On paper, all of it appears fairly foolish. The Ioniq 5 N is a Hyundai SUV, however the firm says it’s constructed for the race monitor. It has 601 all-electric horsepower, however it would simulate the sensation of an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission and make itself sound like a four-cylinder fuel automobile. It may allegedly deal with extra on-track abuse than any EV bought by BMW, Tesla or Ford, however additionally it is a $67,475 Hyundai. It’s the finest efficiency EV ever constructed, and I nonetheless can’t inform if it is going to be a hit.
As a result of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N takes some explaining. Hyundai is profiting from its early lead over different legacy automakers in constructing refined, 800-volt-architecture EVs, launching a high-performance, track-capable EV fanatic product earlier than among the trade’s heavy hitters, primarily based on its already unbelievable Ioniq 5 compact crossover.
The technique may very well be a revolution for the model. It might cement “N” as a model mentioned in the identical breath as AMG. The product is actually ok. But when Hyundai needs that to occur, it wants folks to grasp this automobile. It wants to elucidate the rationale behind a automobile so radically totally different from what Hyundai is understood for.
It won’t be straightforward.
[Full Disclosure: Hyundai flew me to Monterey, California and put me up in a hotel near Laguna Seca for the Ioniq 5 N launch. The company rented out the track and provided instructors for lead-follow on-track drive impressions.]
An EV That Can Take The Warmth
Explaining the distinction between a “efficiency automobile” and a “quick automobile” by no means is simple. Particularly within the age of each EV having a sub-four-second 0-60 time, the Ioniq 5 N’s energy determine alone isn’t sufficient to promote a skeptical public. The 5 N makes 601 hp (as much as 641 hp for 10 seconds at a time) and 545 lb-ft of torque (568 through the enhance perform). A decade in the past that might have embarassed each muscle automobile on the lot. Now it’s anticipated. Zero to 60 takes 3.25 seconds, a determine not fast sufficient to face out. Hyundai is aware of it could’t outrun all the competitors. However it could outlast them the place it counts.
The open secret with most current efficiency EVs is that they disintegrate below excessive thermal load. The Ford Mustang Mach-E will pull again energy after a couple of minutes of sustained high-speed driving. A Mannequin S Plaid will speed up just like the 1020-hp fever dream it’s, however its brakes get squishy after a number of high-speed corners. The BMW i4 feels nice, however the very individuals who designed it advised me that it wasn’t constructed to carry as much as sustained on-track utilization.
The monitor is only a brutal setting for a automobile. You aren’t utilizing one element exhausting, briefly. You’re stressing the brakes, tires, powertrain and cooling system consistently. In my years of testing dozens of vehicles on the monitor, I can let you know {that a} surprising variety of inventory “efficiency vehicles,” fuel or in any other case, can not deal with greater than a handful of laps with out critical efficiency degradation.
The Ioniq 5 N can. Over 12 laps of lead-follow monitor driving on Laguna Seca Raceway, the N’s brakes, tires, cooling system and battery held up flawlessly. Different journalists continued flogging the identical rotation of vehicles all through the day, with the Ioniqs getting re-juiced at a cell fast-charger and heading again onto the monitor with out seen points.
It’s value noting, nevertheless, that Hyundai ran the occasion, and no automaker will inform journalists if one among its personal vehicles skilled a charging subject, or needed to be taken out of rotation. We’ll have to attend till we will monitor take a look at one on our personal phrases, however early indications counsel that the Ioniq 5 N is completely suited to weekend monitor responsibility.
Hyundai believes it. That’s why there’s already an Ioniq 5 N Cup collection in movement in Korea. There’s a Cup automobile model with the identical powertrain because the inventory automobile, and a category for road vehicles. The thought is that the Ioniq 5 N can deal with 20 minutes of full-pace lapping on a cost and with out thermal points, cost its 84-kWh battery from 10-80% on a 350-kW quick charger in 18 minutes (although it might take longer if the battery is sizzling once you hit the charger), after which head again on the market. Positive, it isn’t an endurance race, however it’ll deal with something a weekend monitor rat would throw at it.
The track-day EV is right here. And boy, is it enjoyable.
Gran Turismo Menus, In Automotive Type
Hyundai’s N fashions have at all times centered extra on partaking the motive force than on prioritizing outright pace, and the identical is true right here. The Ioniq 5 N is essentially the most partaking EV I’ve ever pushed, maybe much less spectacular than however certainly extra thrilling than even Porsche’s quickest Taycan. Whereas the Porsche—the one different track-capable EV on sale, actually—chases tempo and precision, Hyundai invitations the motive force to play.
It permits you a dizzying quantity of configurability to provide the precise correct amount of silliness. You may set the pretend “engine sound” to be a Hyundai Elantra N 2.0-liter four-cylinder, or a video-game-like idea automobile, or the offspring of a fighter jet and a synthesizer, or nothing in any respect.
You may let the automobile handle its personal energy with its dual-motor setup an an digital limited-slip differential, or inform it to ship as a lot energy as potential to the entrance, or make it efficient rear-wheel drive. Then you should use Hyundai’s trick Torque Kick Drift to simulate a clutch dump, begin a drift and use the automobile’s personal N Drift Optimizer logic that can assist you maintain it.
