Since 1967, Hyundai Motor Company has been producing cars at a rate that has made it the largest automobile manufacturing plant in the world today.

In 2013, Hyundai grew even bigger with the introduction of its N Division.

The N Division was created to advance Hyundai’s position in the performance and racing marketplace. While European counterparts like BMW, Audi, and Porsche have long been putting the pedal to the metal, Hyundai has largely focused its efforts on producing safe, affordable, reliable and eco-friendly vehicles.

While that approach certainly won’t change anytime soon, Hyundai will no doubt be expanding its market when the first N Division product, the i30N, hits the pavement in 2017.

The Hyundai N Division gets its name from the combination of Namyang, which is the South Korean location where Hyundai vehicles are designed and built, and Nürburg, the German city that is home to the world’s most challenging race track.

The N performance will be harvested in both locations and Hyundai even opened a technical center in Nürburg, which is just 130 miles from where the Hyundai racing division’s World Rally Championship team is based.  

The N Effect: How Hyundai Performance Born in Germany Gets to Wilmington

As a consumer, you may be wondering what this Hyundai performance division has to do with you. After all, you’re just commuting to the office and shuffling kids to school, not ripping around a race track.

But while you may never own an official N Division car, you will be affected in a more indirect way. When car manufacturers go down the road of racing and performance, there tends to be a trickle-down effect that starts at the top. Features that are designed, developed, and implemented into the performance models evolve and reappear in the rest of the fleet.

So that new Hyundai economy car you’re eyeing up may contain some DNA that originated in the design phase of the Hyundai supercar i30N prototype that raced in the Nürburgring 24 Hours Race in June of 2016.

An example of this effect would be BMW’s 328 Kamm Coupe. In 1940, BMW chopped off the rear end of this model to greatly improve aerodynamics and straight-line speed in preparation for the Italian Mille Miglia race, which it would go on to win. In the years to come, trimming the rear end for better aerodynamics became standard across many different manufacturers and is one of the features that helps boost fuel economy today.

With the N Division, Hyundai hopes to develop features that will have a similar effect on the rest of its lineup.  

Additionally, when manufacturer’s dip into the high-performance world, a class of luxury performance sedans often follows. Hyundai has already benefitted from this effect with the Genesis series.

Parkway Hyundai in Wilmington is a long way from South Korea or Germany, but the Hyundai vehicles here come from the same family. Let us know if you would like to visit our showroom or test drive any of our new Hyundai models. We welcome customers from our home town as well as Jacksonville and Myrtle Beach.