Hyundai: not lacking in ambition
Performance cars, EVs, design to shame BMW… On every front Hyundai is on the o ensive, and thinking big.
While Hyundai quietly churns out dependable cars for the masses, it’s what’s bubbling just beneath the surface that’s of real interest. Not content with shifting big numbers – in 2019 it out-sold Citroën, Peugeot, Skoda and Seat in the UK – it’s now targeting a holy trinity to get enthusiasts interested: bold design, ambitious investment in next-gen tech, and a performance-car wing with its sights set on BMW’s M division…
N: THE NEW M DIVISION
Prior to 2013, the letter N meant nothing. Now, thanks to success in World Rally – Hyundai holds the manufacturers’ crown – and TCR customer racing programmes, not to mention the lauded i30 N hot hatch, N has become a respected Hyundai satellite.
Now, under former BMW M boss Albert Biermann, the N portfolio is looking to expand. Biermann’s efforts have been boosted by another Munich veteran, Thomas Schemera, who since 2018 has been Hyundai’s head of high-performance cars and is now also boss of product strategy. The i20 N is already confirmed, and N versions of the Kona and Tucson have been spotted lapping the Nürburgring.
The i20 N will need to be superb – it faces some fierce competition, not least from the Ford Fiesta ST. ‘The i20 N is related to our WRC car – it will be the best in segment,’ Schemera boldly tells CAR. ‘It is always our target. You see, our way of business is not to copy and paste, because we don’t think that all of our competitors are doing things right. We go our own way,’ he adds.
Along with more conventional models getting the N treatment, Schemera is aware that the brand needs a show-stopper to bridge the gap between the road cars and its motorsport activities. The RM19 is both that bridge and a preview of things to come. Ocially, it’s a test bed for Hyundai’s performance-car expertise, and elements of it will be distilled into future production cars. But there’s more to it ⊲
‘The i20 N is related to our WRC car – it will be the best in its class’ Thomas Schemera
‘The ’30s were optimistic, so why not be inspired by that period?’ SangYup Lee ‘From the ix35 system to the Nexo we halved the cost of development’ Dr Sae-Hoon Kim
than that. Schemera hints that an N halo car ‘may be Veloster-based’, with ‘either a combustion engine or battery power’.
‘The future of N for sure in the long run is electrification,’ he adds. ‘Without it, you cannot survive – that is a matter of fact. But to what extent that’s true hasn’t been decided yet. If we apply a technology which is costly now, then we compromise some of the affordability expected by our customers. But with our architectures we can be flexible, according to market needs. I wouldn’t say we would necessarily have to go full electric, no. We are now coming up with modular vehicles that could be plug-in hybrid, electric or range-extender.’
Sound familiar? BMW’s future-proofing strategy is very similar – another comparison that proves just how far Hyundai has come, and how ambitious it remains.
THE EX BENTLEY MAN BRINGING THE BEAUTY
The Prophecy and 45 concepts are both so pretty they make the idea of an all-electric future infinitely more palatable. But while both are easy on the eye, they couldn’t be more different: the Prophecy with its smooth, organic silhouette; the 45 with its Blade Runner lines, creases and stark surfaces.
SangYup Lee, head of Hyundai’s design centre and the man who penned the Bentley Bentayga, says: ‘The Prophecy and 45 show what we can do with an electric platform. They might be very different but they have timeless design in common. And there is production-intended design on both of these cars.’
And Lee means it; we’ve already spotted test mules of a production-spec 45 out in the wild, designed to rival the Honda E and Mini Electric.
While the 45 harks back to the ’70s Pony Coupe in its proportions, the futuristic Prophecy draws inspiration from an older chapter in history. ‘Instead of just creating a very typical fourdoor saloon, I wanted to create something unique. For me, the ’30s era of streamlined design was an optimistic age, so why not make something inspired by that period?’
The Prophecy is also evidence of Hyundai’s discreet approach to technology. ‘Technology has been viewed as upscale and sophisticated in the past, so you’d want to display it,’ explains Lee. ‘But this perception has now been completely reversed. Now, we prioritise which technology should be presented at all times, while hiding functions that are not used every day.’
SERIOUS INVESTMENT IN FUTURE TECH
The 45 and Prophecy will be battery-electric, but Hyundai is also a passionate supporter of hydrogen fuel cells. Dr Sae-Hoon Kim, VP and head of fuel cells, says: ‘We have always seen fuel cells as the ultimate future technology and, while other companies say that fuel-cell technology is for the far future, we don’t think like that.’
Hyundai is part of the Hydrogen Council (a group of car makers, fuel companies and infrastructure businesses) established to help accelerate fuel-cell development. It is also one of only three manufacturers to have put a fuel-cell production car on sale, and it recently put aside $6.7bn to help fund a ramping-up of fuel-cell production by 2030. ‘Our vision is to have produced half a million fuel-cell cars by then, and that will obviously not be through one model,’ says Kim.
The biggest challenge for Hyundai is making fuel cells profitable. Huge investment and modest sales are not good business, but Kim is confident progress is being made: ‘From our ix35 system to the Nexo we halved the cost of development, and for the next generation we are working on halving that cost again.’
If costs are coming down, is a high-performance fuel-cell Hyundai a possibility? The RM19 (right) might be the perfect starting point for the fuel-cell and performance arms to work together on a truly game-changing Hyundai.
Mid-engined, rear-drive, wild looking and blessed with extreme performance – the RM19, a radical concept racer living a double life, is all of these things. Ask anyone at Hyundai and they’ll call it a development car, but it’s also our first look at a top-shelf halo model for N division. It’s currently powered by a TCR-spec 2.0-litre turbo four making 385bhp, for a 0-62mph time under four seconds and a handy 155mph top speed.
Tech from the motorsport division is already trickling down to Hyundai’s more pedestrian models. The latest dual-clutch auto in the new i20, for instance, draws on motorsport experience. ‘It shows that motorsport developments are necessary for our high-performance segment but also for normal production cars,’ says Schemera. But however advanced the tech, Schemera is well aware that the production version of the RM19 – expected in 2021 – needs to be cautiously priced. ‘It’s clear we cannot compare our brand values to BMW just yet. If we were to sell it at a high price, it may be di cult to sell it as a Hyundai.’
The brand is also exploring hybrid, BEV and FCEV powertrain options via the RM19 for future halo cars.
‘The three electrification technologies have very di erent characteristics. Battery-electric cars have relatively high power, fuel cells are good for long-range driving and supercapacitors have small but very explosive power,’ explains Dr Kim. ‘We should combine these in a performance car for the future.’