There’s been considerable cause for enthusiasm about the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N for a while now. The base car is a great EV, all the N hot hatches have been brilliant, and features like Drift Mode suggest a real enthusiast focus for N’s first electric car. With a Festival of Speed reveal now just a few weeks away and the Nurburgring test programme almost complete, Hyundai has confirmed additional N details. And it’s sounding really, really good.
Hopefully, that can be taken literally, too, thanks to new features N e-Shift and N Active Sound +. ‘Many performance enthusiasts’, reads the press release, ‘have been outspoken about their dissatisfaction with the lack of driver feedback behind the wheel of many EVs’. Hear, hear. Hence the inclusion of the new tech; N Active Sound + is made up of 10 speakers (eight in the car, two outside) and offers three different soundscapes for the Ioniq. Evolution is an ‘N signature electronic sound’, said to be inspired by cars like the RN22e; Supersonic will give ‘the drivers the sensation of a fighter pilot’. Right.
So far, so EV. But Ignition is arguably the most interesting of the trio, as it aims to emulate the 2.0-litre petrol engine of the i30 N, complete with pops and bangs. The N e-Shift will help with the tribute act here, mimicking the behaviour of the eight-speed DCT by controlling motor torque output and adding a jolt to simulate a gearchange. Maybe it’ll be rubbish, but Hyundai has got pretty good at delivering a proper noise and sense of occasion to its ICE hot hatches, so let’s see. The manufacturer says that its aim ‘is to allow drivers to seamlessly utilize driving techniques honed with ICE cars for a more immersive driving experience that feels closer to ICEs than EVs.’ Which sounds right up our street.
There’s more, too. Hyundai makes much of ‘N’ standing for Nurburgring as well as Namyang; to that end, there’s more tech for the Ioniq 5 to make it genuinely capable on a circuit. N Battery Preconditioning and N Race are what you need to know about, working with improved cooling hardware ‘to maximise performance or longevity’ on circuit. And yet more buttons to press, but it does sound interesting. The preconditioning is split between a Drag and Track setting; the former sets the battery temp optimally for maximum power straightaway, while Track aims to keep things cool for a number of consecutive laps. N Race - keeping up?! - then exists for ‘more direct control on the car’s energy usage’. It can be configured to either Sprint or Endurance, which kind of do as they say on the tin: full power whenever you need it is available with Sprint, while Endurance ‘maximises Ioniq 5 N’s range on the racetrack’ by limiting sudden power spikes, which in turn means temperatures don’t build up so fast.
Braking is taken care of by huge 400mm discs, aided by 0.6g of regen - said to be an industry-leading figure. Just as importantly, Hyundai reckons that the blending between regular and regen braking is ‘seamless’, which creates ‘an imperceptible transition to the driver’. Brake pedal feel is key to an enjoyable track driving experience, so this is encouraging.
The Ioniq 5 N has just completed its 10,000km durability test on the Nordschleife, which feels like a pretty momentous achievement, although Hyundai insists it is now embarking on another ‘to push Ioniq 5 N’s limits’. What a sight at a tourist day this could make - it certainly seems that Hyundai is keen, as with every other N hot hatch, for owners to use their car on a track. The global reveal for the Ioniq has been confirmed as July 13th at the Festival of Speed, when we can expect full details and technical specs. If this Ioniq 5 is as impressive as Hyundai’s ICE hot hatches, enthusiasts really will an electric car to be excited about.
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