How the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N will convert petrolheads

Awesomely powerful and loaded with toys, this electric car promises to deliver something no other battery machine has managed.

Forget about porridge in the three bears’ kitchen, Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N is like Goldilocks stumbling into an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Customisable driving modes usually offer narrow choices including something too hot, too cold, and hopefully one that’s just right.

Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N is an electric car for petrolheads.

But this electric performance car has more than 100,000 potential driving mode combinations that could result in the perfect dish – or leave owners spoiled for choice, feeling lost in the woods.

While enthusiasts of the past rolled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty finetuning carburettors, Hyundai product guru Tim Rodgers says today’s customers want to dive into computer settings to unlock new experiences.

Tim Rodgers walks David McCowen through features in the 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.

“I’ve had someone joke to me that this car’s tailored for the PlayStation generation,” Rogers said.

“And I think that actually speaks well to some of the features in it, but it also speaks to who we’re tailoring the car to. They are the kids that grew up on Nintendos or PlayStations, they are the power users of Macs in the past.

“They are the kids who overclocked computers as a hobby.”

Hyundai Ioniq 5 N customers can tailor the car to their preferences.

The Ioniq 5 N is a brave car. As the first six-figure Hyundai, it costs about $120,000 drive-away.

Powered by front and rear electric motors with 478kW of combined power, it can rocket to 100km/h in 3.4 seconds. It matches the straight-line thrust of more expensive blue-blooded performance heroes such as the Porsche 911 GTS or BMW M3 CS, though you could say that about several electric cars.

“It almost doesn’t matter now what power an EV has, because we all know they’re fast,” Rodgers says

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has serious performance capability.

“So then we’ve asked the question: ‘How do we make it fun?’

“We have honed right into that question – how do we make it more fun? How do we enhance the customer experience?

“It’s about the tactility, it’s about the intangibles, it’s about the whole experience.”

It’s the vibe of the thing. This car promises to meet every keen driver where they want to be, whether that’s at the drag strip, on the skid pan, the circuit, or a winding road.

And it aims to deliver the experience exacting owners are looking for.

The Hyundai can be surprisingly soft or firm as required.

Dive into the loniq’s menus and you’ll find customisable settings for the power, steering, suspension, limited-slip differential, head-up display, stability control and active sounds. That’s just for starters.

Then there are adjustable “N Track” features with variable settings for torque distribution, battery management, whether you want to drift the car, and whether you’d like the car to help facilitate sideways action with clever torque vectoring.

Shortcuts on the steering wheel help customers access favourite settings.

It doesn’t just have launch control, it has an adjustable launch function that lets you tailor traction to suit grip offered by any given surface or weather.

You can enjoy the seamless thrust of an electric car, or replicate the feeling of a high-performance transmission, complete with engine braking when you pull the left paddle, or jolting up changes when you tug the right.

And you can use those paddles to find a preferred level of electric brake regeneration to top up the battery.

A brief spin in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N impressed on Aussie soil.

The car will watch the street ahead for “winding road” signs and remind you to pop the car in sport mode to make the most of those curves.

It will replicate the sound of a high-performance petrol car, allow you to choose whether you want “high performance” effects such as exhaust pops or crackles, and separately tailor the way it sounds through interior and exterior speakers.

The Ioniq 5 N officially launches in February.

You can make it sound like a digitally synthesised video game. Or a fighter jet.

Rodgers says executive technical adviser Albert Biermann insisted the development team prioritise driver engagement to the detriment of stopwatches and spreadsheets.

“It was a really confronting thing to ask ourselves, because we always go ‘more, more’, we want to be measurably better,” Rodgers says.

2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.

“But this is actually flipping all of that on its head, and this is an influence of Mr Biermann.

“He’ll just go ‘I don’t care about the numbers, this is more fun than that, so I want this’.”

Originally published as How the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N will convert petrolheads