► Hyundai tech centre head talks sports cars
► Manuals and analogue controls are unwanted, he says
► ‘I don’t understand the idea that sports cars are dying’
He’s been working in the car industry for 40 years, but Hyundai’s European technical chief is no misty-eyed old sentimentalist.
Tyrone Johnson, the Ford veteran who now runs the Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Centre in Germany, says the Ioniq 5 N is hard to beat for sheer driving pleasure.
He understands that some petrolheads are reluctant to make the change to electric, but he thinks they’ll be won over – after all, drivers have proved repeatedly that they’re happy to embrace new technology when it’s effective.
‘Nobody wants manual gearboxes and handbrakes any more, or analogue instruments –our combustion cars and EVs have very similar interfaces,’ he told CAR. The widely praised synthetic gearshift in the Ioniq 5 N was, he noted, modelled not on a manual ‘box but on a DCT paddleshift system. The system will take a step forward in the 6 N, about to be launched.
And he marvelled at the breathtaking pace of progress – in 10 years, EVs had advanced as much as combustion cars in 100.
In his 40 years, cars had gone from zero software to being defined by their software. ‘You can do some really clever things. In suspension, a lot is happening, with software and mechanically. It’s going to be quite interesting.’
He also noted the change in expectations: now, everyone in a car expects the journey to be a pleasant experience, not just the driver. Hot hatches still had their place, but a much larger car like the Ioniq 5 N was roomy enough to be practical and comfortable for five, while also being thrilling for the driver.
Johnson, who was involved in Ford and Jaguar F1 operations, and with the Focus in WRC, said: ‘I’m a performance guy. I did the first Mustang Shelby [the 1992 SVT Mustang]. I don’t understand the idea that performance cars are dying. If you want to go fast, there’s nothing better than an EV. I don’t understand the nostalgia.’
Most combustion performance cars were, he said ‘miles away – a disappointment’ compared to the 5 N.
He added: ‘I can understand that some people want to have the sounds, vibrations, things like that. Those sensory inputs help the human brain understand what’s going on in a car.’ Hence the artificial sounds piped into EVs.
His role as head of the Hyundai Motor Group’s European technical centre covers not just the Hyundai brand but also Kia, Genesis and the Genesis performance sub-brand, Magma.
‘There’s been so much innovation at Rüsselsheim and some major investment. Our new building opened a couple of months ago, and it gives us so much more possibility, and allows us to develop EVs. We’re going to be developing our own products in Europe. All [Genesis] Magma products will be developed in Europe, for the world – nothing will be developed in Korea.’
His job doesn’t just involve high-performance cars – he’s also responsible for teams exploring passenger-orientated innovations.
‘You mustn’t forget that a car is a commodity, and people will buy it for a lot of reasons, whether that’s its performance or because it has built-in shoe sanitisers. In 40 years there have been a lot of changes. I remember the old guys saying things like ABS and ESP would never make it. Maybe in 20 years you won’t be able to buy a car without shoe sanitisers, if the market feels that need.
Colin is the managing editor of CAR magazine – and the man responsible for production and getting the words and pictures on to the page in an engaging, intelligent and high-quality fashion.
By Colin Overland
CAR's managing editor: wordsmith, critic, purveyor of fine captions
