What is Hyundai N? Past, present and future of the Korean performance brand

The phrase ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ is as popular in South Korea as it is here, but Hyundai didn't pay it much heed when it launched its high-performance N brand in 2015, shortly followed by the arrival of the i30 N hot hatch.

In just shy of a decade, N has done the seemingly impossible job of transforming the public perception of Hyundai from a maker of frumpy yet affordable cars, to a real force to be reckoned with, and a challenger to legacy performance brands from Europe.

A brief history of Hyundai N

It was 2012, and only a few years prior, Hyundai had seen some circuit success with its models via private teams in endurance racing. The company wanted to get in on the action, so an R&D team was established at the firm’s home in Namyang, South Korea, with the ultimate aim of making the official leap into motorsport and subsequently introducing a line of high-performance cars to the Hyundai line-up.

One of the key founders of N is the brand’s acting vice president, Joon Park. He told Auto Express: "Volkswagen GTI, Mercedes-AMG and similar were my teachers – I even had a Volkswagen Golf GTI and an E46 BMW M3 of my own”. He explained that, at the time, Hyundai had very little to offer enthusiasts, admitting: “There wasn’t a car from the shelf that I wanted to buy.”

Yet, despite the vast expertise available at Hyundai at the time, the Korean marque knew its performance division needed to be spearheaded by a trusted and respected figure from within the industry. With this in mind, the company recruited Albert Biermann, who had recently left a role heading up BMW’s M Performance division. 

Biermann, who already knew the potential for success of a brand named after a single consonant, immediately began laying down the founding pillars for N that are an integral part of the brand’s DNA: ‘Corner Rascal’ (fun and agile cornering), ‘Racetrack Capability’ (the ability to perform well on track with zero modifications) and ‘Everyday Sportscar’ (a balance of performance and practicality).

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One of the first people hired by Biermann for the N project was Alex Eichler who, despite his rather ambiguous title of ‘executive expert’, had long led the team responsible for the BMW M division’s intense testing regime.

While it may seem that Hyundai simply chose the nearest letter of the alphabet to the German brand's iconic M Division – in the hope of evoking similar spirit and success – the N moniker actually stands for two places: Namyang and the Nürburgring – the two key locations where the performance brand’s cars are developed.

The general design of N cars is typically drawn up in Korea, but the firm’s Nürburgring outfit makes use of the wealth of performance car expertise in Germany and offers the ideal proving ground for each new entry into the line-up.

“The Nürburgring is like a magnifying glass,” Eichler told us. “On a normal track, it might take you an hour or so to spot a deficiency, on the Nordschliefe you’ll find it in 30 seconds.”

Despite its access to arguably the most gruelling racetrack in the world, the team at N actively chose to avoid chasing lap records when developing the i30 N, as well as future models in the N range; “We’re not here to get the fastest lap time, what we want is ultimate driver fun,” Eichler said.

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When the i30 N landed back in 2016, it’s fair to say that it arrived as something of a wake-up call for legacy performance brands. Tyrone Johnson, managing director at Hyundai’s European Technical Centre, previously spent 30 years working at Ford and he explained that, as the new kid on the block, Hyundai N is in a unique position.

“Traditional brands have a lot of baggage,” he said. “Being a newer brand, you’re not tied to tradition. You don’t know what you don’t know, so if you have an idea, you’ll give it a try.”

One of the key differentiators of N models are the features, sometimes disregarded as gimmicks, that are intended to make the car more fun to drive. “From me, personally, my team have the complete freedom and encouragement to just try [things]!” Johnson laughed. “But of course, everything has to be buildable on the line.”

The follow-up to the i30 N was its smaller sibling, the i20 N, which according to Eichler is the purest representation of what the N brand stands for. “The most radical car we’ve made is definitely the i20 N,” Eichler said. “It’s the most focused on being a ‘Corner Rascal’ and is the lowest when it comes to ride comfort.”

Perhaps one of the main reasons why the i20 N is so involving to drive is that it shares much with Hyundai’s World Rally championship-winning car of the time. For example, both the roadgoing model and the rally machine have a kerb weight of 1,190kg, plus the engineers at N engineered burbles, pops and bangs into the road car’s exhaust to mimic the sound of the motorsport variant.

“There could be a car like the i20 N again. At least, I hope so,” Eichler hinted.

N’s transition to electric

Since the arrival of the i20 and i30 N, several models have entered the fray, including the (now discontinued) Kona N SUV, as well as the Veloster N coupé-hatch and Elantra N saloon – both of which are offered only in overseas markets at present.

However, the launch of N’s first EV – the Ioniq 5 N – brought much acclaim, with the all-electric model even going on to be awarded the prestigious Auto Express Performance Car of the Year title in 2024.

