Should You Buy an EV Track Car?

Alright, I’m a believer now. 

EVs can stir up joy like nearly any production track tool, so long as they follow Hyundai’s lead. 

But just because something can perform a task doesn’t make it the best tool for the job. Or even a particularly good one. (Shout out to my long-suffering Tacoma, which sinks against its bump stops like some soggy peasant when hauling a yard of soil from Home Depot). 

During the media drive of the Ioniq 5 N at Laguna Seca, the Hyundai hammered down the track’s front straight, again and again without fatigue. This hot hatch’s hole-shot pace would heat check many supercars, and in the corners, you could play it scalpel-neat or flick the Hyundai’s tail against the exit curbing like Ott Tänak. 

But each successive lap left me wondering, "Could you actually own one of these as a dual-purpose daily driver track special? Should you?"

In our first drive of the car, I answered the question in a couple sentences, but the review was not solely focused on the I5N’s viability as a track car. Inquiring minds will want to know, could you actually daily an EV track car and enjoy it?

Let’s break it down. 

Track days are not race days, but anyone who says pride’s off the line is lying. Nobody spends $67,000 on a track special to point by a Spec Miata. Thankfully, Hyundai's N department handled this one. 

By any objective performance measure, this 4,861-pound, crossover-sized hot hatch performs miracles. Hyundai says it’ll hit sixty in 3.2 seconds from a stop, but my butt dyno says it’s slightly quicker (note: my butt dyno was calibrated by several years testing vehicle performance for Road & Track). Same goes for lateral grip, though I think Pirelli left a fair amount of performance on the table in favor of longevity and civility. I wonder aloud what a set of the stickiest Michelin Cup tires would unlock here.

German publication Sport Auto clocked a 7:45 at the Nurburgring in a bone-stock I5N. It’s not the production EV record, mind you, but mind the context as well. That’s within striking distance of the Lexus LFA. That’s 997 Turbo fast. It’s on par with the Civic Type R, yet another giant slayer with racetrack bona fides, and a sniff slower than the 991.2 911