Hyundai Motor Co. plans to
begin selling a high-performance
line in 2017 to burnish its reputation amid flagging sales, helmed by the M
Series chief engineer hired from BMW AG.
Led by Albert Biermann, who
joined the company from BMW in April, the focus on vehicle performance comes
two years after Chairman Chung Mong-Koo promoted Peter Schreyer to oversee
design at both Hyundai and
affiliate Kia Motors Corp. The carmaker is showcasing three models from its N-brand
high-performance line this week at the Frankfurt International Motor Show.
The push to elevate
performance comes as South Korea’s largest carmaker, with its lineup of mostly
sedans, misses out on the surge in demand globally for sport utility vehicles
and crossovers. It’s also a continuation of the carmaker’s years of efforts to
upgrade its image as a maker of cheap, utilitarian cars.
“The next step is to
increase the performance and to give our cars, when you drive the car, a little
bit more of a driving character,” Biermann, 58, told reporters last week. “We
are really going for the established high-performance brands and want to
compete with them.”
Hyundai plans to improve and
refine everything from the clutch paddle to the suspension when building
N-brand vehicles to “change the character of the car,” Biermann said. The
automaker is considering development of a new engine for the N series and may
offer models in different segments, including SUVs, he said. Hyundai may also
make hybrid N models, he said.
In Frankfurt this week, Hyundai will show a preview of
the latest World Rally Championship challenger, based on the new generation
i20. The second and third models will be the RM15 concept and the N 2025 Vision
Gran Turismo concept, developed for Sony Corp.’s PlayStation racing game.
Hyundai gained 4.2 percent
to close at 163,000 won in Seoul trading, its highest price since May 15. The benchmark
Kospi index rose 2 percent.
Although the N series will
target a niche market of car enthusiasts, the technology will be incorporated
into other Hyundai vehicles, enhancing the performance of the entire lineup,
Biermann said.
“Once they find out how
robust and reliable our high-performance cars are on the race track, they will
buy our car,” said Biermann, who spent more than three decades at BMW before
joining Hyundai. “We will make some wild boys and girls at Hyundai N.”
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