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Johnson explained the reasoning behind the firm’s focus on EVs. “There are a lot of people in this company that would like to continue with the pre-existing ICE recipe, but the companies that stand still effectively go backwards,” he said.

And Eichler admitted: “The powertrain of our cars isn’t what gives them a unique standing, it’s the driveability. The power needs to be there, but what defines an N car is the handling.”

Park insisted that, to boost driver engagement, N’s first electric car needed to provide a sound, the sensation of a gearshift and, given the Ioniq 5’s dual-motor layout, a drift mode, too.

“I was not originally fond of EVs – I love the smell of fuel, the sound of exhausts and the feeling of oil on my fingers,” Park told us. “Fast EVs initially disappointed me and I talked to Mr Biermann and said we need to make electric vehicle performance fun.”

It’s easy to think of the 5 N’s ‘e-Shift’ mode as yet another gimmick, as it essentially reduces performance and is totally augmented. However, there is method to the madness. For starters, across a Nürburgring lap time, the difference between e-Shift being on or off is only about three seconds. More importantly, though, the team at N explained how the sound and sensations generally give the driver a more tactile reaction from the car, enabling them to better gauge its speed and rotation.

Further bolstering the Ioniq 5’s performance credentials are its two race track modes, Sprint and Endurance, the latter enabling it to complete two full laps of the Nürburgring at full speed – something it claims no other EV can do. This was proven to us by Eichler, who took us out on the circuit and introduced a slightly queasy passenger to a whole new meaning of the Nordschliefe's ‘Green Hell’ reputation.

Furthermore, despite the Ioniq 5 N’s ‘Ignition’ sound mode replicating that of the exhaust note of an i30 N, Johnson reiterated: “The intention was not simply to copy an ICE car. We just looked at the elements that make it fun – the sound, vibrations etc.”

Is Hyundai N EV-only now?

Hyundai N’s next model looks set to build on the success and learning of the Ioniq 5 N, with the as-yet unannounced Ioniq 6 N due to be even more of a driver’s car than its hatchback/SUV sibling.

Throughout our visit to the Nürburgring test centre, we saw several Ioniq 6 N models out and about in camouflage, each featuring a huge swan-necked rear wing, reminiscent of the Porsche 911 GT3 and Hyundai’s own RN22e concept car. And while we don’t expect a revolution in terms of performance, Eichler explained that the firm’s next model features “controls that are reworked from the Ioniq 5 N, plus the [choice of] different body shapes, giving us clear opportunities. It fits much better for a sporty car”.

Nevertheless, with the discontinuation of the i20 N and i30 N in Europe, many people have concluded that the brand is going all-electric, because after the Ioniq 6 N is revealed later this year, the follow-up is likely to be a hot version of the upcoming Ioniq 3 crossover.

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But Park declared: “It’s not true that we’re moving to an EV performance brand. We have a great legacy with i20 N and i30 N, and we’re not stopping. It's our backbone.

“If we want to commit to Euro 7, hybrid is the only way. There are trade-offs, such as weight, and it’s how we deal with those trade-offs so our customers can still drive a fun car.”

Yet the development of EVs doesn’t stop at the Ioniq 6 N, with Park confirming that the brand is looking to bring the E-handbrake, first seen in the RN24 prototype, to production cars. This uses the regenerative braking system to simulate the effect of a hydraulic manual handbrake.

“What we need is new software. It’s not a hardware problem, but you will need the stick,” Park explained. “It just requires tons of effort and tests to make it precise. You also have to make sure a middle-school student doesn’t pull on it when you’re going at high speeds!”

With hydrogen power also on the cards, thanks to the sleek-looking N Vision 74 concept, it appears that Hyundai’s reputation for bold experimentation  is set to continue as the car industry transitions towards a more sustainable future. 

Given what we've seen so far, along with the N brand's impressively fast rise to prominence among performance car enthusiasts, it's clear that Hyundai is doing plenty of things right. 

The philosophy that curated such a significant following looks set to stay, and will continue setting the bar ever higher as Hyundai's (and the Nürburgring's) one-stop shop for driving excitement for years to come.

What’s the deal with N Performance Blue?

If you didn’t hear them coming, even with their throaty exhausts and Active Sound+ systems, N cars can be easily identified by their striking Performance Blue paintwork – but what was the inspiration behind it?

During the inception of the N division, Joon Park insisted that the brand needed to have its own colour to help it stand out from rivals. “I told my colleague: we are the new kids on the block, and we need to have a differentiating colour, but not in a serious way,” he explained.

After several iterations, the N team eventually came up with Performance Blue, and while it has become synonymous with the brand, it may not stick around forever. Park hinted to us that “I originally wanted to use Performance Blue for 10 years only – there may be some differentiation you might see in the near future”.

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