Hyundai N was developing a mid-engined supercar but scrapped it

South Korean car maker Hyundai was planning a carbon-fibre, mid-engined supercar to rival the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren and Honda – but axed plans before the car ever saw the light of day.

Hyundai’s N performance division had long been rumoured to be working on a mid-engined ‘halo car’ to crown its line-up, and draw attention to its growing range of more affordable performance cars.

Former Hyundai N boss – now semi-retired, and an advisor for the company – Albert Biermann has revealed Hyundai was indeed planning a mid-engined flagship supercar, which would have been used to launch the N brand in 2017, instead of the i30 N hot hatch.

“We were working on an N supercar,” Biermann told Top Gear magazine in the UK. When asked if it had a name, he replied “Not really, we just used to call it The Chairman’s Car.”

The car would have been based around a carbon-fibre chassis, Biermann reportedly told Top Gear, with its engine placed in the middle – in line with exotic European rivals such as McLaren.

“We had plans for a petrol [engine] with or without hybrid, or [it could’ve have accepted] a hydrogen fuel cell,” Biermann told the publication.

Whether the car would have been rear- or all-wheel drive isn’t clear, though when asked by Top Gear if the supercar would have been “Hyundai’s answer to the Honda NSX” – an all-wheel-drive hybrid supercar, with a mainstream family-car badge – Biermann replied “Sure, but not boring,”

But plans were ultimately shelved before the supercar could make production, due to its price – which would have been almost three times higher than anything Hyundai has ever sold.

“The problem was the car would have cost over $150,000, and at that time it was thought a Hyundai could not have this price.” Biermann told Top Gear, referring to the reason why the Hyundai board cancelled the project.

News of Hyundai’s plans to build a supercar come after a long line of mid-engined concept cars from the South Korean company, starting with the RM14 in 2014 – and followed by the RM15, RM16, RM19 and electric RM20e in later years, all based on the Veloster hatchback.

The latest concept car is the Hyundai N Vision 74, a retro-styled two-door powered by a battery pack and hydrogen fuel cell, and drawing styling inspiration from Hyundai’s first concept car, the Italian-designed Pony Coupe of 1974.

Rumours in 2020 suggested Hyundai was developing a new 2.3-litre turbo engine for its N performance cars – and one was reportedly spied in another Veloster-based prototype, mounted in the middle of the car. However, this engine is yet to appear in a production car.

Instead of a supercar, Hyundai N has focused its line-up on more affordable performance cars – starting with the i30 N hatch, and expanding to the i30 Fastback N and i30 Sedan N four-doors, Kona N SUV, Veloster N small car, i20 N city hatch, and soon the Ioniq 5 N electric vehicle.