Hyundai i40:Official

Hyundai i40 Estate

We’ve revealed the Hyundai i40 before. And an official reveal at that. But that was for the i40/Sonata that gets sold in other parts of the world.

This Hyundai i40 reveal is the European i40 – essentially the  Hyundai i-flow Concept we saw at Geneva last year. The i40′s production-ready reveal at this year’s Geneva Motor Show completes the circle.

The i40 is to be Hyundai’s Mondeo-basher; the first of what Hyundai are referring to as ‘Modern Premium’ and linked to their new slogan ‘New Thinking. New Possibilities’.

But ignoring the marketing hype, it does look like Ford and Vw should start to worry about the Mondeo. The i40 gets Hyundai’s latest style motifs – which Hyundai like to call ‘fluidic sculpture’ - which are every bit as contemporary as any of the more premium competition.

Inside there are lots of soft-touch, quality materials. Not only does the interior look and feel very premium, it has more room than the competition.

Standard equipment also looks set to alarm VW and Ford with stuff like Bluetooth, heated seats, park assist, lane assist, bi-xenons and a glass roof. And the i40 Estate – which is what we get at Geneva – has 1790 litres of load space with the seats down.

The opening salvo on the oily front will be a 1.7 litre Turbodiesel with either 113bhp or 134bhp and a 1.6 litre petrol with 138bhp

Coming along later will be a 2.0 litre diesel with more oomph and an ‘Eco’ version of the 113bhp with 113 g/km, which we expect to be badged up as the Hyundai i40 Blue.

The Hyunda i40 Estate will go on sale in June and be followed in 2012 with the saloon version.

By Cars UK