Toronto 2017: Hyundai Will Introduce All-New 2018 Accent Where It Counts

The first complete sighting of the new, fifth-generation, 2018 Hyundai Accent will take place next week at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, Canada.

While not exactly Geneva, Tokyo, Shanghai, New York, or Detroit, Toronto is the biggest city in a market where the Accent has historically dominated the subcompact segment.

But it wasn’t easy for Hyundai Canada to land the global reveal.

“In order to secure the debut, our global headquarters took an R&D development mule and made it auto show ready,” says Chad Heard, Hyundai Canada’s senior public relations manager told TTAC earlier today. “That took a couple of weeks and the car landed (eye-wateringly) early this morning in Toronto.”

It’s not difficult to decipher from Hyundai’s teaser video that the new Accent will be every inch a mini-Elantra. The pronounced “cascading” grille and a chunky character line that cuts across the doors just above the door handles are joined to a chip-off-the-old-block silhouette to make the Accent’s familiar resemblance unmistakable.

In the U.S., Accent sales reached record levels in 2016 despite a move away from cars in general and a 3-percent drop in overall market subcompact volume. The Accent plays second fiddle to the Nissan Versa in the United States.

In Canada, where this new Accent debut will occur one week from now on Thursday, February 16, the Accent outsold its two nearest rivals combined in 2016. While subcompact volume slid 13 percent, Accent volume fell just 1 percent, year-over-year.

Yet Hyundai Canada has enjoyed even greater Accent success in the past. Sales in 2016 fell to a three-year low and were down 35 percent compared with the heights achieved in 2008.

The remedy: an all-new design.

Whither the hatchback? Upon its debut six years ago, the fourth-gen Accent was first shown in sedan guise only. Hyundai revealed the hatchback shortly thereafter, in Montreal, which is in Quebec, which is in Canada.

Hyundai’s Chad Heard offered no timeline for the fifth-gen Accent hatchback’s arrival, but did confirm, “There will be a 5-door.”

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.