SPY PICS: Hyundai i30 Sedan N snapped
Powerful new small sedan expected to arrive in Australia in early 2021, priced under $50,000The new Hyundai i30 Sedan N has been spied during testing in Germany ahead of the small high-performance four-door's global reveal in the coming months.
Unlike the Hyundai i30 N hot hatch and fastback, the first i30 N sedan will adopt the same edgy, angular styling of the i30 Sedan N Line.
The battle-ready Korean sports sedan boast a bespoke body kit in the form of chunkier front and rear bumpers and side skirts, a low-rise rear wing and a pair of extra-large exhaust outlets, plus a set of AMG-inspired 19-inch alloy wheels and big brakes.
Expected to get a development of the current Hyundai i30 N hot hatch’s 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine (202kW/378Nm), the i30 Sedan N will take to three the number of go-fast i30 variants when it arrives in Australia next year, joining the i30 N and i30 Fastback N models.
Small sedans are becoming a rare breed in Australia with neither the top-selling Toyota Corolla, Mazda3 nor Kia Cerato offering a 200kW-plus rival for the new i30 N sedan.
To find something close in high-performance small sedan terms, you’d have to check out the Audi S3 sedan (213kW/380Nm), which is a circa-$65,000 proposition and therefore far more expensive than the sub-$50K price expected for the i30 Sedan N.
Called the Hyundai Elantra in some countries – including Australia until the new-look and newly-named i30 Sedan arrives later in the year – the scorching new model is likely to offer similar performance and equipment upgrades to the current i30 N models.
That means stiffer suspension, 19-inch alloy wheels with grippy Pirelli rubber, plus upgraded brakes and more.
Sports seats will be added alongside a bunch of leather and suede accents, along with plenty of dynamic telemetry displayed through the infotainment system.
An adjustable exhaust note and electronic diff will also be added and the fiery front-drive sedan’s turbocharged engine will pump through a six-speed manual or an all-new eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with three ‘grin shift’ modes.
N Grin Shift (NGS) boosts torque from 353Nm to 378Nm via overboost and maximises transmission response for 20 seconds to induce “driver grin”.
The N Power Shift (NPS) mode removes torque reduction between gear upshifts when 90 per cent or more throttle is requested and the N Track Sense Shift (NTS) mode automatically detects when the tempo skyrockets, ensuring gear shift times similar to “a professional race car driver to provide optimal performance” says Hyundai.
A launch control system and rev-matching will also be offered with the new automatic gearbox.
The Hyundai N range is rapidly expanding with the i30 Sedan N expected to be joined by the first non-i30 N model, also in 2021, in the form of the Kona N small SUV recently spotted testing at the Nurburgring in Germany.
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