2024 Hyundai Elantra Gets New Look, Sharper N Model

Hyundai yesterday revealed a remodeled 2024 Elantra compact car with improved looks and a more agile high-performance N model for the 2024 model year.

The Elantra isn’t all-new for 2024. Automakers redesign cars completely about every seven years and give them a styling and technology refresh at the halfway mark between generations. The current Elantra was all-new for 2020, so this is the refresh. A full update is probably three to four years away.

As refreshes go, though, it’s an effective one.

The biggest visual change comes in the first few inches, and it makes an impact. The outgoing 2023 Elantra wore a fascia with slightly awkward proportions, with the nose seemingly pinched around a low-mounted grille. It looked fine in dark colors, but the brighter the paint, the bigger the schnozz appeared to get.

For 2024, designers have nixed it and fixed it. The new model gets what Hyundai is calling a “shark nose.” It wears a thinner grille. Above it, slim daytime running lights are connected by a thin, reflective metallic bar. Its big brother Sonata got an actual lighting element stretched across the face, and we wish Hyundai had done the same for the Elantra. But this is almost as good and light-years better than the old fascia.

The C-pillar (behind the rear doors) gets new aerodynamic sculpting. The taillights take on a more pronounced H-shape.

Hyundai hasn’t revealed pricing. The 2023 Elantra starts at $20,950 and pushes to nearly $33,000 for the high-performance N model. Hyundai also charges a mandatory $1,115 freight fee. We expect prices to increase with the updates, but not by much because Hyundai won’t want to lose the car’s competitive position.

Changes are subtle inside, with new soft-touch door panels, USB ports for rear-seat passengers, and Hyundai’s H-Tex faux leather now found on the Limited trim’s seats. There’s a new Wi-Fi hot spot, and Limited trim models now get a surround-view monitor and forward and reverse parking distance warnings.

Mechanically, Hyundai seems to have made no changes. So most Elantra shoppers can expect a 147-horsepower 4-cylinder engine and a continuously variable transmission. Buyers of the spicier (but not track-ready) N-Line get a turbocharged 1.6-liter 4-cylinder unit generating 201 horsepower.

Elantra Hybrid buyers get 139 total horsepower.

N buyers see more extensive changes.

Hyundai introduced a high-performance Elantra N in 2022 to compete with other spice-enhanced small cars like the Honda Civic Type R. It’s the kind of thing many automakers have stopped making as sedans have become a smaller portion of the American market — a car that’s reliable as a daily commuter but also capable of track performance.

For 2024, it continues with a 276-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine. It gets a 10-horsepower boost for 20 seconds at the touch of a steering wheel-mounted button.

Power goes through either an 8-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission or, in a wonderful throwback, a 6-speed stick.

Power stays the same, but there are handling enhancements galore. They include a change to the steering gearbox yoke meant to sharpen steering response, reduced friction in the steering universal joint to sharpen steering response, and reinforced G bushings to sharpen steering response. Picking up on a theme yet?

The power steering software was updated to … you get it by now.

Sturdier engine mounts should reduce vibration when the powerplant is working hard.

The compact sedan class is a competitive place, with excellent choices like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla vying for your attention. The Elantra has always carved out its niche with value and a 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty that makes Hyundai products good long-term investments. The new model should keep those advantages and add more cosmetic appeal.

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