Exclusive: Riding In The Ioniq 5 N At Hyundai Australia’s N Festival

Hyundai’s N division has been on a wild ride over the past years from launching its very first hot hatch, the i30 N, to now having a fleet of models headlined by the all-electric Ioniq 5 N. Australia has proven to be a particularly important market for N, so much so that from January through October last year, some 31.7% of all Hyundais sold locally were either N or N Line models.

In its efforts to cultivate an enthusiastic community of owners, Hyundai Australia has organized an N festival for each of the past five years and last month, we headed to Sydney Motorsport Park for the latest iteration. It proved to be just as enjoyable as last year’s event and shows just how strong the N brand has become.

N fun

The 2023 event was held across a weekend in December and on the Saturday, included a drive along some of the finer roads around Sydney. However, the real action started on Saturday evening and ran through all of Sunday with attendees given the chance to drive their cars around the Sydney Motorsport Park.

Photos Praveen Caldera/Carscoops

More than 500 N cars attended the event, the vast majority of which participated in the track sessions. Owners were split into groups of approximately 25 and could drive in a handful of 10-15 minute slots late Saturday evening and Sunday. As with last year’s event at The Bend Motorsport Park just outside of Adelaide, the full suite of N cars attended, including the i20 N, i30 N Hatch, i30 N Sedan, and Kona N. However, it was the Ioniq 5 N that was the real highlight.

Proving that EVs can fun

As an attending media representative, we were fortunate enough to be given free rein to the full fleet of Hyundai N cars, albeit not the Ioniq 5 N. While a fleet of Ioniq 5 Ns were in attendance, they were being driven exclusively by Hyundai’s racing drivers and those locals who had placed an order. Fortunately, we were able to jump into the passenger seat of the driver-focused EV with rally driver Brendan Reeves behind the wheel and went for a few hot laps. We were blown away.

Read: See The 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N In Every Color In Over 110 Photos

Hyundai has already allowed a host of journalists to test the Ioniq 5 N but we’ll have to wait until next month to head back to Sydney Motorsport Park and jump behind the wheel ourselves. Nevertheless, even from the passenger seat, it became immediately apparent that Hyundai has cooked up something very special.

First is the sound. The carmaker has developed three synthetic sounds for the Ioniq 5 designed to add to the driving experience. The first of these sounds, known as Ignition, aims to mimic the sound of the brand’s ICE models and funnels the noise through 10 internal speakers. We initially thought this was a bit of a gimmick but after jumping inside, are now completely sold on the idea. The system almost perfectly mimics the sound of a turbocharged four-cylinder and even replicates the cracks and pops of Hyundai regular N models. It’s not quite the real thing but it feels almost as authentic as a regular N model.

Then there is the sheer speed of the thing. Hyundai has equipped the Ioniq 5 N with a pair of electric motors combining to produce 641 hp so it comes as no surprise that it feels like a ballistic missile off the line. Of course, plenty of EVs are quick but what makes the Ioniq 5 N special is the added enjoyment it provides, and this was evident even from the passenger seat.

Despite weighing around 2,200 kg (4,850 lbs), the Ioniq 5 N feels light on its feet and just as reactive to steering inputs as the i20 N and i30 N. Reeves also played around with the torque distribution settings to kick out the car’s tail and it appears easy to control on the limit.

Our favorite part of the Ioniq 5 N was not the sheer performance, nor its handling credentials, but rather the E-Shift function. This mode mimics the feel of Hyundai’s eight-speed dual-clutch transmission and is operated by the paddle shifters mounted to the steering wheel. Some enthusiasts may scoff at the idea of a fake gearbox like this but we thought it was brilliant because it feels so much like the real thing and even lets you bang into an imaginary rev limit.

Photos Praveen Caldera/Carscoops

The other Ns

Sydney Motorsport Park is a wonderful circuit and proved to be exceptionally well-suited to the i30 N and i20 N, both of which we drove for multiple sessions. Like last year, we enjoyed our time in the i20 N the most, even though the i30 N, particularly in sedan guise, is more polished and significantly quicker.

Storming down the pit straight in both the i30 N and i20 N, we were quickly able to gain confidence in the superb Pirelli and Michelin rubber fitted to the press cars we drove. It wasn’t long before we were accelerating through the tremendous first corner at over 160 km/h (~100 mph) in both cars before really putting the brakes to the test into the tight second corner.

Hyundai’s N cars have always been incredibly approachable and if you’re confident driving high-powered front-wheel drive hot hatches, it’s easy to extract the most out of them. It’s hardly a surprise then why so many owners we happy to pay the AU$50 ($33) entrance fee and to drive from all parts of the country to attend.

Like last year’s event, the vice president of the N brand and Hyundai’s motorsport division, Till Wartenberg, was in attendance as was the mastermind behind the N brand, Albert Biermann. The pair held two question-and-answer sessions for attendees about the Ioniq 5 N and are quite chuffed with the EV they have helped create. They even revealed that it can complete two full sub-8-minute laps of the Nurburgring Nordschleife, a remarkable feat for an EV of this size.

As mentioned, we’ll be driving the Ioniq 5 N next month, so be sure to stay tuned for our impressions. After experiencing it from the passenger seat, we have high hopes.

Photo Credits: Praveen Caldera/Carscoops