The latest renewal of the Hyundai i30 range has been the most ambitious of the Korean brand. A revolution that reached all levels. On sale for just over a year, the firm has given a new twist by reducing the supply of diesel versions in different European countries, a progressive elimination given the significant increase in hybrid variants.
The 2022 range of the Hyundai i30 will be reduced. The Korean brand has made a radical decision that affects the three body variants of the compact model, and for all European countries. A far-reaching measure that will allow it to reduce costs and focus on electrification. The i30 five-door, the station wagon i30 CW and the sports saloon i30 Hatchback is it so saying goodbye to diesel.
A fact that is not a coincidence or a whim of the brand, but rather a decision of the customers. Last year 2021, Hyundai accounted for sales of 160,000 units of the hybrid versions of its entire range of models, detecting that customers of the three compacts declined more for gasoline options electrified 48 Volt MHEV than by any of the two diesel versions offered by the Hyundai i30, with this technology in the most powerful variant of the 136 hp 1.6 CRDi engine.
Diesel disappears from the Hyundai i30 range but does not subtract sales
A solution to lower the figures of consumption and emissions that It has not caught on among the clients, who prefer the performance offered by the three-cylinder 1.0 T-GDI petrol engines and the four-cylinder 1.5 T-GDI, with maximum outputs of 120 and 160 hp. The truth is, in Spain, the diesel range has been reduced exclusively to the 116 hp 1.6 CRDi engine with a six-speed manual transmission in the i30 and i30 CW, and this same 48-volt option in the case of the i30 Fastback.
Hyundai is offering this version because it is giving way to the mechanical blocks that it still has, since it stopped manufacturing them in the third quarter of last year 2021. David Pavlíček, spokesman for Hyundai’s Czech Republic division, said: “Diesel engines have been removed from the i30 range due to declining demand in the compact segment. We do not expect to offer them again in the foreseeable future. The diesel engines of the i30 model were not only excluded from the offer on the Czech market, but their production was completely canceled for all markets.”
The continuous attacks on diesel and the obligation for manufacturers to invest in the development of new technologies to comply with the increasingly strict limits on CO2 emissions, are making customers are inclined towards new, more efficient technologies with practically similar performance. In some manufacturers, this fuel no longer has a place, while the rates reflect a significant acceptance by customers. In the case of the Skoda Octavia, in 2021, only 50% opted for a diesel version.