Friday, April 23, 2010

Shapely Subcompact Sedan: New Hyundai Verna (aka Accent) debuts in Beijing


Essentially looking like a 1/4 scale Elantra—not a bad thing at all in my book—the new Accent (called the Verna in other markets) just debuted at the Beijing Auto Show. When it debuts in North America next year, the Accent will likely come with a 120-horsepower 1.6-liter engine mated to either a five-speed manual or four-speed auto. Other markets may also get 1.4-liter mill.

This shapely subcompact sedan looks great. But, being an aficionado of of all things hatchback, I certainly hope North America gets the three- or five-door treatment, too.


4 comments:

D2M said...

Wow! That's one really good looking sedan! I like how Hyundai is giving it's cars some "punch". Does this car even come as a hatchback in the overseas market?

Andy Lilienthal said...

I'm not sure; I believe this is the first iteration of the Verna/Accent that's been released to the public. Perhaps "hyundaismoke" will fill us in.

Interesting article on possible iterations of an Accent hatchback from Edmunds:

http://blogs.insideline.com/straightline/2010/04/spy-photos-is-this-the-next-hyundai-accent.html

I would think Hyundai would offer a hatchback over here, though. Take Toyota, for example. They offer the Yaris hatchback and sedan, although in other countries, they're sold as two different vehicles:

Yaris hatch = Vitz or Yaris
Yaris sedan = Vios or Belta or Yaris

Andy Lilienthal said...

Oops on the link:

http://blogs.insideline.com/straightline/2010/04/spy-photos-is-this-the-next-hyundai-accent.html"

AccentPlanetDotOrg said...

Hyundai on Friday debuted a 1.6L GDI powertrain, and will be for the US. Having GDI in Accent is too expensive for markets like China, but just right for Americans.

The Basic 122 HP Powertrain is mated up to a Gas direct injection system. This system produces 138 ft/lb torgue or 24 more torque than the 114 ft/lb in the Chinese spec model. Considering the torque gain Id say 146 HP for the American spec model, as they kept the Horsepower output a secret on this powertrain. Since the Chinese spec model gets 42 MPG, I would expect the a 10% fuel eocnomy gain with the GDI system as GDi improved big borther Sonata's MPG by 10%. So, 45-47 MPG.

The Hatch is still in the works, and the US spec will have a different grille with different more "Upmarket" headlamps. The US/Euro testers always have a Hexagonal Grille for the most part, so I would expect to see Accent with a Hexagonal grille like Tuscon here. It will also have Sonata's mirrors.

In Europe it will go on Sale as i25sedan. They have a Hatch and a Crossver kind of like Juke they are developing on the same platform. In Europe the crossover will be called ix25, and it will be based on the ix-metro concept.
No confirmation if the hatch and the crossover will come baged as Accent, but its very likely.

Whatever it will be called will debut for the US market in March 2011. The hatch will be mostly a North American, and Korean Product. Its looking like Europe wont get the hatch, so we might not get the crossover. We'll see, however.