Electric cars have always been touted as fast, quick cars with incredible power. I mean, the tesla model 3 performance has a 0-60 at 2.9 seconds! But nobody has really designed one of these cards to be a performance sports car… until the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.
I got the opportunity to drive the Ioniq 5 N at the 2025 IMPA Spring Brake event at Camelback Resort. While the rain stopped me from filming a full video with this car, I wanted to take some time to go over this car in detail because, quite frankly, it’s worth it.
Let’s start with the basics. This car doesn’t have a gas motor, it has an electric one. In fact, it doesn’t just have one, it has two! The front electric motor puts out 166 kW of power, the rear motor puts out 282 kW for a total combined output of 478 kW under “N Gin Boost”, their power boost mode. With these duel motors you’re looking at about 601 horsepower which is nothing to shake a stick at.
For capacity you’re looking at 84kWh and a charge speed of up to 350kW. Hyundai claims you can get from 10% to 80% in just 18 minutes at full charge power. This all translates into a range of somewhere between 200-250 miles per charge depending on how you drive it. For some that may seem low but in reality, you aren’t buying this vehicle if you’re looking for an eco trotting long range vehicle. You’re buying it for the power, the speed, the handling. And this car screams performance.
The exterior is exactly that, sporty. This model features the iconic matte blue paint that just looks incredible in my opinion. The retro styled lights accent the duel tone body panels around the car. It just looks like a sleek, sporty race car! The door handles flip out to open. I’m wondering how these preform in the fridged winters of Pennsylvania as we’ve seen issues with tesla door handles in the past. The little red details all over the car look great against the matte blue. I’m a massive fan of blue and red color schemes so this car simply looks incredible to me. You also get Hyundai N badges all over to remind you that you got the N variant.
Inside the read hatch you get a surprising amount of space! Yes you got a little sport car but you still can easily go and pick up a full load of groceries no problem! There is a small light in the back to help you see in the dark and manual pull downs to push the rear seats down for larger items to fit.
The back seat is surprisingly comfy and plush. It features an alcantera feeling cloth that to the touch feels premium. You get two fold down cup holders and two USB C charging ports. The back seat is serviceable, but I wouldn’t recommend long road trips with 3 people in the back.
The front seats are where the race really begins. You get two bucket racing seats the hug you extremely well. No harness seatbelts here but you certainly feel study with this seat. The steering wheel is wrapped in a premium leather material and looks like a race wheel. Flashing buttons all over, paddle shifters for the shift by wire system, a boost button, and drive mode selector. You also have your cruise control and phone call controls on the wheel as well.
The have a large digital tachometer which provides plenty of information to the driver including motor and battery temps. You also have a driver centric infotainment that comes with Hyundai’s new infotainment system. Of course you can just use android auto or apple car play but the base infotainment is snappy and very usable too. You also have some physical controls for media and the radio as well as touch sensitive buttons for climate controls. Lastly you have a wireless car charger, two USB-C ports and cup holders up front. The cup holders have adjustable sliders to hold smaller or larger drinks. I personally love this as if you have a big water bottle it’ll fit fine here as well as your small starbucks drink. Lastly you have an empty void as your center console.
Let’s talk driving. This car drives incredibly well. It’s fast and clearly begging you to go faster. When you come off the throttle the regenerative braking kicks in and slows itself down. If you’ve never driven an electric car before this can be hard to get used to but you learn the new throttle control over time. But even though its an electric motor it just feels like it wants to GO! And GO it does! Even on rain soaked windy turns this car is planted and burns through corners like nothing. You have almost zero body roll thanks to the heavy battery under the car holding you down. Its 0-60 comes in at 3 seconds flat and you can feel the toque race through the car if you push on the accelerator. The bucket seats come into play here taking corners fast as it holds you close while the car takes the G’s. Overall, this car is fast, corners well, and handles like a damn champ.
Now, if you don’t race down the road in this every time you go out, you’ll be happy to know that in its normal drive mode it does drive more economical and reserved. But even in that drive mode it still is a blast to drive.
The paddle shifters actually work here! The car kinda limits itself and pumps in fake engine noise to make it feel like you’re going through the gears rather than just going through one big gear. For a brief moment I forgot I was driving an electric car as I downshifted through a tight corner. You don’t feel the actual transmission moving obviously, but the sounds and revving made it feel closer than just driving a plain old electric car. There is a boost mode, but I honestly didn’t test it. The course I was on had tight turns that I felt if I was boosting on would just throw me off the corner but I imagine it works well.
Overall the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is an electric race car through and through, though – one you can probably justify buying if you still need to get groceries and pick up the kids after school. It reminds me of the Dodge Charger in the way that people want power and performance but sometimes cant justify a full sports car with two seats and a roll cage. So you get a charger so you can still pick up the kids but go fast. This Inoiq 5 N feels like it fulfills that role. 4 doors for the family, but bucket seats for the track.
Thank you so much for reading. This car was a blast to drive and see in person. What do you think of the car? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! Special thanks to IMPA for having me out at Spring Brake. I wish it didn’t rain so I could get more content but hey, you take what you can get.
