Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Review & Prices

This is the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N – probably the first proper electric performance car this side of ultra-exclusive, ultra-expensive exotics. Sure, there have been EVs with monumental power upgrades and acceleration that’ll make you feel queasy after a couple of launches, but this feels altogether more serious.

Why? Well Hyundai has, naturally, given the Ioniq 5 N silly power – 650hp at its peak, to be precise – but it has also overhauled the car’s mechanical bits, so there’s all-new suspension, big brakes, sporty styling tweaks that help cool the battery and even a new steering setup. And that’s before we get to the intrigue of synthesised sounds and gear shifts. It’s a bit like taking your quiet, shy mate and turning them into a UFC champion.

There’s not much else like the Ioniq 5 N, then. But you might also consider the likes of the Kia EV6 GT and Ford Mustang Mach-e GT, or much more expensive options such as the Porsche Taycan and Audi RS e-tron GT.

What really makes the Ioniq 5 N stand out from these other fast EVs is the fact that it has character. Hyundai has clearly approached this car with a good sense of humour, since you have the ability to make it sound like a petrol performance car or even a fighter jet, and even simulate gearshifts. It sounds like a silly gimmick but it makes this an involving electric car to drive. It won’t be for everyone, but approach it with an open mind and it works surprisingly well.

You can drive it like a normal, silent electric car, which you will probably want to do most of the time. But either way, the mechanical upgrades mean that beyond the silliness the Ioniq 5 N is also a seriously capable car. The twin-motor setup provides all-wheel drive, so you can accelerate hard out of corners and it moves like a rocketship with all that power.

There’s no getting away from the fact that it’s heavy, and when you’re really enjoying a twisty road or race track you can feel that the tyres are working hard to keep grip with the Tarmac, but it responds quickly to your steering inputs like a smaller hot hatch would.

Speaking of which, the remit of a hot hatch is that it must be practical as well as fast. While it looks VW Golf-sized in photos, the Ioniq 5 is actually slightly bigger than the Audi Q5 SUV, so it’s really spacious inside, with loads of legroom in the back. The 480-litre boot isn’t huge but should be enough for most people day-to-day and it’s more room than you get in other similarly hot EVs.

Other useful day-to-day stuff? This is the biggest battery in any of Hyundai’s EVs and as a result you get a respectable range of 278 miles despite all that power. It also charges really quickly – 10-80% in less than 20 minutes – which is useful on longer drives.

The interior has also been updated for N duties. You sit in figure-hugging bucket-style seats, but they’re not so tight that larger passengers will feel squeezed. There’s also a new-look centre console that feels suitably well put together and doubles up as somewhere to brace your leg when cornering hard. Smart.

You get the same twin-screen infotainment system and instrument display as the regular Ioniq 5, which has sharp graphics and responds quickly to your inputs. There are a dizzying array of N-specific menus and settings to dive into, too.

If you just want to get in and go fast, you can just select the Sport or ‘N’ modes, but Hyundai is clearly targeting proper car nerds with the Ioniq 5 N with the numerous modes and tweakable settings. It can be a lot to take in, but rewarding if you invest the time.

For petrolheads waiting for the car to convince them to turn electric, this could be it – the Ioniq 5 N is a genuinely fascinating piece of engineering, but just as important is that it can make you giggle if you don’t take it too seriously. Fake gear shifts and synthetic engine sounds are enough to make any enthusiast roll their eyes, but don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it.

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At first glance, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N looks like a lot of money for an electric family hatchback, but its £65,000 starting price is actually remarkably good value compared with other fast EVs you might consider.

For example, the Kia EV6 GT costs a bit less at £62,000, but it’s not as powerful and you don’t get all the other clever mechanical/software upgrades. The Ford Mustang Mach-e GT starts at £75,000, and while it does have some improvements over the regular car it doesn’t feel like it quite hits the level of the Hyundai, and has less power too. The Porsche Taycan 4S and Audi RS e-tron GT offer comparable power outputs, but both are considerably more expensive.

You also get all of the Ioniq 5 N’s power and performance upgrades as standard, so you won’t be forking out extra for the really juicy stuff. The only options are a panoramic glass roof that costs £1,250, premium paint jobs, and a few minor styling tweaks to personalise your car.

