Hyundai plotting 'super sports' halo N model

A full-bore road rocket is under development at Hyundai as the future flagship of the company’s N performance division.

News of Hyundai’s upcoming hero model has broken in Europe as demand for the Hyundai i30 N continues to outstrip supply in Australia, and a Veloster N is launched for sales in America and also for TCR racing.

Confirmation of the new N program comes from one of the most senior executives at Hyundai, Thomas Schemera, who is executive vice-president of the high performance vehicle and motorsport division that was established earlier this year.

It follows earlier work on the 260kW mid-engined Veloster-based RM16 N concept car (pictured) revealed in 2016, following the earlier RM14 and RM15 concepots.

Since then spy shots have emerged from the Nurburgring of a carbon-clad mid-engined Veloster that’s believed to house the new Hyundai sports flagship’s electric-turbocharged powertrain.

“Behind the scenes, we are working hard on a ‘halo model’ as a flagship model for the N brand,” Schemera said.

“This is going to be a great machine, something nobody expects from Hyundai, something really exotic.”

Hyundai Australia is happy to confirm Schemera’s comments but has no detail on the program, either officially or unofficially.

Even so, there is plenty of speculation around the car -- including the choice between a dedicated sports model and something at the luxury end.

“Whether it will be a limited-edition or not, we can unfortunately neither confirm nor deny,” said Schemera.

“In any case, it will be a car in the super sports segment. Think of the Hyundai RM15 and you have a bit of an idea of what is possible.”

Schemera is one of three high-profile Hyundai hires from the BMW M division in Germany, following engineering ace Albert Biermann who moved to South Korea in 2015 to set up N at Hyundai, and Fayez Abdul Rahman, who is in charge of platform development at the luxury Genesis brand.

There is no real detail on Hyundai’s next go-faster program, but Schemera confirms the use of electrification in future N models and that his division is investigating the potential for N-car version of the baby i20 not sold in Australia and the Kona compact SUV.