5 N – the new standard for performance cars
Article by James Herne
“Applause”, “Perfection”, “Hats off”, “Formula for happiness”, “N as in Nürburgring”, “Next gear” – what are these? I couldn’t choose a title for the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N story.
But let’s start at the beginning. Hyundai opened its European research and development centre in Germany back in 1994. In 2012 Hyundai Motorsport GmbH was registered, and in 2013 a test centre by the Nürburgring was completed. At the end of 2013 Hyundai announced that its performance cars would bear the letter “N”. Just as BMW Motorsport cars bear the letter “M”.
The first Hyundai to carry the N-logo was the 2014 WRC car. At the end of 2014 Hyundai announced that BMW M’s chief engineer Albert Biermann would join Hyundai the following year. Considering Biermann had worked 30 years at BMW, the last six heading BMW M, where next? After M comes N. N as in Nürburgring!
Hyundai’s press release about Biermann said: “The company intends to become a technical leader in ride and handling, producing vehicles that lead their respective segments for driver engagement.”
Biermann had been in the job only half a year when the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show press release stated: “Hyundai N ultimately aims to bring ‘the most thrilling winding-road fun’ to customers who truly love cars.” A concept car with four electric motors was shown at the exhibition.
Speaking of motorsport, in 2018, Hyundai achieved a 1-2 victory in the World Touring Car Cup (WTCC) series, where there were 30 races that year! The 2019 WTCC winning driver also drove a Hyundai. Ott Tänak won the 2019 WRC piloting a Toyota, but in the manufacturers’ classification Hyundai won for the first time that year. Tänak moved from the Toyota team to the Hyundai team. The 2020 WRC season was won by Hyundai again in the manufacturers’ classification.
2022 WTCC was won by Hyundai and the winning pilots of the Touring Car Racing World Tour 2023 and 2024 series drove Hyundai. The 2024 WRC was won by Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville. The same year, the hero of this story, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, went on sale.
Before this article, in my head the Top 3 cars were Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron GT and BMW i4. Of course I’d heard positive things about the Ioniq 5 N, but before the test drive I had no idea where it would rank.
So – yes, I’m at the wheel of the Ioniq 5 N!
But first, let me share some interesting information I learned about the Ioniq 5 in general. The base Ioniq 5 is rear-wheel-drive (RWD is always fun) and even the base version charges quickly thanks to a battery that allows 523 V. Standard equipment includes Plug & Charge, Smart Key keyless entry and automatic locking, internet and OTA updates, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, adaptive cruise control, traffic-sign recognition, steering-wheel paddles for adjusting regenerative braking, heated steering wheel and seats, individually sliding and reclining left and right rear seats, and 19-inch wheels with 235/55 tyres. All of this is standard. The first option is the larger battery, with around 80 kWh usable capacity. The N version has this battery too. It allows 697 V, and during charging I saw a peak charging power of 262 kW for a moment.
Speaking of the regular model, you can also get all-wheel-drive, a digital key (iPhone, Apple Watch, Android), head-up display, double-pane glass, ventilated seats, a Bose sound system, a wall outlet inside the car and an adapter that lets you draw wall power from the AC charging port. Optional 20″ rims come with 255/45 tyres, but the 20 mm wider tyres are said to cut the range by a whopping 20 miles/30 km.
The Ioniq 5 is the “World Car of the Year” and “World Car Design of the Year” winner.
Following the prestigious titles of the Ioniq 5, the Ioniq 5 N won the “World Performance Car” title.
The Ioniq 5 N’s standard output is 448 kW, and with special software settings a maximum of 478 kW is promised. 42 extra welds were added to stiffen the body.
Larger brakes were fitted to the front axle. The tyres are 275/35 and, because beauty demands sacrifice, the wheel diameter is 21 inches. These are not cheap cast wheels but forged wheels. Compared with cast wheels, wheels pressed from a billet of aluminum are very strong. The forging press used to make them exerts an astonishing 10,000 tonnes (not 10 tonnes, but 10,000). Because forged wheels use less material, they are both strong and light.
