2022 Hyundai i20 N 1.6L Turbo Manual Review

The Hyundai i30 N hot hatch was something of a shock upon its release in 2017. Here was a product from a company that had never made a proper hot hatch before, using its own parts and development, that had created a wonderful hot hatch. Entertaining, quick, good value for money and relatively practical, the i30 N was a great first attempt. Now, Hyundai is focusing on applying that N magic to other products – we’ve seen the Kona N and i30 N Fastback. And finally, we’ve got a new baby hot hatch: the 2022 Hyundai i20 N. 

If you’re reading this from Europe, the i20 is nothing new, but in Australia, we’ve not received the i20 at all since the end of the first generation car’s demise in 2015. Now that Hyundai has an accomplished product line-up, it can charge enough money to overcome the poor exchange rates from Turkey, where the i20 is made. Just one spec is available for now, and Hyundai is definitely trying to stir the more affordable hot hatch market. But what is the i20 N like? Read on to find out. 

Price & Equipment: 9/10

Priced from $33,490 plus on-road costs (around $37,000 drive away), the 2022 Hyundai i20 N is very well equipped for the money, as you’d expect for a Hyundai product. 

Standard equipment includes 18-inch alloy wheels, LED lighting with front cornering lights, auto lights and wipers, half-leather/cloth upholstery with front sports seats, single-zone climate control, a 10.25-inch touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, digital radio, a 10.25-inch digital driver’s display, wireless phone charging, a seven-speaker Bose sound system, cruise control with a speed limiter, keyless entry and start, heated and auto-folding mirrors, selectable driving modes and a whole host of N details, such as a mechanical limited-slip differential, rev matching, launch control, badges, pedals, a bodykit with red highlights, a spoiler and an active exhaust.

Safety equipment includes six airbags, auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, lane keep assist with lane trace assist, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert (with automatic braking), auto high beam, speed sign recognition, driver attention monitoring, rear occupant alert, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera and an alarm. 

Paint options include ‘Performance Blue’, ‘Sleek Silver’ and our test car’s ‘Polar White’ as no cost options, while ‘Dragon Red’ and ‘Phantom Black’ are $595 extra. A black coloured roof and mirror caps, as was fitted to our test car, is also available for an extra $1,000.

Competitors to the 2022 Hyundai i20 N include the Ford Fiesta ST (around $38,000 drive away), Abarth 595 Competizione (around $39,000 drive away), Volkswagen Polo GTI (around $38,000 drive away) and Suzuki Swift Sport ($30,990 drive away). 

While the Abarth features comfortably less equipment than any of its rivals – it only just received auto lights and wipers and features like auto braking, let alone cruise control, aren’t available at all – the Swift Sport, i20 N and Polo GTI do feature similar amounts of kit. The Fiesta ST offers the most at this level with features like leather sports seats with electric adjustment, heated front seats and even Matrix headlights as standard. The i20 N features half leather seats and auto high beam, though not the other features. It does have more active safety kit though, with blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert (with auto braking) and lane trace assist standard.

The i20 N offers more kit than the Polo GTI though, though the Polo can be optioned with three packages that make it an almost $50,000 drive away proposition – these add more safety stuff, a sunroof that’s not available on competitors, leather seats, LED headlights, a better sound system and larger 18-inch wheels. But when the i20 N has all of it – bar the sunroof – as standard for $12,000+ less, why bother?  

Then there’s the Swift Sport, which is priced comfortably less than the i20 N. It does offer a reasonable amount of standard kit like auto braking, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring and auto high beam, but the i20 N does pump out almost 50kW more power from only 200cc more engine displacement, as well as featuring a lot more technology as standard.

Performance & Economy: 8/10

Under the bonnet of the 2022 Hyundai i20 N is a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine that pumps out 150kW of power and 275Nm of torque – though it can produce up to 304Nm through an overboost function. If that engine sounds familiar, it’s because it’s also used in the i30 N Line with almost the same outputs. The sole transmission for the i20 N is a six-speed manual, which is a great gearbox – the clutch operation could offer more feel, though. 

While not as characterful as the Fiesta ST’s three-cylinder donk or quite as punchy as the Polo GTI’s larger 2.0-litre engine, the engine in the i20 N is still more than punchy enough for a performance model – especially in the mid-range with the throttle floored when the overboost function kicks in. It’s surprisingly quick as well – Hyundai claims it’ll hit the benchmark 100km/h sprint in just 6.2 seconds, which is 0.5 seconds faster than both the Fiesta ST and Polo GTI and a full 1.2 seconds quicker than the Swift Sport.

One element we adore about the i30 N is its noise, thanks to its active exhaust and we’re happy to report that the i20 N’s exhaust is similarly good. It features three modes and also changes noise depending on what driving mode you’re in. For most hot hatch buyers, the pops and bangs will be more than enough aural character, even if the engine note itself isn’t the best on the market. 

