Hyundai ix35 at 2009 Frankfurt motor show

Hyundai ix35: Korea's replacement for the Tucson SUV

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

25 August 2009 12:27

Farewell Tucson, the new Hyundai ix35 is unveiled today. Due to be shown at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show, the new ix35 is the Koreans' latest crossover and will land in UK showrooms in spring 2010.

Hyundai heralds its new 'fluidic sculpture' design language; we say it looks jolly slick, and not a little unlike Ford's Kuga junior SUV.

Hyundai ix35: the new look

The styling touches of note include the hexagonal grille, which is spreading across the faces of Hyundai's rapidly refreshed model line-up. The new ix35 is claimed to have a smaller footprint than many C-segment hatches and MPVs, making it less intimidating in the urban milieus it'll inevitably inhabit.

Although no hard and fast figures are available yet, Hyundai is promising better fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions than rivals.

Expect clean figures of less than 160g/km from the new 'R' family of turbodiesels, which will appear in 2.0-litre guise on the ix35. A petrol 1.6 turbo is expected later, mixing 170bhp thrust with 140g/km frugality.

By Tim Pollard