Hyundai IONIQ 6 N will raise the bar over IONIQ 5 N

Hyundai N executive technical advisor Albert Biermann has promised bigger and better things from the brand’s next high-performance electric vehicle, the 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 N, and hints that the cut-price Porsche Taycan rival could be with us sooner than expected.

While Hyundai’s former N-division R&D boss stopped short of referring to the IONIQ 6 N by name, he did say the Korean car-maker’s performance arm wasn’t yet in a position to create bespoke models not based on existing vehicles – confirming the IONIQ 6 as the basis of the next electrified N-car, given it’s the only other Hyundai e-GMP architecture-based model currently on the market.

“This race for the high-performance EV is just starting,” he told carsales at the Australian launch of the Hyundai IONIQ 5 N performance SUV (watch this space on Friday, March 8) for our first full review.

“We have to continuously improve and enhance our high-performance EV technology – and we are – to make the pace.

“Because now we’ve set a very strong reference point with IONIQ 5 N, whatever we do next as an EV in Hyundai N, of course will be compared to IONIQ 5 N.

“But just being the same isn’t enough – you have to be better, even if it’s just one or two years later. You have to add more.”

Biermann went on to describe that challenge as both a burden and “the fun part” as the engineers look to push the EV envelope further.

“We have these crazy N engineers that are just waiting for these new, extra challenges to make the better car, the next better thing,” he said. “That’s what is the fun part of making N cars.”

The concept of an IONIQ 6 N was first floated back in 2022 with the reveal of the Hyundai RN22e ‘rolling lab’, a fully driveable car that showcased all the innovations fitted to the then-upcoming IONIQ 5 N and of course the possible design of a hot IONIQ 6.

The stunning blue sedan debuted alongside the radical N Vision 74 retro coupe, which has largely hogged the limelight ever since, but the former has undeniably whet the appetite of performance EV fans everywhere, even before the release of the IONIQ 5 N.

In addition to delivering more performance than the IONIQ 5 N, Biermann said the IONIQ 6 N would also come with a raft of features and innovations that didn’t make it onto the electric SUV, whether it was due to development timelines or price and audience targets.

“I tested it [the next electric N-car] in Sweden three weeks ago – it’s good,” he said confidently.

There’s little doubt the four-door IONIQ 6 N will eclipse its crossover sibling in terms of outright performance, dynamics and driving range, which could make it the flagship of the Hyundai N portfolio since a dedicated Genesis-rivalling halo model was apparently ruled out by Biermann on the grounds of price and accessibility.

He also poured cold water on the prospect of an IONIQ 7 N or some other model physically bigger than the IONIQ 5 N, at least until the Hyundai group’s IMA platform is rolled out in a few years.

“It’s always nice to make some brand-shaper car,” he said.

“So if you say something exotic like an N Vision 74, yeah, how many will you do, how many customers will enjoy this car every day, how many will you see on the road – we are Hyundai N, we’re not making show cars.

“We want to make cars for the kids, for the enthusiasts, so it has to be affordable, trackday-capable – if you have this 200, 300, 400 thousand-dollar car or whatever, how much are you really pushing it on the track?

“I want to see the N-car on the road, as many as possible of the baby-blue racing cars – this is what we need on the road and not the front-page car for a very few who put them in the garage.”

The N Vision 74 has evolved from a cool looking concept and real-world prototype into one of the most convoluted automotive sagas in years as different departments, factions and players within Hyundai weigh in on the likelihood of the hydrogen fuel-cell powered sports car making it to production.

It’s clear Biermann isn’t a major supporter of the program, unlike global N boss Till Wartenberg who nominated it as his “personal wish” to “see that car in the near future on the street”.

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