Hyundai Might Have Just Teased A Production-Spec N Vision 74

This is a bold statement but one that seems defendable: No other concept car since the Lexus LF-LC has hit with the sheer shock and awe of the Hyundai N Vision 74. Reinterpreting Giugiaro’s folded paper styling language to envision a silhouette racer for the cyberdystopic age resulted in an instant hit, a car that captivated anyone with ’80s nostalgia. In the nearly three years since the unveiling, a question of whether or not Hyundai would build it for real hovered over the project for most of that time, as fans held their collective breath.

In early 2023, VP of N Brand management and Motorsport Till Wartenberg said to us, “My personal wish is to produce this vehicle,” adding that “It’s at first probably an investment, but if we could see this vehicle really out there and people buying it, I would be very happy.” The hype this generated was off the scale, but it wasn’t a confirmation for production.

For the rest of 2023, there wasn’t official word one way or another, either. Plenty of rumors of the project being on or off, sure, but nothing to really build on. That would come in 2024 during Hyundai’s Investor Day presentation, where the company ever so briefly touched on plans to build the N Vision 74 into a production car by 2030. A potential seven-year timeline from concept to production is fairly long, it seems like some sort of progress is being made.

In the trailer for a new documentary called “The Great Heritage — CAR,” Hyundai let camera teams into its design studio, an exceptionally rare thing to happen given how shrouded in secrecy future automotive plans are. Any unintentional leak of potential future product is an opportunity for competitors to pounce. As a result, many things in the trailer are blurred out, but an interesting thing happens around the one-minute and five-second mark in the video.

At that point, we get a brief shot of the N Vision 74 concept parked next to something red, or maybe red-orange. While the blurring is fairly comprehensive, the red thing very clearly has a similar front valence silhouette to the N Vision 74 parked next to it, along with a decidedly wedge-shaped front end and a fairly long dash-to-axle ratio. Two things are implied here — firstly, this shot and the juxtaposition of these two objects is intentional. Secondly, Hyundai seems to be working on a further development of the N Vision 74, seeing as nothing else in the lineup shares that front end.

Is this the production-spec car we’ve been waiting for? Maybe, maybe not. It could be a further development of the concept on a revised platform and with a revised powertrain. The initial prototype was built on a modified version of what Hyundai calls its M2 platform, the same bones underneath the Genesis G70. It’s a good sedan platform, but it’s fairly heavy for sports car duty and doesn’t have any electrified applications right now. In addition, the hydrogen-BEV hybrid powertrain in the prototype is incredibly cool, but hydrogen infrastructure isn’t widespread, so don’t take the possibility of a different powertrain off the table yet.

However, judging by how little this teaser reveals, who’s to say it’s not teasing a production-spec version of the N Vision 74? We can’t rule it out at this point, and if Hyundai is following through and building a flagship coupe by 2030, development should be relatively far along if a running prototype was built in 2022.

(Lead photo credit: Hyundai)

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