Hyundai i30 N Sport could be end of Veloster
Last week we delivered our road test verdict on the Hyundai i20 N Sport and concluded that future N models will need to arrive soon and carry more power. Well, it seems Hyundai has been listening to our prayers, the Korean car giant recently announced that it is currently in the throes of three new N-branded models.
Woong-Chul Yang, vice chairman of Namyang research and development centre gave clarity, “for N, we are working on three cars – the next i30, the small Genesis G70 and one more.”
With the Veloster rumoured to be on very thin ice its replacement could be the compact i30 N Sport hatch as a direct rival to the Golf GTi and Ford Focus ST. According to Woong-Chul Yang, the Hyundai i30 N Sport will be front-wheel drive with closer to 200kW – most likely from a tuned version of the Veloster’s 1.6-litre turbo.
Hyundai’s N-Sport tuning arm will extend to the luxury Genesis division, as was confirmed by Minsoo Kim, director of brand strategy. “Yes, we have a plan to share the N brand. We will see high-performance Genesis on the market.”
Six new genesis models are planned for launch by 2020 and chief amongst them will be the G80 (5 Series rival) and G90 (7 Series rival). N Sport would be the equivalent of the M5 but details are still vague at this point.
The Hyundai i30 N Sport could be launched in 2017 and due to its more generic hatch styling and closer WRC DNA will be a greater hit than the wacky Veloster.
