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Next Hyundai Elantra to debut at LA Auto Show

The next-generation Hyundai Elantra will debut at the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show, a company spokesperson confirmed to Autoblog. This comes just two years after Hyundai revealed the refreshed 2014 Elantra, pictured above, at the 2013 LA show. This will be an all-new Elantra, and while we don't have any more details as of this writing, we might have already seen the new sedan in leaked, Korean-spec form. Just last month, Indian Autos Blog posted this photo of what's said to be the 2016 Elantra, scheduled to make its debut in South Korea in the near future. And since Hyundai has a habit of debuting its new cars in Korea before bringing them to the US, there's a chance this new sedan might be destined for our shores. Of course, that's all speculation at this point. We'll know more later this year, likely before the new Elantra's official unveiling in Los Angeles this November.

Hyundai poaches another BMW M exec to run high-performance N division

Hyundai has poached a third executive for its N high-performance division from the ranks of BMW's M department. Thomas Schemera, a 31-year BMW veteran, will head the High Performance Vehicle & Motorsport Division that Hyundai just inaugurated on March 1. Schemera's job will be to "oversee strategy, product planning, sales and marketing for the new division." He will make the most of the transfer from Hyundai Motorsport to the road cars developed by the N division, and work to boost the brand. Schemera has the same boss at N that he did at M: Albert Biermann, the first M exec Hyundai snagged in 2015. After Biermann came Fayez Abdul Rahman, installed at the Genesis brand, who had previously developed platforms for the BMW 7 Series, X models, and M vehicles. Rahman spent the last phase of his BMW tenure in charge of M Equipment, M Sport Packages, and BMW Individual. Although he's undoubtedly busy with his VP job in charge of Genesis architecture development, we hear Hyundai plans to develop some kind of "N Sport" appearance and performance items for release later this year — a middle step in the same vein as M Sport and Audi S-line — and Rahman could certainly help. Schemera brings proven chops when it comes to moving standard and specialty hi-po offerings; as VP in charge of sales and dealer development in China, Schemera oversaw a four-fold increase in BMW and M sales in the four years from 2005-2008. He ended his run as head of BMW M and BMW Individual in the Americas. Although there's but one N product for sale now, the slate is full, and Hyundai looks ready to spend the time and money to seize every opportunity. BMW on the other hand, might soon turn into that tormented significant other regarding its M personnel: "So ... why did you let Hyundai like your Instagram post? Do you like Hyundai? Do you follow them back?!" Related Video: Featured Gallery 2019 Hyundai Veloster N: Detroit 2018 View 16 Photos Image Credit: Drew Phillips / Autoblog Auto News BMW Hyundai Performance bmw m albert biermann

Hyundai shows a mysterious coupe design in promo video

You never know where you'll find some interesting automotive news. In this particular case, we found some curious Hyundai info buried in an otherwise painfully boring Hyundai promo video. At about the 1:12 mark in the video, we see footage of a person working on a clay model of a car. It's low, sleek, and looks like it would only have two doors. It appears to have a liftback as well, and fairly aggressive vents in the back. Nothing else in the video indicates what the car is, though. However, we've got some educated guesses. One possibility is that this is a model for the successor to the recently departed Hyundai Genesis Coupe. The short deck and steeply raked rear window and pillars fall right in line with the styling of Hyundai's old sports car, not to mention the bulging rear fenders. Genesis has also made it clear that they intend to have a coupe to replace the old Genesis on sale by 2020. The luxury brand also has a small rear-drive platform in development in the form of the G70 on which it could base the coupe, along with some reasonably potent engines. Last we heard, the twin-turbo 3.3-liter V6 was under consideration. However, an argument against this being a Genesis coupe is that it would be odd to show a Genesis model in a Hyundai video. The companies are clearly trying to put space between each other, so including a Genesis vehicle in this video seems out of step with the two brands' goals. This brings us to the second possibility for this mystery coupe; that it must be a Hyundai of some sort. Hyundai has had very few coupe or coupe-like vehicles in its past. The Tiburon is long dead, thanks to the aforementioned Genesis Coupe, which will have a Genesis-branded successor. The Veloster is coupe-like and due for replacement, but recent spy photos show that it will look more like the current model and not the clay vehicle in the video. That leaves us with just one other coupe it could be: the Elantra coupe. It was killed off for the 2015 model year, but Hyundai might take another stab at it. If the company offered it exclusively with the turbocharged 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, it could attract a small enthusiast base, with the added advantage that, aside from the Civic Si, it would be the only sporty front-drive coupe on the market. Of course, it could also be something entirely new that isn't connected to any previous Hyundai or Genesis product.