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Hyundai i45/40 Wagon Spy Photos

By Alborz Fallah |

With Hyundai having updated its i45 with new suspension settings for Australia, the brand’s flagship model is set to conquer even more market share in its category. Nonetheless, what the i45 lacks is body variants, particularly a wagon. Perhaps that’s all about to change.

Our spy photographers have just sent us a new set of photos of the upcoming 2011 Hyundai Sonata wagon (as its called in the USA, in Europe it’s expected to labeled as i40).

As far as we can tell, this is a Hyundai i45 wagon. When contacted, Hyundai Australia would not comment on any wagon variant of the i45 coming to Australia, or even existing in the first place.

There is also some talk that European buyers will be able to buy the i40/45 with a diesel engine. An option which Australian buyers don’t have access to.  Hyundai will no doubt eventually launch a hybrid version of the i45 as well.

According to the spy photographer that took these photos, the Hyundai wagon was being benchmarked against a Toyota Prius, so it’s possible to assume that Hyundai is in the final stages of its hybrid drivetrain development.


 

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  • MisterTwo

    It’s good to see that they are testing the towing capacity. When the i45 was launched in Oz a towbar wasn’t available and the Koreans said “What is a towbar?”.

    • Shak

      And judging by the way the rear suspension is compressed it Shouldn’t be towing.

    • Devil’s Advocate

      That trailer could be for more than just testing the towing capability. Many manufacturers tow around trailers like this with prototypes for ‘load and stress testing’ of the drivetrain etc. Some of these have a dynamometer set up where the wheels of the trailer will “load up” to make the prototype work harder, especially in hot conditions. This can be used for fine tuning the cooling system and/or fuel/ignition curves etc under varying ‘real world’ conditions/loads as well as other drive train calibrations. These trailers can also have other sopisticated measuring equipment that is used for the development of the prototype.

      • Dr Nick

        It is interesting that such trailers are not seen used more often, other times the cars are full of test equipment. I hear the North Korean car trailers carry WMD’s.

      • Jabba the Hutt

        Spot on Devil’s Advocate. They may also be testing the downforce rate on the tow pack which needs to be done ,hence the sag in the rear. I personally don’t think 4 cyclinder engines make great towing vehicles but they did say a diesel will be offered offshore too. I think if Hyundai bit the bullet and offered it here they may have a slice of the grey nomad market as vans don’t weigh much and wagons hold a lot of gear and not all retirees want a large 4WD. Hence why every single outback I have seen so far has had a grey haired retiree at the wheel.

        These vehicles with diesel engines make sense in Australia. Not to mention with the reps that run between our major cities every second day where a car like this would shine. Provided they get the ride right of course.

  • Shak

    When you look at the front it actually resembles the Elantra/Avante more than it does the i45. Either way it looks pretty good from what we can see.

  • Chris MC

    When will Hyundai actually release a new car that you can put 200kg on the ball? The last (and only) car they had that could do that was the Terracan.

  • Mark

    It is the avante/elantra wagon which has a lot of it’s styling cues from the i-flow concept.