Hyundai Ioniq 5 N | Test Drive

13 April 2026 Redazione News, Performance, Tested

An ancient says: “It’s not important how far you travel, but how you travel.” The distance devoured behind the wheel of the Ioniq 5 N will be unforgettable. The world is full of incredibly fast electric cars. But if you want an EV that won’t make you miss an internal combustion engine, this is the one to get.

Words Matteo Lavazza / Photos S. Lomax

From the very moment the word “electric” was paired with “car,” things took a dramatic turn. In the beginning, there was Tesla — whether you like it or not. Musk’s cars have been, and still are more than a decade later, the benchmark against which anyone must measure themselves when aiming to offer an increasingly demanding customer base a zero-emissions means of transport. At that precise moment, people found divided: those ready to embrace a change unsupported by infrastructure, which in our country still lags behind certain regions (take Scandinavia for example), and those who immediately dismissed any electric car as a boring appliance destined to leave you stranded at the roadside. Meanwhile, between a tank of petrol or diesel, you would never have imagined your life without an internal combustion engine.

That’s for the masses, for that 85, maybe 90 percent of customers who, despite their doubts, chase the latest crossover born from yet another brand partnership, bringing nothing new except a price tag that rises faster than grandma’s cake on a Sunday morning. If we consider enthusiasts, the situation becomes even simpler. It’s very straightforward: if it doesn’t make noise, we don’t like it. And I admit it some of the loudest cars ever built have passed through my garage, regularly turned inside out and inevitably fitted with exhaust systems that earned me an enviable collection of complaint notes from neighbors about a Lancer Evo IX with a straight pipe from engine to rear bumper. Glorious.

Then along comes the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. Classified as a crossover and based on that unsuspecting gem of polar-friendly mobility, it promises to overturn every perception of electric mobility as we know it. Big words often thrown around by marketing departments even when they’re just announcing an updated contact page. But not this time, because the N treatment has to make up for the unforgivable retirement of the outrageously fun i20 N and i30 N (recently brought back again in the list). We know all too well that such promises create high expectations, and when it comes to electric performance, we’ve learned to accept that speed usually has only one direction: forward.

After just a couple of days — and after properly leafing through the Hyundai’s manual — I begin to understand what kind of machine I’ve got in my hands. The dimensions remain similar to the family-oriented version, with that compact sedan-like look slightly raised off the ground (but not too much), placing it squarely in the crossover category. But that “N” changes things. And not by a little. There’s a visual treatment that includes massive 21-inch wheels and accentuates the sharp lines that appeal to those like me who still have a “Back to the Future” poster on the wall. A sort of DeLorean that won’t struggle to hit 88 mph, considering its two electric motors deliver 609 horsepower, rising to 650 for ten seconds via N Grin Boost, the system that works like Formula 1’s DRS and makes the Ioniq 5 N even more lethal. Wait another 10 seconds and press again, assuming you’ve stopped rubbing your eyes in disbelief at the car’s absurd responsiveness.

Same story as always. It’s like being launched from a giant catapult, even in Normal mode. I switch to Sport by pressing one of the many buttons crowding a steering wheel that looks like the illegitimate child of one used by Max Verstappen on race weekends. The nerdier drivers will love the two fully customizable N modes. The clear, detailed graphics only amplify the grin of the childlike excitement in me. Then, caught up in the moment, I press the final button and the speakers begin to emit a deep, combustion-like sound. It’s a burble, clearly artificial, but far better than, for example, what Abarth offers with its 500e. I move forward cautiously and, using the paddles — which in Normal and Eco modes increase regenerative braking up to full one-pedal driving — I open Pandora’s box.

Let’s put it this way: the Ioniq 5 N is the first electric car with a sequential gearbox. Well, let’s clarify. There is no actual gearbox, since there’s no transmission; you just have drive, reverse and park. What you get are virtual gears, but some Hyundai engineer truly earned their salary here, because they’ve done something extraordinary. The shift from one gear to another doesn’t just change the sound as if climbing a real rev range. The car’s control unit also manages power and torque depending on the selected “gear.” Near the redline, you hear the characteristic puff of a dual-clutch transmission, and if you forget to upshift, you’ll hit a limiter that prevents over-revving. The bonus? You won’t break anything mechanical (because there isn’t anything to break), and you can cruise at 4,000 rpm without burning fuel (because there isn’t any).

