At the launch of the Hyundai i30 hybrid sedan I met Tim Rodgers, Product Planning and Product Development Manager at Hyundai Motor Company Australia, and found out that he was heavily involved in the development of the revolutionary IONIQ 5 N electric supercar which is blowing people’s minds at racetracks around the world.
So how do you turn a love of cars and motor racing into a role as part of a global development team spending time at Nürburgring, with a blank canvas to design the IONIQ 5 N?
After attempting mechanical engineering at university, where he admits he was probably too young and not quite ready for the demands of study, he found himself in a dealership which was the right industry but still not the perfect fit.
He does come from a motorsport family. His Dad ran Subaru Rally Team Australia and these connections brought them both to Hyundai Australia working on local tuning programs and other projects.
It was the first generation Veloster FS in 2011 that started the journey with Rogers sweeping floors and taking notes from drivers that were relayed to the engineers. He described his role as an assistant but that opportunity, and years of experience already gained by watching his Dad at work with various rally teams, laid the foundations for what was to come a decade later in Germany.
“I’m lucky where I’m at now,” says Rogers. Because I’m sort of doing two roles. Every day is a different day. And so 50% of my work is the product planning stuff. And that’s managing model lines looking into the Hyundai crystal ball coming up with the strategies that fit into our ambition and projects and technology portfolio. And then ultimately bringing the car to market and managing that. So that’s half of my role.”
“Then the other half is the development side. It’s really getting hands on with R&D about physical products, especially RNH (Ride, Noise, Harshness), which is my speciality.”
“I’ll get drawn in pretty early to take a look at some of the initial concepts engineering wise, and just playing them out. And then when it starts to, you know, when rubber starts hitting the road, I’ll get called in to start driving the cars and feeding back and iterating on some design work. It can be anything from a little passenger car that we might be taking into a market all the way through to IONIQ 5 N.”
For the development of the IONIQ 5 N, Rogers was invited to join the global development team and expected to be humbled by the experience and knowledge of the other engineers involved in the project. In comparison, previous projects were only minor tweaks for the local market. But in this project they were challenging everything, and Rogers found himself working with peers using the embedded expertise that had been developing from a young age.
“Second visit, I got to get on the ring as a passenger. I got to sit alongside some of the engineers cutting laps,” shared Rogers with his eyes as large as saucers reliving the experience.
“Man, the talent is incredible and just being on track during an industry pool session. That was a pinch me moment right there. You know, seeing all the other engineers in other cars doing laps around you and doing their work, and then yeah, like, a real pinch me moment. I was like, I think I got my dream job.”
Rogers is really proud of the finished product. The IONIQ 5 N has made him rethink what a car can do. It’s an EV that weighs more than a track performance car should. It has so much power and torque that should put it beyond the capabilities of most drivers. On paper it doesn’t make sense yet somehow Rogers and the global team of Hyundai engineers have delivered a beautifully compliant car with excellent body control that is incredibly nimble and agile for its mass and ridiculous amounts of power.
“So I think it’s game changing in a very, very positive way. I think this car will shatter everyone’s expectations,” stated Rogers.
“You can read the numbers and come up with an idea of what it is in your head. Read all this fantastic stuff about the car, come up with an idea and still hop in it and go; Oh, it’s totally different. And that was me when I first hopped in the car. It totally shattered my expectations.”
“So even though it had these crazy power figures, it wasn’t intimidating. It was approachable and accessible performance. And even though it was heavy, you could move it around and throw it around and play with it. Even though it had incredible grip. You could overcome it and test it.”
“All these things make it sound like I’m talking about a lightweight sports car. But it’s an EV! It just happens to be an EV and it completely shattered my expectations. It made me realise I’d probably have to rethink what I valued in a car. Maybe some of my thinking was wrong.”
