Hyundai is set to retire the i30 hatchback with no direct successor as demand for traditional petrol hatchbacks continues to fall in Europe.
The i30 has been off sale in the UK for a year while remaining available in some European markets, but it will soon be axed for good – and any replacement is set to take a different form.
Asked about plans for the i30's future – following the unveiling of a new-generation i20 supermini earlier this month, and the launch of the similarly sized Ioniq 3 EV – Hyundai's Europe CEO Xavier Martinet hinted that no fourth-generation i30 is in the works.
"There might be a reason why we don't talk much about it," he said of the company's petrol-powered Volkswagen Golf rival.
"The problem is that in this segment the demand is not growing, and it's also a vehicle that historically was mostly a fleet vehicle, on which the profit is not so high."
The small proportion of retail sales was not enough to compensate for the low-profit fleet sales, he added, because "the price was lower, so the profits [were as well].
"When you put everything together, the business case is not extremely compelling."
In recent years, several of the i30's closest rivals have also been cancelled, including the Ford Focus, Kia Ceed and Renault Megane.
Strong-selling stalwarts including the Volkswagen Golf, Peugeot 308 and Toyota Corolla continue, but the segment accounts for far fewer European sales than it once did, with mid-sized crossovers becoming the default choice as practical family runarounds.
Opel-Vauxhall boss Florian Huettl voiced similar sentiments to Martinet recently when he hinted at plans to replace the i30's Astra rival with a less "traditional" C-segment offering – potentially some sort of SUV.
Hyundai could take a similar route as it looks to fill the gap left by the i30, Martinet suggested: "We might still have some answers coming, but it might be a different answer to the one we've got so far.
"I might be a bit cryptic in my answer, but at some point in time we have to know when to stop and how to do the next generation – this is one of the question marks we have."
