Facelifted supermini swims against the tide by ditching mild-hybrid power
ILLYA VERPRAET
TESTED 9.1.24, KENT ON SALE NOW
Yes, it does appear to be petrol-powered supermini week here at Autocar. We spend quite a lot of our time driving and reviewing EVs and SUVs, because that’s where the industry is going (or being pushed), and wishing new cars were a bit lighter and simpler. It’s therefore quite nice to be reminded that there’s still a decent choice of sensible small cars that don’t cost the earth.
Mind you, the roughly £20,000 that all of them seem to cost still feels like quite a lot of money and this refreshed Hyundai i20 certainly isn’t the cheapest. It starts at £20,770 for an entry-level Advance and tops out at £26,720 for an Ultimate with an automatic gearbox and all the options.
Visually, the facelifted i20 gets revised bumpers front and rear, some new 16in and 17in alloy wheel styles and a few new exterior and interior colours. The i20 is nowhere near as bold as Hyundai’s new Kona or the Ioniq 5 and 6, but it’s still a good-looking small car.
One slightly odd change is the loss of the mild-hybrid engines and their novel electrically operated clutch. The only engine option now is the 99bhp 1.0-litre turbo triple, with either a normal six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual-clutch auto. Hyundai still makes the mild hybrid but has simply stopped offering it in the UK. Hyundai’s spokesperson didn’t get back to us to explain why, but given the i20 is already quite expensive compared with rivals, it’s probably a way of keeping the list price under control. It’s unclear whether the excellent i20 N is going to return in facelifted form too.
Does it matter on the road? It’s been a while since I drove a mild-hybrid i20 but the difference certainly isn’t night and day. The 1.0-litre is relatively noisy and turbo lag makes the i20 feel quite lethargic if you don’t use plenty of revs. You might imagine that the starter-generator would have helped with that, but we said much the same thing of the mild-hybrid versions.
It’s a good thing, then, that the engine sounds appealingly thrummy when you extend it and the manual ’box snaps delightfully between gears. On-paper economy is only a couple MPG below the old mild hybrid, and in our testing it seemed to settle in the mid-40s.
The suspension is a little on the firm side withou