Incredibly quick and great fun to drive in corners, but it jostles and jiggles over bumps

In town

If you’re buying a practical performance car it needs to be able to do the boring everyday stuff, and fortunately the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N largely drives like the regular model around town. The steering is a touch heavy and you feel sharp edges such as potholes crash through the cabin somewhat, but for the most part it’s relaxing to pootle around in, particularly if you don’t engage the fake engine sounds.

It’s very big, though. In the hustle and bustle of rush hour traffic or the narrow ramps of multi-storey car parks you’ll have a sweat on. Fortunately a standard-fit 360-degree camera and front and rear parking sensors help make things a bit less stressful.

On the motorway

With so much power on tap, getting up to motorway speeds takes little effort, and you won’t have to think too far ahead when you need to overtake. The big alloy wheels and sporty tyres mean there’s a bit more road noise than the regular model, but it’s not too intrusive and feels like a fair trade off for its corner carving abilities.

Adaptive cruise control is standard and helps take the strain out of longer journeys. This helps maintain your speed and distance to the car in front, and you can also have the car nudge at the steering to keep you centred in the lane.

On a twisty road

It’s twisty roads where the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N really impresses. To start with a negative, this is a very heavy car, and you can feel it when cornering at higher speeds – you get the sense that the tyres are working incredibly hard to keep contact with the road.

However, the steering feels natural and it’s easy to place the car where you want. It turns in very quickly for a big, heavy car and it’s easy to get into a quick rhythm. And you’re always accompanied by that monumental power output – you can press the NGB (meaning N Grin Boost, yes really) button on the steering wheel for 10 seconds of the full 650hp. Even without, you still get 609hp, which is a hilarious amount for a family car.

Get out on track and things are even more impressive. True, if you turn into a corner too aggressively the front tyres can lose grip because of all the weight behind them, but if you show a little restraint going into a bend and then mash the throttle on the way out you can feel the power going to the rear and helping you around the turn like a proper sports car.

And it’s on track where you can make the most of all those modes and settings. There are 12 in total, and they change everything from the ‘engine sounds’ to optimising battery cooling so you can maximise track performance. One system helps you get the best drifts, and another lets you decide the front-to-rear power split to suit your driving style. Proper nerdy stuff if you want to get into the nitty gritty, but the car still works great if you just stick it in Sport or ‘N’ and go for it.

And what of the simulated engine sounds and gear shifts? You might hate it, but we loved it. The sounds aren’t perfect, and are particularly grating if you hold consistent ‘revs’ because there’s an odd warble, but when you’re driving quickly down a twisty road it really adds some theatre and works seamlessly. The gear shifts are clever too, because the car subtly jolts to trick your brain into believing each shift is real. It’s silly, it’s largely pointless, but it's good fun.

There’s loads of space in the cabin, though the boot isn’t as big as the regular Ioniq 5

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is a big car, and you really feel that from behind the wheel because the passenger-side door looks miles away. There’s a decent amount of adjustment in the seats and steering wheel so it’s not too difficult to get yourself into a comfortable driving position, and you can get fairly low for that true sporty feel.

In the regular Ioniq 5 there’s an open space between the passengers, but the N version gets a new section here that you can store and wirelessly charge your phone, though its primary job is to provide leg bracing for when you’re cornering hard. It does mean the footwell doesn’t feel quite as spacious, but it’s a useful trade off for functionality on a twisty road.

The door bins are quite small, though there is a cutout for a water bottle, and you get a couple of cupholders in the centre console that can be retracted to provide more storage space. There are three USB-C charging slots up front, and a 12V slot.

Space in the back seats

In the back seats, you could give a couple of members of the local basketball team a lift with no complaints about space. There’s loads of legroom, loads of headroom, and there’s even a good amount of space for three, though the cushions are a bit hard so it could get uncomfortable on long journeys.

The special sports seats up front mean you lose the storage pockets of the regular model, but the door bins are big enough for a typical 500ml water bottle. There are two more USB-C slots in the rear, too.

All that space means it’s easy to fit a child seat. The ISOFIX anchor points are easy to find and the doors open fairly wide. The Ioniq 5 N sits a bit closer to the ground than the regular car, but not enough to feel like you’re bending down too much to put the kids in.

Boot space

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has a 480-litre boot, which is less than the 527 litres you get in the normal model. However, while there are a few electric family cars that offer more space than that, the N model actually fares quite well against electric performance cars.

