First look Hyundai i20 three-door

The three-door is built on the same wheelbase, and carries the same 1.2-litre Kappa engine, but weighs 10kg less than the five-door’s 1045kg.

Hyundai Australia says they would welcome the three-door here, and doesn’t see any barriers to it arriving.

“We are certainly looking at bringing it to Australia,” spokesman Ben Hershman says, but can’t predict how soon after the five-doors arrival – set to be mid-year – that might happen.

“There’s no impediment, but we just can’t confirm what the timing would be on that. We haven’t been advised of production dates.”

Hershman says he expects both versions of the i20 will do well in the local showrooms.

“There’s a strong market for both three and five-door small cars at the moment,” he says.

“The Getz does very well for us in both areas.”

Hershman says the i20 will land here around the competitive $16,000 price mark, so he doesn’t believe there is any risk of the i20 cannibalising from its stablemate, which is currently around $2000 cheaper.

“We really see two different customers in that end of the market … the value buyer looking at price of entry, and then those who are looking for the slightly larger body and more sophisticated technology that the i20 will offer.”

The three-door has the same nose and tail as the larger version, but has larger doors and a more upswept line along the side profile.

Hyundai says its quick-release memory seats allow easy `walk-in’ access for the rear, while the car as specced for the overseas market will feature six airbags – front, side and curtain – plus active head-restraints.

Overseas specs show the 1.2-litre four-cylinder petrol engine in the five-door develops 57.4kW at 6000rpm and 119Nm at 4000rpm, with a five-speed manual driving the front set of 14” wheels. It’s reported to get to 100km/h in a fairly leisurely 12.9 seconds and to a top speed of 165km/h, with a frugal combined fuel consumption of 5.2L/100km and 124g/km of Co2.