Here come Hyundai’s high-performance EVs – RN22e concept points to new Ioniq 6 N

Hyundai has laid bare its plans for a high-performance electrified future, unveiling two ‘rolling lab’ concepts – RN22e and N Vision 74 – that will feed the Ioniq 6 N and beyond.

Revealed in Korea, the Hyundai RN22e especially has its feet planted firmly in reality, using the just-revealed Ioniq 6 as a base to produce a properly hi-po EV with “racetrack-ready performance”.

Combining the brand’s E-GMP architecture with the Ioniq 6’s slippery aerodynamics, the RN22e produces a combined 430kW and 740Nm from its front and rear motors, which draw power from a big 77.4kWh battery.

And there’s real performance kit on board, too, with twin-clutch torque vectoring to offset its extra weight, 3D-printed parts that further reduce weight and increase rigidity, and AWD delivered by its twin-motor setup.

Four piston monoblock calipers and a 400-mm hybrid discs – along with enhanced cooling – help the brakes stay strong in racetrack settings, and the brand says its studying its regenerative braking system to ensure it improves cornering.

Also revealed was the retro-styled N Vision 74, an entirely different proposition, and one that draws its performance (500kW and 900Nm) from “the most advanced hydrogen fuel cell system that Hyundai N has ever created”.

Billed as a “hybrid structure”, the N Vision 74 concept deploys fuel cell and battery electric power, with the two power systems able to be tuned for use in different driving conditions, with torque vectoring at play with the twin motors on the rear.