Why Australia is an important market for Hyundai N

Hyundai N was first established as a division of the South Korean carmaker in 2012, and ever since it introduced its first road-going model in Australia in 2018 it has been going from strength to strength.

Speaking at a recent media event for the new Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, Hyundai N vice president Till Wartenberg said Australia is a “very important market for us” where “there’s a lot of driving enthusiasts”.

In the five years Hyundai has offered its track-ready N and sporty-looking N Line models in Australia, the sales split has grown from 1 per cent to 28.8 per cent according to June 2023 year-to-date sales.

Local sales of full-fat N models has grown every year since 2020. There were 698 Hyundai N models sold in 2020, 1896 examples sold in 2021, and 3899 examples sold in 2022.

This year to the end of June there have 2474 Hyundai N models sold, meaning if the trajectory continues it could be yet another record year for Hyundai’s sportiest models locally.

Currently the top-selling full-fat N model offered locally is the i30 Sedan N with 1055 examples sold this year until the end of June. This is followed by the i30 N hatch (610 sales), Kona N (533 sales), and i20 N (276 sales).

It’s worth noting orders for both the i20 N and i30 N hatches are currently closed right now, though Hyundai Australia chief operating officer recently told CarExpert a “solution” is coming before the end of 2023.

The outgoing Kona N is currently in runout too with no confirmation of a next-generation model yet.

Branching out to include the sporty-looking Hyundai N Line models, the current top-selling N Line model is the Tucson N Line with 4932 examples sold this year to the end of June.

This is followed by the i30 N Line (1819 sales), i30 Sedan N Line (931 sales), Kona N Line (547 sales), plus the Sonata N Line (163 sales).

Australian buyers appear to be quite fond of the racy-looking Hyundai Tucson N Line, as almost 46 per cent of local Tucson buyers are opting for the package.

39.5 per cent of Australian i30 Sedan buyers are opting for the full-fat i30 Sedan N, and another 34.8 per cent are opting for the i30 Sedan N Line. This brings N and N Line variants to 74.3 per cent of total i30 Sedan sales.

While Hyundai hasn’t announced an N version of its second-generation Kona, it will be offered in N Line trim across petrol and hybrid variants locally.

The updated Sonata N Line is due to launch locally in the second half of 2023 and will continue to be the only member of the local mid-sized sedan range, and the updated i30 Sedan N will arrive later this year.

Hyundai N also recently announced its first electric vehicle (EV), the Ioniq 5 N, which is due to launch locally in the first half of 2024.

Australian Hyundai N and N Line sales are as follows: