The 2021 Hyundai Veloster N will eschew its manual-only status and offer an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, the automaker announced Wednesday. This new wet clutch unit will complement the six-speed manual moving forward, giving buyers a choice when the automatic version arrives in dealers this October.
Hyundai originally teased its inclusion back in April, but now it’s officially coming to the new model year. While we’ve seen seven-speed dual-clutch units in various models for a few years now, this is the first with eight gears going on sale here in the U.S. Hyundai says the transmission was fully developed in-house, while the engineers landed on a wet-clutch design to improve lubrication and cooling and to reduce parasitic drag on the powertrain. “
Beyond including the new transmission, the 2021 Hyundai Veloster N also gets the formerly optional Performance Package as standard equipment. That includes a standard mechanical limited-slip differential as well as “N Light” sports seats for the new model year, which are 4.4 pounds lighter than the previous seats. Hyundai’s standard safety suite including forward collision avoidance assist, lane keep assist, driver attention warning and rear cross-traffic warning are also standard equipment.
Since the Performance Package comes standard, the 2021 Hyundai Veloster N manages 275 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque. The dual-clutch transmission model, however, comes with what Hyundai calls the “N Grin Shift” function. That increases torque to 278 lb-ft for up to 20 seconds when activated though turbocharger overboost and more aggressive transmission mapping. Under hard acceleration, the 2021 Veloster N should manage the 0-60 sprint in 5.6 seconds, according to Hyundai estimates.
Hyundai has not announced pricing yet, but expect it to take a fairly substantial jump over the 2020 model thanks to all the standard equipment.
