► Hyundai’s EV strategy is working
► Is it making cars people want?
► The EV N cars we’re excited about
After a genuinely fun electric car for the enthusiast? No one does it better right now than Hyundai. Want interesting and attractive car for the family, fitted with clever details and ‘I hadn’t thought of that’ touches? Call Hyundai. How about a brand that’s smartly playing the field when it comes to powertrain options, instead of putting all its eggs in the battery-electric basket? Hyundai’s got everything covered. It’s no wonder the brand has just built its 100 millionth car faster than any other manufacturer: Hyundai is making cars people actually want, whether you’re an enthusiast or not.
By comparison, almost every other car maker seems to be simply going through the motions. The saturated supercar and hypercar market seems to have hit a ceiling of interest, given the relative ambivalence on social media to recent launches. Some are so embattled with regulation and geopolitics that certain new models being released feel like compromises. Others are so obsessed with their bottom line that all of their cars seem to look and feel the same. Do feel free to make your own assumptions about what manufacturers link to these points.
Hyundai, very much like Toyota, has persistently sweated the small stuff and hasn’t neglected the car enthusiast – and it’s getting sweet rewards for doing so. Most of its cars are attractive, or at least eye-catching, without looking aggressive. ‘Beauty, not botox! Just be beautiful!’ says Simon Loasby, head of the Hyundai design centre. ‘Getting down to the essentials suddenly becomes incredibly attractive.’
The latest Santa Fe is a genuine family car triumph, and the brand isn’t scared of venturing into new kinds of cars: it’s carved out a niche with the Santa Cruz pick-up that helped it set sales records in North America. N still holds a torch for combustion in certain markets with the fabulously fun Elantra N. Then there’s the Ioniq 5 N: such an engaging electric sports car that it even held its own during our 2024 Sports Car Giant test full of combustion heroes. The brand isn’t done, either: a production version of the N Vision 74 and a new hydrogen fuel cell model to succeed the NEXO are both on the way, as is an Ioniq 6 N.
There’s also a sense of humour beneath the surface. The RN24 is its latest skunkworks project: a mutated Inster lookalike built out of WRC-spec scaffolding and… precious little else. A distraction, you might think, but no. Think of the RN22e from 2022 – essentially an Ioniq 6 N in disguise, and a test bed for N’s e-Shift and N Sound+ that have helped to make the Ioniq 5 N so engaging.
The RN24 demonstrates the possibilities of a smaller, lighter N hot hatch that has the same size battery as the 5 N – complete with rally-spec suspension and even a fully drift-spec electric handbrake. It’s not about the performance numbers, but ‘prioritising the driving experience,’ says Joon Park, vice president of the N management group.
‘Who knows – our 200 millionth car might be powered by a battery or hydrogen, might be self-driving or even self-flying,’ smiles chief operating officer, Jose Munoz. However it comes about – we’re convinced it’ll be built by people who actually care.