Hyundai has unveiled its large van, but despite the H350 going on sale in major European markets early next year, it’s likely to be late 2016 before right hand drive production is established and the vehicle arrives in the UK.
The 3.5t rear-wheel drive van has been developed specifically for Europe, and will come in panel van, passenger bus and chassis cab derivatives, all with a choice of 150hp or 170hp 2.5-litre diesel engines.
The Korean firm, which is already present in the medium van market with the iLoad model, claims five Euro pallets will fit in the 12.9 cubic metre load area and is also claiming best-in-class road and wind noise levels and value for money, along with “high levels of comfort and refinement based on our experience of passenger cars,” according to Hyundai Motor Europe boss Alan Rushforth. Comfort features including keyless entry, auto wipers and cruise control will all be available, along with safety kit including lane departure warning and hill start assist.
A spokesman for Hyundai UK said the delay in the H350’s UK arrival is due to the business case of converting to right hand drive, but said it would give the firm a chance to assess how to take it to market. “It’s quite a specialist vehicle, and we will need to do work around how it is sold,” he told BusinessCar, though confirming that it would be likely to go through the company’s network of business centres that are likely to have increased in number from the current 20 by the time the H350 arrives.
The iLoad and its i800 11-seat passenger sibling are also back on Hyundai’s price lists after they were withdrawn earlier this year to help deal with the backlog of orders. According to Hyundai, lead times are now under control and will return to normal levels by the end of this year. “We didn’t want to alienate customers by taking orders so we decided to pull it on a temporary basis,” said the spokesman. “We had a lot of demand for i800 around the Olympics and had a backlog since then.”