The quantity of customization is genuinely confounding. A number of journalists requested easy methods to use sure capabilities, like launch management, and located that even among the educated Hyundai specialists readily available couldn’t at all times discover it within the menus. The variety of options right here makes a contemporary BMW M5 look easy. You may toggle steering weight, motor response and suspension stiffness independently. You may map these customized drive modes to the 2 customized N buttons on the steering wheel. Or you should use them to completely defeat stability management, or toggle N e-Shift, the Ioniq’s most shocking and controversial function.
Activate it and the Ioniq 5 N will emulate a automobile with an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. It is going to fake to have a powerband, “lugging” in the event you attempt to speed up exhausting in fifth gear, hitting “redline” and lurching in the event you fail to shift in time and utilizing regen to simulate the engine braking you get with an on-track downshift. It sounds completely absurd and fully ineffective. It is usually among the best efficiency EV concepts I’ve ever skilled.
I used to be terribly skeptical going into my time with the Ioniq 5 N. You wouldn’t need your Mannequin T to simulate the odor of horse shit. An eight-speed transmission is indicative of the inherent shortcomings of any inside combustion engine. Escaping the raucous clattering and slim, peaky powerband of an inside combustion automobile is commonly a motivation for going electrical. Including it again purely to make the automobile slower and extra acquainted sounded insane.
Bother is, it really works brilliantly. On a race monitor you hardly ever have time to look down at your pace, so any skilled driver makes use of gear place to evaluate their very own tempo. Not having that in a silent EV makes going quick really feel like guesswork. Hyundai has eradicated that fully, and any efficiency EV producer value its salt should discover a comparable solution to maintain drivers subconsciously conscious of their pace.
Get Rowdy
Partially due to that function, no EV is extra gratifying on the monitor. The 5 N’s paddle-shift setup provides you extra theater, extra noise and extra exact management over the automobile. Regen being linked to paddle shifters makes intuitive sense for anybody who has grown up racing ICE vehicles, and provides you extra exact regen management with extra total power restoration than driving in regular mode. (Observe that even with regen we averaged 0.8-0.9 miles per kWh on monitor. Actual monitor driving is rarely notably environment friendly).
And that’s removed from the one place the place Hyundai has thoughtfully exploited an EV mechanic to create a extra predictable fanatic driving expertise. The one-pedal mode—normally known as “i-Pedal”—will get a makeover too, with a brand new “N Pedal” mode for high-speed cornering. The mode will use the regen perform to load the burden of the automobile on the entrance tires, easing turn-in robotically.
With a lot occurring, you’d count on to be overwhelmed within the Ioniq 5 N. However I wasn’t. Hyundai has managed to make all of this really feel pure. The automobile turns in much better than its 4,861-lb curb weight would counsel, corners flat and shuffles energy seamlessly to catapult you onto the straights.
Even with ESC in Sport Mode and traction management off, the 601-hp EV feels manageable, with light understeer once you push too far. The tail-happy demeanor of the Veloster and Elantra N is actually extra charming, however with this a lot energy we assist Hyundai enjoying it protected. Plus, with the clutch kick mode and the flexibility to shift extra energy rearward, the Ioniq 5 N does lots for the oversteer-ever-corner crowd.
It is A Good EV, Too
All of this piles on the sturdy basis of the Hyundai Ioniq 5. The N nonetheless will get largely the identical nice inside (albeit with a middle console and bucket seats), the identical superior exterior (lowered and with aggressive efficiency elements) and among the finest EV options within the enterprise. It nonetheless quick fees faster than virtually something—a claimed 10-80% in 18 minutes—and provides one-pedal driving, phone-as-a-key (now with iPhone assist), route planning and a ten.9-kW onboard charger.
Its vary falls from 260 miles for an AWD Restricted Ioniq 5 to 220 miles in N guise, and in our temporary road drive it appears properly suited to every day driving. I might fortunately every day drive this automobile, use Freeway Drive Help for semi-autonomous site visitors jams, after which drop into N e-Shift to blast down my favourite canyon. It is as versatile as a BMW M3, however with extra cargo house.
In order a package deal, the Ioniq 5 N is a slam dunk, a shining instance of an organization profiting from what a terrific EV platform can present. However it’s need to mimic inside combustion efficiency makes it a complicated proposition. Take the pretend DCT as an illustrative instance. In the long run, we most likely received’t be “shifting” EVs that sound like four-cylinder fuel vehicles. E-shift transition tech, the skeuomorphic early days of Apple’s iPhone when it nonetheless needed the notes app to appear to be a paper and pencil. It’s additionally corny. I’d by no means need to inform an EV skeptic that my EV has a pretend transmission, or makes four-cylinder noises.
I’d additionally not need to say issues like “N Grin Enhance,” Hyundai’s title for the 10-second overboost perform, or point out that one of many three pillars of N efficiency is… “nook rascal,” a phrase that’s hopefully much less weird in its native Korean. I wouldn’t need them to note that “N” sounds an terrible lot like “M,” and that Hyundai poached loads of folks from the latter to make the previous. I wouldn’t need to reply after they requested me what it prices, becuase I wouldn’t need to clarify the lengthy, nerdy motive why it’s value each penny.
Hyundai has made the efficiency EV we’ve been asking for. It’s costly, however a deal for a five-seat 600-hp SUV that may deal with the monitor. It’s foolish, however it works. It’s a Hyundai, however I’d take it over any Mercedes on sale. Hyundai has succeeded in constructing a generation-defining efficiency product.
Its subsequent problem is getting Individuals to grasp it.
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