Hyundai N performance arm to go electric
Hyundai has already shown it can make attractive EVs, and practical, city-car electric vehicles, but it’s now set to take on Tesla at the sporty end of the spectrum, with the Korean company’s N performance division confirming it will go electric.
Anyone who’s driven the Hyundai i30 N – crafted with great care by Hyundai N chief Albert Biermann, who previously plied his trade at BMW’s M division – will tell you this is a very exciting prospect indeed.
READ MORE: First electric Hyundai N coming soon!
It was Biermann, according to The Korean Car Blog, who confirmed his performance skunkworks was working on a full electric N car.
“Hyundai Motor Group’s electric vehicle platform E-GMP has tremendous potential,” Biermann said, speaking at the launch of the i30 sedan N in South Korea.
“The first electrified N model will be based on E-GMP.”
The platform he’s referring to is Hyundai’s EV skateboard-style chassis, which will sit under a range of different electric vehicles, including the very attractive Ioniq 5, as the company really starts to build its Ioniq brand.
The Ioniq 5 shares its electrical architecture with the EV6 from sister brand Kia. Currently Kia is winning the performance wars with the EV6 GT, which has 430kW and 740Nm for a 0-100km/h time of 3.5 seconds.
It makes sense for Hyundai to fight back and utilise the engineering work that’s clearly already been done within the Hyundai Group to create an N EV.
“It will be very exciting to run the Nurburgring with an E-GMP EV that has undergone a specialised development process for N,” Biermann, who is a little bit obsessed with the Nurburgring, added.
“I am looking forward to the day when many N brand fans will be shown the new cornering evil.
“In certain corners, E-GMP N may overwhelm high-performance cars with internal combustion engines.”
What Biermann seems to be excited about is the prospect of creating an N car with a low, low centre of gravity, thanks to the EV asset of keeping all the batteries, and most of the weight, below the floor of a car.
Keep your eye out on the internet for people making com-gens of what an N Performance Hyundai EV might look like. It should be wild.
