The Hyundai Elantra N is one of the greatest performance bargains you can get right now. Not only is it quick and sensibly priced compared to the Honda Civic Type R and Toyota GR Corolla, it’s more engaging than either thanks to an incredibly playful chassis and a glorious array of intoxicating noises. It drives with the sort of polish and communication you’d expect from a high-end machine, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for Hyundai to take it up another heat level, at least north of the border. Canada is getting a hotter, special-order Hyundai Elantra N, and there are no public plans for it to make its way stateside yet.
When the Elantra N TCR Edition was first unveiled last year, I reckoned it would probably make its way to North America in 2025, but that was before all the craziness kicked off. You know what’s delightfully boring at times? Living in Canada. Sure, the bags of milk used in some provinces are weird, and most of us have to store our fun cars out of the snow for half the year, but hey, the flow of cars into the country from Asia and Europe shall continue as normal.
Of course, it also helps that Canada is a fairly big market for Hyundai, and indeed, the N brand. Not only does Hyundai have the third-greatest Canadian market share out of all automakers, more than 5,000 high-performance models have found homes across the country. Not a bad feat considering a population roughly comparable to California. As such, it makes perfect sense to take one of the Great White North’s favorite sport compact cars and turn up the wick a touch.
Let’s start with the obvious: A wing large enough to be visible on satellite imagery. Ideally, you want to keep the underside of a wing as uncluttered as possible for maximum effectiveness, so Hyundai’s gone with a gargantuan carbon fiber swan neck setup with an adjustable angle of attack. A thoughtfully branded blanking plate fills in the middle hole left by the standard spoiler’s dismissal, but you probably won’t notice due to the sheer visual impact of this new table-sized aerodynamic element.
While more downforce is appreciated, it’s the upgraded brakes that you should really be able to notice at sensible speeds. Sliding single-piston front calipers give way to four-piston fixed calipers clamping two-piece front discs. It’s essentially an N Performance kit available as an accessory in Korea, and while owners have reported that the post-facelift forged wheels fit around these larger calipers, Hyundai’s designed a new set of 19-inch forged wheels to draw a little visual inspiration from the actual TCR racecars. These chunky Y-spoke units look stout, although other markets get a white finish that really makes them pop.
Beyond the handful of mechanical changes, the Elantra N TCR also gets a bunch of fun cosmetic touches. The front seat belts are dyed in the N division’s signature Performance Blue just like they were on the Veloster N, the steering wheel, shift knob, handbrake lever, and center armrest are finished in soft Alcantara, sill plates and floor mats from the N Performance catalog join the party, and special emblems and puddle lamps denote that this is, indeed, the TCR Edition.
By now, you’re likely curious as to what sort of premium does this wing-endowed Elantra N carry? Well, while Canadian pricing for the regular 2026 Elantra N isn’t out yet, the TCR Edition carries a price tag of $50,158 Canadian including fees for the manual model and $51,758 for the DCT-equipped variant. For context, the 2025 Elantra N starts at $42,759 Canadian including freight and fees, and while the same sort of routine price increase just about every car experiences when a new model year rolls around is expected for 2026, the TCR Edition will likely carry a premium of several thousand dollars.
So, any word of the Hyundai Elantra N TCR Edition making it south of the border? Not yet. Hyundai’s American media site indicates that the 2026 Elantra N is a carryover model with no changes, and doesn’t mention a special edition model at all. On the one hand, it would be a shame if this even hotter Elantra N doesn’t make it to America, but the Canadian pride in me wouldn’t be too mad.
(Top graphic image: Hyundai)
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Wow, these cars are ugly as hell
Somebody left part of a shipping crate on that car.
I see more Elantra N’s around town than Type R’s, GRC’s, and even new gen Si’s, the performance for dollar seems to be pretty right for them, and I drive one and it was a blast. But I can’t own a Hyundai product…saw too many engine failures…
They are a cool car but there is a reason you’re paying more for a Honda.They are a better car and are still worth something after 3 years.
Sounds like a lot of parts that can be slapped on in the USA. New wheels and brakes? Easy. Stupid-looking foil in the back? Stupid-easy. All the special tags on the car to denote it is SOOOO different from the regular version? Eh. 3D-print those things.
Not one mention of HP or other performance specs on this or a standard Elantra N (even though they’re probably the same). Seems like a key thing to include when talking about a plussed up performance car, regardless if it’s been enhanced or not. :thumbsdown:
These engines are near their limit from the factory. It’s hard to get much more power out of them without blowing them up. I’d imagine that’s why they don’t appear to be trying to get mo powaaaa out of these.
Seems like Hyundai engines blow themselves up just fine.
Harsh, but fair
I would almost suggest they do some engine upgrades then.
But honestly if the Theta 2 was replaced 2.5 Smartstream they could see 300 HP without a lot of fuss. they already make a FWD Smartstream hitting around 290 HP and the RWD Genesis version is rated at 300 all day.
