Don’t rush to your local dealership all at once now, but there’s a slew of new hatchbacks on the way.
As Canadians continue to choose SUVs and crossovers over anything else, the humble hatchback – practical and affordable – is fighting for its life. At this year’s Paris Motor Show, we saw that from desperation comes innovation.
Performance
Honda recently turned to pop stars Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas to promote the upcoming Civic hatch. At the Paris Motor Show, Honda’s latest five-door Civic needed no such celebrity endorsement. The high-performance Civic Type R, with its hood scoop and ridiculous wing, will appeal to The Fast and The Furious set and anyone with Batman-on-a-budget aspirations. It stole the limelight from some more exotic machinery. Maybe this new model can also tap into some nostalgia for the legendary Type R badge which has always adorned Honda’s most high-performance machines. Prices of classic Type R models from the 1990s are skyrocketing. Collectors, at least, are still buying hatchbacks.
Unfortunately, Honda insists on calling this obviously production-ready Type R a “prototype.” It hasn’t said which motor will power its flagship hot-hatch, but if it’s going to compete against the Volkswagen Golf R and Ford Focus RS, it had better come with at least 300 horsepower. There hasn’t been a better batch of hot-hatches available to Canadians in recent memory. By virtue of simple physics, small SUVs will never be as fun to drive as these pocket rockets.
Style
The new Kia Rio can’t compete on power or performance. What it has going for it is style.
“To do a compact, like a hatch, is one of the most difficult things,” said Peter Schreyer, Hyundai-Kia’s chief designer. “We are all dealing with the same dimensions, the same rules, no matter if it’s at Kia or at any other company. You don’t have that much freedom to make something that different. It’s really quite a challenge.”
In his career, Schreyer has penned all sorts of machines, from the mid-size Audi A6 sedan to the highly influential Audi TT, to every recent Kia SUV, coupe and sedan. “For many people,” he said, “[the Rio] is the entry into Kia.” Worldwide, it’s Kia’s bestselling model. He wanted the new car to look more mature, with more presence. As a result, it’s slightly lower, longer and wider. The clean design of the Rio relies on good proportions – rather than fussy details or aggressive lines – to distinguish it from the pack.
In Canada, however, the Rio is fifth on the brand’s bestseller list. Ahead of it are three SUVs. When it arrives in Canada next year, its sales should give an indication of how much life is left in the hatchback market.
In other hatchback news: Hyundai unveiled the i30, better known as the Elantra GT in Canada, and Nissan showed off the next-generation Micra with polarizing new styling.
The Micra currently starts at $9,988. The new model looks like a proper car now, something that’s been designed, rather than a dinky toy. If Nissan can bring it to Canada while keeping the price below $10,000, it will represent incredible value. You won’t find any SUVs or crossovers that cheap because they generally command a price premium compared with similarly sized sedans and hatchbacks.
Electricity
The most radical and exciting approach to hatchbacks comes from Volkswagen. Through 42 years and seven generations, its Golf has been the standard by which all hatchbacks are judged.
In Paris, VW left all that history behind. As a result of the diesel emissions-cheating scandal, the company pivoted toward electric and hybrid powertrains. The I.D. concept is a preview of an all-electric hatchback, riding on an all-new platform, which will go on sale in 2020. It’s roughly the size of the Golf, but because electric motors are so compact, it has the cabin space of a mid-size vehicle.
When it goes on sale at the end of the decade, VW claims its electric hatchback will have 500-600 kilometres of range and cost roughly $28,000, the same as a Golf GTI.
Canadiana
Trying to pin down things that differentiate Canadians from Americans is not always easy. Our preference for hatchbacks, however, is one trait we do not share, and there are numbers to prove it.
“Historically speaking, the understanding that Canada has been more open to the idea of hatchbacks than the United States – relative to Europe – has been supported by the Volkswagen equation,” said Timothy Cain, chief sales analyst at GoodCarBadCar.
VW has sold four times as many Jetta sedans as Golf hatchbacks in the United States, Cain said. In Canada, the Golf hatch outsells the Jetta by 50 per cent. But this difference could disappear if all North American buyers continue to shun hatchbacks and sedans in favour or SUVs and crossovers.
But the hatchback isn’t going down without a fight.