The Hyundai i30 Hatch is on borrowed time, and this funky electric hatchback could end up replacing it.
Expected to be called the Hyundai Ioniq 3, the new electric hatchback was previewed by this year’s Three concept and is set to enter production in Türkiye in 2026.
In the transition from concept to production car, the Ioniq 3 has gained conventional wing mirrors and flush door handles.
However, it has the same rounded wedge profile, including a Genesis GV60-like rear-end shape, plus slim lighting up front and a distinctively sculpted fascia.
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The Ioniq 3 will be the next model from Hyundai with the Korean brand’s new Art of Steel design language. This debuted on last year’s Initium concept that previewed the second-generation Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) unveiled this year, but still features familiar brand design elements like Parametric Pixel square lighting elements.
The rounded profile owes more to the defunct Veloster than the more conservative i30 Hatch.
The interior bears much less of a similarity to the concept, though there’s still a slightly squared-off style steering wheel and a two-tier centre console, as well as a minimalist centre stack with a single row of buttons.
Unlike the concept, there are actual free-standing instrument cluster and infotainment screens.
The instrument cluster is slim and set far back, potentially negating the need for a head-up display.
The infotainment screen is large and horizontally oriented. Underneath it sits physical switches and knobs for adjusting the climate control temperature and fan speed, and the heated and ventilated front seats. These switches in turn sit above a pair of air vents.
There’s a bridge-type centre console, with the top tier featuring a covered bin with a padded armrest, as well as a pair of cupholders, while underneath is a storage shelf.
The silly Bring Your Own Lifestyle modular widgets of the concept, which Hyundai never really explained, have been banished.
The Ioniq 3 is expected to share a 400V version of the E-GMP platform with the Kia EV4.
The five-door Three hatchback concept measured 4287mm long, 1940mm wide and 1428mm tall on a 2722mm wheelbase, making it identical in length to the MG 4, and close to the i30 Hatch in overall size.
The i30 Hatch measures 4340mm long, 1795mm wide and 1453mm tall on a 2650mm wheelbase.
That suggests the Ioniq 3 will replace the i30 Hatch, at least in Europe. Camouflaged prototypes of a mildly updated version of the combustion-powered hatch and wagon have been spied testing, but there’s been no word on a new generation of the venerable i30 nameplate.
In contrast, sister brand Kia has just launched a new small car – the K4 – which replaced not only the Cerato/Forte in markets such as ours, but will also replace the European-developed, i30-related Ceed in Europe.
The i30 Hatch will be retired in Australia this year, with production ending for our market in December. The i30 Hatch N, also sourced from Czechia, will live on for an unspecified time. No longer sold in Europe, the hot hatch is only offered in a handful of global markets.
The Korean-built i30 Sedan, known elsewhere as the Elantra and Avante and riding on newer underpinnings, is unaffected.
A dealer bulletin seen by CarExpert confirmed the i30 Hatch’s discontinuation, as well as that of the smaller i20 N hot hatch – though Hyundai Australia pointedly said a “new generation of accessible N products” is due in 2027, indicating we’ll get the next i20 N which is set to gain hybrid power.
It’s unclear if we’ll get the production Ioniq 3, though Kia will release its related EV4 here.