Hyundai starts showing facelift Kona’s skin

With the initial report breaking two months ago, Hyundai has officially released a series of images depicting not only the facelift Kona, but also its sporty N Line offshoot.

In a short statement, the South Korean marque confirms that the now three year old Kona will get a new front skidplate and the N Line sportier bumpers with functioning side air vents. Based on the images though, the revisions go further in the shape of revised split headlights, a new front bumper and on the N Line, a gloss black mesh grille with N badging, and a new bonnet with three slits similar to that of the Audi A1.

Despite not being seen, the interior is reported to get the new 10.25-inch touchscreen display, possibly a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster on top-spec models, and a raft of revised or new safety and driver assistance systems.

Up front, the current line-up of petrol, diesel and electric powerunits will be carried over, but for the N Line, the amount of twist from the 1.6 T-GDI engine will allegedly be upped from 130 kW to 132 kW, while the fire-breathing N will have 156 kW on tap from its 2.0-litre turbo-petrol. In addition, the latter will also be the first N model to feature all-wheel-drive as well as the new eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox destined for the i30 N.

Following the unveiling of the Elantra N Line this month, and given that prototypes have already been seen testing, expect the updated Kona to premiere within the coming months, followed by the N either towards the end of this year or in early 2021.

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