LONE RANGER?

Why is Hyundai the only company capable of nailing a fast EV? And here comes another...

- PHOTOGRAPHY WILSON HENNESSEY

The Ioniq 5 N was a revelation. Hyundai's N division took a soft and slightly lardy electric crossover and turned it into an engaging, oversized hot hatch with terrifying straight line speed, a realistic paddleshift gearbox and a proper tyre shredding drift mode.

Now it's time for the difficult second album, and thankfully Hyundai has decided not to stray from the original recipe. Mixed metaphors aside, the first thing you should know is that this new Ioniq 6 N gets the same basic powertrain as the 5 N, which means a twin motor setup for all wheel drive and a total of 601bhp. However, as you may also remember from the 5, there's an N Grin Boost button which gives you 10 seconds of 641bhp and 568lb ft of torque. Deploy that along with launch control and you'll be shoved from a standstill to 62mph in just 3.2 seconds. Oh, and while the power figures are the same, Hyundai says it has improved the motors with new magnets for the 6 N to “postpone the point of derating” on track or during hard driving. Excellent.

But before we delve too deep into the tech specs, it's worth taking a step back to consider what this car means. The N division turns 10 years old in 2025, but if you'd have told us a decade ago that Hyundai would be one of the only major manufacturers flying the flag for the future of the performance car, we'd have laughed you out of TG Towers.

“Even if we can create a great internal combustion engine, we are a follower,” says an animated N division boss Joon Park. “But if we are doing this in the EV world then we can be a leader. That's why we have Ioniq 5 N. Internally we set a goal to set a new standard of EV performance.” Long story short, the company smashed it. The 5 N was the first electric performance car that you might take for a drive just for the sake of it. Look back through recent automotive history and you'll find that attempts by rivals have been rather... one dimensional.