The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Is the First True Enthusiast EV
Let’s cut to it: electrons have won the go-fast arms race, but exactly zero performance EVs have strummed enthusiasts’ heartstrings. Not the Taycans, Teslas, i4s, or Sapphires. We’re awed by EVs’ raw power, thrilled by their spec-sheet prowess, cosseted by their quietude, but never head-over-heels.
With the 2025 Ioniq 5 N, Hyundai promises something different: An EV that’s actually fun to drive. An EV you’ll love. We sent the I5N cannonballing down Laguna Seca’s front straight to find out if Hyundai’s ideas about smile-inducing EV were any good. Then we took to NorCal’s canyon roads to double check Hyundai’s work.
From the first hit of acceleration, hammering toward Laguna’s right-hand turn three, the 5 N proves its stat-sheet bona fides. Like every performance EV, the Ioniq 5 N is a straight-line ICE killer. Dual motors lay down 601 horses and 545 pound-feet. Expect 60 mph from a stop in just 3.4 seconds (according to Hyundai’s conservative claims), and a quarter-mile time below 12 seconds (based on our own bench racing). Top speed is limited to 162 mph.
These figures pair to some genuinely exciting tech, much of it slathered in oddball marketing nomenclature; N Grin Boost, which sounds like the vigorous setting on some Japanese bidet, is actually a push-to-pass button. “NGB,” as the American marketing folks smartly call it, spikes battery power in 10-second sprints, offering 641 hp and 568 lb-ft.
NGB wouldn’t engage entering Laguna’s front straight, right when you need every fizzing electron. Then NGB failed again and again down the length of the straight. The I5N’s central screen relayed a message that conditions weren’t met to unload the batteries. Later, on public roads, I had no problem deploying the system. Strange.
At any rate, the 5N felt only marginally faster with push-to-pass engaged, but anyone who’s harassed a Porsche Turbo through every corner at a track day, only to get dropped on the straights (and denied a point-by), will lament N Grin Boost’s unreliability.
Another oddly named philosophy—N Corner Rascal—is shorthand for how the 5 N’s drivetrain shuffles power to the road. Like the hallowed Mitsubishi Evo, the 5 N can send nearly all its power to
