Hyundai i20 engines & performance

The facelifted Hyundai i20 losing its mild-hybrid engines is certainly an odd move at a time when there’s a constant drive for lower emissions, but the question here is whether it matters much to the driving experience.

It’s been a while since we tried a mild-hybrid i20, but everything we said in our original 2021 road test about the electrified car still applies to the unelectrified one, so it’s safe to conclude that the difference was never very big.

The i20 is likeable enough, but I’m not sure it forges a properly memorable identity for itself. It lacks the handling vivacity of the Fiesta, and while it’s pretty comfortable, it’s certainly no Polo.

Richard Lane

Deputy road test editor

Even with some electric help, the 1.0-litre turbocharged triple doesn’t make the i20 the smoothest or most refined car in its niche, nor the most slick or drivable, nor (quite) the most frugal, nor the keenest accelerating. But it does cover all of those areas sufficiently well as to allow none to be counted as a significant weakness. It also begins to feed into a sense of balanced versatility for the i20 – of ease of operation, ampleness of performance, unobtrusive pleasantness of character and creditable efficiency – that makes it hard to seriously criticise.

The car defaults to Eco running mode with every restart. That it doesn’t remember your last selected mode is a slight annoyance, because Eco desensitises the accelerator pedal to unhelpful effect. Flick the car into Sport, though, and the engine responds more smartly and in more linear relation to pedal inputs.