There’s an oil slick in my driveway still from when my girlfriend’s 2019 Elantra engine blew up. She did everything right, checked oil daily and made repeat visits to the dealer to express concerns, and still it blew up–AND despite the factory warranty, Hyundai forced her to use her private extended warranty, which charged her $900. My brother-in-law’s 2018 Elantra engine blew up. A friend of mine had her 2016 Elantra engine blow up. Those are the only 3 people I know who own Elantras, and all 3 of the had blown engines in 5 years or less. That’s a big “no thanks” from me. Hyundai can sell an N with 500hp and a manual transmission for $25,000 if they want, but I’ll still buy an Si or GLI over these motor-blowing heaps of garbage. I think Hyundai should pay to clean and reseal my driveway, by the way.
Do you want me to get Hyundai on the phone for you?
I have a better idea. Take a couple of deep breaths. Feel your feet on the ground. Let the relaxation flow through you from your feet to your head. That’s nice, isn’t it?
My sister had a 2006 Elantra. The powertrain, minus the clutch, was as reliable as an anvil but the rest of the car failed with an alarming regularity.. Then my uncle, Adrien, had a 2016 Elantra that was the other way around. Nothing failed on that car, ever, except the engine.. 3 of them.. both, however, had severe rust issues as a constant.
My uncle and two cousins also bought various Hyundais within the last 10 years and all 3 had engine failures, though they were all warrantied. Anecdotal, but that’s a pretty piss poor record here and worse than my experience with people who owned ’00s VWs.
As a mid 30s buyer of two consecutive hot hatches in this class I must admit that I really, really do not understand the appeal of massive wings. Even the best ones tend to look like something that was slapped on in an Autozone parking lot and this one is no exception. If you’re a high school kid or early 20s boy racer type then I sort of get the appeal in the way I get the appeal of gigantic fake boobies…if you’re young and dumb and operate solely on impulses then they’re an instant, appealing distraction.
But for the folks who actually buy this stuff? I don’t really see the appeal…and maybe I’m wrong and there are a bunch of youths buying the Ns and CTRs and whatnot but statistically speaking I don’t think that the sort of folks this appeals to can drop $40,000+ on a spicy compact.
With that out of the way, the brakes are a meaningful upgrade. The stock N brakes are one of the weaker points of these cars and the stopping distances they provide are on the low end of decent. Hyundai opted for putting in house brakes from larger vehicles on these and painting the calipers red as a cost saving measure. The N division framed it as a positive that will save owners on consumable costs, but we all know that’s bullshit.
The CTR, performance Golfs, and performance trim WRXs all out brake the Ns…and since I have performance all seasons on mine they’re even worse, and the longer stopping distances are a little nerve wracking driving in traffic. So the brakes are a worthy upgrade, but I’m not sure if better brakes, a hideous wing, and an appearance package are worth the up charge…especially when that up charge puts you in the Civic Type R price realm.
Even as an N owner I can acknowledge that that’s a superior car in pretty much every way, and I think one of the things that has made the Ns fairly successful is that they get you like 90% of what the next class up offers in a similar price range to the GTI and SI. But once they cost nearly as much as a CTR or Golf R they’re not as competitive….
At least they left a hole on the trunk lid for those sensible buyers who decide to put a more restrained spoiler in the place of that obnoxious abomination (which, to my tired eyes, looks like it’s on backwards).
I do still love that blue color.
To play devils advocate, I have seen a large number of Elantra N’s with some horrendously tasteless modifications, and heavily modified Challengers and Chargers has shown that there are more people with zero taste and a high enough credit score that would absolutely LOVE these sort of mods from the factory. I suspect it’ll be low enough volume that they’ll sell out, Hyundai and Kia have shown to be fairly on the pulse with what their customers want.
Oh we’re already losing Ns to the tooner wars left and right too. Every now and then I browse listings for Kona Ns to get an idea of what my car is worth (spoiler: it’s like $13) and a solid quarter of them are completely roached out already. 60,000+ miles, engine bays that look like a 5th grade science project, accidents on the CarFax, no service history, etc.
I saw a 2022 Elantra N with 120,000 miles on it. I’m not even sure how you pull that off…suffice to say, you may be right. I also think the Ns are just cheap enough and Hyundai’s dealerships/finance departments are shady enough that it’s not hard at all to get approved for one.
And with enough dealership math I’m sure they can make $500 a month happen for even the most suspect applicants….who are probably showing up with trunks full of Temu performance upgrades on delivery day.
If it was bought in winter of ’21 or early ’22 I can see how. I was averaging 45k miles/year commuting until March of this year.
I really like what Hyundai is doing with their N division these days, giving Honda and Toyota run for their money with these performance models. But…
“Hotter”? “Turning up the wick”? Hardly. The TCR is a wheels, brakes, and wing package. It looks nice but I can see why this won’t be offered in the US. $9k for a visual upgrade is a tough pill to swallow on a $40k-ish car.
Send us a touring version… same car without that WANG
All that downforce should really pay off in the Timmy’s drive through. :ROLL:
Nah. It’s getting to Timmy’s where it’ll be useful.
Yep. In 40KPH/25MPH stop and go traffic.