Hyundai i30 estate revealed ahead of Geneva debut

Hyundai has taken the wraps off the estate version of the five-door i30 ahead of its debut at the Geneva motor show next month.

The i30 Wagon has been designed with a slanting roof to create a coupé-like silhouette. The car’s nose remains unchanged from its hatchback sibling but the rear, which extends back an extra 245mm, gets a slightly different design with the number-plate located on the tailgate as opposed to the bumper. With the rear seats up, it offers a luggage capacity of 602 litres and with them down that number grows to 1,650 litres.

The car’s structure is more rigid due to 53 percent of it being made of advanced high-strength steel. Inside, the dashboard and seats are identical to those of the hatchback.

Powering the estate will be a choice of four turbocharged engines. The entry unit is a 1.0-litre T-GDI three-cylinder petrol that produces 120hp and above this is a 1.4-litre four-pot that produces 140hp.The diesel line-up consists of three versions of the same 1.6-litre unit that produce 95hp, 109hp or 133hp.

As for technology, the i30 Wagon gets adaptive cruise control that can brake or accelerate the vehicle at speeds of up to 180kph, autonomous emergency braking and lane-keeping assist technology. There’s also rear cross traffic alert, blind spot detection and Hyundai’s first driver attention monitoring system, which alerts the driver to take a break if lane crossing is noticed. Cars with optional full LED headlights get high beam assist technology to dip and raise beams around oncoming traffic too.

International sales for the five-door i30 hatchback will kick off in March, with the Wagon likely to follow later this year. When launched, it will rival the likes of the Ford Focus estate and Volkswagen Golf estate.

Hyundai had showcased the previous-generation i30 at the Auto Expo 2016 last year in Delhi to gauge customer interest. However, there are no plans from the Korean manufacturer to bring this car to India anytime soon.