Accent

Make
Hyundai
Segment
Sedan

It is no secret that we take all announcements about Hyundai's N performance brand with a grain of salt. The N brand is supposed to compete with the likes of Mercedes AMG and BMW M, but so far the automaker has done nothing but create a virtual prototype for a video game. Seriously, that's it! This year at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show Hyundai showed off the G90, the leader of its new Genesis brand, but the automaker also took a bit of time out to talk about its performance arm.

Albert Biermann, who is the performance chief at Hyundai, told the Australian media that both the Hyundai and Genesis brands would get N-badged models. "N is a sub-brand and with N high-performance cars we work for both brands-so you have to be ready for N versions for Hyundai and for Genesis," Biermann said. He also said there's a road map laid out for the next five years, which aligns well with the roll out of the Genesis luxury brand. Biermann was hired from BMW's M-division to help Hyundai launch its performance brand. Currently all signs point to the first N being the i30 hatchback. That means it'll duke it out in the increasingly crowded US hot hatch market. Yay!

The Genesis brand is also working on a G70 3 Series-fighter that would also benefit from the N treatment. (Dare to dream.) It would be a cool alternative to buy a high-performance Korean luxury car, but as we have said, we will believe it when we see it.