2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 N Review: It’s got an ass only a Narwahl could love, but otherwise this EV super-sedan is an amazing electric track car

May 9, 2026 Stephen Corby

There are precisely two kinds of car enthusiasts – decent, normal people with social lives who don’t spend far too much time hiding in their bedrooms playing with themselves, and the sad weirdo man babies who want to tell you how much money they’ve spent on their driving simulators and PlayStation 5s.

Unfortunately, the second kind – hello, Max Verstappen, you horrible prick – seem to think that I must be one of them because I like cars, and driving. But I’ve always preferred having a girlfriend to playing video games and I find driving on a screen to be slightly less fun than not driving at all, and 1000 per cent less interesting than the real thing.

To be fair, before I explain what I’m banging on about here, there might be a third kind of enthusiast entering the motoring universe of late; someone who wants to buy an EV as a performance weapon, and even wants to take their very fast electric car to the track, where other, more old-school driving lovers will mock them mercilessly.

Which reminds me, I was completely tricked earlier this year by an April fool’s post from Street Machine which put out a Facebook advertisement for an “EVs Only” night at Sydney’s drag strip. In my defence, many furious commenters were also sucked in, until someone pointed out the joke to them, and me.

The point I’m eventually coming to is that Hyundai has launched a new and outrageously fast and fun electric car, the Ioniq 6 N, which seems designed to appeal to groups two and three above, but which might confuse and even discombobulate the old sticks in the mud in enthusiast group one.

It is hugely entertaining, interesting, fast, fun to drive and clever in myriad ways, but at the same time, it does feel a lot like a car that was built to impress – or perhaps even designed by – the sort of people who like video games built around driving.

EV Central attended the launch in Sydney, held both on public roads and, appropriately, at Sydney Motorsport Park, to try and work out what the hell the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N is all about.

Hyundai Ioniq 6 N price and equipment

You might have noticed that the Ioniq 6 N is very closely related to the Ioniq 5 N, which I’ve raved about before, and which has managed to shift more than 300 units in Australia, despite being uniquely weird and costing $115,000, which is, coincidentally, the same price as the 6 N.

The difference is that the 5 is a weird-looking allegedly SUV, while the 6 N is a strange-looking supposed sedan. Whether you think it, or any Hyundai, is worth paying six figures for will come down to your personal biases, but there’s no doubt that it’s a lot of electric car for the money.

Quite aside from its twin motors and simply silly 448kW (or 478kW in Crazy Ass Grin Boost Mode) and 740Nm, this savage sedan comes with an interior rimmed in Alcantara and leather that feels genuinely expensive, for the most part (some of the switch gear feels povo pack).

You also score 20-inch alloys, flashy LED headlights, acoustic laminated glass and a sunroof (a no-cost option, if you’re worried about fitting in your helmet), 64-colour ambient lighting, aluminium pedals, heated and ventilated seats, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and so on.

You’re also going to need all of the supplied 84kWh battery, which is capable of ultra-fast charging at either 400V or 800V, which can get you from 10 to 80 per cent of charge in just 18 minutes (you’ll need to do this a bit during track days you’re hurling around a race track).

Claimed range is 487km, with energy efficiency of 18.7 kWh/100km, a figure clearly calculated far from a race track. In the real world, no one is going to get near 450km, and possibly a lot less if they succumb to temptation.

Hyundai Ioniq 6 N: What we think

What you’re mainly paying for here is the wild power and the way out number of exciting playthings that no other car brand currently offers. The big ones are N Active Sound+ – yes, other cars companies have fake noise, but nothing like this; the 6 N now has more sound channels for even more impressive fake noises (although sadly it offers three options for this, two of which are unforgivably awful, even if you are a video gamer). Get off the throttle sharply and it even makes huge exhaust dump sounds somewhere behind you, so that you can pretend you have exhausts.

Even better, however, is N e-shift, which recreates the feeling of gear changes by combining torque and “virtual RPM”. Using the paddles, you can pretend you are smacking through eight DCT gears, when, in reality, you don’t have a DCT, or any gears (the Ioniq 6 N has just one, which you notice if you don’t put all the fakery on).

Very cleverly, however, the whole experience feels properly real, and can even, almost, fool your brain into thinking you’re driving an old-school track attack vehicle around a racing circuit. The pro driver who took me for a few laps said he always leaves the ersatz gears and sound on, not just because it’s more fun, and familiar, but because it somehow prevents your senses from making you feel sick, despite the hugely punishing g forces and acceleration whams the Ioniq 6 N can produce.

Because this is, fake bits aside, a really, properly fast thing to hurl around a track, or down a winding country road.

Part of me loved it very much, and hitting 100km/h in a half breath over three seconds is alway going to feel impressive. But another part of me couldn’t help reflecting on the fact that large parts of the experience feel like a video game. Not quite real, but quite nerdy.

I’m sure that if you are gamer, this might well be be the car you’ve been waiting for, however.

Hyundai Ioniq 6 N: Verdict

This is an incredibly impressive and well sorted car, it handles and steers almost as well as it goes and works on both tracks and public roads, if you’re brave enough.

But the pseudo reality of pretending you’re driving something that burns petrol and makes loud noises won’t be for everyone. And then there’s the fact that the rear-end of the Ioniq 6 N looks like it’s been raped by a Narwhal, which is unfortunate.

Fortunately it actually looks mighty fine from other angles, unlike the 5 N, which is just a mess of angles, so I wouldn’t say that the Ioniq 6 N is a total ass clown, just that it’s got a clowned ass.

I’m also just not sure who wants a car like this, but at the same time I’d happily borrow one a few times a year, just for the giggles, and to scare passengers.

Bottomline (Narwahl joke there): Now there are two EVs you’d seriously think about buying if you are a hard-core driving enthusiast.

SCORE: 4.5/5*

Hyundai Ioniq 6 N price and specifications

Price: $115,000
Basics: EV, sedan, 5 seats, 4 doors
Range: 487km (WLTP)
Battery capacity: 84kWh
Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km
Energy consumption: 18.7kWh/100km
Motors: 1 front, 1 rear, 359kW/675Nm
AC charging: 11kW, Type 2 plug
DC charging: 263kW, CCS combo plug
0-100km/h: 3.2-3.4 seconds