Hyundai i20 N Confirmed In New Video, Sounds Like It Uses i30 N's 2.0
You’ll probably already know that Hyundai is working on an ‘i20 N’. Various i20 N spy shots we’ve seen recently as good as confirm this, but now we’ve had word from the horse’s mouth, with the South Korean company giving the hot hatch a starring role in this teaser video.
In it, we see WRC driver Thierry Neuville tear around in what’s effectively the road-going version of his rally car. The car is still caked in camouflage at this stage - we’ll likely have to wait a little longer for the full reveal.
We do, however, get a good listen to the exhaust note. As you’d expect, it’s an inline-four turbo engine, and from the sounds of it, we reckon Hyundai has detuned the i30 N‘s ‘Theta’ 2.0-litre, rather than hopped up version the 175bhp 1.6-litre ‘Gamma’ engine available in the standard i30.
We’d anticipate a power output hovering around 200bhp, and potentially the option of the i30 N’s electronically-controlled locking differential, giving the i20 N all the tools it needs to go up against Ford’s stonking Fiesta ST. The considerably more powerful, all-wheel drive Toyota GR Yaris will remain out of reach, but regardless, we’d get a kick out of driving the homologation special back-to-back with Hyundai’s latest performance car.
Why? Because hopes for the i20 N are high - the i30 N was a surprise world-beater, and Hyundai’s N division is headed by former BMW M Division boss Albert Biermann. He knows a thing or two about making ordinary cars go quickly.
Unfortunately, though, the i20 N won’t have many other playmates - the B-segment hot hatch realm isn’t anywhere near as well populated as the larger C-segment, and that’s unlikely to change. Emissions rules are making it harder for manufacturers to make hot hatches, as evidenced by the cancellation of the C-seg Ford Focus RS. In the B-segment meanwhile, Peugeot has decided to replace the old hot 208 with an electric car that may not even use the GTI badge.
Hyundai is treading a different, horsepower-heavy path - along with the incoming i20 N and the existing i30 N, it’s also cooking up a 247bhp Kona N, allowing it to take on the Fiesta ST and the Puma ST at the same time. We should see both of Hyundai’s new performance cars revealed in 2020 before in early 2021, pending any delays due to you know what.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
On this side of the planet the Hyundai N is not expected to sell that well
For one, the i30N came in limited numbers and is priced more expensive than ALL it’s key rivals
For the money, you can buy not only a GTI, but a Golf R, or Megane RS or Focus ST or even a Honda Civic Type R and have spare change
I don’t expect the pricing of the i20N to be much different here
Then, coupling it with the pathetic reputation of the brand here locally, and the utterly useless dealer support (let alone the corruption from its staff), this will be a lost case on local shores
Sadly it is very difficult to fix a reputation once ruined like it has here, as most will stick with the VW brand offering instead.
To answer any dude who’s inevitably going to ask if it’s going to come to the States: yeah no.
The Fiesta ST is no more, the Polo GTI never came in the first place, and we got the Veloster N rather than the i30/Elantra GT N (not that I’m complaining). I’d be surprised if it’d be imported as an Accent or something like that.
One main reason why the i30 N’s engine will be detuned for use in the i20 N, so it would make around 200bhp instead of the i30 N’s 247/271 bhp is probably because if it DOES use the i30 N’s engine, Hyundai can’t give it the same power otherwise it would probably be quicker than the more expensive i30 N if the two cars had the same power as each other, and it would also make it way too overpowered in the B-segment hot hatch class too.
It’s also why VW detuned the Golf GTI’s 2.0-litre turbo engine for use in the latest Polo GTI - it would probably be quicker than the Golf GTI if the Polo and Golf GTI had the same power.
That creates a great starting point for the aftermarket though, so it probably won’t be all that difficult to crush the more expensive bigger cars with nothing but a tune.