Hyundai Palisade N: Nobody's laughing now as brand mulls performance rival to the Toyota GR Land Cruiser 300 Series

It might have started as an April Fool's joke, but Hyundai is no longer laughing, suggesting the gigantic Palisade N could emerge as a battery-electric or fuel-cell performance SUV.

Though far from confirming the big bopper, and insisting the new Kona N will fill the role of performance SUV for the foreseeable, the brand also pointed to electrification and fuel-cell technology as a way to give the N performance treatment to models like there Tucson and Palisade.

We know the brand has never ruled out the N treatment for any of its models - no matter how big or small - and with Toyota making new noise about a LandCruiser 300 Series GR, the balance could well tip in the Palisade N's favour.

"For sure we could (build a Palisade or Tucson N), there's no doubt about it," says Hyundai N's chief marketing officer, Thomas Schemera.

Read More About Hyundai Palisade

Lookout Land Cruiser! Hyundai Palisade already luring customers from Toyota's iconic off-roader - before proper Korean LC300 rival arrives 2021 Hyundai Palisade pricing and specs detailed: Can this Korean large SUV tempt you away from a Toyota Land Cruiser and Nissan Patrol? Palisade news and reviews

"But strategically, we are moving to eco-friendly vehicles in the future to come. This is not a matter of capability, this is a matter of market demand and focusing in the right direction."

But it won't be a petrol or diesel powered vehicle, Hyundai insists, with the brand instead keen to dial up the performance while dialling down the emissions with the use of battery electric or fuel cell technology.

"I guess eco-friendly cars and, and bigger Ns on the Palisade and Tucson, it has to be carefully considered," Schemera says.

"Time flies, and we have to come up with more eco-friendly vehicles in the future to come. Talking about electrification and utilising fuel cell as a range extender concept, we can think about a high-performance vehicle in that segment.

"But definitely I would say not ICE-based, this will be based on battery and a fuel cell."

It comes as news of a GR Sport branded LandCruiser 300 Series breaks in Japan, with the sportier model to be longer, taller and wider than the regular car, and play host to a thumping V6 diesel.

We also know that Toyota in Australia is interested in a GR-branded LandCruiser, suggesting its local (Port Melbourne) development facility could complete the work.

"We’ve never ruled out any model having a GR model if it makes sense," a spokesperson has told CarsGuide.

"We have an assembly facility here, and there’s no reason we couldn’t do something."