After the unveiling of the second-generation Hyundai Veloster at the Detroit motor show this week, the South Korean company believes it will continue to appeal to a predominantly female audience that puts a big emphasis on design whilst adding incremental sales volume to the i30 that it complements.
Speaking with CarAdvice at the Detroit motor show this week, Hyundai Australia’s general manager of public communications, Bill Thomas, said the new Veloster has carried over its similarly unique styling to a new generation that should appeal to existing owners.
“It has that Veloster character to it and there is a lot of interest in some of those shapes, specially on the side of the car,” Thomas said.
As for the market demographic that has bought the previous-generation and why?
“There is quite a high percentage of female buyers. I think the design is a key element in it, people that don’t necessarily need all the practicality of a hatch but would require the occasional passenger.”
Nonetheless, the new Veloster is likely to appeal to an even wider audience that seeks a differentiator from the horde of small hatches in market.
“It’s a broad spectrum of owners, there is not one particular buyer type that stands out, you have older and younger men and women buy it and I think design and the ability to stand out from the crowd is a key factor.”
Whilst it may be entirely based on the i30 platform and share a great deal of it five-door siblings engineering and underpinnings, Thomas says it doesn’t cannibalise its sales.
“[It’s’ incremental volume over the i30, it held its sales level quite well considering it’s a coupe. Mostly, traditional sales graph on a coupe spikes very high at the beginning then dives away [but not for Veloster]. It’s a car that when we market it, it sells better, it’s an impressive car in that way.”
The second-generation Hyundai Veloster is expected in local showrooms in the third quarter of this year, likely as a 2019 model. The performance version, known as the Veloster N (pictured above in blue), is under consideration for our market.
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