Hyundai Planning to Launch Performance Brand on Back of WRC Program

HyundaiHyundaiRepublic of Korea, 1967 > present79 models
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has been growing steadily in Europe over the past decade, but it has not really tried to enter the performance car market. That is set to change in the near future with the company’s decision to use its return to the World Rally Championship with the i20 WRCHyundai i20 WRCRepublic of Korea, 2013 > present as a way to launch new performance cars for Europe.

Hyundai says the model for the performance brand is Nissan’sNissanJapan, 1932 > present159 models
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Nismo operation that operates mostly independently to create racecars and performance versions of its road cars. Setting up an operation like Nismo does not happen over night. Nissan created the company in 1984 when it merged its racecar and performance road car operations.  

“The idea of Hyundai was to connect the experience, engineering-wise, of the sport program with high performance concepts,” said Michel Nandan, team principal at Hyundai Motorsport.

The first of these new models will likely be a performance version of the i20 to link the car to the WRC rally car. The performance version will not see production until at least 2015, when Hyundai introduces the new generation i20.

“You attract and hold the attention of the younger people, which is the aim of Hyundai. So in the future they have decided they need to do something to make their brand younger and more dynamic,” said Alain Penasse, Hyundai Motorsport team manager.

The i20 WRC has been testing for the last year and will make its competition debut at the Rallye Monte Carlo in January. Its major competition will be the Volkswagen Polo R-WRCVolkswagen Polo R-WRCGermany, 2012 > present6 photos
that made its debut this year and has already won the drivers’ championship.

Source: Drive.au