Hyundai i30 teased in pre-Paris Motor Show preview

Three teaser images of Hyundai’s incoming third-gen Hyundai i30 hatchback have been released, showing for the first time the latest evolution of the Korean automaker’s bold new styling language.

Designed under the watchful eye of Chief Design Officer and former Audi designer Peter Schreyer, the 2017 Hyundai i30 will make its global debut on September 7 in an online reveal, before heading to the Paris Motor Show at the end of September for its first public showing.

With a less organic design than the current i30 (which launched just four years ago), the new car trades in the bulky styling of its predecessor for cleaner lines, finer details and a more European flavour. Hardly surprising considering the new i30’s design homeroom was based in Europe.

Hyundai’s familiar six-sided grille, ringed in satin silver, takes on a more three-dimensional look to create what the automaker terms its “cascading grill”. Meanwhile the headlamps and tail lamps are smaller and feature LED light bars and other fine details to give the i30 a more premium flavour.

The third generation i30 will also boast an athletic edge, courtesy of the highly-anticipated Hyundai i30 N variant that’s expected to go toe-to-toe with established European hot hatches like the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Megane RS with a turbocharged 2.0 litre engine, around 200kW of power and roughly 300Nm of torque.

“It’s a car for everybody,” said design chief Peter Schreyer.

“For the design of the new generation Hyundai i30 we didn’t just look at one customer, we focused on a wide range of different people.”

Local suspension tuning and calibration is expected to begin soon, though expect the third-gen i30 to go on sale locally toward the middle of 2017.

The current-generation defied predictions, and was the best-selling car in Australia for a number of months earlier this year.