2028 Hyundai Ioniq 9 N breaks cover

It’s been hinted at, and now the 2028 Hyundai Ioniq 9 N has been imagined following the November reveal of the Kia EV9 GT.

Speaking to carsales in the US at around the same time, Hyundai design boss Simon Loasby wouldn’t rule out the possibility of either a tyre-shredding Ioniq 9 N or a more rugged XRT version.

“We have two things going on alongside our normal cars: we have the N division, of course, and we have XRT,” he said.

“So with every car we do, we look at ‘is it possible?’.”

“We never rule these things out.”

And so now here we are several months later with an enticing render of what would comfortably be the biggest N car in the stable, mocked up by talented digital creator Theottle on Instagram and YouTube.

Starting out with an Ioniq 9 Performance, the artist set about blackening all the exterior chrome, pumping up the wheelarches and widening the tracks, inserting and adapting the front and rear aprons of the Ioniq 5 N with the same true of the side skirts, before swapping out the multi-spoke alloys for some machine-face N hoops.

Next up was the obligatory Performance Blue paint hue – retconned here to be much darker than previously seen – and lowered ride height, not to mention the red high-performance brakes.

The viability of an Ioniq 9 N isn’t quite as cut and dry as the EV9 GT owing to their differing intents.

Former Hyundai N boss Albert Biermann has made it very clear on multiple occasions N cars have to offer genuine track capability, Kia GT models less so.

The notion of a track-capable seven-seat SUV, let alone an electric one could ultimately shape up as a tough pitch, but there’s no denying the world has been waiting for an N-branded SUV above the previous-generation Kona – while the Ioniq 5 N is deemed an SUV, it’s really more of an oversized high-riding hatch, i.e. a crossover.

Based on what we’ve seen from the EV9 GT, the hypothetical Ioniq 9 N will output at least 374kW and spring from 0-100km/h less than 4.3 seconds, quite possibly sub-four depending on how much leash the N engineers are allowed.

Odds are the Ioniq 9 N won’t debut until the Ioniq 9’s mid-life update which, based on the Ioniq 5’s lifecycle, will likely be in 2028.

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