Few cars have surprised and delighted us as much as the Hyundai Veloster N, which is a rip-roaring good time with its raucous turbocharged four-cylinder and dialed-in chassis. That same Hyundai N tuning — the full-blown N and not the comparatively watered-down N-Line — is coming to the Kona SUV, and the automaker has released a few details about the upcoming performance SUV.
Related: I Bought a 2021 Hyundai Veloster N
It may be a bit of a stretch calling the subcompact Kona an SUV, but it’s a high-riding hatchback with available all-wheel drive, so it counts in our books. What’s not a stretch, however, is that the Kona N could be the more usable, family-friendly hotter-than-hot hatch (or spicier-than-spicy SUV?) versus the funky three-door Veloster.
What We Know
The Kona N will come with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine making approximately 276 horsepower, according to Hyundai. That’s great news since the Veloster N’s 275-hp, turbocharged 2.0-liter is a wicked little engine with a snarling soundtrack and razor-sharp responsiveness that helped it earn our Most Fun-to-Drive award in 2020. Base versions of the Kona and Veloster actually start within 68 pounds of each other (2,890 pounds for the Kona SE versus 2,822 pounds of the Veloster), so we don’t expect an appreciably different power-to-weight ratio that would slow the Kona down much.