Hyundai IONIQ 5 N debuts at Goodwood, kicking off new era of performance-cornering EVs
Almost a year to the day after announcing its new N performance line of EVs, beginning with the IONIQ 5, Hyundai has publicly unveiled the long-teased N version at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The IONIQ 5 N combines past and present as a nod to Hyundai’s performance arm’s design characteristics, reimagined for the new age of EVs built for track performance and not just speed in a straight line. Ever seen an EV specifically designed for high speed cornering?
At less than seven years old in its own right, Hyundai Motor Group’s N and N Line performance remains a young sub-brand that is already reimagining itself as an all-electric, enhanced performance arm.
We first learned that N brand IONIQ EVs were coming last summer during the global premiere of the IONIQ 6. The end of the 6’s launch video featured Hyundai’s first three E-GMP models flocking along a racetrack before suddenly being joined by two additional models. We would soon learn those were Hyundai’s conceptual “rolling lab” N models.
That same day, Hyundai confirmed the IONIQ 5 would be its first production EV model to don the “N” performance badge. Since then, the team at Hyundai N has teased fans with video updates every couple of months as we approach the performance EV’s full debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The day has finally come my friends, and the IONIQ 5 N is on full display for all to see, equipped with design and performance features inside and out that are not only synonymous with Hyundai N, but also present a new breed of electric vehicles specifically designed with advanced racetrack capabilities.
Oh, and it can simulate fighter jet noises too.
The IONIQ 5 N is a new breed of EV, not a grocery getter
Hyundai’s IONIQ 5 hatchback (it’s a hatchback no matter what its makers say) continues to help pave the way for the Korean automaker as a serious contender in the global EV market. The “crossover” and its 800V E-GMP platform offer consumers some of the most advanced tech out there right now at very reasonable prices – a reason why the IONIQ 5 was voted car of the year by several organizations.
Still, at its core, the IONIQ 5 is tame. It’s an everyday passenger EV, and a damn good one at that, but not something you’re going to take to the track. The IONIQ 5 N, however, is an entirely different story. The N version is lower, wider, and more aggressive, thanks to its larger wheels (forged 21-inch aluminum and high-grip Pirelli P-Zero tires).
Beginning with the exterior, you’ll notice a new N Mask mesh fascia above a front air curtain with three active air flaps to help cool the EV’s battery. Atop the rear, Hyundai N has added a wing-type spoiler, diffuser, and air outlet to optimize airflow and aerodynamics. The team isn’t sharing the drag coefficient just yet, but the N model is more aerodynamic than the standard IONIQ 5, in addition to being sportier and equipped with better braking capabilities.
These upgrades complement the IONIQ 5 N’s front and rear suspension, which was redesigned from the ground up. The overall exterior seen in the images above and below features Hyundai N’s exclusive colors – Blue Glossy and Performance Blue Matte – in addition to Luminous Orange Matte accents around the rear. (Looks red to me, but hey, still works.) Hyundai says the IONIQ 5 N will come available in 10 different exterior shades as well.
Next, let’s take a gander at the 5 N’s “racing concept” interior as well as its performance specs.
Low seats, racing steering wheel, and sustainable materials
Looking inside the new IONIQ 5 N, drivers will experience racing bucket seats, a fixed center console, knee pads, shin supports, and sustainable materials throughout the cabin. This includes recyclable paperette door garnishes, recycled poly Alcantara seat cover cloth, and recycled yarn from PET bottles.
A new “N” branded steering wheel houses four dedicated buttons, two of which are customizable. The other two control the EV’s four dedicated drive modes as well as toggle the IONIQ 5’s “N Grin Boost” (NGB) – which delivers instant thrust from the dual motors by maximizing the vehicle’s power output and torque for 10 seconds.
We already touched upon the unique performance pillars implemented in the new IONIQ 5 N, including features like N Active Sound + and N e-shift, so let’s dig into the actual performance specs:
| Drivetrain | Battery Capacity |
Max Power Output |
Torque | 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) |
Top Speed | Est. Range |
| AWD | 84.0 kWh | 609 PS (650 PS NGB) | 740 Nm (770 Nm with NGB) | 3.5 seconds (3.4 sec with NGB) | 258 km/h (160mph) | TBA |
The team at Hyundai N says it fine tuned the existing E-GMP platform specifically for the IONIQ 5 to deliver optimized power, torque, and response. As a track car, the IONIQ 5 N has seen numerous body and chassis reinforcements, including 42 additional welds and another 2.1 meters of structural adhesives to improve its rigidity.
Its Integrated Drive Axles (IDA) were inspired by World Rally Championship racing vehicles and have been implemented on both the front and rear to endure the massive torque its dual motors put out. The EV’s steering column has also been revamped with a bespoke rack to deliver a higher steering ratio and offer enhanced response for drivers.
Additionally, the Hyundai N team is touting a technology it calls “N Pedal,” which increases the regenerative force that creates a specific weight transfer of the vehicle to enable sharper cornering entries, helping alleviate some of the added weight issues EVs with large battery packs are stuck with.
The IONIQ 5 N’s Electronically Controlled Suspension (ECS) system controls the dampening force and improves handling and stability – not to be confused with the EV’s Electronic Stability Control Sport (ESC Sport) system – which helps stabilize the EV during cornering maneuvers by sensing loss of traction and applying brakes to individual wheels. It can also be turned off for a “more authentic” racetrack experience, aka drifting.
There is so much more to unpack here as Hyundai N has put a lot of new and exciting performance technology into its first production EV model, so we highly recommend checking out the company’s full press release to learn more.
If you happen to be in the UK attending Goodwood this year, be sure to stop by the Hyundai N booth and see the souped-up IONIQ 5 in person – and send me pics, please!
