Ladies and gentlemen, the eighth-gen 2027 Hyundai Elantra, or the Avante in its home market. It’s just been unveiled at the 2026 Busan Mobility Show, so let’s unpack this baby.
The new Elantra not only looks galaxies apart from the seventh-gen car that first came out in early-2020 (and launched in Malaysia that December) but looks like nothing else on four wheels we’ve ever seen. Sharp, angular bumpers, thin LED strips for lights, super-prominent front and rear haunches, folded paper-like doors that accommodate said haunches (look at how skewed the rear door handles have to be as a result!) and a sharp duck-tail boot spoiler.
That thick body-coloured C-pillar is also visually interesting, forming a distinctive triangle with the D-pillar, and the shoulder line is almost completely parallel to the ground. We don’t know why it reminds us of 2022’s N Vision 74. Perhaps its the retro-futuristic vibe and ruler styling – even more so than the China-only (for now) Ioniq V.
Inside, you’ll see a U-shaped dashboard not unlike those on recent Hyundais, a flat-bottomed steering wheel with the Ioniq-derived four-dot Morse code for the letter H, a 17-inch touch-screen with a row of physical controls below it (yay), a 9.9-inch instrument that sits above the steering wheel and a tubular armrest with an incorporated wireless phone charger – this somehow reminds us of lemang.
The car’s brains include Pleos Connect (Hyundai’s next-gen infotainment system) and Gleo AI, a generative AI agent that allows drivers to control vehicle functions and search for information via voice commands. We don’t have a rear seat shot just yet, but as the new Elantra is 55 mm longer, 30 mm wider and has a 30-mm longer wheelbase than the outgoing car, there should be more space in the back.
The big news in terms of powertrains concerns the 1.6 litre hybrid, which according to reports, could now feature two motors for a total system output in the region of 155 PS. There could also be a vehicle-to-load (V2L) function and the latest version of Hyundai’s regen braking system. Elantras haven’t really sold well in Malaysia since the circa-RM100k fifth-gen MD from a decade ago so we doubt this new one will come, but we’d be happy for Hyundai Motor Malaysia to prove us wrong.
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Nice modern design.. well done Hyundai..
On the other hand the design won’t age well..