HYUNDAI IONIQ 5 N

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is a real gamechanger. For electric performance cars, for electric cars in general, but especially for performance cars.

Anyone worried that an electric future might spell the end of fun on four wheels can rest easy, because the Ioniq 5 N is a car that's huge fun to drive on road and track and also happens to be electric. No matter which way you approach it, it's a brilliant performance car.

This feels like the first EV to take all the opportunities that electric propulsion offers and put them to use to create something laughout-loud entertaining. The silent and violent acceleration thing has been done to death by now. While the Ioniq 5 N can do all that, it also offers a more layered experience with its simulated gearchanges. At the same time, it can use all its instant power and some very clever tuning - to create a brilliantly interactive chassis that entertains at road speeds or on track.

At this point, it shouldn't be surprising that this excellent driver's car has come from Hyundai. When the firm set up its N performance sub-brand, it poached some of the best engineers in the industry and set out its sky-blue stall with the impressive i30 N and excellent i20 N (and to a lesser extent the Kona N). But just seven years later, it seems to be tearing off the internal-combustion plaster, because those hot hatches are now dead and in their place is the Ioniq 5 N.