Hyundai claims that the i20 N will use 6.9L/100km and we achieved a reasonable 8.4L/100km combined in our time with it. It features a 40-litre fuel tank and surprisingly, it can run on 91RON regular unleaded. Interestingly, the engine is Euro 6 emissions compliant – unlike pretty much every other Australian-spec Hyundai – and it features stop/start to better fuel consumption. 

Ride & Handling: 9/10

The larger i30 N is one of our favourite hot hatches, and in some ways, the i20 N is even better to drive. Why is that? Well, the i20 N takes a lot of what we like about the i30 N – its quick steering, wonderful handling and reasonable ride comfort – and distills it into a smaller and lighter package. As a result, we think the i20 N is even more fun behind the wheel than the i30 N – especially in N mode, which tightens up the driving even further. 

The first thing you notice about the i20 N’s dynamic package is its steering. It’s a touch more fluid than the i30 N’s heavy rack, which gives it a more linear feel from behind the wheel. But it’s similarly quick and pleasingly direct. The suspension does without the i30 N’s adaptive dampers and instead has a single setting for all driving modes. Around town, it can be quite firm and you certainly feel your fatty bits being jiggled around, but at higher speeds, it’s quite compliant and tackles bumps quite well. The body control instantly deals with bumps.

When shown some corners, the i20 N really comes alive, jumping effortlessly from corner to corner with strong tenacity. The sharp turn in, quick steering, good weight distribution and mechanical limited-slip differential mean that the i20 N corners very well indeed. Its lighter weight means that bumps can settle it more than the larger and heavier i30 N, but it’s certainly more fun and much more communicative than the Polo GTI. The Fiesta ST? Watch this space… 

Our only complaints from behind the wheel are the relative lack of visibility – a Polo is better in this regard – and somewhat loud road noise levels, but this is a performance version of a small car, so this is to be expected.

Interior & Practicality: 8/10

The interior of the 2022 Hyundai i20 N is a generally nice place to spend time. It feels modern, full of technology, comfortable, relatively practical and good quality – though no soft-touch materials feature on the dashboard or doors, and they would lift the ambience even further.

Centre of the cabin is a 10.25-inch touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital radio and satellite navigation with live traffic. It’s a great system to use thanks to its ease of use, good quality display and range of functionality – the N Mode configuration screen is particularly detailed, for example. Unlike Hyundais with Harman Kardon sound systems too, the seven-speaker Bose sound system is suitably punchy.

The i20 N’s cabin is reasonably practical for a small car with nicely sized door bins, a box underneath the sliding armrest, a handy wireless phone charging tray ahead of the gearbox, a reasonable glovebox and two nicely sized cupholders in the centre console.

Space inside the i20 N is positive with more room in the back seat than you’d think – headroom is fine for six-footers and legroom is much more more plentiful than the 595, Fiesta ST and Swift Sport, though not the Polo GTI as it has a touch more legroom.

The back seat also features small door bins, a centre storage tray, a USB charging port and map pockets – though no arm rest or air vents (like competitors). 

The boot of the i20 N measures a healthy 310-litres, which expands to 1,123L with the rear seat folded flat – the Fiesta ST offers just 1-litre more space at 311L, while the Polo’s boot is slightly larger at 350L. The i20 N also has a dual-level boot floor, side storage and some hooks and tie down points for greater practicality. Under the boot floor is a space saver spare wheel. 

Service & Warranty: 8/10 

Like other Hyundai products, the 2022 Hyundai i20 N comes with a five-year/unlimited km warranty with up to five years of roadside assistance. As with other Hyundai N models, the warranty covers track use and like other N models, the i20 N’s service intervals are once yearly/every 10,000km and five years/50,000km of servicing costs a reasonable $1,545. 

The i20 N’s short 10,000km service intervals are shared with Swift Sport ($1,475 to service over five years), while the Fiesta ST ($1,556 over five years to service), Abarth 595 (a big $3,285 to service over five years) and Polo GTI (a massive $3,507 over five years) can go 5,000km further between each service. 

The 2022 Hyundai i20 N DiscoverAuto Rating: 8.4/10

The 2022 Hyundai i20 N is a great car that brings another automotive performance option to the masses. It combines strong performance, wonderful handling, reasonable practicality, good value for money and a big sense of fun to the market with a Performance Blue-tinted bang. It takes what we love about the i30 N and puts all of that into a smaller, more accessible package – but crucially, it’s even more fun to drive and still uses a nicely loud exhaust for great effect.

It’s not perfect – it could have a touch more standard kit like the Fiesta ST, it could have a slightly more characterful engine, it could have a touch more sound deadening and the ride can be quite firm for everyday use. But these are niggles in an overall wonderful package that certainly takes the fight to hot hatch rivals. But like the i30 N, all of this is largely a surprise as Hyundai is not a company that’s known for its performance cars. But with this, the i30 N and Kona N – and with more coming – we think that it’s not long until performance is another attribute that Hyundai can add to its product resume. Keep them coming!