Hyundai N boss Albert Biermann knows what it takes to build a range of performance cars. He did for years as the main man over at BMW’s M Division. But now that he’s switched from the M to the N, Biermann has taken great lengths to criticize his former employer every chance he gets. This time, Biermann didn’t mince his words, saying that BMW has resorted to slapping the M badge on every model it sees. Shots fired, again.

Maybe Albert Biermann has an ax to grind against BMW. It’s unclear what that is, but his rhetoric against his former employer in last few months has followed a familiar script. The current boss of Hyundai’s N division has taken every opportunity to throw shots against BMW M. At one point, he even accused BMW M of changing the meaning of “M” from “motorsport” to “marketing.”

“It’s all marketing, first of all,” Biermann told Drive last September. “How many people really buy it later on? Much of this exists for media, to give a hype, to show the technology level. But how many people really buy it later on?”

Now, he’s accusing BMW M of being a little too over-eager on adding models to its lineup. In a conversation with Top Gear, Biermann once again went straight for the jugular. “My degree of freedom here is much bigger than at BMW,” he said. “Now M badges go everywhere in the BMW range, but when I was there, I had to fight like crazy for every car. Here I am more than welcome to do whatever I think we need to do.”

According to Biermann, part of that freedom includes being allowed to decide on how to expand the N lineup beyond the i30N and Veloster N. The high-performance division is already working on an i30 N Fastback and a similar performance-oriented crossover — presumably the Kona N — could also be in the mix at some point in the future. Biermann even hinted that the brand could one day develop its own stand-alone sports car that isn’t based on an existing Hyundai model.

Whether that model ends up coming to life is another matter entirely, but it’s clear that Biermann has the green light from his own bosses to be aggressive in expanding Hyundai’s N division. Ironically, a big part of the N chief’s strategy has involved poaching BMW M execs and bringing them in as part of Hyundai N. Most recently, Biermann tapped 31-year BMW lifer Thomas Schemera to head Hyundai N’s High-Performance Vehicle & Motorsport Division.

Clearly, there’s no love lost in this relationship.

References

Read our full review on the 2018 Hyundai i30 N.

Read our full speculative review on the 2019 Hyundai i30 N Fastback.

Read our full review on the 2019 Hyundai Veloster N.

Read more Hyundai news.