This sluggish hybrid crossover should have never carried a performance badge
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Is there any “pure” performance badge left? BMW slaps an “M” on a hybrid SUV and has the slowest time to 60 of its M lineup. Two Mercedes-Benz crossovers with “AMG” badges are even slower. And Akio Toyoda threw a Gazoo Racing badge and carbon fiber on the 4,400-pound Crown SUV in which he gets chauffeured around. Don’t worry, Hyundai is here to save the day with a streamlined N Line arsenal.
Many automakers have a performance division tuning track-ready sports cars. But it seems every performance lineup, built with blood, sweat, and tears, is doomed to eventually fall to some marketing team who says, “I bet we’d sell more Escalades with a ‘V Series’ badge.”
Thank goodness Hyundai’s killing its Tucson ‘N Line’ hybrid crossover
That’s why I want to applaud Hyundai’s decision to put the Tucson N Line hybrid crossover out of its misery. The hybrid Tucson N Line was a crossover with a lackluster 231 horsepower that took almost seven seconds to struggle to 60 mph. But not anymore. Hyundai’s putting this poor vehicle to sleep at the end of the 2025 model year.
Note that the “N Line” vehicles are a performance step down from the full-blown “N” vehicles.
Here in North America, we have full-blown N versions of the Elantra sedan and the Kona hot hatch. Fantastic little race cars, both. We also have the Ioniq 5 N, which is simply the most ferocious EV at its impressive price point ($66k). Like most EVs, it trounces its ICE competitors. I’m also looking forward to the smaller Ioniq 6 N sedan.
We also will continue to have “N Line” variants of the Sonata, Elantra, and Kona into 2026.
Hyundai is doing an excellent job putting its money where its mouth is. It hired BMW M division veteran Albert Biermann as the executive VP of performance. It is offering a lineup of fantastic performance vehicles. And now it’s cleaning house by cutting models such as the Tucson hybrid N Line, which bring the badge down.
