Hyundai IONIQ 5 N 2024 Review – Track Test - carsales.com.au (2024)

Pricing for the 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N sets a new high-water mark for the brand at $111,000 plus on-road costs.

There’s nothing really like it on the market, though its mechanically similar stablemate, the Kia EV6 GT (from $99,590 plus ORCs), is closest conceptually.

Otherwise, you’re looking at high-end petrol-powered hot hatchbacks like the Audi RS 3 Sportback (from $96,800) and Mercedes-AMG A 45 S (from $119,900).

That large price tag buys a slew of other big numbers, however. An 84kWh battery supplies power to a pair of electric motors (one front, one rear) that generate 448kW/740Nm. Hit the red N-Grin button on the steering wheel and this increases to 478kW/770Nm for short periods, dropping the 0-100km/h claim to 3.4sec.

It keeps charging, too, if you’ll pardon the pun, crossing the quarter mile in 11.5sec and on to a top speed of 260km/h. With a much lighter foot, maximum claimed range is 448km and charge times can be as much as 40 hours from 10-100 per cent on a domestic AC outlet or as little as 18min from 10-80 per cent on a 350kW ultra-rapid charger.

There’s plenty of other performance goodies, including three-stage adaptive dampers, 21-inch wheels with 275/35 Pirelli P Zero tyres, a rear electronic limited-slip diff and monster brakes, with 400mm discs and four-piston callipers up front and 360mm discs and single-piston callipers at the rear.

It needs this hardware as the IONIQ 5 N differs from basically every other EV in having an unashamed track focus, but we’ll cover off all those features – and the success of their implementation – in a moment.

On a more day-to-day level there’s all the equipment you get in the lower variants, including all the active safety gear bar driver monitoring – autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, cross traffic collision avoidance, 360-degree camera, remote parking capability and much more.

The sports seats are manually adjustable but heated and ventilated and there’s dual-zone climate control, a heated steering wheel, an eight-speaker Bose sound system, giant digital displays for the instruments and infotainment, wireless smartphone mirroring and charging, Hyundai’s Bluelink connected vehicle system and a head-up display.

The only options are paint colour and a panoramic glass roof.

Hyundai’s typical five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty is offered and servicing will be $1875 over the first six years or 90,000km, with intervals of 24 months/30,000km.

If you want performance, the 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N delivers in spades. Even by EV standards this is a staggeringly fast car, launch control squeezing the air out of your lungs until the speedo hits triple digits and even at higher speeds the roll-on response is instant and savage.

It’s not necessarily an intuitive car, though, primarily due to the staggering level of configurability contained within. There are the usual multiple settings for powertrain, suspension, steering and stability control, but the IONIQ 5 N’s electric drivetrain has allowed the engineers to let their imaginations run wild.

N Torque Distribution allows the car to be fully front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive or anything in between; N Drift Optimiser helps the driver live out their sideways fantasies; N Battery Preconditioning sets the car up for peak power or longevity depending on whether Drag or Track mode is selected; N Road Sense detects squiggly road signs to prompt the driver to select N Mode and much more.

The most contentious feature of the IONIQ 5 N, however, is its ability to mimic a combustion-engined vehicle. Synthetic noise is nothing new, though the Hyundai goes a step further by having external as well as internal speakers, but no car has ever had a fake gearbox before.

It’s not a gearbox at all, of course, but careful mapping of the electric motors to imitate both the power curve and ratios. It’s fake, artificial, pointless and fantastic.

For years, automatics have been derided as lacking involvement compared to manuals. But when the alternative is nothing at all, having gears to play with is a game-changer. It isn’t just having something to do either; the existence of gear ratios does wonders for being able to time your braking and judge your corner speed.

In its most aggressive mode and with the ‘gearbox’ active, the IONIQ 5 N does a mean impersonation of a Nissan R35 GT-R. There’s the same sense of substantial weight – though in this case the GT-R is a good 500kg-plus lighter than the 2230kg (tare) Hyundai – but also limitless grip and immense power.

But, like the GT-R (despite its reputation), this isn’t a car that drives itself. It moves and shimmies and can be delicately adjusted with brakes, steering and throttle. It’ll happily hold up to track sessions, too, the brakes showing no signs of fade after repeated hot laps.

The true magic of the IONIQ 5 N is that it has one of the world’s greatest balances of practicality versus performance. It’s a much bigger car than you might expect, which combined with the space advantages of the EV platform gives it heaps of storage space up front and a truly cavernous back seat.

This is an A-grade family car, especially as when you’re not trying to set lap records the ride is very compliant and the whole experience is little different to a standard IONIQ 5.

Not everything about the 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N is champagne and roses, though. The interior is eminently practical and very well equipped, but perhaps feels a bit plain with a price tag well into six figures.

That’s perhaps an unfair criticism as this is unapologetically a performance machine and the money has been spent on the mechanicals. But, well, an Audi RS 3 has a very nice cabin.

Boot space is also a little tight for a car of this size. It’s a very useable space but the floor is quite high, which limits its total volume.

On the driving front, N Torque Distribution is tricky. Partially it’s an issue of familiarity. EVs behave differently to traditional mechanical cars in terms of how they respond to driver input – it still feels like the car is trying to give you what it thinks you want rather than mindlessly obeying our commands. You have to play by the car’s rules somewhat.

Another issue is if you do want to engage in the IONIQ 5 N’s driftability, be warned – its weight and power give it a terrifying appetite for tyres.

Range is also a problem in any hard-driven EV. It’s not an issue with the car per se, but the combination of infrastructure and the thirst for electrons will limit where and how you can drive the car.

Simply put, putting EV fast-chargers in close proximity to great driving roads is understandably not a huge priority.

Finally, there’s the sound. There is possibly a very good reason why, but when computer games have been able to give us pretty accurate replications of a car’s sound for many years now, it’s unclear why the IONIQ 5 N sounds so lacklustre.

It’s definitely more Gran Turismo 2 than Gran Turismo 7.

If you’re in the market for a high-performance electric car, it would be borderline negligent not to strongly consider a 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N.

But that’s not really what Hyundai is after. It wants those in the market for a performance car full stop to consider an IONIQ 5 N.

And they should.

It’s a remarkable machine with a wider bandwidth than almost any other performance car. The price might seem high until you consider what it can do. Commute in silence and comfort throughout the week with plenty of space for the family, then go and embarrass some Porsches at the track on the weekend.

As long as you have a healthy tyre budget. And it’s not an endurance race.

Perhaps more importantly, the IONIQ 5 N proves electric cars can offer more than just shock-and-awe performance but genuine engagement as well.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N at a glance:
Price: $111,000 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Twin permanent magnet synchronous motors
Output: 478kW/770Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 84kWh lithium-ion
Range: 448km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 21.2kWh/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Not tested

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