2021 Hyundai i30 N Teased With Refreshed Design

In February this year, Hyundai unveiled the facelifted i30 with an N Line wagon version and a new 1.5-liter turbo engine. Today, the South Korean company is making the first steps towards revealing the most powerful iteration of the overhauled model. Below are the first images of the refreshed i30 N which are accompanied by first tech details for the hot hatch.

Visually, the model is very similar to the pre-facelift version but there are a few major tweaks worthy of your attention. The bumpers are new and there’s also a new more aggressive central grille at the front. The modifications are even more visible at the back where there’s a more prominent diffuser with two integrated large exhaust pipes. New LED headlights and taillights, plus new 19-inch alloy wheels, round off the appearance upgrades.

Hyundai also informs us that the i30 N will benefit from a newly-developed eight-speed dual-clutch transmission with “dedicated N performance shifting functions.” The speedy hatch will be the first model of the company for the European scene to get the new gearbox and we should probably expect to see it in other performance Hyundais in the near future.

At this point, it’s not clear whether the automaker has modified the engine of the i30 N but we bet our money the 2.0-liter unit under the hood will carry over to the facelifted model with no changes. This means the “base” i30 N will continue to pack 250 horsepower (184 kilowatts) while the Performance Pack will boost that number to a respectable 275 hp (202 kW). 

With the new transmission, we expect the hatch to shave off a few tenths of a second in the 0-62 miles per hour (0-100 kilometers per hour) acceleration. Our prediction is that the more potent variant will get closer to the six-second mark for the sprint, down from 6.2 seconds for the outgoing model.