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New Hyundai Veloster N sports a big wing under its camouflage

Hyundai is deep into development of the second-gen Veloster, the follow-up to the odd asymmetric hot hatch. The first car was good, but it wasn't quite great, missing the mark on a number of details. In the intervening years, Hyundai products have improved across the board and no longer require any hedging or justification as a value proposition. Hopefully the same is true with the new car. The spy photos we have hear appear to show the Veloster N, the high performance version of the hatch. N is Hyundai's new in-house tuner. The group is working on a more powerful version of the i30, known in the US as the Elantra GT. Despite the camouflage, we can see that the Veloster in these photos has a number of upgrades that give away the N tuning. This includes large wheels, big brakes with red calipers, big exhaust outlets, and what appears to be a large Civic Type R-style wing. There are few other details we can make out, but the most obvious and notable is the asymmetric door setup. The car will have two doors on the passenger side and just one on the driver's side, just like the first model. We don't know how much power the car will make, but expect somewhere close to 250 horsepower from a turbocharged four-cylinder. Look for a full reveal sometime in the next year. Related Video: Featured Gallery Hyundai Veloster N spy shots View 16 Photos Spy Photos Hyundai Hatchback Performance hyundai veloster n

The new Hyundai Veloster will have a driver-focused interior

We've had a number of solid glances at the Hyundai Veloster's exterior while testing, but this is our first look at the car's interior. And it's a seriously good look. About the only thing hiding the dashboard is some snazzy zebra-print vinyl wrap. We can tell from these new spy photos that the Veloster's interior is more focused on the driver than other Hyundais. The center stack is canted slightly toward the driver, and it's a bit asymmetrical, favoring the person behind the wheel. At the top of the center stack is a large touch screen that protrudes from the dash, but it looks a bit more integrated than the screen found in the Elantra GT, as it's nestled between two air vents. We have reason to suspect this is a Veloster Turbo model, which may be renamed Veloster Sport to fit nomenclature used on the Elantra line. The steering wheel is leather-wrapped and has a metallic red accent in the bottom spoke, just like the wheel in the Elantra Sport models. The shifter also has an accent in the same red color as the one on the wheel. We doubt this could be a Veloster N, though, as the seats don't seem aggressive enough, and there don't appear to be any accents in the performance sub-brand's trademark light blue. We expect to see this interior fully revealed, along with the rest of the Veloster lineup, by the end of the year. It will be available in three versions, an entry-level model, a peppier Turbo or Sport version with the outgoing model's center exhaust and more aggressive looks, and a high-performance N model that will probably use the Elantra i30 N's 271-horsepower turbo engine. The Veloster N will also have the most aggressive looks, featuring a large rear wing. Related Video:

Foreign automakers pay from $38 to $65 per hour to non-union workers

As leaders for the United Auto Workers gather in Detroit for their Special Convention on Collective Bargaining to work out the negotiating stance for this year's new labor agreements with the Detroit 3 automakers, what they most want to do is figure out how to eliminate the two-tier wage scale. However, the lower Tier 2 wage has allowed the domestic automakers to reduce their labor costs, hire more workers, and compete better with their import competition. As it stands, per-hour labor rates including benefits are $58 at General Motors, $57 at Ford, and $48 at Fiat-Chrysler – a reflection of FCA's much greater number of Tier 2 workers. The Center for Automotive Research released a study of labor rates (including benefits) that put numbers to what the imports pay: Mercedes-Benz pays the most, at an average of $65 per hour, Volkswagen pays the least, at $38 per hour, and BMW is just a hair above that at $39 per hour. Among the Detroit competitors, Honda workers earn an average of $49 per hour, at Toyota it's $48 per hour, Nissan is $42 per hour, and Hyundai-Kia pays $41 per hour. The lower import wages are aided by their greater use of temporary workers compared to the domestics. Automotive News says the ten-dollar gap between those foreign camakers and the domestics turns out to about an extra $250 per car in labor, which adds up quickly when you're pumping out many millions of cars. That $250-per-car number is one that, come negotiating time, the Detroit 3 will want to reduce, as the UAW is trying to raise both Tier 1 and Tier 2 wages. Another wrinkle is that the domestic carmakers are considering the wide adoption of a third wage level lower than Tier 2. Some workers who do minor tasks like assembling parts trays kits and battery packs already make less than Tier 2, but the UAW will be quite wary about cementing yet another wage scale at the bottom of the system while it's trying to fight a bigger battle at the top. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req., BloombergImage Credit: AP Photo/Erik Schelzig Earnings/Financials UAW/Unions BMW Chevrolet Fiat Ford GM Honda Hyundai Kia Mercedes-Benz Nissan Toyota Volkswagen labor wages collective bargaining labor costs