While a specific roadmap for Hyundai?s upcoming high-performance N Division remains a closely guarded secret, especially as it pertains to the U.S. market, our first look at the 2018 Hyundai Kona crossover in South Korea also gave us the opportunity to receive a few more lines of information on the project, and to read between them.
Firstly, the hatchback sold as the i30 in Europe and Korea, which is essentially our 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT, will be the first N-branded model when it debuts at the Frankfurt auto show in September. This, we knew before. However, Albert Biermann, N-Division boss and overall head of Hyundai?s vehicle testing and high-performance development, confirmed for us that that car will not see American soil, saying only that the U.S. will get its own model sometime next year, and that it may be an even wilder creation.
?We promise you will be happy (with it),? he told a gaggle of international journalists.
From that we can only assume he?s referencing the Hyundai Veloster, seeing that the funky three-door hatch is due for a redesign on the i30/Elantra?s front-wheel-drive platform, and we?ve already spied it testing in camouflaged N getup. Although Biermann stonewalled us on any further questions regarding such a vehicle, its similarities with the i30 make it a sensible and tantalizing move.
From what we know about the i30 N, a Volkswagen GTI-hunting Veloster would be propelled by a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four making about 250 horsepower in base ...