N follows M: Hyundai has recruited Thomas Schemera from BMW, where he previously headed the M division for the Americas.

HYUNDAI has announced the creation of its new high-performance vehicle & motorsport division, which will be headed by former BMW executive Thomas Schemera.

The new division has been created to streamline Hyundai’s strategy, product planning, sales and marketing capabilities for its high-performance vehicle operations, and is designed to maximise cooperation between headquarters and the company’s motorsport arm.

Mr Schemera will work alongside Albert Biermann, who has spearheaded Hyundai’s N skunkworks division and currently holds the title of president and head of performance development and high-performance vehicle development at the South Korean brand.

Like Mr Biermann, Mr Schemera made a name for himself as a BMW employee, operating in a variety of roles across the world.

The 55-year-old Germany native started at BMW as a designing engineer in 1987, working a number of positions until 2005 when he was made the vice-president of sales and dealer development at BMW mainland and greater China.

During his four-year tenure in China he oversaw a four-fold increase in sales of BMW and BMW M models.

In 2009 he was made vice-president of sales, marketing and driving experience at BMW M in Germany, a role he held until 2014 when he moved to head of BMW M and BMW Individual in the Americas, the role he held prior to his move to Hyundai.

Mr Biermann said that Mr Schemera would add a wealth of experience, particularly dealing with high performance vehicles, to the Hyundai family.

“Thomas Schemera is one of the most renowned experts in the high-performance vehicle business with experience in all of the world’s major markets,” he said.

“I am excited he is joining us and I’m confident that his participation will help put Hyundai’s high-performance vehicle business onto the fast track.”

Mr Schemera said he was looking forward to joining the South Korean car-maker’s team.

“I am thrilled to join Hyundai Motor, which is presenting incredible prowess in its high performance technologies through models like the i30 N, despite being relatively new to this competitive scene,” he said.

“I will dedicate my expertise and knowledge obtained over my three-decade career to making a significant contribution to Hyundai’s development in this field and to provide pure driving pleasure to our customers.”

The first model to emerge from Hyundai’s N division is the hotly-anticipated i30 N, which will hit Australian showrooms in April wearing a pricetag of $39,990 plus on-roads.

Powering the i30 N is a turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine pumping out 202kW/353Nm, driving the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox.

The N range will be bolstered by the addition of an i30 fastback version and performance-fettled Veloster coupe, which both use the same powerplant as the i30 N.

However, Hyundai plans to develop the Veloster N in left-hand-drive configuration only, meaning an Australian debut is still up in the air.

Hyundai has said that it plans to further expand the N performance line-up in the future.

By Robbie Wallis