New Hyundai i30 Coupe previewed by US Elantra Coupe

The Hyundai Elantra Coupe will turn in to the Hyundai i30 Coupe in the UK & Europe

The reveal of the 2013 3-door Hyundai Elantra Coupe at the Chicago Motor Show signals the new Hyundai i30 Coupe for the UK & Europe.

Hyundai has just started marketing for the 2012 i30 with a slick commercial aimed at taking on the might of VW’s Golf and Ford’s Focus – with every chance of serious success. But the five-door i30 Coupe isn’t the end of the new i30 story – just the beginning.

The reveal by Hyundai of the new Elantra Coupe at the Chicago Motor Show today gives us a clear view of what the 3-door Hyundai i30 Coupe will offer when it arrives on this side of the Pond. And it looks as convincing as the 5-door i30.

The Elantra Coupe is slightly longer than the the saloon (but only by half an inch), but the fact it’s no smaller promises a lot of space for a stylish 3-door coupe. And stylish it is, with the good lines of the 5-door i30 converting very well to produce a good-looking coupe.

In the States the Elantra will get a 1.8 litre 4-pot petrol engine, but in Europe we can expect the i30 Coupe to get the same engine choices as the i30 saloon. But what it could also get is the new 200bhp turbo from the Veloster Turbo, which would produce a proper hot hatch from Hyundai – a Hyundai i30 Coupe R, perhaps.

Especially as Tony Whitehorn – Hyundai’s UK MD – has said that an i30 with the Veloster Turbo engine is more than likely.