Friday, September 22, 2023
News Rumours of a Hyundai Kona N are circulating

Rumours of a Hyundai Kona N are circulating

This would start a new trend, we hope, in the compact crossover segment. Frankly, we think the time is ripe for a “Hot CUV” battle and the Kona could be the “GTI”, the one that lights the fire.

The luxury brands have their “M”, SQ, S and AMG variants but the affordable ‘utes have nothing of the likes. There’s no such thing as a VW Tiguan GTI, a Nissan Qashqai SE-R Spec-V, a Toyota RAV4 GT-S or an Escape ST but don’t they all sound so right? There is however an Edge ST, but it’s in another category.

The Kona N, N is Hyundai’s in-house performance division, will get a de-tuned version of the i30 N (i30 is the Elantra elsewhere in the world) and Veloster N’s turbocharged 2.0-litre 4-cylinder engine. While in the cars, the output is 270-275 horsepower, it is expected to deliver somewhere around 250 in the Kona. For the moment, it looks as though it’ll FWD only, but with a 6-speed manual transmission. Other changes should include a suspension, steering, brakes and more.

We love this idea and we’re banking on other OEMs to join in. We’d love a Subaru Crosstrek XT, a Mazda CX-3 or CX-5 Mazdaspeed and would be amused by a Chevy Trax SS.

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Matt St-Pierre
Trained as an Automotive Technician, Matt has two decades of automotive journalism under his belt. He’s done TV, radio, print and this thing called the internet. He’s an avid collector of many 4-wheeled things, all of them under 1,500 kg, holds a recently expired racing license and is a father of two. Life is beautiful. Send Matt an emai

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