HYUNDAI IONIQ 6

After the definitive performance crossover EV comes this Taycan hunter

- PETER LIDDIARD

The electrification of Hyundai’s N performance brand has, so far, gone rather better than plenty of people probably imagined it might.

The lightning rod for the transformation has been the Ioniq 5 N, which was launched in the UK in 2024. It arrived with a dual-motor powertrain of remarkable torque-vectoring and combustion-aping qualities – and duly proved itself to be a breakthrough moment in the development narrative of the electric driver’s car. It has been showered with praise and awards – not least among them a five-star Autocar road test verdict. And it has sold particularly strongly in the UK, which is currently second only to the US market in its commercial prominence for the model.

That reception must surely have added a hint of trepidation when Hyundai came to decide where, exactly, this bold new N brand would go next. For the answer to that, enter the subject of this road test: the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N.

This is the performance version of Hyundai’s famously distinctive ‘streamliner’ electric saloon, ready to blend the elegant and aerodynamic with the dramatic and aggressive in a way that the super-saloon niche has rarely seen.

It shares the 5 N’s E-GMP platform and its pioneering electric dual-motor powertrain, but it develops elements of the style of that powertrain’s delivery, as we’ll come to explain, and adopts axles and suspension widely revised from those of the standard Ioniq 6.

DESIGN & ENGINEERING

PROS Stark, dissonant appearance somehow works; axle makeover could be as significant as the clever dual-motor powertrain

CONS Less than 50kg lighter than an Ioniq 5 N and only 90mm lower