2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Up Close: Optionally Silent Fury, Questionable Comfort

High-performance electric cars are amazing. If you’ve never turned an electrified wheel in anger, I highly recommend trying one out — it’s an amazing experience to drive one that’s capable of insane performance at speed. You get all of the speed of an internal-combustion-engine sports machine with none of the fury, and blasting to highway speeds from a standstill with little but a faint whine from the drivetrain is just a stunning thing. That’s the promise of Hyundai’s new Ioniq 5 N, the newest model from the brand’s N division, which I had the chance to get a look at during the 2023 Los Angeles Auto Show.

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What’s N? Think of it like BMW’s M, Mercedes-Benz’s AMG group, or what Dodge used to have with SRT — a skunkworks group at the company that takes mundane models and turns them into fire-breathing performance machines … except in this case, it’s not fire that the Ioniq 5 N breathes, but, well, nothing. It’s an electric car with massive power and performance promise, of course — and also one glaring flaw.

All the Necessary N-ness

It’s easy to spot this as one of Hyundai’s N models thanks to the styling that’s been updated to incorporate all of the required modifications. The first big clue is the paint: That robin’s egg hue is called N Performance Blue, which you can have in a gloss or matte finish, and it’s paired with a distinctive Luminous Orange stripe running along the bottom of the car. The N version of the Ioniq 5 is lower and wider, as well, with flared fenders encompassing massive wheels and tires. As much as the Ioniq 5 was ever really an SUV, the changes to make it more sporty and aggressive work, and our initial assessment that it looks like a modern, much more portly take on the classic Lancia Delta Integrale still sticks after seeing it in person. That classic angular, Italian shape looked good before, and it looks even better with this performance version.

For a rundown of the N Performance updates and variants and modified systems that are meant to help the Ioniq 5 N go fast, head over to our preview for this vehicle, which lists them out in staggering fashion. To say that Hyundai did a lot more than just paint it a cool color would be an understatement — the N division very thoroughly went through the whole vehicle and optimized nearly everything for higher performance, from the brake regeneration to predictive mode suggestions based on what the cameras are reading from the street signs.

But the most amazing part of it is that this seems to be the first time we’ve seen this kind of attention placed on how to optimize EV systems for track performance. Sure, a Tesla Model S Plaid can go around a track quickly, but the Ioniq 5 N has specifically optimized, selectable systems that are meant to help you switch back and forth between street car and track machine as desired. It’s in keeping with the N division’s three-principals ethos that’s used to create all their models: racetrack capability, everyday sports car and corner rascal. At least on paper and on a show floor, it would appear the Ioniq 5 N fits all three criteria.

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What Doesn’t Work?

The one area where the Ioniq 5 N arguably falls short is in front-seat comfort. The seats feel like they’ve been pulled directly from the Kia EV6 GT, another track and performance monster in its own right. But the problem is not that they’re heavily bolstered (they are, almost uncomfortably so), it’s that Hyundai cheaped out on them. The seat bottom rake is aggressive and not adjustable, and for anyone with shorter legs, it’s absolutely awful to sit in. The seats are manually adjustable, too; no power seats in a vehicle this expensive is just bizarre. Making the argument that the manual seats are for light weight is a bit spurious; the car is already heavy thanks to its massive battery pack, so adding more comfort to the seats through power-activated adjustment shouldn’t be a deal-killing penalty.

The backseat is as spacious as in other Ioniq 5s, making this the choice between the Hyundai and the Kia when it comes to needing actual room for five people (the Kia EV6 GT doesn’t have great second-row passenger room). But those decidedly uncomfortable front seats might just keep prospective buyers away from either model and instead heading down to their Ford dealer to have a look at a Mustang Mach-E GT.

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