Hyundai i20 facelift and Veloster Turbo at 2012 Geneva motor show

Hyundai has significant new model news and a piece of range expansion to announce at the 2012 Geneva motor show with the unveiling of a facelifted i20 supermini and a spanking fresh turbo diesel for its Veloster coupe-cum-hatchback. 

Perhaps slightly stung by critics in some quarters dismissing the Mk1 i20 as being rather Euro-bland, the Korean’s all-new i20 is a rather pretty-looking thing. Nose-wise it has a wide-mouthed, grinning hexagonal grille and little creases filtering up from it and the headlamp cluster, which look uncannily like laughter lines.

Now you’re going too far. But all round it looks like it’s carrying a bit less baggage than its predecessor, with a slimmed down bumper and more sharply-raked bonnet. Perhaps an extra 55mm of length helps too – although you are a better man than us if you can spot that, MacDuff.

Now this is the really important bit, as Hyundai is introducing a new 1.1-litre diesel engine with those trendy three cylinders which generates 74bhp… and is claiming gob-smacking economy figures of little more than that, numerically. We don’t have the entire urban/extra urban/combined figures yet, but at 84g/km of CO2, Hyundai says this will be lowest emissions for any car with a conventional powertrain.

Designed specifically for Europe at Hyundai’s Diesel Centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany, it will be joined by an upgraded 89bhp 1.4-litre diesel which, when joined to BlueDrive Technology will pump out just 96g/km. In other words, that’s zero car tax for you on both vehicles.

That’s got some new engine love too, via a new turbocharged four-cylinder engine offering 183bhp and 199lb ft. We first saw the Veloster Turbo at the 2012 Detroit auto show but this is the European version. The 0-60mph times is cut, says Hyundai, from 9.7 seconds for the standard 138bhp non-turbo Veloster to 8.4 seconds for the 1.6 T-GDI.

Helping the exhaust notes sound that little bit sweeter with this variant, the Veloster gets an enhanced engine intake and larger, free-flowing circular pipes. A five-year Hyundai warranty, naturally, comes as standard for all.

By Stephen Worthy