The Hyundai Ioniq 6 N Will Be Even Driftier Than The 5

It feels like we’ve said this a million times now, but the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is so far the only electric performance car that’s properly wowed us, blending the usual EV party piece of face-bending acceleration with genuine driver involvement and handling brilliance. That could soon change, because a new car is coming next week to challenge the Ioniq 5 N’s crown as the best driver’s EV. It’s… the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N.

Yep, we’ll get our first look at the production version of Hyundai’s second hot EV a week today, having been previewed a few years back by the RN22e concept and more recently by the industry-standard shadowy teaser campaign.

Ahead of its reveal on the opening day of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Hyundai revealed a little more on what we can expect from the Ioniq 6 N. Although it sits on the same E-GMP platform as the 5 N, and we’re widely expecting it to use the same 641bhp dual-motor powertrain, it sounds as if it’s going to be more than just an identical car with a curvy streamliner body rather than a boxy hatchback one.

For a start, Hyundai has thoroughly reworked the suspension geometry. The roll centre has been lowered and the caster trail enlarged, which are said to improve the 5 N’s already impressive levels of steering feel and feedback. It’ll also get new electronically controlled dampers, with a view to improving both comfort and handling.

The Ioniq 5 N’s party piece, meanwhile – its impressively realistic gearshift-simulating N e-shift feature – has had further developments. It’s now available in all drive modes, and has been tweaked to offer “motorsport-inspired close gear ratios,” so you should be banging out electro-shifts with more regularity. Also debuting is ‘N Ambient Shift Light’, which will give you a heads up on when to shift for peak performance.

The ‘N Drift Optimiser’ – drift mode, to you and I – is apparently getting a broader range of customisation options, allowing the driver to choose just how much skid they want. We don’t know the ins and outs of this yet, but in its home market of South Korea, the Ioniq 5 N has already been upgraded with a 10-stage version of the tech, so we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the same thing appear on the 6, and soon make its way to the European version of the 5.

Joon Park, vice president of Hyundai’s N management group, said: “The Ioniq 6 N has been developed to provide the most engaging driving experience possible in an EV. Hyundai N will once again disrupt the EV segment, not with headline-grabbing numbers, but by demonstrating how fun an electric car driving experience can be.”

We’ll finally get to lay eyes on the finished product at Goodwood on Thursday 10 July.