Performance electric vehicles boast huge horsepower numbers. Their high torque motors, which can provide immediate acceleration, provide explosive acceleration. However, unlike their internal-combustion high-strung counterparts, electric vehicles are deficient in two crucial areas such as the sound of engines’ micro-explosions as well as their mechanical feedback which provides an impression of speed. Hyundai’s N performance-tuning arm is aiming to fix this by 2024 with its Ioniq 5. N.
A whirlwind through the straight ahead of Nurburgring’s GP circuit reveals that the Ioniq 5 N is just as any other electric that performs. The grandstands appear to blur around you, the wind is swaying over the bodywork and even though the Ioniq5 N’s digital instrument cluster shows an impressive speed, the brain doesn’t agree. The moment you push the brakes in the GP circuit’s difficult Turn 1 produces only tire noise and nothing else. However, Hyundai has several tricks up its bag.
2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Changes
When you press one of these camouflaged adjustable buttons that will be Hyundai’s most complex steering wheel, N Active Sound + is activated. Three sound profiles can be set from a distance to loud and booming: Evolution is the spacey sound that we’ve grown accustomed to in a variety of EVs, Supersonic is another gadget that resembles the sound of a fighter plane and the most entertaining sound profile is Ignition. With eight internal and two external speakers, the sound is like that of an engine that’s turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four engine found inside the Elantra N or the Kona N. It’s done well enough that a non-trained sense of hearing could even believe there’s some kind of combustion beneath the car’s hood. The sound system is checked.
If Ignition is turned on the soundtrack blusters like it were if an N-tuned 2.0-liter was paired with a constantly variable auto. Yuck. With the press of a different steering wheel button and you can turn the Ioniq 5 N to unleash something to unleashorms how the brain process the EVs. It simulates gear shifts. Through a brief interruption of the motors’ transmission of torque, it mimics an eight-speed dual-clutch auto. The 5 N is jolted on upshifts. Downshifts are rev-matched and are accompanied by blasts and bangs coming from the speakers as you decelerate similar to internal combustion N vehicles.
Hyundai is transparent that halting torque delivery using N e-Shift may not be the most efficient route around the track however, it is by an inch. Based on our short driving time The trade-off could be worth it. N e-Shift changes the perception of speed that the brain is able to perceive. Mcan track cues originate from sound. You could be the area where the braking zone happens in the uppermost fourth gear. That’s the kind of feedback unlike any other electric vehicle has currently. If you attempt to control the manual mode using the shift paddles and fail to shift, you’ll be hit with an actual cutoff in fuel. When you are caught when you’re in a too high gear or you be in trouble. Ioniq 5 will even lug the powertrain, limiting energy delivery. It’s indeed fake and not connected to mechanical components but it’s a level of engagement that has been lost in an electronic world.
Performance
The vehicle that houses this advanced EV powertrain is not a modified Kia EV6 GT. Even though this Ioniq 5 N does share the E-GMP platform as well as some of the same foundations – three-position adaptive dampers and an electronically controlled limit-slip differential an instrument that is more focused on track. The body of the vehicle has 40 to-be-revealed strengthening points that are more powerful than those on the original Ioniq 5 and specific bushing tolerances. Likely, this model will match the EV6 GT’s 576 power as well as 545 pounds of torque, however we’re hoping Hyundai, to take it up.
With over 600 miles of development in the thorny 12.9-mile Nurburgring Nordschleife Hyundai is determined to extend the life of the 5 N on the track. The aim is to get it to be able Ioniq capable of completing two laps without loss. To achieve this, Hyundai has optimized the 5 N’s cooling system by introducing more air into the nose and better radiator packaging, and a new oil cooler, as well as an improved battery chiller. Complete two of Green Hell will likely require an entirely different battery than the 77.4-kWh model that’s used in the Korean manufacturers, and Hyundai isn’t ready to talk about the battery now.
Features
Similar to the N cars powered by gas this Ioniq 5 is replete with different modes of operation. N Race provides the Sprint mode that can maximize performance and utilize all available power. Endurance mode can be configured to assist with the two-lap race by controlling the motor’s output, battery, and regeneration strategies to prolong the time on track. Two preconditioning options can be used for track and one to race. With a launch control mode that preloads the most hate hoping that the 5 N outdo its predecessor, the EV6 GT’s 3.1-second acceleration up to 60 mph.
Our earlier explorations of the 5N’s front-to-rear torque distribution slider showed that the vehicle is a drifter in frozen lakes. Although we didn’t test this feature on the road however, the idea of sending all the force of driving towards the front axle to create an ominous front-tire fire delights us as much as directing the force to the rear axle for the power-sliding snark.
Rejoicing on the, errrr track and the oer N is a delight on the 3.2-mile GP circuit. On the front, fixed calipers with four pistons press 15.7-inch wheels (0.7 inch bigger than EV6 GT’s) in the front, and a one-piston slider squeal ezes the 14.2-inch rotating rotor to the back. For four laps of racing the brakes will never lose stopping power and the pedal stays clean and firm. There’s an N pedal mode button on the infotainment screen, however, Hyundai hasn’t decided to speak about it. It could alter the pedal’s feel and the regeneration mapping to move the 5 N while brakes.
Three options for steering are available and they increase the amount of effort as they move into more raunchy settings, but not to the point where you’re fighting a grizzly bear. On 15 of GP track’s fifteen turns the Ioniq 5 N steering rack has a quick turn-in however we’d like to feel a little more responsive when its Hyundai’s spec Pirelli P Zero Elect PNCS 275/35ZR-21 tires fill up. With the lower center of gravity and a minimal body roll, you’ll feel the illusion of control when you’re diving into an Apex. We were indeed doing a lot of driving on a track we’re not familiar with, and driving our Pirellis until they’re oversteering is not our fault, but we’re assuming that there’s a torque-vectoring program is in development that will make it easier to guess at it, keeping the Hyundai in a better position.
The 5 N is much more than a mere track attacker. When you take a short road trip traversing the twisty roads linking the towns of Germany’s western steep hillsides The 5 N shows its gentler side. Similar to its 10Best-winning Hyundai Ioniq 5, the modified version that has been turned up dials back to its most conservative settings, and with all noise generators turned off, it’s an amazing, well-isolated cruiser. When they are at their most relaxed the adaptive dampers display incredible wheel control. When driving on the endless parts of autobahn the 5N cruises at a smooth 160 mph, with near-perfect on-center steering calibration.
2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Expected
It will be a while before we get an actual version of the Ioniq 5 N, as production starts in 2024. Although the car is still in its stage of development, Hyundai certainly has paved the way for the 5N to revolutionize the way we think about the electric car from the driver’s seat. The question of whether making an EV sound and feel like an internal combustion engine can be a hit with people who love electric cars remains to be seen however it’s certainly moving in a positive direction.