Efficiency electrical autos present large horsepower numbers, and their torque-rich motors, able to instantaneous supply, make for blistering acceleration. However in contrast to their high-strung internal-combustion counterparts, electrics are missing in two essential areas: the sound of an engine’s micro-explosions and the mechanical suggestions that imparts a way of pace. Hyundai’s N performance-tuning arm seeks to treatment that with its 2024 Ioniq 5 N.

A blast down the entrance straight of the Nürburgring’s GP circuit reveals the Ioniq 5 N is rather like some other efficiency electrical. The grandstands blur round you, wind deflects across the bodywork, and although the Ioniq 5 N’s digital instrument cluster signifies critical pace, the mind says in any other case. Standing on the brakes into the GP circuit’s difficult Flip 1 brings solely tire noise and no extra. However Hyundai has a couple of tips up its sleeve.

Sound On

With a press of one of many camouflaged, configurable buttons on what is going to possible be Hyundai’s most complex steering wheel up to now, N Energetic Sound + involves life. There are three obtainable sound profiles whose quantity might be adjusted from distant to in-your-face: Evolution is the spacey noise we have grown to dislike in lots of EVs, Supersonic is one other gimmick that emulates a fighter jet, and essentially the most partaking profile is Ignition. By the eight inside and two exterior audio system, it feels like a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four discovered within the Elantra N or the Kona N. It is executed effectively sufficient that an untrained ear would possibly even suppose there’s combustion taking place underneath the hood. Sound system, examine.

With Ignition activated, the soundtrack drones alongside as if an N-tuned 2.0-liter had been paired with a constantly variable automated. Yuck. However with a push of yet one more steering-wheel button, the Ioniq 5 N unleashes one thing that modifications the sport of how the mind processes EVs: simulated gearshifts. By briefly interrupting the motors’ torque supply, N e-Shift mimics an eight-speed dual-clutch automated. The 5 N jolts on upshifts. Downshifts are rev matched and accompanied by pops and bangs from the audio system throughout deceleration, similar to the internal-combustion N vehicles.

Hyundai is totally clear that interrupting torque supply with N e-Shift is not the quickest manner across the circuit, however by solely a slim margin. Based mostly on our transient time behind the wheel, the trade-off is perhaps value it. N e-Shift alters the sense of pace the mind perceives. Many on-track cues come from noise: You would possibly know {that a} braking zone happens on the prime of fourth gear, and that is the suggestions N e-Shift delivers that no different EV presently offers. For those who take guide management with the shift paddles and miss a shift, you may hit a digital gasoline cutoff. Get caught out in too excessive of a gear, and the Ioniq 5 will even lug the powertrain by limiting the facility supply. Sure, it’s very faux and unrelated to the mechanicals, but it surely’s a level of engagement that till now has been misplaced within the electrified world.

Siblings, Not Twins

The automotive that hosts this refined EV powertrain isn’t just a rebodied Kia EV6 GT. Though the Ioniq 5 N does share the identical E-GMP platform and far of the identical underpinnings—the three-position adaptive dampers, an electronically managed limited-slip differential—it’s a extra track-focused device. Its physique has 40 extra yet-to-be-revealed strengthening factors than the usual Ioniq 5 and particular bushing tolerances. It is protected to imagine the 5 N will at the very least match the EV6 GT’s 576 horsepower and 545 lb-ft of torque, however we’re anticipating Hyundai to show it up a notch.

With greater than 6000 miles of improvement across the treacherous 12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife, Hyundai is critical in regards to the 5 N’s service life on observe. The purpose is for the Ioniq to have the ability to full two laps with little efficiency degradation. To perform that, Hyundai has optimized the 5 N’s cooling package deal with extra air coming into the nostril, extra environment friendly radiator packaging, an improved oil cooler, and an upgraded battery chiller. To finish two laps across the Inexperienced Hell will possible require a unique battery from the 77.4-kWh unit widespread to the Korean manufacturers, and Hyundai is not keen to speak in regards to the battery pack simply but.

Many Modes

Just like the gas-powered N vehicles, the Ioniq 5 is replete with drive modes. N Race gives a Dash mode to maximise efficiency and use all of the obtainable energy. Endurance mode is ready to assist with the two-lap mission by managing the battery, motor output, and regeneration methods for prolonged time spent on observe. There are additionally two preconditioning modes, one for the observe and one other for drag racing. With a launch-control mode that preloads the motors, we count on the 5 N to beat the EV6 GT’s 3.1-second rip to 60 mph.

Our earlier explorations of the 5 N’s front-to-rear torque-distribution slider revealed that the automotive is a drift machine on a frozen lake. Whereas we did not experiment with this function on the asphalt, the considered directing all of the driving pressure to the entrance axle for a smoky front-tire hearth amuses us nearly as a lot as sending the torque to the rear for power-sliding shenanigans.

Getting again on, ahem, observe, the Ioniq 5 N is a delight across the 3.2-mile GP circuit. Up entrance, four-piston fastened calipers squeeze 15.7-inch rotors (0.7 inch bigger than the EV6 GT’s), whereas a single-piston slider pinches a 14.2-inch rotor within the again. All through 4 flying laps, the brakes by no means relinquish stopping pressure, and the pedal stays agency and tidy. There’s an N Pedal mode button lurking within the infotainment, however Hyundai is not prepared to speak about that. We suspect it adjusts the brake-pedal really feel and even the regeneration mapping to assist rotate the 5 N throughout braking.

No fewer than three steering modes can be found, ratcheting up the trouble as they progress into the racier settings, however by no means to the purpose that you simply’re wrestling a grizzly bear. Over the GP circuit’s 15 turns, the Ioniq 5 N–particular steering rack delivers fast turn-in, although we might favor a bit extra really feel because the Hyundai-spec Pirelli P Zero Elect PNCS 275/35ZR-21 tires load up. With a low heart of gravity and minimal physique roll, there is a false sense of grip if you’re divebombing an apex. Admittedly, we had been most likely overdriving a observe we’re unfamiliar with, so overworking the Pirellis to the purpose of understeer is on us, however we suspect there’s some torque-vectoring software program within the works that may take some guesswork out of it and preserve the Hyundai on a tighter line.

The 5 N is greater than only a observe attacker. On a short highway drive navigating the twisties linking the villages of western Germany’s rolling hillsides, the 5 N reveals its tamer facet. Similar to the 10Best-winning Hyundai Ioniq 5, the turned-up variant dialed again into its least aggressive settings and with all of the noise mills silenced is a superb, well-isolated cruiser. Of their softest setting, the adaptive dampers exhibit improbable wheel management. On the limitless sections of the autobahn, the 5 N cruises alongside at a drama-free 160 mph with near-perfect on-center steering calibration.

It’s going to be a while earlier than we are able to expertise a manufacturing model of the Ioniq 5 N, as manufacturing begins early in 2024. Even on this automotive’s improvement levels, Hyundai actually has paved the for the 5 N to alter the way in which we understand an electrical car from behind the wheel. Whether or not making an EV sound and really feel like an internal-combustion engine will win over fanatics stays to be seen, but it surely’s a motion not off course.

Senior Testing Editor

David Beard research and opinions automotive associated issues and pushes fossil-fuel and electric-powered stuff to their limits. His ardour for the Ford Pinto started at his conception, which passed off in a Pinto.