HY AND DRY

The switch to electric power means an early exit for Hyundai N's brilliant ICE hot hatch duo. We go for a farewell drive in the 120 N

- JAMES TAYLOR

WE'RE IN MID-WALES, BUT I'M THINKING ABOUT Western Australia. And not only because it's tipping it down. A couple of years ago on holiday in Cottesloe, Perth, I was in a car travelling down a seafront street at sunset and unexpectedly found myself in the middle of a convoy of N-model Hyundais: i20 N, i30 N, Kona N and Elantra N (sold as the i30 N Sedan down under, and not sold at all in the UK). They were emerging from a park, where an N owners' meet was clearly in full swing, with plenty of other cars and their keepers chatting under the dusk sky.

It was a slightly incongruous scene, not because it was on the other side of the world - Australia has a healthy appetite for hot hatches - but because before 2012 the N brand simply didn't exist. And before 2017, when its first production model, the i30 N, went on sale in Europe, it was in few car enthusiasts' consciousness. In a few short years, Hyundai N has accomplished a launch-control-worthy 0-60 in terms of brand awareness: thanks largely to the stellar i30 N and i20 N hot hatches, N cars have become cult-hero modern classics within their own lifetime. And the halo effect has been transformative for Hyundai's wider image, too. This most beige of brands was suddenly a maker of alltime-great affordable performance cars (and it's been able to leverage that appeal with more profitable N Line trim levels for its mainstream models, too).

Now it's starting again - not from square one, but by turning the page to a hefty new chapter. In the past few months, petrol-powered N cars have ended sales in Europe as the N department pivots to performance EVs, the first of which being the well-received Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.