So I start pushing. And the Ioniq 5 N pushes hard. All-wheel drive — adjustable with more front or rear bias — lets you fine-tune the handling until you’re driving a two-ton crossover that doesn’t mind a bit of sideways action, road permitting. Then full throttle, but not before dropping a few “gears” and bringing that virtual engine back into its power band, behaving more realistically than three-quarters of modern sports cars. If I had to point out a flaw, it would be the steering, but only partially. It’s precise and communicative, masking the car’s size and weight well, but the turning radius feels limited and tighter corners force you to take a hand off the wheel. At the speeds this Hyundai encourages, that doesn’t ruin the experience, but it does demand even greater focus.

The crazy thing is that once you get intimate with this system, you realize that in traditional electric mode — what we might call a single-speed setup — you’re actually even faster. And so an existential dilemma emerges: electric cars are inherently quicker, but simulating a transmission and combustion engine increases engagement. Everything falls into place: I can sacrifice a few hundredths of a second and enjoy the same sensations offered by sports cars now nearing extinction. Too bad that from the outside, people only hear me coming because of the tires squealing through corners.

Speaking of numbers, the 5 N is genuinely mind-blowing. Its 84 kWh battery delivers up to 650 horsepower and 770 Nm of torque. That means 0–100 kph in about 3.4 seconds, firmly in Lamborghini and Ferrari territory. Not exactly what you expect from a five-seat crossover with a spacious trunk and an almost flawless infotainment system. It’s comfortable, even on long journeys. During our test we couldn’t match the manufacturer’s claimed figures (as happens 99.9% of the time), but you can still cover at least 330 km before plugging in again. Of course, that’s under real driving conditions. If you plan to drive like a maniac and have fun like you haven’t in years, the battery will drain much faster.

But as an old proverb says, it’s not how far you travel, but how you travel. And what you experience behind the wheel of the Ioniq 5 N will be unforgettable. The world is full of electric cars that are incredibly fast in a straight line, and plenty that handle well on twisty roads. But if you want an EV that won’t make you miss an internal combustion engine, this is the one to get. With this car, everything changes, and an unexpected hope is born. That the future won’t be silent and dull, but will still make sense for enthusiasts like us. And if you think it’s all about sound, stop right there. Hyundai has done much more: it has managed to infuse a car with no transmission and no mechanical inputs with the same physical sensation of shifting gears. That slight millisecond of delay your body feels, the need to be in the right gear, the rising intensity as the tachometer races toward the redline: it’s poetry 3.0. And we love it. Deeply.

I tackle familiar corners, forgetting I’m at the center of an artificial show. I feel the Pirelli P Zero tires biting into damp asphalt, and a chassis that seems to carry anything but lithium ions and electricity. The responsiveness makes me imagine how perfect this philosophy would be applied to smaller cars, even more at home on these demanding roads. We always talk about starting points and destinations, stressing how electric cars represent a future already fused with the present. The Ioniq 5 N marks an endpoint and at the same time begins a path that everyone – and I mean everyone – should follow, at least if we still want to talk about emotion and driving pleasure.

We passionate motorists, simple yet restless creatures, constantly searching for a comfort zone only to abandon it, need cars like this. A springboard toward mobility that’s not just good for the environment (let’s leave production and disposal debates aside for today), but above all good for us. For those of us willing to spend €77,700 and buy one. For those of us who can overlook the fact that — at least in Italy — not all areas are properly served by fast-charging infrastructure. For those of us who start laughing out loud because an electric car is making us have more fun than we ever thought possible, knowing that a crossover is delivering performance on par with the most prestigious and luxurious supercars at the mercy of your own common sense.

With the Ioniq 5 N, Hyundai has done something no one had thought of. Maybe out of disinterest, maybe due to a lack of that touch of madness reminiscent of the hot hatches of decades past. And if, at the dawn of 2026, there are many excellent electric cars, there’s only one that won’t make you miss the smell of petrol. This one.