Hyundai IONIQ 5 N 2024 First Drive Review

At the flick of a switch, the 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N I’m driving goes from compliant and controlled to jarring and bucking.

In the tap of a keystroke, it’s become borderline undriveable on the suitably choppy backroad that is a nightmare for suspension components but a joy to the engineers tasked with tuning them.

Fortunately, the shift to bucking bronco is a demonstration implemented by Hyundai Australia product planning and development manager Tim Rodgers, who’s riding shotgun in one of the pre-production IONIQ 5 N cars to land in the country.

He’s armed with a laptop bursting with spreadsheets and numbers that look like something the government might unleash on a Senate enquiry.

Those numbers tell more than a dozen onboard computers how to respond to inputs from the driver and dozens of sensors absorbing responses to every ripple, lump, corner and throttle input.

It’s all about trying to create a car that is stable and safe but engaging and exciting – even if the version we’re driving temporarily is anything but.

More than anything, the 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N has to be fun to drive, explains Rodgers, who joined counterparts from Korea, Europe and America to create the framework for what will be Hyundai’s most powerful car when it hits dealerships within weeks.

“We’re being a bit creative,” says Rodgers of the IONIQ 5 N program that was tested at Hyundai’s Namyang proving ground, the Nurburgring in Germany and dozens of divergent road surfaces across the world – including the pockmarked Aussie roads I’m currently experiencing.

This test is a final evaluation drive to ensure every component is performing as expected and that Aussie customers get the full N EV experience.

“We’re trusting the seat of the pants a lot, we’re thinking about how it feels for the driver … we’re not just thinking outright performance,” says Rodgers.

It’s a big call for a car pumping out 478kW and 770Nm – more than some supercars.

But Hyundai insists the underlying goal at every development twist and turn with the hotshot version of the otherwise sensible five-door SUV was to make people smile.

“There are times where we actually go, ‘You know what, let’s be a little bit imperfect to make it a perfect car’. Lap times are really easy to benchmark … but they don’t actually tell you an awful lot about the car.”

The point is rammed home punching out of a tight bend as the full fury of two electric motors guide 2.2 tonnes of IONIQ 5 momentum to 21-inch Pirelli P Zero rubber.

I’ve pressed one of two N buttons on the stubby steering wheel to transform the paddles that normally adjust the regenerative braking into something more traditional for a performance machine: gear shifts.

Along with a zingy fake engine sound – complete with exhaust cracks and burbles – it’s a surreal experience in a car that moments earlier was eerily silent, save for some white noise from the tyres rumbling over bitumen.

Of course, there are no gear shifts taking place. Instead, the IONIQ 5 N simulates what would happen with a petrol car, right down to the hesitation and associated jolt in thumping through eight virtual ratios.

It’s a very un-EV experience in the 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N, but one that provides some ICE thrills while adding to the experience for the driver.

Select a taller ‘gear’ and performance is artificially dulled, giving the sensation you’re leaning on the middle engine revs whereas in reality electrons are artificially being held back from the e-motors.

It helps to understand the man in charge of the IONIQ 5 N program: Albert Biermann. He spent years making BMW M cars revered performance machines.

And as with the complexity sometimes associated with those M cars, the electric Hyundai N car has a mass of driver adjustable parameters. From the differential and dampers to the steering and sound, there’s a mass of settings that allow drivers to finetune the finer points to their liking.

It’s all contained in the two programmable custom modes, although for those prepared to dial up the thrills a little quicker the Sport and N modes deliver fantastic options, the latter best left to the smoothness of racetrack hotmix rather than the lumps and undulations we’re experiencing in northern Sydney.

It’s the way the IONIQ 5 N squirms and points out of a bend that highlights the efforts that have gone into its dynamics.

An electronic locking rear differential weaves its magic to provide something akin to rear-wheel steering, the additional traction helping point the nose and allow the tail to dial up a degree of latitude that is playful and reminiscent of something sending a lot of power to the back wheels.

For a stupendously powerful all-wheel drive EV, it’s an unexpected bonus that guarantees to turn the corners of the mouth skyward.

It’s then that I revert to a more traditional electric car flavour by switching off the fake shifts. It allows the full torque-laden thrust to make its way groundward in that refreshingly effortless way EVs do so well.

Without the fake shifts there’s more pace and it arrives more easily. Press the red NGB – for N Grin Boost – and it gives a 10-second boost of extra energy, even though the step from 448kW/740Nm to 478kW/770Nm is hardly a massive leap.

But every now and again I find myself reverting to the more analogue sensation of being able to select gears, the associated sounds and jolts better helping gauge pace and poise.

Of course, there’s nothing analogue about what’s going on in the 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N’s bulging computer brain other than the end result.

Like digital music that’s been carefully crafted and decoded into something that sounds mellow and warm, it’s becoming clearer that the trick with electric cars is adding some soul and personality rather than simply demolishing the traffic light grand prix.

Rodgers reverts to those spreadsheets to explain what is clearly shaping up to be the next black art in vehicle development.

EVs are in their infancy and already it’s clear that any brand can make something that can embarrass a Porsche or Ferrari to 100km/h.

But very few have come close to the sort of tactility, engagement and connection that turns a fast car into something genuinely enjoyable.

Backtracking over the same stretch of pockmarked road it’s obvious Hyundai has put an enormous amount of effort into tuning the finer points of the IONIQ 5 N.

More importantly, there’s an Aussie twang to the finished product.

While the suspension hardware in the new Hyundai hero is shared across the globe – dampers, springs, stabiliser bars and so-on – the 1s and 0s telling those components what to do is subtly different, with local engineers ensuring it behaves as Australians expect.

That’s where that dazzling spreadsheet comes into play.

While we’re allowed a sneak peek, any time a camera is lurking the screen is darkened to ensure the tailored parameters remain part of the IONIQ 5 N secret sauce.

If it turns out to taste anything like as good as it did on that short stretch of road then enthusiasts are in for a feast.

The Hyundai IONIQ 5 N also gives a tantalising glimpse of what is possible for performance cars in a zero-emissions world.

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