Ultimate Elantra: Photos Show Hyundai's Upcoming N Variant
As you read recently, the former Hyundai Elantra Sport has morphed into the Elantra N Line for the 2021 model year. While the redesigned compact sedan’s warmed-up version carries the same powertrain as before, there’s more heat on the horizon.
The purveyor of that added oomph can be seen in spy photos circulating the net today, showing a well-camouflaged (and well-spoilered) Elantra designed to carry the N badge.
A series of all-angles pics appeared on Autoblog Tuesday.
Unlike the N Line, which makes do with a turbocharged 1.6-liter making 201 horsepower and 195 lb-ft of torque (mercifully mated to a six-speed manual that disappeared for the 2020 model year), the Elantra N’s motivator remains shrouded in mystery. It could easily source the Veloster N’s turbo 2.0-liter, which makes 275 hp and 260 lb-ft in Performance Package guise (which becomes standard kit for 2021).
Or, just maybe, it plans to tap the Sonata N Line’s expected turbo 2.5-liter, which ups the car’s output by a reported 290 hp and 311 lb-ft. Such an engine in the usually sedate Elantra is difficult to picture, but it is a possibility.
Given that the Elantra N seen in these pics sports the same 19-inch wheels found on the Veloster N, our money is on the former choice. A six-speed manual and eight-speed dual-clutch automatic should round out the gearbox selection.
While the front end of this sedan remains heavily obscured, passers-by will know an Elantra N breezed by though the car’s side sills and fairly large rear wing, which, thankfully, does not tap into the levels of excess seen on its rival, the Honda Civic Type R. Gaping tailpipes will most likely not emit quiet sounds, further differentiating this car from its commuter colleagues.
A launch date for this vehicle isn’t yet known.
[Image: Hyundai]
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"Or, just maybe, it plans to tap the Sonata N Line’s expected turbo 2.5-liter, which ups the car’s output by a reported 290 hp and 311 lb-ft. Such an engine in the usually sedate Elantra is difficult to picture, but it is a possibility." Adding an additional 290 horsepressures and 311 torques to those already included should make it easier to make the thing look better by driving it with all due haste into a brickwall. Gads Hyundai, your current design language looks bad man.
This makes me wonder. I recently sold my 2007 Ford Fusion SE w Manual transmission. It had 157000 miles and despite spending its life on salty NY roods was still a good looking, nice running car. So why can Hyundai and Kia not only keep selling sedans but constantly offer improved and specialty versions and yet Ford cant make a business case for staying in the market? It worries me that yet another industry is dying in America. I get that times change and newer and more profitable businesses come along. We don't harvest whale oi, etc, etc. But what is so fundamentally wrong with American automakers that they cannot compete in the traditional car market. Even FCA is making bank with Chargers and Challengers.