Hyundai’s performance division has barely dipped its toes in the kiddie pool, but it already wants to dive head first into the deep end.
The Korean manufacturer’s head designer, Luc Donkerwolke, told Australian publication Drive on Tuesday at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that Hyundai N “definitely” is working on a supercar.
Although he confirmed the coupe will have just two seats, it’s what Donkerwolke didn’t say whether it will utilize a front or mid-engine layout. It likely will produce around 550 horsepower, though, as N engineers reportedly have been using the Porsche 911 Turbo S and Lamborghini Huracan as benchmarks.
“I can’t tell you more about it, but definitely we are doing that,” Donkerwolke said.
“I am actually reviewing a project on this next week after CES. We’re not going to go autonomous for all cars just yet.”
Although Hyundai plans to use a hybrid powertrain in the sports car, it might not use a fully integrated system — such as the kind used in Formula One. It instead sounds as though Hyundai, like Honda did with the NSX, will use an electric motor to drive the front wheels for additional performance.
“There are some areas we can overcome instead of using big (internal combustion) engines as we would like to minimize as much as possible the use of IC engines and use as much as possible the electric motors,” Donkerwolke told Drive. “Then, in many ways — not just for efficiency, but for performance — it can very much be optimized using both powertrains.”
Although the vehicle is being developed by engineers from the N division, the automaker isn’t yet sure whether it will brand the car strictly as an N model or as a regular Hyundai.
