PAST FORWARD

Hyundai has been looking at its history to help push the boundaries of eco-friendly tech, as two of its latest prototypes reveal. Mike Duff drives them

- Mike Duff

While EVs have been developing at what feels close to an exponential pace, other new automotive tech hasn’t been hanging around either. It’s nine years since I last drove a hydrogen-powered Hyundai, that being the ix35 Fuel Cell which was being used to prove the concept of automotive LH2 with laps of the M25. It had the urge to keep up with motorway traffic, but there was little to spare: anything other than brief requests for acceleration created the sensation of output dropping as the fuel cell struggled to meet demand. By way of some contrast, today’s showing of the 670bhp N Vision 74 ‘rolling lab’ demonstrator includes not only a race track but also at some jaunty drift angles.

Despite its roll cage, the N Vision 4 can’t mask its Stinger roots

The retro-styled N Vision 74 is definitely the star of Hyundai’s ‘N Day’ at Bilster Berg in Germany, but it’s not the only highlight. In a demonstration of the company’s ability to push on multiple fronts when it comes to next-generation performance tech, we were also able to experience the RN22e, which comes pretty close to previewing the powertrain of the forthcoming Ioniq 5 N – and which, if anything, turns out to be slightly more exciting.