Hyundai prepares Mazda CX-3 rival

Hyundai Australia chief operating officer Scott Grant has confessed that sales volumes of its third-generation i30 could be impacted by the arrival of the company's first small SUV contender, only months after the latest version of its top-selling hatchback debuts locally.

Despite being five years old and in its final year of production, the i30 last year outsold Hyundai's next highest selling model, the Tucson medium SUV, by around two-to-one. Matching the 37,800 sales of 2016 could be problematic even for the new i30 in 2017, however, owing not to increased competitor pressure but as a result of a challenger from within the Hyundai stable.

Asked whether volume of the i30 could drop as a result of the arrival of its small SUV codenamed OS, Grant replied: "I think that's very possible and very real."

"From our point of view our main objective in that regard is to incrementally grow across both models [i30 and OS]," he confirmed when speaking to Drive at the international media launch of the new i30 in South Korea this week.

"So if we lose a little bit from one - assuming the i30 hits and is a raging success in the first six months if we then lose 5.0 per cent off the top of that because the new model [OS] comes in and there's a movement of value - then we're happy with that. The key is to provide more solutions and product options for a broader market."

The OS is tipped to be revealed before the middle of this year ahead of a late-2017 local introduction, and is expected to play in the same $20,000 to $35,000 bracket as the new i30, reflecting the hatchback and SUV parallels of the Mazda3 and Mazda CX-3 respectively.

It won't be up to the Golf GTI-rivalling i30 N hot hatchback to reverse a potential sales decline for the model, either, which this week was revealed to be an exclusively six-speed manual-only proposition until 2019 when an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic is added - potentially limiting the market for the two-tier 183kW and 200kW 2.0-litre turbo flagship.

"Volume it [i30 N] won't do much in the scheme of things, but it will be hugely important from a brand and image point of view," he said.

"I think it will also provide the opportunity to bring some new buyers to the brand ... based on its performance characteristics and credentials."

Grant further confirmed that 'fastback' and wagon versions of the i30 were "a year plus" away from being revealed and were not confirmed for Australia.

Hyundai first confirmed that 'fastback' and wagon bodystyles would follow the hatchback when the new i30 was revealed at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2016.

There are now strong indications that the former could be a three- and five-door 'coupe' model to replace the traditional i30 three-door hatch briefly available in the Australian market, however the local COO would only be drawn into how the i30 wagon had performed and its potential for a local re-introduction.

"There's a niche that works in Australia very well with that size of [i30] wagon particularly, and for some elements of the fleet market," he explained.

"In that context we'd love to provide it, but typically we sourced that from Europe and then comes another factor, a cost factor, because a vehicle from there is typically more expensive. [And] in overall volume that's not significant.

"The good thing with the product is there are options going forward."

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