If you haven’t been car shopping in a while, you might be surprised by one of the new car design trends: Hybrids are sporty now.
It was probably inevitable that automotive engineers would get us here. Two powertrains now equal more power.
It’s true of the signature hybrid — for the 2023 model year, the Toyota Prius got a glow-up that took it from the butt of jokes to a sinister-looking wedge with almost 200 horsepower.
And it’s true of cars you may not realize are hybrids now unless you see the badge. Case in point: the 2024 Hyundai Tucson N Line.
N and N Line
The Tucson, you may know, is Hyundai’s compact SUV. A competitor to the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V, it’s known for one of the most spacious interiors in its class, value pricing, and strong safety scores.
Hyundai’s N division may be newer to you. It’s an in-house performance shop that produces quicker, sportier versions of Hyundai products.
Some Hyundai offerings get true high-performance models that compromise some day-to-day livability to get track-day performance numbers. Those are called N models. The Elantra N, for instance, packs 276 horsepower in the kind of sedan where you expect half that much giddyap, but all kinds of bracing make it too stiff for drivers who don’t want something rigid.
Other Hyundai vehicles get weekend athlete editions that are sportier than the typical versions but are never meant for the track. Those are called N Line models. They often have sportier suspension modes and sometimes turbocharged engines but lack the kind of track-day enhancements that make a car a compromised commuter. The Tucson, beginning in 2022, got an N Line model.
The 2024 Tucson will also get an N Line model. But it’s a hybrid.
More Power, Lower Fuel Costs
The 2024 Tucson N Line will use a 1.6-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine mated to an electric motor to get 226 horsepower — 39 more than the standard Tucson. It also gains standard all-wheel drive (AWD), an added-cost option on other Tucson models.
As you’d expect from a hybrid, it’s also more fuel efficient. The N Line model now gets 37 mpg in combined driving — compared to 28 mpg from gas-powered models with front-wheel drive and 25 mpg from AWD models.
The 2024 Tucson N Line Hybrid AWD will start at $36,405, a $1,130 increase over the equivalent 2023 gas-only N Line model.
The entire Tucson lineup gets a few other improvements for 2024, including new rear side airbags, a lane-keeping system that vibrates the steering wheel to alert you when you’re drifting out of your lane, and standard blind-spot collision-avoidance tech.
