Hyundai News:Hyundai Hopes Their New Performance Division Improves Their Reputation

[William Maley]

Hyundai is hoping their new performance sub-brand will help reverse a downward trend in sales.

 

The N high-performance brand made its official debut this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show with three concepts and the announcement that production N models would begin rolling out in 2017. At first glance, Hyundai's N division has the credentials with former chief engineer of BMW's M division Albert Biermann heading the division. Biermann has said N models will be completely different from standard Hyundai models and that a development of a new engine for N is being considered.

 

“The next step is to increase the performance and to give our cars, when you drive the car, a little bit more of a driving character. We are really going for the established high-performance brands and want to compete with them,” said Biermann.

 

How could a performance brand help Hyundai out? The hope is the high-performance models will act as a draw for buyers to enter into a Hyundai showroom. The Korean automaker has seen sales slump due to them not being able to take advantage of the growing popularity of sport utility vehicles and crossovers.

 

The technology that the N division is working on will also go into future Hyundai models, providing another selling point for the brand.

 

Source: Bloomberg

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[David]

This is a smart move by them. Wish them all the best.

[aurora97]

The Genesis V8 needs to get into the Genesis Coupe as a start.

[smk4565]

"N" is a stupid name for a division, that doesn't mean anything.  At least P could have been for performance.  But performance versions of their rear drive cars is a good idea, on the front wheel drive side, there probably isn't any more power to put in a Sonata or SUV.  But they could do a V8 Genesis coupe, they under utilize that 5.0 liter V8. 

[FAPTurbo]

The 'N' designation is weak and even sounds knock-off'y of BMW's 'M.'

 

That said, I'd like to see Hyundai give their smaller cars the N treatment to match Ford's ST vehicles. It may spur other companies to follow suit. 

[Frisky Dingo]

The name 'N' is completely stupid and meaningless.

 

They don't need a performance sub-brand, they need to continue to increase their refinement levels and work on their powertrains. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure Hyundai understand what makes a good sports car. The best trim level on the Gen Coupe was an automatic V6 Track. The 2.0T is gutless and the 6MT is hamstringed with overly conservstive programming that prevents you from really wringing the car out. Then there's the Veloster. One of the worst modern cars on sale today, imo. All the drawbacks of a sports car- flinty ride, excessive noise, diminished practicality- with none of the pros. The steering is lifeless, the handling is mushy, the engine sounds agricultural, the dual clutch trans is dimwitted and slow. Just a joke of a car. Then you had the R Spec Gen sedan that felt like steering a boat rather than a car.

[cp-the-nerd]

What Frisky said. The Genesis Coupe was the only car that came close to "getting it" performance wise, despite several RWD, V8 powered vehicles in their portfolio. The Veloster was the perfect example to bring up. It looks like a hot hatch, isn't close. H/K have a long way to go in terms of chassis and powertrain development. The letter N isn't going to fix that.

[Drew Dowdell]

The 'N' designation is weak and even sounds knock-off'y of BMW's 'M.'

 

That said, I'd like to see Hyundai give their smaller cars the N treatment to match Ford's ST vehicles. It may spur other companies to follow suit.

Is no copy!

[Guest Wings4Life(BANNED)]

N????

 

WTF?

 

 

Must stand for, No thanks.

 

I kid, and of course a performance division will help. The question is, how much?