Two huge factors we don’t know yet – range and price. That is sure to come later as Hyundai moves closer to getting this N version into scaled production and out to motor sport enthusiasts.
Who knows? Perhaps we can get this one out on a track and see what sort of trouble we can get into with it. Stay tuned!
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After years of waiting and many false starts, Formula E is finally going to debut its mid-race charging system, which will give cars a quick boost of energy charging at a rate much faster than current road cars can.
For years now, we’ve been hearing about FIA plans to introduce charging stops to electric racing.
In gas car racing, some series allow mid-race fueling and some don’t. The World Endurance Championship, which runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans, obviously needs to fill up several times during the race. But Formula 1, which hosts shorter races, eliminated mid-race fueling in 2010.
Plans to bring mid-race charging to Formula E started in 2021, when the FIA started kicking around plans for an Electric GT racing series with 700kW charging.
But the FIA already had one electric racing series, Formula E, which had debuted in 2014. At the time, each driver had two cars, and would swap mid-race to a fresh car with new batteries.
Battery-swapping had been considered, but it would be too complicated to set up at temporary race facilities in city downtown areas, as many Formula E tracks are.
Then, in 2018, Formula E debuted a new “Gen 2” car which had a big enough battery not to need a charge mid-race, and later a “Gen 3” car in 2022, which had much stronger regenerative braking, capable of 600kW of braking power. Gen 3 also has an “Attack Mode” feature that lets cars unlock additional power for a short period each race, adding to strategy and mixing up the race order.
That 600kW charging ability could also be used for mid-race charging, so Formula E said that it was working on a system to allow for this. It announced that mid-race charging would come at some point in the 2023 season, but then pushed back those plans until 2024, and pushed them back again, this time with an uncertain date.
The issues involved building the charging system in temporary facilities and ensuring safety of the system (and of pit stops in general, which is always a concern when cars are driving rapidly near people). But after winter testing prior to this season, Formula E now says the system is ready to go.
So, once again, Formula E is ready to announce that mid-race charging is definitely, totally, positively, 100% certain at the upcoming Jeddah E-Prix, on February 14-15 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Formula E thinks that proving this high-power charging technology could help road cars to charge more quickly, which could have myriad benefits for electric cars in general.
The series is calling the system “Pit Boost,” and it will consist of a 34-second pit stop that provides around 10% additional charge to the cars (about 4kWh). While 10% isn’t a lot, 34 seconds is also not a lot of time. For comparison, one of the fastest-charging cars out there, the Ioniq 5, can charge from 10-80% in 18 minutes, which means 10% charge takes 2.5 minutes – five times as long as Formula E cars will manage the feat.
The stop will be mandatory for all drivers to take at some point in the race, and will mean new strategy options for drivers. Taking the stop means getting more energy, which means that your car won’t have to do as much energy saving to get to the end of the race – but it also means giving up your position on track, which can be hard to get back if you do it late in the race.
However, we’ve never seen it happen before, so it will be interesting to see what kind of strategic options develop.
If you’re interested in seeing how it turns out, tune in to the Jeddah E-Prix on February 14-15 to see what happens. It’s a doubleheader race weekend, with night races both on Saturday and Sunday, February 14-15, at 5pm UTC, 9am PST, 12pm EST, and 8pm local time. You can check out how to watch the race in your area by going to Formula E’s “Ways to Watch” section. In the US, Roku should be the most reliable way to watch.
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JackRabbit, the maker of pint-sized electric microbikes, is back with a new product designed to quickly recharge their batteries from pure, uncut photons mainlined into an e-bike directly from the sun. In true independent charging form, the Solar Charging Kit from JackRabbit keeps riders rolling even when there’s not a convenient AC outlet in sight.
Unveiled this week, the Solar Charging Kit consists of a single folding solar panel and a tiny voltage converter that is configured to output 42.0V, which is the exact voltage required by JackRabbit’s little e-bike batteries. There’s also an added USB-A and a USB-C charging port for powering other devices in addition to charging JackRabbit batteries.
“This Solar Charging Kit plugs directly into your bike,” explained the company, “letting you recharge without needing an outlet, but with a speed comparable to the charger that comes with the OG/OG2 (42V, 2A).”
That would mean the panel outputs around 80W of solar power, which the company says can recharge its batteries in just three hours. That fairly quick recharging speed is helped by the fact that JackRabbit’s batteries are a mere 151 Wh, or around a third of the size of most e-bike batteries.
If that sounds small, then you’re right – it is. But JackRabbit is all about going micro, offering barely 25 lb rideables that are easy to store and bring on adventures, even when they aren’t actually being ridden.
With small batteries that fit under the 160Wh limit for many airlines in the US, the batteries can be quickly charged and taken to the widest number of locations. And for riders that want to go further than a single 10-mile (16-km) battery will allow, extra batteries are small enough to fit a pants pocket. The company also offers much larger Rangebuster batteries, though they won’t pass by TSA and make it onto an airplane in your personal item.
It sounds like the Solar Chargking Kit should be able to charge up JackRabbit’s large RangeBuster batteries, though likely in more than three hours.
The $349 Solar Charging Kit is a bit pricier than building something similar yourself, but it’s also safer and more convenient than hacking together your own battery charger since it’s designed to work with JackRabbit’s batteries right out of the box.
Technically it’s only inteded for JackRabbit’s micro e-bikes (themselves technically seated scooters, even if they look and feel more like a typical bike), but it’d probably work for just about any 36V e-bike that requires 42.0V to charge.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen solar charging kits for electric bikes, and it’s a trend that is certainly appreciated by outdoors and camping enthusiasts, festival goers, or anyone who finds themself and their bike spending extended periods in the great, sunny outdoors.
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