Breaking: An All-Electric Hyundai N Performance Model Will Happen When the Time is Right

TopSpeed

By Kirby Garlitos

Published Aug 22, 2018

It's a matter of "when" it's going to happen, not "if" it's going to happen

Hyundai’s N performance brand will eventually have an electric model within its ranks, so says the company’s engineering chief, Albert Biermann. Don’t expect it to happen anytime soon, though. For now, the N sub-brand will continue to roll out the i30 N, i30 N Fastback, and Veloster N until 2021. Only then will the company begin entertaining the thought of introducing more advanced N products, one of which, at least according to Biermann, is an electric performance model.

Timing. That’s the key ingredient here. Hyundai’s N division is still in the early stages of its life. It’s important to establish the brand’s identity, which is exactly what the company is doing these days. The Veloster N is the only model available in the U.S. when it goes on sale later this year. The i30 N and i30 N Fastback are the other two N models in the fold, but they’re only available in Europe. A fourth model, possibly an SUV, is already in the brand’s plans, as well. Very little details have come out on that front, but it is believed that a performance SUV could come from either the Kona or the Tucson.

An electric N model would be a good addition, but it’s too early to say if it fits into the brand’s current growth strategy. That’s not to say it’s not going to happen. The advances in electrification technology have blown the doors wide open on the kind of performance models that can be developed by automakers, including Hyundai’s N performance brand. “As an example, we have an Ioniq EV,” he said. “Were we to find a nice battery, a bigger motor, and an inverter, we could make an Ioniq EV N with a nice chassis and more power. Something like that is not fully crazy.”

In the meantime, the company is focusing on adding more variety to the N performance brand. Without going into detail, Biermann revealed that the high-spec division is currently working on a mysterious model that it plans to show to Hyundai executives in the near future. “There’s a car within the next two or three months that we probably have a chance to show to Vice-Chairman Chung and our top management,” Biermann said. “Depending on what is the current mood and situation, we might get a spontaneous ‘OK, go for it.’”

This new model could be anything, but it could also be a mid-engine hatchback model in the vein of the RM16 Concept that we saw back in 2016. Past reports indicated that Hyundai’s N division was interested in bringing it to production. With Biermann’s latest comments, that “interest” could have evolved into something tangible and presentable to the company’s top decision-makers.

Once Hyundai N clears the deck of its current plans, we could finally see an all-electric N model take shape. Until then, the performance brand has more pressing needs to address.

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