[PREVIEW] Here’s What You Should Know About The Coming-Soon All-New Hyundai Elantra

The new-generation Hyundai Elantra will launch before 2020 ends; expect its arrival this week or next. Order books have opened since the end of November, giving car buyers an alternative to mainstays Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. But is the all-new Elantra worth a look?

The seventh-generation Hyundai Elantra is a compact sedan for the C-segment, automatically pitting it against the Honda Civic, Toyota Altis and the Mazda3. Hyundai has forsaken the traditional sedan body style in favour of a fastback design, where the roof joins with the boot in one sweeping line.

The Elantra comes in four exterior colours and two interior colours. You have the freedom to mix and match the exterior to the interior that you wish, giving you some form of customisation that usually does not exist in this segment. So, if you want to your Intense Blue Elantra to have a Light Grey interior, you may.

If Fluidic Sculpture taught us anything is that Hyundai does not shy away from controversial designs. The new Elantra wears the company’s latest design language, called Futuristic Parametric Dynamics that appears to be a composition of triangles. Hyundai wanted to challenge the status quo with the Elantra’s design, and they certainly have.

In front, the Elantra features the parametric grille that appears integrated with the LED headlamps. The sides feature parametric jewel surface somehow disrupts the harmony of the sides. In any case, the design only serves as a prelude to an unconventional tail. The rear LED combination lamp on either side are joined by a light-bar in the middle, giving the impression of at the letter H with very spread legs. At least no one can blame Hyundai for boring car designs.

The Elantra does look broad and long from the outside. It has a length of 4,657mm, a width of 1,825mm and a height of 1,430mm — or it looks to be about the same size as the current Honda Civic. Despite its size, the Elantra only weighs 1,245kg.

The interior design and colour scheme is pleasing. On the floor are Elantras equipped with the Light Grey interior colour scheme, which makes the interior appear airy. The whiteish leather is paired well to the light grey fabric, which you can find on the seatbacks and door cards.

The front seats feature eight-way power-adjustable with two-way lumbar support only for the driver. Both front seats are perforated to allow hot or cool air to be channelled through, making everyone a winner.

Hyundai has designed the cockpit to be very driver-centric to the point where the handrail on the passenger’s side prevents intrusion to the car’s air-con controls. An eight-inch display, which sits at the edge of the dashboard, is curved and angled towards the driver and looks integrated with the meter cluster, ending just above the right air vent. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say that Hyundai would have erected a bubble around the driver if technology and space allowed for it.

Don’t expect the Elantra to go like a rocket. There will only be one engine choice, and it is not turbocharged. The Smartstream G1.6 is a 1.6-litre naturally-aspirated dual-port injection four-cylinder engine that produces 121hp at 6,300rpm and 154Nm at 4,500rpm. Hyundai’s CVT, called the Intelligent Variable Transmission, offers eight virtual speeds to the front wheels.

One might think its power is paltry and the transmission uninspiring, but the lightness of the vehicle compensates. Not surprisingly, the Elantra will do 0-100kph in 10.4 seconds and will hit maximum speed at 196kph. On the flip side, the Elantra uses 5.6 litres of fuel per 100km and expels 132 CO2 per kilometre.

The Elantra rides on 17-inch Kumho tyres wrapped around alloy wheels. MacPherson struts in front and coupled torsion beam rear axle should give you handling as one might expect. There were no test drives available on the day, so we don’t know how it drives.

The Elantra is armed to the teeth in safety systems courtesy of the Hyundai SmartSense. Lane Keeping Assist, Lane Following Assist, Smart Cruise Control with Stop & Go, Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist and Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist Junction make sure you don’t hit things in the front. Apart from vehicles, Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist can also detect pedestrians and cyclists.

To avoid sideswipes, the Blind-spot Collision now includes Avoidance Assist. When the system detects a vehicle in the blind spot, it will give a visual warning. If the driver fails to be alerted and tries to merge into the lane, an audio notice commences. If that didn’t work, the system would tap the brakes to wake the driver up and question his life’s decisions. The automatic braking will only activate at speeds of above 60kph, so one can still cut the queue in heavy traffic.

The Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist will hit the brakes if you insist on reversing even when there’s oncoming traffic. The Elantra also has Safe Exit Warning, so you don’t open your door into traffic, and the Rear Occupant Alert reminds you of the child you’re attempting to leave behind at the back. Rounding up the SmartSense are Driver Attention Warning and Leading Vehicle Departure Alert.

Yes, the Elantra comes with the Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, a wireless phone charger and smart trunk that opens with a swinging foot under the rear bumper.

ALL IS GOOD. HOW MUCH IS IT?

We do not know, the prices are not confirmed and will only be announced at the official launch. But we can make an educated guess. The all-new Hyundai Elantra will be fully-imported from Korea, which will push the price up higher. Expect it to be more expensive than the Civic and Corolla, but hopefully not more than the Mazda3. We’ll see.