I’m telling you a secret: you can order racing equipment that is not found on the regular price list. From the parts department you should be able to order “N Performance” items such as an Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel, Sabelt racing harnesses, Ferodo brake pads, H&R springs and different wheels.
In fact, the “N Performance” catalogue also offers smaller-diameter wheels – namely 20″ Braid forged wheels. In established race series around the world even smaller 18″ wheels are actually used, because they can still fit brakes large enough and keep the wheels as light as possible. The increase from 18 inches upward has happened at customers’ request, not on engineers’ advice.
Naturally, the Ioniq 5 N comes with special seats.
The suspension of the Ioniq 5 N is 0.8″/20 mm lower than on the regular Ioniq 5. The N-version body parts make the car 2.3″/60 mm longer and 2″/50 mm wider. The Ioniq 5 N is not a small car; it is 185″/4.7 m long. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is 3.5″/88 mm wider than the same-year Porsche 911 GT3 and 1.6″/40 mm wider than the 911 GT3 RS. Wide looks cool, or course.
If you ask me, I would like the Ioniq 5 N a bit smaller. The turning circle of a wide 4WD car isn’t great. Of course, in a roomy car rear-seat passengers are very comfortable – there’s a lot of space and the rear seats are individually adjustable.
The Ioniq 5 N is the perfect family car. Presumably that’s Hyundai’s hat-trick: every possible argument weighs in favour of buying this car.
Not a minus exactly, but I couldn’t match the factory’s acceleration figure. According to the factory it should do 0–60 mph in 3.25 seconds and 0–100 km/h in 3.4 seconds. I have a special measuring device and on the first run I was 0.4 seconds slower than expected! OK, apparently Sport mode alone isn’t enough. By adding some sporty characteristics in settings the result improved by 0.2 seconds. Next day, adjusting the settings even more, the result was only 0.1 seconds short of the factory figure. I’m fairly sure I left some combination of settings untried.
The car’s biggest minus and biggest plus are both tied to software. There’s probably no trouble learning the regular Ioniq 5 software, but the 5 N has a lot of special settings here and there. For instance, N Mode can’t be switched on with the Drive Mode button. N Mode can be activated with the left or right N button, but only if N Mode is assigned to one of those buttons. Otherwise you can’t turn on N Mode at all, because on the touchscreen you can only change the N Mode settings. Why make things so complicated? But these are test-driver problems; the owner will learn. And the higher the complexity, the longer the joy of discovery lasts.
Because the N software is complex, when you go for a test drive, ask the salesperson to show which button on that particular car has N Mode assigned, and which button switches e-Shift on/off. Those are the two most important things you need to know to drive this car.
The NGB button on the wheel raises power from 448 kW to 478 kW for ten seconds. In normal driving you don’t need it: the car reaches the maximum legal highway speed in four seconds anyway.
For track driving there’s the one-pedal driving function which makes throttle and braking dosage especially precise. This mode is called N Pedal. It uses very strong regenerative motor braking (which charges the battery). Because electric cars can brake so hard with their motors, they don’t need the absolutely biggest brake discs.
Now we get to the 5 N’s most important feature: e-Shift. In my view this software is worth half the car’s price. e-Shift emulates what driving enthusiasts enjoy – hitting the rev limiter, popping on the limiter, brutal gear changes, downshifting before a corner, engine braking and turbo burbles. Unfortunately, N Pedal mode can’t be activated at the same time with the e-Shift, because Hyundai has decided that the braking power of electric motors is too good for an authentic old-school driving experience. Of course, e-Shift isn’t completely without regen. As much engine braking as an old-school car averagely provides, e-Shift emulates. So, here I’m raising my hand: “Hyundai, please, in a software update over the air, allow e-Shift to be activated together with N Pedal.” Even though we love all the old-school racing stuff, the added braking power that comes with electric motors is also what we want.
e-Shift is for enjoying life. If you’re chasing a lap record, e-Shift must be off, because every gear change costs at least 0.1 seconds (e.g. a quarter-mile run loses about half a second with e-Shift). In every other case the car has excess power, so you can drive with e-Shift.
