Report: Hyundai establishes their own performance brand in lieu of WRC participation

Hyundai is on the road to introducing their own performance brand, similar to how Nissan has their Nismo performance branch, following a new program cementing the South Korean automaker’s entrance into the World Rally Championship.

According to Australia’s Drive.com, the first project on hand for Hyundai Motorsport is their i20-based WRC car, which will influence a new range of performance road car models.

“The idea of Hyundai was to connect the experience, engineering-wise, of the sport program with high performance concepts,” Hyundai Motorsport’s Michel Nandan said.

Production models were told to be at least a year away, though the first performance model will be based off of the next generation i20 model in 2015.

Source: Drive.com.au