The way forward for the Hyundai i30 hatchback stays up within the air and there’s even an opportunity it might make approach for a brand new small SUV.

Hyundai has been promoting the current-generation i30 since 2017 and had initially deliberate to switch it inside the subsequent two years. These plans are thought to stalled whereas the South Korean automotive producer determines what the longer term could maintain for the automotive.

“The hatchback market is coming down so much, it’s positively slowing down,” Hyundai govt technical advisor Albert Biermann advised Drive. “How lengthy will we proceed (with the Hyundai i30)? You can not give one reply for the worldwide enterprise. It’s exhausting to inform at this level. I don’t know the present state of the choice. However positively for various regional markets there are completely different challenges and completely different methods.”

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Biermann prompt it’s attainable the i30 might survive in these international locations the place it sells the perfect, together with India, Russia, South America, Australia, and components of Europe.

Drive suggests one other chance is that it might morph in an SUV to rival the likes of the Toyota Corolla Cross, Mazda CX-30, and Subaru XV, though such a automobile might doubtlessly cannibalize gross sales from the present Hyundai Kona which itself borrows its platform from the i30.

“In sure markets you want an EV (electrical automobile) in that phase, then there’s (SUV) competitors coming, so that they’re all reducing away quantity (from conventional hatchbacks),” Biermann added. “It’s a tricky problem.”

Additionally it is attainable that Hyundai will determine to not construct a new-generation i30 and as an alternative give it a big facelift whereas retaining the identical mechanicals as the present mannequin.