Hyundai’s Effort to Fire Up Competitor to BMW M, Mercedes AMG Gets Boost from Former BMW M Chief Engineer

For well over a year, Hyundai has contemplated how to tackle the performance car segment after announcing its new “N” sport-model series. Every option was on the table, from adding graphics and a louder exhaust to otherwise standard cars to using bigger engines from higher-positioned models, up to a full-fledged effort that would rival—at least in concept—BMW M GmbH, Audi Quattro GmbH, and Mercedes-AMG. It seems that Hyundai’s efforts are about to get a good strong kick in the shorts, as the automaker just announced the hiring of BMW M’s chief engineer, Albert Biermann.
To be stationed at Hyundai’s R&D center in Namyang, South Korea, Biermann will be responsible for the development of high-performance derivatives for the Hyundai and Kia brands; he is also tasked with the general improvement of ride and handling, as well as safety and comfort, of mainstream Hyundai and Kia models. The Koreans have made great strides in dynamics the past few years—look no further than the newest Genesis sedan—but they still have a ways to go before sporty competitors like Honda and Mazda have anything to worry about.
That said, we are excited over the prospect of high-performance models for the two Korean brands, which we fully expect to rival the offerings of the German competition, as well as Cadillac’s V-series and Lexus’s F models. “N,” by the way, is a moniker derived from the Namyang R&D center but it could also stand for “Nürburgring,” where Hyundai operates a new testing center.

But back to Biermann—clearly, Hyundai-Kia’s gain is BMW’s loss. With Biermann’s departure, BMW loses its second passionate car guy from top management ranks this month. Just two weeks ago, R&D chief Herbert Diess deserted BMW to head up the Volkswagen brand in Wolfsburg. Biermann, who is 57, apparently figured he wouldn’t have much of a career left at BMW when the company announced that outgoing M GmbH chief Friedrich Nitschke would be replaced by Franciscus van Meel (48 years young) on January 1, 2015 (a move we first reported in May 2014). At BMW, senior managers retire at 60, and it is a rule with few exceptions.
At Hyundai, Biermann will be the most prominent Western executive to be head-hunted after design chief Peter Schreyer abandoned VW for Kia. (Schreyer now heads up design for both Kia and Hyundai.) His hiring at Hyundai is serendipitous, for last year we were told that the automaker’s N models would attempt to emulate BMWs’ dynamics. To that end, Biermann’s crowning achievement at BMW might have been the current M3 and M4 with their downsized, turbocharged straight-six engine and bespoke manual transmission and steering system. We’d be okay with a little M3/M4 in some Hyundais. Would you?