Synthesized Driving Pleasure

The electric evolution is upon us with Hyundai trying to do a bridging-of-the-gap between the ICE age and the widely portrayed electric future. Have they succeeded, though? Fast-N your seatbelts, N-thusiasts!

- Jim Gorde

THIS IS A BLOODY QUICK SUPER-MACHINE! It is, for all intents and purposes, an electric vehicle. A green reg-plate EV. A green-reg, twin-motor, 650-hp, 260-km/h, two-tonne, super-sport EV.

Why am I starting with that? Well, let's set the scene. We were invited to Seoul in South Korea to visit the Hyundai (pronounced hyun-day like Sunday, but with an "Hy" instead of "S") Motorstudio Goyang and then drive some cars, including the new Ioniq 5 N, which, let's be honest, has the hardware and the spec to rival some iconic supercars, Italian bulls, thoroughbreds, and otherwise. It is also Hyundai's first electric N division model.

It would be a cold day in hell when I would actually like an electric car, I had told myself. Turns out Seoul was very cold. And we would be heading up north-no, not North north-but close to the border in Paju and even further in another northerly direction where snowfall was forecast. One day was forecast to have a maximum temperature of -1 Celsius with the minimum plummeting to -8! Brrrr. AImost the same sound as the Ioniq 5 N conjures up. Confused? Well, I'll get to that later.

The Ioniq 5 N is a looks-and-goes-faster version of the already quick Ioniq 5 AWD (which isn't sold in India-save for its badgeengineered take, the 325-hp Kia EV6 GT-Line AWD), apart from the standard 72-RWD model we have here which is pretty quick itself. Think of it as an N5-in the same vein as the BMW 5 Series and their M5. And it made its world début at the Goodwood Festival of Speed! That should give you a fair idea of what it's about. There are several changes and they are not just cosmetic.