Hyundai N division won't axe ICE cars; will get hybrid tech

Park also admitted that the team at Hyundai N were concerned about the weight of hybrids. He pointed out the new BMW M5 as an example.

Hyundai N, the performance division of the carmaker, is fully committed to ICE cars in the future and is working on hybrid-powered models as successors to their highly popular i20 N and i30 N.

After both the models were discontinued in the UK and Europe, it was believed that Hyundai’s performance division had made the switch to full-electric, focusing on the fantastic Ioniq 5 N and the upcoming Ioniq 6 N.

However, vice president and co-founder of the N division, Joonwoo Park, said that the N brand’s legacy was of building fun-yet-affordable ICE cars as its “backbone”. He said, “It’s not true that we’re moving to an EV performance brand,” Park explained. “We have a great legacy with i20 N and i30 N – we’re not stopping there. And he added: “There [likely] won’t be hybrid models from competitors in the future… building that sort of car could give us an advantage.”

Shedding more light on what kind of hybrid tech could be expected, an executive expert at Hyundai Motor Europe and one of the brand’s chief test drivers, Alex Eichler, said, “At this stage, we’re only in the pre-development of hybrid systems. When we do simulations, it’s interesting to see how lap times change whenever you tweak certain parameters.”

As to what hybrid model could be expected, Eichler hinted, “There could be a car like the i20 N coming in the future,” he suggested. “At least, I hope so!”

Park also admitted that the team at Hyundai N were concerned about the weight of hybrids. He pointed out the new BMW M5 as an example. “There are pros and cons and trade-offs, such as weight,” Park said. “It’s how we deal with those trade-offs, so our customers can still drive a fun car.”

The new i20 N hybrid, along with the i30 N replacement, could be built on an all-new platform that underpins the Ioniq 5 N and upcoming Ioniq 3. However, an N-powered hybrid is still some time away. Eichler mentioned that hybrid powertrains are still in the pre-development stage, while the company hinted that we won’t see something before the end of 2027 at the earliest.

Source: Auto Express