CLEAR VISION

WE DRIVE THE HYDROGEN-ELECTRIC SUPERCAR THAT HYUNDAI INSISTS IS MUCH MORE THAN JUST A SHOW OF ITS TECHNICAL MIGHT

- ANGUS MACKENZIE

AT FIRST GLANCE, the Hyundai N Vision 74 is pure motorshow whimsy; a design exercise that celebrates a Hyundai that was never built, the 1974 Hyundai Pony Coupe concept designed by the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro.

But it’s much more than that. The drivable, fully functional N Vision 74 signposts the company’s thinking on the future of the high-performance car in a post internal combustion engine world.

What’s more, Hyundai says the N Vision 74 is entirely production feasible.

Visually, the N Vision 74 is a passion project of Hyundai design chief SangYup Lee, who has spent most of his professional career working outside Korea for nonKorean carmakers.

“I've sketched N Vision 74 ideas for years,” says the man who at one stage worked in Australia on the design of the 2010 Chevy Camaro. I was even sketching them on the plane to Korea, on my way to start at Hyundai. I wanted to create a car that celebrated Hyundai’s roots.”

Turning those sketches into a three-dimensional reality involved Hyundai’s N brand management and motorsport sub-division, the in-house hot shop set up by former BMW M boss, Albert Biermann. For N, now run by former Mercedes-Benz executive Till Wartenberg, the N Vision 74 idea became part of its Rolling Lab’ program, where fully functional prototypes are engineered and built to test and evaluate performance-enhancing ideas and technologies.

The e-LSD and eight-speed dual-clutch transmission fitted to the N-branded Hyundais such as the Kona N and 130 N are products of the Rolling Labs program. The RN22e electric car is another Rolling Labs project, learnings from which will be applied to the Ioniq 6 EV race car Hyundai plans to run in the 2023 eTouring Car World Cup in Europe, and to the road-going Ioniq 5 N, Hyundai’s first performance EV, scheduled for launch next year.