Hyundai Ioniq 5 N gathers pace; Aussies to embrace hot EV

Hyundai Australia believes customers will embrace the long-mooted N version of the brand’s upcoming Ioniq 5 electric crossover.

The worst kept secret in Hyundai’s expanding portfolio, the Ioniq 5 N is yet to be officially confirmed but has had enough hints thrown at it to all but guarantee we’ll soon see an all-electric fast and exciting car in dealerships.

“We’re introducing the second phase [of the N brand portfolio] now and it would make sense for the third phase to see some form of electrification,” said Hyundai Australia product planning manager Andrew Tuitahi when quizzed about the prospects of an Ioniq 5 N.

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For background, N is to Hyundai what AMG is to Mercedes-Benz, M is to BMW and RS is to Audi.

It denotes pace and plenty of it. It helps that the man in charge of N globally, Albert Biermann, used to head up BMW’s M division, so he knows a thing or two about performance cars with pedigree.

The N denotes Namyang, the name of Hyundai’s research and development centre in Korea. It also references Nurburgring, the unofficial benchmark race track for performance cars.

Hyundai Australia has had early success with the first N product, the i30 N hatchback that went on sale in 2018. That car was this week updated with more power and the addition of a twin-clutch auto transmission for the first time.

N of everything, EV included

It will soon be followed by a Kona N and an i20N, with more cars on the wish list – including an Ioniq 5 N.

“We’ve always said we want N versions of everything,” said Hyundai Australia product planning and development assistant manager.

While Hyundai stressed there’s “nothing we can confirm” regarding the anticipated Ioniq 5 N, the company also pointed to recent Biermann comments where he rhetorically stated that it would be odd if Hyundai wasn’t working on an N version of its upcoming EV.

Last month Biermann confirmed the first N car powered purely by electric motors would be based on the new E-GMP platform that underpins the Ioniq 5 and upcoming Kia EV6 (Kia and Hyundai are part of the same family).

“It will be very exciting to run the Nurburgring with an E-GMP EV that has undergone a specialised development process for N,” Biermann said at the time.

It’s not the first time Hyundai has confirmed it was working on N electric cars.

And he gave a hint that it will set a new (high) performance level for the brand that could also surprise some supercars, as the Kia EV6 did recently in a promotional video.

“In certain corners, E-GMP N may overwhelm high-performance cars with internal combustion engines.”

And Hyundai Australia is poised to take advantage of the imminent N push.

“N is building slowly over time,” says local product planning chief Tuitahi.

“We’re confident that by the time those cars [electric N models] get here customers will be familiar with what N means, what it offers and they’ll definitely be comfortable spending the money it takes to get into a Hyundai N with some form of electrification.”

800V performance for Ioniq 5 N

The big question is what form those electric N cars will take and when they will arrive.

The basics are certainly sound. The Ioniq 5 has an 800V electrical architecture, which allows for fast charging and big power delivery.

It will be offered with a 58kWh battery or 72.6kWh long range battery. Power outputs for the regular Ioniq 5 range from 125kW/350Nm for the single-motor rear-drive model up to 225kW/605Nm for the dual-motor all-wheel drive Long Range AWD.

The big question is how much higher engineers will shoot for with an Ioniq 5 N.

There’s something of a clue with the Kia EV6 GT, the performance pinnacle of that upcoming EV6 lineup and a car eventually exected to step in for the Kia Stinger as the brand’s performance hero.

The EV6 makes 430kW and 740Nm, which is more than your average Porsche.

Like all fast EVs – including the Porsche Taycan and upcoming Tesla Model S Plaid and Audi RS e-Tron GT – there’s a penalty with weight due to the size of the battery pack.

But if you throw enough power and torque at the equation that’s usually sorted out with ballistic acceleration times that no ICE car can match.

As for exactly how much that Ioniq 5 N car will have, it’s open to speculation for now.

But you can all but guarantee it will comfortably outpunch the 430kW/740Nm outputs of the EV6 from sister brand Kia.

Now that really would cement N as a performance sub-brand with pedigree.

As for when we’ll finally see the car that hasn’t been confirmed but is being feverishly worked on at Namyang, best guesses are it’ll appear late in 2022 or 2023.