2012 Hyundai i30 wagon revealed

The updated i30 wagon (called the i30cw Wagon in Australia) follows the refreshed i30 five-door hatch that was first seen at last year’s Frankfurt motor show in September. Both models are expected to go on sale in Australia around June/July, although Hyundai Australia is remaining tight-lipped about its final line-up.

Like the hatch, the i30 wagon has been designed and engineered primarily for the European market at Hyundai’s R&D centre in Germany.

Hyundai says both body styles were developed together at an early stage to ensure a consistent, coherent expression of the brand’s fluidic sculpture design language. The front-end adopts the new i40-style headlights and hexagonal grille, while the D-pillar-mounted taillights have made way for more stylish horizontal clusters.

The new Hyundai i30 wagon is 185mm longer than its hatchback sibling and 10mm longer then the previous wagon overall. The wagon’s boot is 150 litres larger than the hatch (528 litres) and expands to 1624 litres with the rear seats folded down.

As in the outgoing model, the hatch and wagon will share powertrains. Australian details have not been confirmed at this stage, although performance and fuel consumption will improve for both petrol and diesel models

The Australian i30 will either get the flagship 99kW/164Nm 1.6-litre direct-injection petrol engine or an 88kW/156Nm 1.6-litre unit. The diesel will either be an 81kW/260Nm 1.6-litre diesel or a new 94kW/260Nm unit.

The days of four- and five-speed transmissions are over, with both manual and automatic customers to get new six-speed ’boxes across the upgraded small car range.

The 2012 Hyundai i30 wagon will debut at Geneva alongside the Hyundai i-oniq concept on March 6.