Hyundai has given the i10 city car a facelift

So it’s a shame that new entrants in this dwindling market are now so few and far between. Put simply, they just don’t make any money for manufacturers anymore, and making them fully-electric to get around ever tightening fleet CO₂ rules just isn’t worth the hassle. The result? Small cars are available in ever smaller numbers. 

So we reckon Hyundai deserves a bit of credit for launching the i10 when it did in 2019, and a further pat on the back still, for supporting its smallest car with a mid-life facelift. 

The main cut and thrust of the updates centres around some new tech and a refreshed design, which Hyundai says injects a bit of sportier appeal into its city runaround. The front end is defined by a sportier looking, wider grille, while it gets a fresh set of 15-inch alloy wheels, too. 

However, an even racier look is applied to the i10 N-Line model, which takes inspiration from the brand’s performance cars. It’s not a full-blown N model and as such, it’s not a car to fill the gap left by the now departed Volkswagen up! GTI. Hyundai even goes so far to say it’s been “inspired by motorsport” with its red-stripe trimmed bumpers and 16-inch wheels. 

The rest of the updates around the range include a standard 4.2-inch driver information display, while the device charging and connectivity ports in the front and the rear of the car have been switched to the newer USB-C standard. 

And some driver assistance tech from some of Hyundai’s bigger cars has made it into the mix. There’s a new cyclist detection mode in the forward collision assist feature, and there’s a new rear occupant alert function, too.

Production begins in April, and you’ll start seeing the new i10 on roads late in the summer.