The Ioniq 5 N is Hyundai’s first high-performance EV. Sure, it has up to 641 horsepower–and it weighs nearly 5000 pounds–but how does it actually do on track?
Find out as our test driver J.G. Pasterjak took one around WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
By Chris Tropea
4/16/24 12:27 p.m.
Guesses as to what this will run at the FIRM? 1:16? Maybe a 1:15?
4/16/24 12:51 p.m.
Matt Farrah absolutely raved about this car on his latest podcast. He called it the best EV he's driven by a good margin. He's even considering canceling the order he has in for an electric Macan and getting one of these instead.
4/16/24 1:14 p.m.
Yeah I feel that pretty deeply. It's really impressive. The range takes a huge hit (my wife's normal Ioniq 5 shows 325+ with a full charge and the N is only rated for 220 on a full battery), but as an electric, high tech track toy that can also serve as a no-fooling street car with four doors and a huge wayback, there's a lot to like here.
4/16/24 1:58 p.m.
Safe to assume tire wear on this thing is horrendous?
4/16/24 2:28 p.m.
No, I bet it's actually quite good at wearing them.
4/16/24 2:44 p.m.
Yeah i think you'll save money on gas a brake pads that will all go into the tire budget. Pirelli developed a bespoke set of 275s for the car, but it definitely feels like it could use more rubber and it's using the rubber it has pretty aggressively.
4/16/24 3:16 p.m.
In reply to calteg :
It's probably no worse than some other heavy cars I've seen at track days. Dodge challengers are about the same weight, for example. Would I want to buy tires for either?........Nope.... I raced a Miata on six 205/50/15 Toyos for almost two seasons, cuz I'm cheap.
4/16/24 3:58 p.m.
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
The difference in tire wear between a heavy EV and a similarly heavy ICE vehicle is the wear under acceleration, as you can see from the speed graph in the video it's accelerating quite nearly as hard as an ABS stop up to about 80-90mph, in an ICE vehicle the tires usually aren't being worked too hard by forward acceleration alone once the car is into 2nd or 3rd which may be something like 40-60mph. So the EV has the kind of acceleration an ICE vehicle would have in 1st all the way into the ballpark of 3rd-4th gear speeds and the tires no longer get a break while driving in a straight line at those speeds.
This reminds me of a video I saw of the Lotus Evija being driven up the Goodwood driveway, their test driver made the point that going from gas to electric was like going from drum brakes to discs with ABS but for the other direction - the limit to acceleration is no longer the device that's applying the torque, but the tire.
4/17/24 9:46 a.m.
Speaking of tires, it should be noted that the 5 N uses a set of specially designed Pirellis that are predictable and communicative, but also feel pretty hard. I'd be really curious to see what it would do to a set of 200tw rubber. It's absolutely going to overheat A052s in a lap, but maybe that lap will be fast enough so it doesn't matter. Even something like a set of PSS would be an interresting experiment.
4/17/24 1:02 p.m.
I saw 5k lb and thought "huh not bad"
EVs have reset my expectations on weight. Weird moment for me
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