Just two years ago, things looked pretty grim for ICE-powered vehicles in the European Union. The drive to ban all gas-powered car sales—including hybrids—was forging ahead, leading manufacturers to take drastic steps to improve their EV offerings to stay relevant.
Fast-forward to today, and the future seems a lot murkier. As my colleague Matt Hardigree wrote last week, it seems like EU officials are finally beginning to realize widespread EV mandates just won’t work for a large swath of the population. Manufacturers are realizing this, too, which is why they’re walking back their aggressive EV adoption and putting gas-powered cars back in the product pipeline.
One such brand is Hyundai’s N division. The performance arm of the Korean automaker previously claimed it’d be going all-electric in Europe, before walking back those plans earlier this year. Now, rumors are festering of Hyundai resurrecting its most exciting N car—a car that I thought was dead for good.
Here’s Why This Is A Big Deal
Hyundai launched the N sub-brand in 2014, but it wasn’t until three years later that the car in question, the i30 N, entered the European market. It caught auto journalists off guard with just how good it was, a sentiment that carried itself overseas to America, where its sibling, the Veloster N, was met with great praise from everyone who drove it (including yours truly).
This success was thanks in part to Albert Biermann, a German poached by Hyundai who previously ran BMW’s M division, who took the reins at N back in 2014. He ensured engineers focused on making the cars fun to drive, rather than the best competitors on spec sheets.
The N brand received lots of positive press from the media regarding those two cars, as well as the smaller i20 N, the bigger Kona N, and the interesting-looking Elantra N. Later, it would have another hit on its hands with the Ioniq 5 N, which is still the most enjoyable electric car I’ve driven.
Back in 2023, when all of Europe thought it would transition to EV power, N made the bold move to drop its ICE-powered models indefinitely, effectively killing off the i20 N and the i30 N. From Motor1:
Hyundai Motor has decided to cease production of ICE N models for the European market during the first half of the year. This follows the brand’s commitment to offer European customers a zero-emission product range by 2035 and to be 100 percent carbon neutral in all phases of car production and operation by 2045.
For the past year or so, the only N car you could buy in Europe was the Ioniq 5 N. Everyone rationally assumed it would be EV only for the sub-brand from here on out, but head honcho for the division, Joon Park, made it clear in June that this was no longer the case. From Autocar:
“The problem that we have is that there is a perception from the media and our fans that Hyundai N is only focusing on the EV world, which is not true,” he said.
“Even though we are going to introduce the Ioniq 6 N at Goodwood Festival of Speed, we are not limiting ourselves to EVs.”
Three months later, Hyundai announced it would be expanding its N brand to sell at least eight vehicles by 2030. Hope, yet again.
I Hope The i30 N Returns, Even If We Never Get It
That hope grew five times in size today when I saw this report from Autocar claiming Hyundai would revive the i30 N for another generation. Sure, Hyundai never sold the i30 N in America, but this is still excellent news.
Having been one of the few American journalists to actually get behind the wheel of an i30 N, I maintain it’s the most enjoyable of the N cars. It was basically just a slightly better-dialed, more practical version of the Veloster N, which was already a fantastic car.
More importantly, Hyundai bringing back the i30 N would mean a renewed interest from the brand to keep the combustion-powered N cars coming, rather than letting the models in production eventually die off. It’s doubtful the i30 N would ever come to the U.S., but our market might still benefit from whatever powertrain the company develops for that car (say, for a next-gen Elantra N and Kona N).
I’m not shaming N’s electric offerings; as I mentioned before, the Ioniq 5 N is excellent. But even the best electric cars can’t appeal to buyers who don’t want them. The Ioniq is also $67,800, which is a lot of money. The Elantra N, meanwhile, is a $35,595 car. ICE vs. EV aside, affordability means a lot to people.
One interesting tidbit: According to Autocar’s source, the upcoming i30 N revival will be hybridized. That tracks, considering just how tough it is to get an ICE powertrain to pass through Europe’s already very stringent emissions laws. Whether that means it’ll lose the manual, well, I’m not sure. Manual hybrids are a thing, but they’re incredibly rare. One can only hope the N division sees the importance of rowing your own in the driving experience.
Top graphic image: Hyundai
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