Hyundai launches the new generation i20 on the Czech market. And on that occasion, he remembers the simple Getz hatchback, which was popular with Czech customers. The new i20 is said to be similarly simple, at the same time it wants to keep up with the times and offers a rich list of safety assistants.
A new, third generation i20 model has started to be sold in the Czech Republic. It attracts with its new design, larger dimensions and, above all, a rich offer of safety assistants already in the basic equipment. Manual air conditioning, car radio and alloy wheels are not standard, you have to pay extra for these items. We have a detailed overview of prices and comparisons with the competition published here.
However, the Czech representation of the brand believes that customers will not mind and will pay a little extra for these items. In terms of technology, the new i20 now ranks among the best cars in its class, surpassing the aging standard among small cars, the Škoda Fabia, with a range of assistants. The new generation of Fabia is to be introduced next year.
“The new i20 has a great chance on the Czech market, it is simple and robust, and it also has a reliable atmospheric engine. Thanks to its understandable philosophy, the new i20 is similar to the former Getz model, which was very successful in the Czech Republic.” Hyundai Martin Saitz.
The parallel with Getz is also used by Marek Trešl, product and marketing head of the Hyundai brand. According to him, Getz was able to find customers because it sold for reasonable money and was powered by simple and reliable engines. “It was not a standard in its class that would jeopardize the dominant position of the domestic Škoda Fabia. However, with the arrival of the first generation i20, it was confirmed that the Hyundai brand can build good small cars,” Trešl thinks.
According to him, with time and also with the arrival of the second generation in 2014, the i20 came much closer to the best-selling cars in the class, namely the Fabia, Renault Clio and also the Peugeot 208.
This year, 1,414 i20 cars were sold in nine months, which remains a long way behind the Fabia (12,280 cars), but they are no longer so different from the others. Renault Clio sold 2192 units in the same period, Toyota reported 1695 Yaris. Dacia sold 1498 Sandero models.
“Dealers tell us that if we had more free i20s, we would sell 2,000 cars a year,” says Trešl. Despite the growing popularity of the SUV, the small car class still holds a stable market position (17% in the Czech Republic) and is often chosen by private customers. More than half of the i20’s sales are private.
The new i20 also relies on the traditional features of these cars. It does not deviate in size and, in essence, in motorization. It is offered as a standard with a 62 kW non-supercharged petrol engine with an output of 62 kW and a five-stage manual. But it is a different engine than in the old generation of a small car. Then follow only the supercharged liter three-cylinder T-GDI, stronger with mildhybrid technology.
“The availability of electrified variants of small cars is very limited, they are completely out of price for the Czech customer, so it is fair to have a financially affordable mild hybrid, but a purely electric i20 is not planned yet,” explains Marek Trešl.
Design and technology
Hyundai believes that the new i20 could appeal to customers with its design, the car is characterized by distinctive edges, a radiator grille directly connected to the headlights and also a line connecting the rear lamps. The second attraction is to be a rich offer of assistance systems and decent equipment.
The basic model for 279,900 CZK, however, as we mentioned in the introduction, does not even have a car radio. This is one of the reasons why the second Comfort equipment level, which is 20,000 more expensive, should be the best-selling overview. For the first time in the i20, the i20 has been fitted with a 10.25-inch fully digital instrument panel on Hyundai models in the European market, with a touch screen navigation of the same size as well as wireless charging of a mobile phone. A Bose audio system is also available at an additional cost.
Standard equipment includes an anti-collision assistant, adaptive cruise control, a lane departure warning system and driver fatigue monitoring.
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