The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is a 641-horsepower, electric hot hatch.
All right, technically the Ioniq 5 is a small crossover, but you get the idea: EV performance has officially launched within Hyundai’s N division. The Ioniq 5 N made its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Thursday, and the Korean automaker has officially cranked up the juice beyond sister company Kia’s EV6 GT.
Instead of a measly 320 horsepower that you get with the standard Ioniq 5 — or indeed the 576 hp the EV6 manages — this new Hyundai Ioniq 5 N hatchback offers up 641 horsepower. So far as you use the “N Grin Boost”, a brief overboost feature with which conventional N drivers will be familiar, you get that impressive amount of grunt along with 567 lb-ft of torque. Even without that 10-second bit of extra oomph, this electric N still manages a cool 600 horsepower and 545 lb-ft of torque just left to its own devices. Thanks to that output, Hyundai says the hottest Ioniq 5 will manage 0-100 km/h in around 3.5 seconds (3.4 with the N Grin Boost). So, for 0-60, shave off a little bit from those figures.
Like the Kia EV6 GT, the new Hyundai Ioniq 5 N rides on the automaker’s E-GMP platform.
That enables an 800-volt electrical architecture to charge the car up at a speed up to 350 kW. According to Hyundai’s figures, that sort of DC fast charging rate lets you go from 10% to 80% state-of-charge in the 84-kWh battery in about 18 minutes.
Apart from the beefier electric motors, the all-wheel drive Hyundai Ioniq 5 N packs a lower, wider stance with different front and rear fascias. You also get larger brakes to slow everything back down again. To help out with that side of the equation, Hyundai says the regen system can actually generate a significant 0.6G of maximum deceleration, before you even need to get into the service brakes. Engineers 275-width Pirelli P-Zero performance tires on 21-inch wheels. Naturally, being a performance car, you get a thin veneer of a sidewall (35 aspect ratio), but that’s the price you pay to go much, much faster than your standard electric crossover.
Wider bumpers, front splitter and rear diffuser aside for a moment, engineers also worked on making the Ioniq 5 N feel different to the spirited driver than your everyday fast EV. The “N Pedal” braking system aims to help with weight transfer, which is an Achille’s heel for heavy electric cars that just want to push wide when you try to hustle them through the corners. The dual-motor setup also incorporates an electronic limited-slip differential and a system called “N Torque Distribution”, to move the power from front to rear and side to side as needed to make the best use of all the power.
Strangely, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has a different approach when it comes to how an EV feels to drive fast. The “e-shift” setup actually makes the car act like it has a conventional 8-speed dual-clutch transmission, as the ICE N cars do. As you accelerate, the Ioniq 5 N’s computers will actually interrupt torque delivery very briefly as you “shift” through the “gears”. Couple that with the “N Active Sound” system, and you get an experience that, one the surface at least, aims to mimic the Veloster, Elantra and Kona N. Hyundai insists that is not the design goal, and instead these systems work together to give drivers more familiar sensory feedback they’re used to, so they can get a sense of what the car’s doing at any given moment.
Sticking with the N Active Sound, you actually get two “futuristic” modes as well as a “Supersonic” mode that the automaker says is inspired by fighter jets.
Naturally, you get a host of interior tweaks too
Inside, the new Hyundai Ioniq 5 N brings over the fundamentals from its standard siblings. That said, you do get a unique N-branded steering wheel. That not only houses your infotainment and everyday driving controls, but also gets you access to the N Grin Boost and N mode quick access buttons. Hyundai also changed up the center console design and, perhaps most importantly for a go-faster version, fitted aggressive bucket seats. You can either get those in cloth and leather or recycled Alcantara.
When will the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N go on sale and how much will it cost?
As ever with these debuts, we’re still missing a couple pieces of crucial information. While I did mention battery size, we don’t know how far the Ioniq 5 N will go on a single charge. It does have a larger battery pack than the EV6 GT, but Kia’s ambition to add extra power exposed that car’s greatest flaw: Its 206-mile range. Hopefully we’ll see better than that here, although you will almost certainly trade off a fair bit of range for all that extra shove.
The other number we don’t have, predictably, is pricing. Your top-spec Ioniq 5 Limited starts off at $53,935, and the N version will probably run well north of that figure. Expect the initial MSRP to land somewhere in the mid-$60,000 range, though we should have more concrete numbers there in the coming months.
For now, Tommy is on the ground at the Goodwood Festival of Speed checking out the Ioniq 5 N and so much more. Check back to our TFLEV channel for our video coverage. (Eventually, the video will be embedded in this post, when we’re able to publish it to the channel. Check back soon!)
