2025 Hyundai i30 hatchback revealed! Mild hybrid powertrain, tweaked design and European production for Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3 and Subaru Impreza rival

Hyundai’s ageing i30 hatchback will live to see another few years, with the Korean carmaker revealing details of the late-life update for its popular small car.

The current third-generation i30 hatch went on sale in Australia almost seven years ago. It has had a number of updates and grade changes in that time, but this marks a bigger change for the model.

Up until now the third-gen hatchback was sourced from Hyundai’s home base in South Korea, but sourcing for the updated version will switch to the company’s Czech Republic plant. This is not a new plant - the spicy i30 N hatch is already built there.

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Currently, the i30 hatch kicks off in base manual guise from $24,000 before on-road costs and hits $37,300 for the automatic N-Line Premium warm hatch.

This pricing is expected to increase with the update and the change of sourcing.

As a side note, the i30 hatch is also built on a slightly different platform to the recently refreshed i30 sedan, which will continue to be sourced from Korea.

So, what’s new with the i30?

It has had a number of updates and grade changes in that time, but this marks a bigger change for the model.

The design changes are subtle, and include new inserts for the bumpers, as well as new colour choices and some new wheel designs.

The i30 N-Line gets new grille meshes, tweaked side skirts and interior flourishes like red lines on the seats, as well as interior LED lighting.

New standard gear inside includes a 4.2-inch LCD cluster, an optional 10.25-inch fully digital cluster, three USB-C charging ports and over-the-air map updates.

Safety-wise, the i30 hatch now comes with ‘Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist’, ‘Lane Following Assist’ which keeps the vehicle in the current lane of travel, ‘Intelligent Speed Limit Assist’ and a rear occupant alert.

New standard gear inside includes a 4.2-inch LCD cluster, an optional 10.25-inch fully digital cluster, three USB-C charging ports and over-the-air map updates.

Hyundai has confirmed that the new i30 will be offered with a 48-volt ‘mild hybrid’ powertrain, which uses a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine.

It’s unclear if this will replace the ageing 120kW/203Nm 2.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol four-cylinder unit found in the entry grades.

The 1.6-litre turbocharged unit delivering 150kW/265Nm in the N-Line models could also carry over.

It’s unclear if this will replace the ageing 120kW/203Nm 2.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol four-cylinder unit found in the entry grades.

Production kicks off in the Czech Republic in April, and according to a Hyundai Australia spokesperson, the updated i30 hatch should be here in September or October.

As reported, the Hyundai i30 was Australia’s top-selling hatchback in 2023 - not back for a model in the back half of its life cycle. It beat the Toyota Corolla hatch by less than 100 units for the whole year.

It’s unclear what will happen to the i30’s sales numbers with the switch to European sourcing. But with the sub-$40,000 small car market contracting, the Corolla hatch might just get its crown back.