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Hyundai working on sporty Sonata N-Line

The new generation Hyundai Sonata mid-size sedan due later this year will eventually be joined by a performance variant.


The mid-size sedan market is about to get another model with a bit more mumbo: Hyundai has confirmed it is working on a turbocharged performance version of its new generation Sonata.

At the New York motor show overnight the company said there would be a Sonata N-Line added to the line-up but stopped short of revealing what engine will be under the bonnet.

While it won’t be a high-performance car like the Hyundai i30N hot hatch, the Sonata N-Line is designed to bring a bit more excitement to an otherwise mundane segment of the market.

A Hyundai Australia representative confirmed the Sonata N-Line will be sold locally, although it will likely arrive about 18 months after the regular models reach showrooms in the second half of this year.

Price and equipment are also a long way from being confirmed, however Hyundai has already started testing suspension tuning on local roads.

The regular versions of the new generation Sonata are powered by 2.5-litre four-cylinder or 1.6-litre turbo petrol engines globally.

However, Australia will only get the 2.5-litre – in various trim levels – to replace the current model’s choice of 2.4-litre and 2.0-litre turbo petrol engines.

The only clue about the engine for the Sonata N-Line is that it is not an existing engine in any other Hyundai model – and it has been developed for the performance version.

It is unclear what the delay in the arrival of the performance Sonata N-Line will mean for NSW Police general duties response vehicles.

They currently have a sizeable fleet of Sonatas powered by a potent 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine which has more performance than the 2.5-litre non-turbo engine set to temporarily replace it until the Sonata N-Line arrives.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling

Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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