already cancelled before receiving the mid-cycle facelift, like in South Korea or U.S.
Hyundai could be taking a decision but the second gen Kona is almost ready while we don’t know anything about the i30 (despite being launched 1 year and half before).
While Hyundai continues apparently discussing about the future of the i30, a vehicle launched in 2016 is still without plans to be substituted by a new generation. Currently testings to launch the second generation Kona are ready as soon as early next year, cutting the initial schedule by almost 2 years.
Not that long ago we anticipated some rumors coming from our South Korean sources that said internally Hyundai had no plans to launch a new generation i30. Instead the new Kona could actually replace the i30 family in the Hyundai line-up.
Given the fact that the entire i30 range was outsold by sister brand Kia’s XCEED, a crossover that shares Hyundai Motor Group’s K series platform with the i30, is not crazy to think about it. People want crossovers and SUV’s as for today and that’s not likely to change in a while.
