Hyundai vows to save the manual hot hatch

Hyundai has vowed to continue offering driving enthusiasts the option of a manual transmission within its N performance car line-up.

With the announcement this week that Hyundai will offer another four new N models in Australia in the next 18 months, headed by the pocket-rocket i20 N, executives from the Korean brand reaffirmed their commitment to three-pedal vehicles.

Hyundai has made plenty of noise about its intention to introduce an eight-speed wet dual-clutch automatic transmission option for its popular i30 N hot hatch next year.

But it has no plans to vacate the manual market – which has recently thinned out with the disappearance of a manual Volkswagen Golf GTI and Peugeot 308 GTi.

“Where possible, we would continue to like to offer buyers the choice of a manual transmission for purists or the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission,” said Hyundai product planner Howard Lam.

“It’s hard to say what growth we will achieve, but we understand that our competitors who offer an automatic have achieved significant mix with those transmission.

“We’ll just have to wait. I would say more people will buy the auto than the manual.”

The first proponent of Hyundai’s fresh N onslaught is the forthcoming i20 N, which is due to arrive in Australian showrooms in 2021.

Featuring larger rally car-inspired rims, Hyundai’s smallest N-car appears to wear wider front and rear fenders, a large rear spoiler, beefy side skirts and redesigned front and rear bumpers.

Originally, it was thought the baby N-car would come powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine producing around 150kW and 300Nm.

However, the bulging bonnet seen in a recent shadowy teaser image suggests that Hyundai might have gone the whole hog and fitted its mightier-still 2.0-litre turbo four from the larger i30 N.

Hyundai’s next N model is expected to be the Kona N and its Australian arm continues to lobby for the left-hand drive-only Veloster N, but the N treatment could also be applied to the new i30 sedan due here later this year.