Hyundai’s Elantra compact sedan is about to get a big redesign of its own. Like its big sibling the Sonata, the new 2021 Elantra looks to adopt more daring styling, as seen in these teaser images from Hyundai.
The new Elantra will use a new platform, Hyundai says, and it will be longer, lower, and wider than the current model.
The outgoing car has been around since the 2017 model year and received an update for 2019. That makes for a short life cycle, showing that Hyundai is serious about competing with rivals such as the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic as each of these manufacturers try to get a bigger slice of the compact-car pie given the exit of competitors such as the Chevy Cruze and Ford Focus.
The car will make its debut March 17 via live stream.
Hyundai says the new Elantra is “returning to its sports-sedan roots,” but we’re not sure what the automaker means by that.
The six generations of the Elantra that preceded this new one have all been mainstream compact sedans and hatchbacks with few sporting intentions. This new one’s styling, though, does suggest more athleticism than before, and a sketch of its interior portends a more upscale cabin
We’re not sure what the debut of a new Elantra sedan means for the future of the Elantra GT hatchback.
That model is based on the Europe-market i30, which recently received a styling update. Our guess is that the GT will be updated with these styling tweaks for 2021 and be sold alongside this new sedan model.
