Hyundai N to axe its 2.0-litre turbo four

Hyundai N executives have revealed the current 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine powering the Hyundai i30 N and Kona N ranges will be phased out and replaced by a bigger and angrier force-fed 2.5-litre four-cylinder following the introduction of Euro 7 emission regulations.

Speaking to carsales at the fourth annual Hyundai N Festival over the weekend, former R&D boss turned technical advisor Albert Biermann said some of the current powerplants “will not survive” beyond 2025.

“The big challenge now is the regulations for emissions, the Euro 7, and now it’s almost finalised what Euro 7 will be, and I think it’s not that crazy than it could have been,” he said.

“Of course, certain engines will go into Euro 7 homologation, but not all engines will survive that we have today. So some will phase out when Euro 7 comes in for Euro 7 markets and so there’s still some development going on.

“So the i20 N engine, the 1.6, of course will survive – we use this engine in tonnes of applications as you know.

“The 2.0-litre will basically phase out – the turbo – sooner or later, but I think we have a nice replacement available, not to all markets maybe, but with the 2.5 turbo I think we can still come up with some nice powerful N-cars.”

The 2.5-litre donk in question is the same one found under the bonnet of the current Hyundai Sonata N-Line and lower-end Genesis variants.

Overseas it can be found in the Hyundai Santa Cruz lifestyle ute as well as the KDM-spec Kia Stinger.

Hyundai’s 2.5-litre turbo-petrol four currently pumps out between 213-224kW depending on the application, plus a gutsy 422Nm of torque across the board.

While not yet an N-spec firecracker, the 2.5-litre engine’s power and torque figures already out-muscle every internal combustion N product (the i30 N produces 206kW/392Nm), allowing the Sonata N-Line to get close to the standing-start acceleration times of the smaller and lighter i30 Sedan N.

The revelation of the 2.5-litre’s eventual call-up to N duty contradicts previous reports that Hyundai’s internal combustion R&D centre would be mothballed and also throws ice on preceding reports of a bespoke 2.3-litre N engine being in the works.

Head of N brand management, Till Wartenberg, expanded on Biermann’s comments and explained how Hyundai’s performance sub-brand aims to offer the propulsion options that customers want, within the confines of industry regulations.

“We all believe that for N, worldwide, there’s more markets where we could offer our cars,” he said.

“This is in planning and it’s a challenge to do the transition to electrification.

“Within the next six to eight years we will have more markets, so maybe prolong one or the other i20/i30 N we have now until we phase out and have the electrified vehicles we’d like for N and the acceptance of customers and a full portfolio also in EV.”

Both Biermann and Wartenberg were in awe of Australian N sales, which accounted for 28 per cent of all Hyundai’s local sales this year (including the semi-skim N-Line portfolio).

Australia is now the world’s third-biggest N market outright, trailing only Germany and the US.

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