Hyundai Ioniq 5 N review: Fun, powerful and family-sized EV

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is the result of a car company letting its engineers have fun. We already knew the E-GMP platform was a winner, with its fast charging and good efficiency, and now we know Hyundai isn’t afraid of pushing the envelope of what it can do. In short, the car has a drive mode that simulates the noise, performance and character of a petrol engine with an eight-speed gearbox.

This won’t be for everyone (or indeed for every drive), but the augmented gearbox works so well it’s almost entirely believable. The 5 N is a seriously quick and highly customisable car, but also one that gives driving enthusiasts hope that EVs can be fun.

What’s equally impressive is how well it works as a daily driver, too. It’s practical, spacious, comfortable and easy to drive. Leave it in comfort mode and your passengers would have no idea of what it’s capable of. Our only regret is how the efficiency quickly falls well below 3 miles per kWh when you start playing with all those N goodies.

I spent a week with the Ioniq 5 N. During that time it acted as my daily driver, completing errands where I live in London, but also taking on rural A-roads, motorways and dual-carriageways.

Independent rating: 9/10

N is to Hyundai what GTI is to Volkswagen or AMG is to Mercedes. It’s the Korean company’s sub-brand that takes sensible cars and makes them sporty. For the Ioniq 5, the engineers at N have stepped up a gear and created an EV that, with the press of a button, acts and sounds like a petrol-powered sports car, complete with augmented eight-speed gearbox and crackling exhaust soundtrack.

It has an 84 kWh battery and a maximum range of 278 miles, but the headline figures here are 634 bhp, 770 Nm of torque and a 0-62 mph time of 3.4 seconds. These are supercar figures in a five-door EV that weighs over two tonnes.

Since it shares the same 800-volt E-GMP platform as other Kia, Hyundai and Genesis cars, the 5 N charges at up to 240 kW. This means it’ll fill from 10 to 80 percent in around 18 minutes, when connected to an equally powerful charger.

Just like the regular Ioniq 5, the 5 N has a spacious five-seat interior. The button-covered steering wheel initially overwhelms, but after some acclimatisation it makes sense. It’s a surprise to find manually-adjusted seats in a £65,000 car, but they hold you well and are comfortable, with plenty of adjustability on offer.

There’s also lots of space in the second row, as with the standard Ioniq 5, and the boot size is the same too, at an impressive 527 litres, while the 57-litre frunk is enough for your charge cables. Hyundai has struck a nice balance here, by offering a car that is seriously quick when you want it to be, but which is also practical and comfortable enough to play the role of daily driver. Turn off the sound effects, switch to comfort mode and you’d mistake it for any other sensible EV.

The N’s infotainment hardware is shared with the regular Ioniq 5, which means a dashboard topped by a pair of displays. One handles the infotainment system (complete with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto) while the other is the driver display. Both are bright and sharp, and the infotainment is responsive. There’s also a large, colour head-up display that changes its layout depending on which drive mode is selected. Other tech includes a wireless phone charger, five USB ports and an eight-speaker Bose stereo that is admittedly better at making engine sound effects than playing music.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the N’s tech at first, especially when you start digging into the sound and drive modes, but keen drivers will quickly make sense of it all. There’s even a whole set of functions intended only for track use, like enabling left-foot braking and a drift mode. Equally impressive is how the Ioniq 5 N reverts back to a quiet, comfortable EV when you’re done having fun. Its breadth of ability is extraordinary.

At £65,000, the 5 N is considerably more expensive than the regular Ioniq 5, which starts at £39,900. It also isn’t as efficient, owing to being significantly more powerful, and how the augmented engine and gearbox egg you on. However, there’s an awful lot of performance here and, for now at least, the 5 N offers an entirely unique driving experience.

Look at it another way, and the Hyundai is £15,000 cheaper than Porsche’s similarly powerful Macan Turbo.

Hyundai’s E-GMP platform is one of the fastest chargers around. Plug it into a suitably powerful charger (like one capable of 250 kW) and the Ioniq 5 N will fill from 10 to 80 percent in about 18 minutes. Plug into a wallbox at home and you’re looking at about 11 hours for a complete fill.

At £65,000 the 5 N might sound expensive for a Hyundai, but for an EV of this performance it feels like surprisingly good value. The Porsche Macan Turbo has more badge equity but it starts at £90,000 and lacks many of the 5 N’s unique features.

Like most EV manufacturers, Hyundai includes a battery warranty that lasts for eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. If the battery degrades more than normal, or fails entirely, during that time, you may be entitled to a no-cost repair.

Believe the hype. An EV that pretends to have an engine might sound daft, but Hyundai’s engineers have performed miracles with the 5 N. For a family-sized EV, it’s astonishingly good fun.