Chris Harris Drives the Hyundai IONIQ 5 N | An EV with a Sense of Humour

Chris Harris Drives the Hyundai IONIQ 5 N | An EV with a Sense of Humour

Go never let it be said that Hyundai doesn’t have a sense of humor Hyundai is now offering what looks like a cut price RS6 its rather gorgeous looking ionic 5 has now received the end treatment which has resulted in 641 horsepower it weighs around 2.2 tons and it will do massive [Applause] Skids nice so a class of cultures I’m driving a new Korean Hot very big hatchback at the Sydney Motorsport Park in New South Wales it’s a very healthy combination I have to say so what is going on at hyai we know that Dr bman came from BMW and B

With him all his Dynamic knowhow and this end badge has delivered it really has uh the i30s both the old one and the new one were fantastic and that little I20 is a corker a ripper so when they announced that they’ given the end treatment to their large sort of

R2-D2 on wheels for me there’s something so cleverly 80s about it it’s a shape that we all recognize it’s iconic from the moment it was built but not an obvious car to turn into something very rapid and what have we got we’ve got 640 odd horsepower well over 550lbs of

Torque weighs about 2.2 tons but I just chatted to one of the engineers who reminded me once again the engineers are really clever and people like me aren’t the this was not a numbers exercise not a lap time exercise this was about how can you make a car fun to

Drive first of all this is seriously fast uh I you know you can’t really want or need more performance than this but it’s giving me messages okay so I’m getting I’m getting roll front of rear axle I’m now in rear drive mode and straight up to 120 mph there I know

It’s silent but would a car that would normally run a turbocharged 4 cylinder IC be making music right now no it wouldn’t uh so I can give some dispensation there I’m on a circuit I know but I can tell that this car you see has got a relationship between its

Right pedal and the rear axle cuz you can put everything to the back I’ve turned it into track mod I’ve turned everything off of course I have and now everything’s going to the back axle and this is one of the most intuitive EVS I’ve driven it might be

The most just feels quite playful it’s big and I’m sure you’re destroying tires but being no doubt you know if you think the tyan and the Audi rron GT are the kind of benchmarks there’s a new kid in town and it’s Korean and it doesn’t look like a

Fast car and that’s what I like this is one of the first I’ve driven that’s impit got sense of humor it knows it shouldn’t be able to do what it does but it does so yeah you get some under steer but not too much you can get rid of it

With your right foot if you want brakes are pretty good they’re massive but this is a heavy car this isn’t one to go and pound out on track days but it’s got a hugely uprated chassis over I 5 as well you got wider tracks all the hardware is bigger stronger the

Whole calibration exercise is completely different this is not just a remap ionic 5 anything but I sort of tort you around me driving it sensibly let’s just give it a little bit of tap as they say so flat chat back straight numbers There

She Goes 160 70 80 90 200 210 I mean I don’t know how much faster you need to go I don’t need to go any faster than that that is flipping quick this I don’t know this C well this first left-hander strikes me as being something we can have a huge accident

Which I don’t want to do so that’s the first hairin watch this this is where this thing’s interesting so we got a lot of rear bias on it now ABS triggers give it some gas and straight away yeah we’re drifting we’re sliding and it’s it’s intuitive it’s not difficult the relationship between the

Steering angle and the throttle is natural and you can just roast rear tires it’s not getting all the power to the rear wheels and it actually helps it’s about 380 horsepower going to the back wheels but you know you can sort of just excite it lob it in and it’ll do

All sorts of fun stuff at the break it’s easily the most driftable EV I’ve driven that in itself is meaningless but actually there is a coroller there’s a relationship between a car that’s had that sort of Love lavished on it Engineers have spent a long time making that possible but that has ramifications

At all times of day and night just driving it on the road it means that the car’s got really really good electric steering can I get it’s a bit elastic on sort of reentering itself but actually once I’m into the corner I haven’t got feel but I’ve got really good weight and

I love that instant pickup from the throttle I mean it it’s difficult not to just do this all day long though it’s so it’s so good at it but this is the surprise in the package this is not just some Pinn down go fast the car it’s got wheel travel

It’s comfortable it rides the bumps of this circuit really quite well it’s a dynamic surprise like the fact they’ve had to go at something different you [Applause] know come on EV smoking I like it yeah but it’s a mighty capable car so is it an RS6 rival yeah dynamically it’s more capable than

An RS6 because it can do the four-wheel drive thing the rear wheel drive thing it’s faster in every respect apart from above 130 mph which is mostly meaningless it’s got more space in the front and back doesn’t have as big a boot what you might be looking at

Here is the ultimate bargain Q Car you know I know you get it in silly colors but this is magnificent if you’re going to go and buy something M3 M5 Audi RS shaped AMG shaped I’d go and have a go in one of these first I really would cuz it’s um smoking

Yeah Jesus just when you think you’ve got your anti St sorted out they come in and they wreck you they wreck you they wreck all your myopic opinions about the fact electric cars are cuz this one isn’t it isn’t cheap but yeah okay Mr ionic 5n you have my Attention

Until now, the new Hyundai IONIQ 5 N has been confined to its native Korea, but Chris Harris went to Sydney Motorsport Park to get behind the wheel for a proper shakedown on track. Would it be enough to change his mind on just how involving an electric vehicle can be?

The IONIQ 5 N is based on the now-familiar large ‘crossover’ hatchback, but features a strengthened body shell, and a fully revised chassis with more robust subframes and larger dampers. Most significantly, the electric motors produce up to 641HP and 568lb-ft of torque in boost mode, enabling a 0-62mph sprint time of just 3.4 seconds.

Not only that, but Hyundai’s engineers also went to work on the controls, improving the response and feedback through the wheel ahead of the driver, giving it – in Chris’ own words – “really, really good electric steering”. With a substantial mass not only to move but also to stop, it’s no surprise to find 400mm discs at the front and 360mm items at the rear, aided by improved cooling and a recalibrated regen system.

As the marque’s first high-performance EV, how does it stack up to electric models being produced by the likes of Porsche or Audi? And with so much space and pace, could it really be considered a worthy rival for the petrol-powered RS6 Avant? Watch the film to find out what Chris thought after driving this landmark electric car on track.

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