Hyundai is willing to pay a heavy price to keep its petrol-powered N performance cars for as long as possible.
The company is one of several high-profile brands that is facing stiff financial penalties from the government for failing to meet the New Vehicle Efficiency Standards (NVES) CO2 targets laid down. But Hyundai Australia chief operating officer, Gavin Donaldson, said this was largely impacted by the brand’s high-performance models, the i20 N, i30 N and i30 Sedan N, all of which use turbocharged petrol engines and therefore produce higher CO2 emissions than hybrid or electric models that the government would prefer car companies focus on.
But Donaldson said this is an acceptable situation for local management, which deliberately ordered extra shipments of the i20 N and i30 N to ensure on-going supply as both models are in the process of being phased out globally.
“Obviously whenever you’re in a deficit, you wouldn’t be happy, but I have a great saying inside our business – the devil’s in the detail,” Donaldson told Torquecafe. “So when you analyze it, I think we were 4.1, 4.2 million give or take.
“We have a brand – N. And it’s one of our favorite brands. So for us to keep that brand alive, we elected to bring in a lot more N product in 2025. We want to keep that N brand going. And if you look at N alone, it was probably about a 5.1 million penalty.
“So if you take N out, we probably would’ve been in credit. So for us, it’s probably more of a, I don’t want to call it a marketing exercise, but for us there’s a strong brand that for us, we are happy to keep going. We did order up some extra cars at the back end of the early part of last year to bring them in at the back end of 2025, knowing that they’ll impact our penalties and credits but if you really deep dive into it, it’s N related, but that’s a positive for us.”
Hyundai had previously planned to shift the focus on N to electric models, such as the Ioniq 5 N, but has since changed its mind and vowed to continue to offer petrol-powered performance models, although they will likely be hybrids in order to meet emissions laws around the world.
Hyundai remains focused on expanding its range of electric vehicles too, introducing the new Elexio mid-size SUV as well as cutting the price of the Kona Electric. Selling more EVs would provide the company with ‘credits’ under the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard that can then be used to offset the less-fuel efficient models.
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