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2019 Hyundai Veloster N First Drive Review | Naughty and Nice

NuRBURGRING, Germany — The N in the 2019 Hyundai Veloster N's name supposedly represents Hyundai's R&D base back in Namyang. For the excuse to visit Germany I'm glad N also stands for Nurburgring, the track on which it was honed and symbolic of the car enthusiast culture it wants a piece of. Because here in the Eifel mountains it feels like a permanent party for gearheads. The parking lot where you access the Nordschleife for the legendary "tourist laps" is buzzing with cars from every corner of Europe. The air around the track is thick with barbecue smoke, hot brakes and adrenaline, high-performance engines echoing across the rolling landscape long after the track has shut down for the day. It's a heady atmosphere, and exactly the spirit Hyundai wants to capture for an American audience in the Veloster N. The man tasked with doing that is Albert Biermann, recruited from an equivalent job at BMW M for his instinctive understanding of what enthusiast drivers want. Proof of that is evident in the number of M2s and M3s you see pounding the Nordschleife tourist sessions. Hyundai is clearly hoping he can channel that expertise into its own products. He makes the right noises about the brand's home being in Korea, but on a sunny evening in the German countryside with a pilsner in hand, it's clear this is his comfort zone and N most definitely stands for Nurburgring. Next day we're out on the track itself, the exit from the pit lane so abrupt I've barely selected second gear before filtering out onto the Nordschleife. I've bagged first place in the train of cars behind an instructor in an i30 N, the Elantra GT relative that launched the performance brand to the European market last year to critical acclaim. And I'm determined to make him work for his lunch. They might have a different look and distinct chassis tuning, but the i30 N and its Veloster cousin are pretty much interchangeable in terms of hardware. Like all N products, the Veloster N will be manual-transmission only for the near future, partly out of deference to enthusiasts and partly out of lack of a suitable in-house gearbox. And they have the same 2.0-liter twin-scroll turbocharged engine driving the front wheels with 275 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. That's a big jump from the 201-hp, 1.6-liter Veloster Turbo Ultimate and puts it square between the Golf GTI and all-wheel-drive R, which is no accident given Volkswagen's performance products are the benchmark Hyundai needs to exceed.

Hyundai will launch 26 green models through 2020

Hyundai Motor Group, which comprises both Hyundai and Kia, believes that launching a blitz of 26 green models through 2020 could place the Korean automaker among the leaders in the segment. Only Toyota would be larger in the electrified vehicle market, if Hyundai Motor's plan works, Automotive News reports. The 26 models run the gamut of the green car field, and they include at least 12 hybrids, six PHEVs, two EVs, and two hydrogen fuel cells, according to Automotive News. If customers latch onto them, Hyundai and Kia could move as many as 300,000 electrified vehicles a year by 2020 versus about 43,000 in 2015. Kia is responsible for at least 11 of these vehicles like the upcoming Niro crossover. Meanwhile, Hyundai wants the upcoming Ioniq (above) to challenge the Toyota Prius, and the Korean company has hybrid, PHEV, and EV versions on the way. To save money on the development of so many electrified vehicles, Hyundai Motor uses shared components. "For example, all our electric motors have the same diameter," Lee Ki-Sang, Hyundai's green powertrain boss, told Automotive News. "The power output is different, but we can just adjust the width of the core winding. Or for the motor controller, we standardized to use the same printed circuit boards." Trying to go from a relatively small player to a market leader is an audacious move, but it's especially risky right now. Gas prices are the cheapest in 12 years in the US, and green car sales are down in the US and in Europe. Toyota even predicts the inexpensive fuel could cut into Prius sales, and it's far more established than Hyundai's models. The South Korean company could have an even tougher time because these efficient vehicles still lose money for now. "Our target is before 2020, we would like to make profits on these eco-friendly vehicles," Lee told Automotive News. Related Video:

Hyundai Ioniq EV coming with 110-mile range in US

We've known for a while that the new Hyundai Ioniq line of vehicles will come in three variants: hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric. As we get ready for more information on the trio at the New York Auto Show this week, we've learned that t he EV, which is slated to go on sale in South Korea in June and in the US towards the end of the year, will have a 28-kilowatt-hour battery pack that's similar to the Kia Soul EV. The Sould EV has a single-charge range of 93 miles, but the Ioniq EV will be able to go as far as 110 miles on one charge, In discussion with Hyundai's Kim Choong, Automotive News learned that despite earlier talk of a 155-mile range for the EV, the 110-mile figure is what the Ioniq will get on the US EPA test cycle, Hyundai spokesman Jim Trainor confirmed in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen on Monday. The longer range figure is what the Ioniq EV will be rated at on the more lenient European cycle. Hyundai revealed its "three-pronged" plan for the Ioniq at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month. We now know that the EV model will have paddle shifters so the driver can control the level of friction in the car's regenerative brake. Additionally, the EV, as with the hybrid and plug-in hybrid, will have an "eco-routing" navigation system that to make best use of either the range on the EV or the fuel economy on the hybrids. The Ioniq Hybrid debuted in South Korea in January. That variant has already received some attention because Hyundai's Lee Ki-Sang told Automotive News that the hybrid itself will have "standard" and "eco" variants, and that the "eco" version will have a combined fuel-economy rating of 56 miles per gallon, putting it well ahead of the Toyota Prius's fuel economy. That is, if these numbers are all on the same test cycle. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric: Geneva 2016 View 14 Photos News Source: Automotive News-sub.req. via Green Car ReportsImage Credit: Drew Phillips Green Hyundai Electric Hybrid ioniq