If you’re in the market for a hot, high performance EV right now, then your options are fairly limited. Sure, you can get a fully-loaded Porsche Taycan or a swanky Lucid Air, but if you aren’t a millionaire and just want the electric equivalent of a Golf GTI, you’ll struggle to find a match. Thankfully, Hyundai is here to appease the eco-minded driving enthusiasts, revealing its first all-electric N car at this week’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK: the Ioniq 5 N.
Hyundai overhauled the entire Ioniq 5 EV to accomplish this performance-driven version with updated styling, aerodynamic tweaks and implementing a whole bunch of performance upgrades. Starting with the most important part — power. The Ioniq 5 N can be ordered in front or dual motor setups, with the latter producing an impressive 640 hp — that’s double what you get in the standard car.
That power increase means that the new car hit 100 km/h from zero in just 3.4 seconds, and is capable of a top speed of 259 km/h. This makes the Ioniq 5 N “the fastest, highest performing N production car [Hyundai has] ever produced,” according to Till Wartenberg, vice president N Brand and motorsport.
Of course, Hyundai is keen to point out that these figures are still being finalised, but event then, those numbers make for a mighty impressive ballpark to be in.
To hit these impressive figures, Hyundai increased the battery size to an 84 kilowatt hour battery pack, which Hyundai has equipped with new thermal management tools to maximise performance. This includes stacked radiators to increase efficiency, improved oil and battery chillers, and additional air intake vents at the front and rear end.
Hyundai will even give drivers of the Ioniq 5 N the opportunity to control the cooling of the battery depending on how they plan to drive their car. The car’s software will let drivers choose between modes like Drag, which is suited to sudden bursts of power, and Track, which keeps the battery temperature between 68 and 86 degrees for optimum lap time.
Mechanical upgrades don’t stop there as Hyundai has given the Ioniq 5 N new brakes: 16-inch rotors up front and 14-inch discs at the rear, which are paired with four piston callipers up front and single-piston callipers at the rear. High friction pads brake pads have been fitted to both to make for what the carmaker says are its “strongest brakes ever.”
Those brakes also work with regenerative braking, accounting for 80 to 90 per cent of braking while daily driving and 40 to 50 per cent when you hit the track. In fact, the regen on this car is capable of pulling up to 0.6 G of force when decelerating.
It should be easier to handle those G’s with upgrades to both 5 N’s suspension and steering (by strengthening the steering column), as well as the N’s “impressive stance” which lowers the car by three quarters of an inch. The package is complete with the car’s 21-inch forged aluminium wheels wrapped in Pirelli P Zero tires. Hyundai also gave the 5 N a new wing and a rear diffuser, both of which should increase downforce.
The interior and exterior feature new styling, along with a palette of lovely exclusive colours – including a matte finish Performance Blue. Hyundai also gave the car some neat luminous orange detailing, and finished the cladding around the wheel arches in the same colour as the bodywork.
The finished car makes its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed today, where a “drift spec” show car will run up the event’s iconic hillclimb. But don’t take that to mean is another one-off. There’s no word yet on pricing for the hot new electric performance SUV, but the current range-topping Ioniq 5 Limited retails for $US52,600, so we can expect this to be a far whack more than that.