This is the first electric car for which I can’t convey in words alone how special the experience is, so for the article I shot a short video clip:
The video shows the first two gears, but there are eight in total…
Anyone who has driven an SMG gearbox (single-clutch transmission with electrically shifted gears) or a powerful car with a dual-clutch transmission knows the punch in the back during a gear change. If you let the Ioniq 5 N hit the limiter and shift, the blow in your back scrambles everything you knew about old-school performance cars and powerful EVs. The first-to-second shift is especially brutal. The first time it was so special that my brain froze – wait, what did I just experience? How is this possible!? This is the best racing game in the world! It’s not just a steering wheel, pedals and a seat. This is real life.
I think the Ioniq 5 N will be especially appreciated by someone who, when driving a petrol car on track, knew that the perfect shift moment is one rpm before the redline, not 1000 rpm before. To be honest, with e-Shift I hit the limiter whenever I could, because the gearshift that follows is such a thrill.
This is the most astonishing car I’ve ever driven – thanks to the synthetic gear changes and the turbo pops on overrun. You might think a similar experience could be get from some other car, but I doubt there’s another road-legal rally car with 400 kW-plus power and a very long warranty.
Yes, you could argue that if you double or triple the budget, you could get other very powerful cars with dual-clutch gearboxes. The point is, every litre of hydrocarbon (petrol, diesel) people buy creates more than a cubic metre of exhaust gases. I can’t lie to myself that I don’t know that. In my view the climate keeps getting more unpredictable. CO₂ produced in factories can be captured, but burning fossil fuels ruins the climate forever. With the Ioniq 5 N you don’t have to choose between feelings and reason. You get everything.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is a problem for every sports-car maker, because … how do you beat the e-Shift experience? The e-Shift in Ioniq 5 N isn’t just finely tuned, it’s perfect. I think the creation of the Ioniq 5 N is as unique an event as was the launching of the iPhone – nobody dreamed of it or thought it was sensible, but once it is here, no competitor can keep up without copying it. It’s no secret that even Lamborghini has used the Ioniq 5 N to learn for the future.
The car I drove had a Bose audio system, but I didn’t turn the radio on once during the day. Not even for a moment. I realised this only the next day when I turned on the radio. A favourite song came on radio, but I listened only for a couple of minutes and then turned the radio off again. If that isn’t proof this is the ultimate car for a driving enthusiast, what is!
To me the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N symbolises what the Nürburgring offers. Years ago I used to drive on the world’s longest circuit and once said that driving on the Nürburgring might be better than sex. What do I mean by that? Imagine a nine-minute climax (one lap of the Nürburgring lasts about nine minutes, plus or minus two depending on driver skill and car). It’s like you’ve already been in a state of peak excitement for several minutes and you know it will last several more. That’s Nürburgring.
When I think of my best driving experiences before I drove the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N – Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron GT and BMW i4 – if you asked me today what I would most like to drive, my Top 3 would probably be the McMurtry Spéirling, Maserati GranCabrio Folgore and Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. Where are the Rimac Nevera and Pininfarina Battista? Without e-Shift only a convertible or the world’s best performance (McMurtry) can charm me. The German high-performance electric cars simply have to add e-Shift to their cars, because it makes the car twice as enjoyable.
Until other manufacturers catch up, the Ioniq 5 N is the only car in the world that offers everything. When in the process of buying a performance car, don’t make the decision before you have tried the Ioniq 5 N in e-Shift mode. Cars keep their value when owners cling to them. I think this is the best value-retaining electric car.
