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Hyundai wants i20 N hot hatch Down Under to fight 2020 Ford Fiesta ST

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Hyundai's spicy i20 N could be powered by a 150kW 1.6-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine.
Laura Berry
Senior Journalist
1 Oct 2019
3 min read

Hyundai Australia has confirmed the i20 N mini five-door hot hatch is on its wish list as the country prepares for a model onslaught from the car maker’s high-performance N division.

Speaking to CarsGuide at the launch of the new Veloster, Hyundai Australia’s product general manager Andrew Tuitahi said that while it wouldn’t be cost effective to bring the entire i20 range here, there’s a strong chance the i20 N could land on our streets.

“As a conventional model, financially i20 doesn’t make sense with exchange rates and freight,” Tuitahi said of the Turkish-built tiny hatch.

Read More: Hyundai i20 N 2020 confirmed! Fiesta ST, Polo GTI rival on the cards for Australia

“We can’t see there being that big a shift in terms of global economics. So, i20 as a standard model wouldn’t be feasible.

“If there was to be an i20 N it would definitely be on our wish list and you could probably make that work in a similar way to the Fiesta.”

Ford confirmed last year that it would only be bringing the new-generation Fiesta to Australia in high performance ST guise. Due to arrive early in 2020, the Fiesta ST will be powered by 147kW/290Nm 1.5-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder with Ford claiming a 0-100km/h time of 6.7 seconds.

Read More: Ford Fiesta ST 2020 pricing and spec: Increased pricing and performance for new baby hot hatch

Seen testing in May this year at the Nurburgring Norsdschleife, the i20 N could outpower the Fiesta ST with a 150kW 1.6-litre turbo-four, along with beefed-up brakes, a lower ride height, larger wheels and firmer suspension.

If the i20 N does arrive here it will also almost certainly be joined by the Kona N, with Hyundai telling CarsGuide recently that a small SUV based on the i30 platform wearing an N badge will arrive Down Under. N division boss Albert Biermann previously confirmed the Kona N would share the same 202kW/353Nm 2.0-litre turbo-petrol found in the i30 N.

While Mr Tuitahi couldn’t give us any more information on the Kona N or i20 N, he did tell us that nearly every model in Hyundai’s line-up will be given a sporty N-Line grade, too.

Read More: Hyundai Kona N confirmed: Go-fast SUV to join performance stable

“For full-fat N products we can’t confirm anything,” he said.

“You can expect to see N-Lines pretty much across the product range though.”

An N-Line car is a sort of mid-way point between the regular grades in a Hyundai model range and the high-performance N car. While an N-Line car doesn't have the same high-output as an N car, it can share many of its styling elements such as wheels and aerodynamic packages.

Laura Berry
Senior Journalist
Laura Berry is a best-selling Australian author and journalist who has been reviewing cars for almost 20 years.  Much more of a Hot Wheels girl than a Matchbox one, she grew up in a family that would spend every Friday night sitting on a hill at the Speedway watching Sprintcars slide in the mud. The best part of this was being given money to buy stickers. She loved stickers… which then turned into a love of tattoos. Out of boredom, she learnt to drive at 14 on her parents’ bush property in what can only be described as a heavily modified Toyota LandCruiser.   At the age of 17 she was told she couldn’t have a V8 Holden ute by her mother, which led to Laura and her father laying in the driveway for three months building a six-cylinder ute with more horsepower than a V8.   Since then she’s only ever owned V8s, with a Ford Falcon XW and a Holden Monaro CV8 part of her collection over the years.  Laura has authored two books and worked as a journalist writing about science, cars, music, TV, cars, art, food, cars, finance, architecture, theatre, cars, film and cars. But, mainly cars.   A wife and parent, her current daily driver is a chopped 1951 Ford Tudor with a V8.
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