The yin and the yang

With newcomers as diverse as a screechy-tyred hot hatch and an EV that looks like a concept car, Hyundai has declared war on dull

‘When you get to a fork in the road, take it.’ With that saying (attributed to baseball’s own Yoda, Yogi Berra) in mind, the high points of Hyundai’s 2021 product plan divide into two opposite, but equally stirring, paths: an all-electric hatchback with styling beamed straight from a concept car, and a boisterous hot hatch with peak petrolhead appeal.

The hot hatch is the i20N, the second car from the company’s N performance division. From a standing start, N has become a respected hot hatch sub-brand, thanks to the outstanding efforts of the larger-thanlife and unexpectedly brilliant i30N. Now it’s the turn of the smaller i20 hatch to get a bespoke N model.

‘This is a 100 per cent an N car,’ Hyundai’s high performance vehicle development director Klaus Köster tells CAR. ‘Even if you were wearing a blindfold, you’ll know you’re in an N car from the off.’ A new 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine packs 201bhp and 203lb ft (spread broadly for midrange urge) helped by high-pressure direct injection. ‘This is the first application of this engine – it’s very new,’ says Köster.

With a kerbweight of only 1190kg, the i20N is ‘a benchmark for lightness’, says Köster, adding: ‘Really that’s thanks to the guys who developed the i20 base car – they did a great job.’ Where N has made gains is in suspension tuning and stiffness: ‘We have a new front axle, and we’ve invested a lot of effort in making the rear axle stiffer.’ Unlike the bigger, pricier i30N, the i20N won’t have adaptive dampers so it has a one-sizefits-all suspension tune. ‘Comfort was not our first priority, but you can drive it on a daily basis and over long distances,’ Köster promises.

As per all N products, more than 6000 miles of development took place on the Nürburgring. ‘It’s like a magnifying glass. Problems that are

not so obvious on the road or on a proving ground stand out like black and white on the Nordschleife,’ he says. ‘The roads around the circuit are important too for tuning the suspension on uneven surfaces – we are always pleased if they don’t get repaired!’

To that end, he promises the i20N is a trustworthy car on the limit and that, like the i30N, it’ll be fun to drive for everyone, not just expert hands. ‘We could have made the car faster – but then it’s not the car for our customers. We don’t just want to make well-trained racing drivers and journalists happy!’ Although primarily a road car, Köster is confident it won’t feel out of its depth on a trackday.

Like the i30N, there’s a plethora of switchable driving modes via the steering wheel, noisy/slightly quieter valve control for the exhaust and rev-matching for the six-speed manual H-pattern gearbox. ‘As long as we have hot hatches with internal combustion engines, we’ll offer a manual,’ Köster says. A limited-slip differential is, strictly speaking, an option. ‘But in my opinion it will be on 99 per cent of cars. The people who don’t have it will be the people who simply forgot to tick that box.’

Sounds like Ford’s Fiesta ST – until now the undisputed small hot hatch champion of the world – might just have a fight on its hands.

And the other side of the coin? An all-new, all-electric hatchback, the Ioniq 5. It’s so called because the Ioniq name will umbrella Hyundai’s future EV range, with numbers to differentiate them (like VW’s ID series). The bodywork follows the lead of 2019’s angular, and arresting, 45 Concept (pictured). Beneath is Hyundai and Kia’s new E-GMP chassis (for Electric-Global Modular Platform), the architecture to underpin its upcoming EV family. Aside from fast-charging capability, a feather in E-GMP’s cap is Vehicle-to-Load (V2L – expect to hear a lot more of that acronym buzz-term in coming months) bi-directional charging to feed electricity back into users’ homes, or the grid, when required. A slinky Kia coupe sister car will launch this year too.

‘We could have made the i20N faster, but we want it to be fun for everyone; it’s not a car only trained racing drivers can enjoy’

KLAUS KÖSTER, N DIVISION