The 2018 Detroit Auto Show will be remembered as the one where Ford, Ram and Chevrolet unveiled their newest pickup trucks. If there’s a car that’s overshadowed by those big American rigs, it’s definitely the Hyundai Veloster, a small urban car that didn’t sell that well in its first generation.
But Hyundai isn’t giving up on its 3-door hatchback, as you can see. Yes, Hyundai is back with a new car for 2019, but this time around, the platform isn’t the same as last year’s model. Previously, the Veloster was based on the Accent. This new model is bigger in every way since it’s based on the Elantra GT architecture.
The approach is still the same in terms of design, although we can see a few details taken from recent Hyundai models. The Veloster will be marketed in basic version and Turbo livery, the new base engine being a 2,0-liter normally aspirated unit with 147 horsepower and 132 ft-lb of torque. This mill is coupled to a manual or an automatic transmission, both with 6 gears.
The Veloster Turbo keeps its 1,6-liter 4-cylinder engine with 201 horsepower and 195 ft-lb of torque. The manual transmission is also part of the formula, but the optional unit is a dual clutch with 7 gears.
But the big news is the addition of the N badge in North America. The new Veloster N is the first of its kind on this continent and it looks promising with a 2,0-liter 4-cylinder turbo engine unleashing 275 horsepower and 260 ft-lb of torque. The only transmission available with this one is a good old 6-speed manual unit.
Obviously, with the Veloster N, Hyundai’s engineers have upgraded the brakes, the tires, the suspension and all kinds of parts to make sure it sticks to the road. We’ll have to wait until the end of 2018 to see this one on our roads.