You get an identical 480 litres in the Kia EV6 GT (because they share some of the same underpinnings), but the Ford Mustang Mach-e GT has just 402 litres. The Porsche Taycan is available in an estate-like Sport Turismo body style, but it’s even more expensive than the coupe version and is still about 30 litres down on the Hyundai.

There’s loads of tech and sporty features inside the Ioniq 5 N, but there are hints of cheaper materials to be found

Even the basic Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has a cool minimalist yet high-tech interior, and the N version takes this and makes things decidedly sportier.

The N-specific steering wheel has new buttons for your drive modes on the top left, ‘NGB’ for your 10 seconds of full power, a track-focused N drive mode button on the bottom left, and another button to toggle the fake engine sounds and gear shifts on or off on the right.

Sporty bucket-style seats do a good job of holding you in place when you’re enjoying the car’s epic cornering abilities, but they’re comfy enough for everyday drives too, thanks to the soft Alcantara upholstery.

You get the same twin 12.3-inch displays you’ll find on the regular car, but they have new software with N-specific menus and endless options to fiddle around with. The system is pretty quick to respond to your touch and the graphics are sharp, but you’ll have to consult the manual to get your head around what everything does.

Switchable displays let you have simpler designs with only the basic information you need such as speed and range, or you can fully nerd out with sporty screens that show you everything from the temperature of the electric motors and battery, to lap timers and throttle/brake positioning. It’s fantastic geekery, but if you prefer to just get in and go it could all feel rather pointless.

Quality is good on the whole with some upmarket materials on all the stuff you regularly touch, though some of the buttons and switches do feel a bit cheap and flimsy so it falls just short of being properly premium.

All Ioniq 5 Ns come with the same battery and motor combination. You get two electric motors – one on the front axle and one on the rear to provide all-wheel drive. They combine to produce 609hp in normal driving, but if you press the NGB button on the wheel you get the full 650hp for 10 seconds.

As a result it’s incredibly quick, and will go from 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds (or 3.4 with NGB engaged) before hitting a top speed of 162mph.

For perspective, the Kia EV6 GT has 585hp and the Ford Mustang Mach-e GT has ‘just’ 487hp. You need to start looking at silly expensive alternatives to match the Hyundai’s power, such as the Audi RS e-tron GT – that car has just under 650hp in its boost mode, but starts at a whopping £120,000.

The battery is the biggest ever fitted to one of Hyundai’s cars. At 84kWh it’s usefully larger than the 78kWh battery in the long-range version of the regular Ioniq 5. Because of all that performance, though, it won’t go quite as far on a charge at 278 miles compared with 298 miles. You’re looking at more like 250 miles in real-world driving in the N, though, and considerably less if you’re spending your time on track.

If you need to top up on a road trip, Hyundai’s excellent battery technology means you can charge at speeds of up to 240kW if you find a charger capable of achieving such speeds. That will take you from 10-80% in just 18 minutes.

Despite its cray performance, the Ioniq 5 N has no Vehicle Excise Duty to pay because it’s a zero-emission vehicle, and this also means you pay the lowest Benefit-in-Kind rate as a company car, too.

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 was given the full five stars when it was safety tested by Euro NCAP, so that score will also apply to the N model. It scored highly in the adult and child occupant safety segments, as well as getting a great score for its safety assistance tech.

Unsurprisingly, then, you get loads of driver aids with the Ioniq 5 N, such as an advanced forward collision avoidance system, cruise control that can adjust your speed based on the sat nav, remote parking and much more. The downside to this is that Hyundai’s warning systems are quite intrusive, so you’ll probably want to turn off some settings such as a beep that warns you that you’re exceeding the limit. It often misreads signs so it will beep away even if you’re not speeding, and EU regulations mean everything turns back on when you restart the car.

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has proved reliable since it was introduced, and regularly scores highly in owner satisfaction surveys. However, the N model is a bit of an unknown quantity at this point, with new mechanical upgrades to consider. These are also likely to be expensive to repair or replace should you need to.

Fortunately, the Ioniq 5 N benefits from the same excellent warranty all Hyundais get. At five years with unlimited mileage, it’s better than the three years most manufacturers offer. Kia provides seven years of cover, but this is limited to 100,000 miles.