Grand i10 Nios and Aura under the knife
Hyundai is performing a facelift on not one, but two versions of the i10. The renewed compact duo has everything and nothing to do with the Hyundai i10 that you currently find at Dutch dealers. What’s up with that? For the connoisseur, we lift the renewed Hyundai Grand i10 Nios and Aura to the podium.
One car is not the other and the Hyundai i10 that you can buy in the Netherlands is not equal to its Indian brother. Even before Hyundai presented the current generation i10 for the European market, it pulled the curtain on the Grand i10 Nios in India (photo 2). That Hyundai Grand i10 Nios secretly already gave away quite a few details of the final i10 that would come to the Netherlands. Just like the predecessor Grand i10 – indeed, without Nios – that Grand i10 Nios shared quite a bit with our i10. The Grand i10 Nios is now several years old and it is time for a facelift. Hyundai immediately takes care of the here also unknown sedan cousin of the i10: the Aura.
Hyundai Grand i10 Nios: now with taillights tied together.
The Hyundai Grand i10 Nios looks quite similar from a distance to the i10 that populates the Dutch showrooms, but it is really different. Although the technical basis is more or less the same, the Grand i10 Nios is a size bigger. For example, the wheelbase of the Indian Grand i10 Nios, at 2.45 meters, is 2 centimeters larger than that of the model known here. At 3.81 meters, the total carriage is even 14 centimeters longer than the international version of the i10. The Grand i10 Nios – which is also sold in countries such as Vietnam, Mexico and South Africa – has always had a different front from the more famous i10. For example, the Grand i10 Nios got a grille without concave lines and Hyundai did not install LED daytime running lights housed in a circle. The Hyundai Grand i10 Nios did get hook-shaped LEDs on either side of its grille.
Rollback
With the facelift, those stubborn LED hooks disappear. Hyundai gives the Grand i10 Nios a completely new front bumper, of which roughly 80 percent consists of partially closed black mesh. The body-coloured inserts now feature Y-shaped LED daytime running lights. There is also news at the rear. The taillights are in fact tied together by a ledalk that optically continues into the new signature of the actual taillights. We have already seen something similar with the updated HB20 intended for the South American market. In the center of the tailgate we see a large Hyundai logo with ‘Nios’ written out in large underneath. Inside, the Grand i10 Nios – except for the arrival of a few colors – remains unchanged, so the interior again resembles that of the Hyundai i10 that is in the Dutch showrooms.
Hyundai Aura
Hyundai i10: also as a sedan!
In the form of the Aura – or Grand i10 Sedan – Hyundai even sells a sedan version of the Grand i10 Nios. That too is now being tightened. It is not the first time that the i10 has a sedan version. For example, based on the previous generation Hyundai i10, there was a compact sedan called Xcent. Back to the Hyundai Aura. It used to have (photo 10) the same front as its hatchback brother, but now gets a more individual look, complete with a different bumper and a piece painted in body color that divides the front into several layers. On both sides of the front bumper we see L-shaped LED daytime running lights. From now on, all Hyundai Auras – with the exception of the basic version – will have a rear spoiler.
The Hyundai Aura has the same wheelbase as the Grand i10 Nios, but with a length of just under 4 meters it is considerably longer. In the trunk you can store more than 400 liters of luggage, making it a true pack mule. For comparison: the Grand i10 Nios kicks it up to 260 liters.
Do you think Hyundai should also sell the Aura in Europe? Why or why not?
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl