HYUNDAI has taken the wraps off its new i30 hatchback describing it as the new people's car.

Designed, built and tested in Europe, the third generation i30 will be on sale in Britain next spring.

It will make its public debut at the Paris Motor Show later this month.

Speaking at the reveal of the new model at Hyundai's European headquarters in Frankfurt the Korean car maker's chief designer Peter Schreyer described the new i30 as a car which combined practicality with excitement.

The i30's sleek design includes a new look front which will become a feature of all Hyundais in the future.

A larger grille with a more upright stance and sculpted body lines flowing into the side panels are standout characteristics.

A new 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine will be joining the line up and with an output of 140ps it delivers healthy performance statistics of 0 to 60 in less than nine seconds.

The new engine will sit alongside a 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit developing 120ps while diesels - which will be as economical as 84mpg with emissions as low as 89g/km - will use Hyundai's current 1.6-litre engine in the states of tune developing between 95 and 136ps.

As well as six speed manual transmission the latest i30 will be available with Hyundai's new seven-speed DCT semi-automatic box.

Onboard connectivity includes Apple CarPlay as well as Android Auto and the dash is centred on an eight-inch high definition touchscreen display.

"We thought about the people who would drive it," said Mr Schreyer, adding that connectivity for all the family now had to be a major factor in car design.

Wireless phone charging will also be available and the new i30 has a full suite of automated driving features such as autonomous emergency braking, pedestrian detection, automatic cruise control, lane departure warnings and a driver fatigue monitor.

The car sits on a new chassis and is said to be some 10 per cent lighter than the current i30 but 20 per cent more rigid - a feature which will improve handling as well as making it more sturdy.

Changes have also been made to the steering and the suspension and the car has been honed over more than 5,000 miles around Hyundai's test facility at the Nurburgring in Germany where it has completed more than 480 laps of fine tuning.

Inside, the trim and finish has been refined and the dashboard smartened up with fewer controls. Overall dimensions inside and out are similar to the current model although the new version is slightly larger.

Boot space is also up a fraction to 395 litres, extending to 1,309 litres with the rear seats folded.

Like its predecessors the new i30 will be built at Hyundai's European factory in the Czech Republic where it has been produced since 2007 notching up more than 800,000 sales, more than 110,000 of which have been in Britain making it Hyundai's second most popular model after the i10 city car - itself due to be shown at Paris in a new guise.

Initially the new i30 will be available as a five door family sized hatch to rival the likes of the Ford Focus and the Vauxhall Astra but Hyundai is already hinting that the range will be extended to include more variants such as a sporty coupe, an estate and a medium-sized MPV cum SUV crossover.