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Hyundai sketches out HND-9 luxury sports coupe concept ahead of Seoul

Hyundai has dropped a couple of rendered looks at its forthcoming HND-9 luxury sports coupe concept, which will debut at the 2013 Seoul Motor Show. While full details probably won't be released until then, the Korean automaker has said the butterfly-doored machine will bow with a direct-injection, turbocharged 3.3-liter V6 engine good for around 365 horsepower. The mill is bolted to an eight-speed automatic transmission and puts its grunt to the rear tires. While the doors are pure showcar theater, we dig the Aston-inspired long nose and boisterous rear haunches.
Look for the car to receive an actual introduction on March 28, and while we don't expect to see the HND-9 on showroom floors any time soon, some of the creation's design language may make it to production models. Check out the full press release below.

Hyundai swims against the current with new i20 Coupe

Coupefying hatchbacks is all the rage in the European market these days. Its what Opel and Vauxhall did with the latest Astra, and what Renault did with the Mégane, and now Hyundai is preparing to follow a similar formula, only in a smaller form.
While the i30 is the model with which Hyundai competes with the aforementioned Astra and Mégane, to say nothing of the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus, it's the smaller i20 - recently introduced in five-door form - which the Korean automaker plans to give the coupe treatment.
Previewed in the teaser image above, the upcoming new i20 Coupe will enter a somewhat shrinking market for three-door superminis. Though the VW Polo, Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 208 and Opel Corsa are still available with three portals, their forms are otherwise no more coupe-like than their five-door counterparts. (Mini has tried a similar approach with its Coupe, and Citroën has forked the C3 five-door and DS3 three-door, but those are decidedly more upscale offerings.) Alongside the Seat Ibiza, Hyundai is one of the few mainstream automakers offering three-door superminis significantly distinguished from its five-door versions.

Does this Hyundai Intrado concept preview the next Tucson?

The second generation of Hyundai's Fluidic Sculpture design language has arrived a bit early, thanks to these leaked images of the Korean automaker's Intrado Concept. Set to make its big debut at next month's Geneva Motor Show, the three-door crossover is based on a next-generation version of the hydrogen powertrain used in Europe's ix35 Fuel Cell (that'd be a hydrogen Tucson, for anyone who's wondering).
We can see some 2015 Genesis Sedan in the grille, but the sharp, narrow LED headlights are something different. The c-shaped LED taillights also look good, although we're less sure about the odd fairings around the wheel wells. Overall, it's not a terrible design in our minds, but it probably won't be the pretties vehicle to debut in Geneva.
But instead of focusing on the design, let's talk about what impact the Intrado may have on Hyundai. Aside from the hydrogen powertrain, it seems as if the Intrado's design is too conservative to be a pure concept. Instead, and as you may have guessed from our headline, we're thinking this could be a preview of the next-generation Tucson. Considering the Tucson and its cousin the ix35 are the oldest vehicles in Hyundai's lineup (not counting the Sonata, which is getting replaced at the New York show) and it's a vehicle sold worldwide, previewing its replacement on a stage as big as Geneva doesn't strike us as a bad idea.