The N Vision 74 celebrates a Hyundai concept lost to time, the 1974 Pony Coupe concept designed by the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro. Part retro, part race car in appearance, the N Vision 74 is a deeply personal project for Hyundai design chief SangYup Lee. “I’ve sketched N Vision 74 ideas for years,” he says. “I was even sketching them on the plane to Korea, on my way to start at Hyundai. I wanted to create a car that celebrated Hyundai’s roots.”
Although it was presented as one of Hyundai’s “rolling lab” concept cars, the N Vision 74 has a lot of production or near-production hardware under its skin. The company is has reportedly decided to build it in limited volumes to showcase its hydrogen fuel cell technology and capability. Hyundai’s construction equipment division is already building hydrogen-powered excavators, and the Hyundai Nexo is the only fuel cell car in production other than Toyota’s Mirai. The company believes hydrogen will be a major transportation fuel by 2040, powering trucks, buses, and trams, as well as cars.
Hyundai calls the N Vision 74 concept a hydrogen-electric hybrid vehicle because its powertrain uses electricity from both a hydrogen fuel cell and from a 62.4-kWh battery that can be plugged in and recharged just as in any normal electric vehicle. In city driving or freeway cruising, the 85-kW (net) fuel cell stack, the same unit as used in the Nexo fuel cell car, provides all the electricity needed to power two motors mounted at the rear wheels, one driving each wheel. On the track in high-load, high-demand conditions, the battery pack provides the bulk of the power to the motors.
Yes, we really want it, but we’re not buying them. At what we believe to be a $160,000 price, will the well-heeled sports car crowd with cash to burn spend that much on a Hyundai? One that’s a hydrogen-electric hybrid?
If something resembling what we’ve seen so far from Hyundai actually makes it to production, and we’re hearing that it will, we wouldn’t expect a production version of the N Vision 74 until calendar year 2026 at the earliest. What’s unlikely are the wild race, rally, etc., versions we’ve rendered here. Still, we can dream—and we’re willing to wait for whatever form the N Vision 74 takes.
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