The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Is by Far the Best Sports EV I've Ever Driven
One of America’s greatest racetracks, if not its very greatest racetrack, faced a threat. Some believed capitalism would save it, as the track brings in hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the local economy, and if it comes between money and the law, money always seems to win. Some believed the legal system would be enough. But if the “Highway 68 Coalition” had its way, racing at Laguna Seca would become drastically more restricted, and therefore drastically more exclusive, and therefore drastically more expensive - and it is already the most expensive racetrack in California, and therefore the U.S. Citing, noise, traffic, and environmental concerns, the Coalition sued Monterey County and the “Friends of Laguna Seca” in order to restrict the track’s activities, already some of the most restrictive in the country.
As it turned out, Monterey County and the Friends of Laguna Seca reached a settlement with the Highway 68 Coalition, following through on an already-planned sound assessment and noise remediation policy. But let's take a step back. Let's take a wider view. What if uncorked exhausts and blaring race cars continue to provide a thematic threat to race tracks across the country? What if the law and the money both fail? You know what might save tracks like Laguna Seca? Electric sports cars. And we are almost there. No, wait, don’t leave. Hear me out.
Ask any gearhead to name a race track in North America, and you’re almost guaranteed to get Laguna Seca as a top-three answer. It’s iconic for a reason. For reasons. There’s the topography - 180 feet between the highest and lowest points, just about the biggest difference in North America. Elevation isn’t just great for driving; elevation makes for an awesome spectator experience, and Laguna Seca is a fantastic place to watch a race. Then there’s the location - racetracks are typically remote and surrounded by nothingness, whereas the Carmel Valley is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Wineries, world-class golf, and five-star lodging surround, just up the road. Homes abutting the track regularly sell for seven or eight figures - which explains, in part, why the neighbors sued. The rich and connected don’t like to be inconvenienced, and they have the resources to fight for their right to keep loud people out.
Sensationalism sells, but in the spirit of accuracy, let's dispatch with the notion that the Highway 68 Coalition wanted to shut down the track entirely - they have repeatedly said they did not. Lead Plaintiff Michael Weaver said he enjoys taking his sports cars to the track, and recognized the positive impact Laguna Seca has on the community and car culture at large. But the Coalition claimed that racing days and “loud” decibel days have increased in recent years, not to mention music festivals and other events that draw large crowds and clog the two-lane Highway 68 in both directions during event days. They wanted to find ways to reduce the environmental impact, the noise, and the traffic, and wanted to spend a year producing a study to figure out how to do that.
It almost sounded reasonable.
You don’t have to do much convincing to get me to do a track day at Laguna Seca. The track itself is such a treat that even if the car isn’t any good, I can still have a great time. And when I saw the press release for Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N, with its gimmicky, ICE-imitating sounds and fake gearing, I admittedly had half an eye roll. But when Hyundai invited me to Laguna to drive it, the pitch landed, and what if this thing works?
It took less than a lap to determine that: yes it works and this is by far the best sports EV I’ve ever driven.
There are other reasons the Ioniq 5 N is good. It’s very fast, with over 600 hp and 545 lb-ft of torque going to all four wheels. It has sharp steering, plenty of brakes, and endlessly customizable modes to fit the mood and style of nearly any kind of driver. It has tons of grip, sporty yet comfortable seats, and a decent ride (in one of the three suspension settings, anyway). It has good visibility, plenty of rear seat and trunk space, and comes only one way: loaded. And at just under $67,000 it’s a good value for something that will easily walk a BMW M3 Competition.
But up until this sunny morning at Laguna Seca, I have never driven any electric car, not even the $230,000-plus Taycan Turbo GT, that I would actually buy to use as a sports car, rather than as an appliance. I don’t want to take them to track days, because they are just not as fun as gasoline cars, with less feedback and less engagement, not to mention the inability to accurately judge corner entry speed without gears.
No disrespect to Porsche, as the Taycan Turbo GT just ran a blistering 1:27.8 around this very race track, but being sickeningly fast and being fun are not the same thing. I was impressed by the Porsche’s pace. I was blown away by the Hyundai’s vibes, something that has never before happened in an EV. All of a sudden, the promise of spending a day at the track with an electric car became… good.
Yes, the manually shifted gears are fake. Yes, the engine noise is fake. Synthetic. Artificial. A lie. There are so many ways that Hyundai could have gotten this wrong, and only one way it could go right. They’ve hit a hole-in-one on a par four. Because the lie is so convincing, after a few seconds, I didn’t care that it wasn’t real. The lie gave me what I needed in order to have fun in a car on a racetrack or a canyon road: engagement. Its mimicry of a gasoline-powered rally machine is literally as good as to be the real thing. Only if it was the real thing, for this kinda scratch you’d never be going as quickly.
It’s not just the sound, but the sound helps a lot. The paddle shifters simulate a 7-speed DCT that has some actual character to it. Using manual mode recalibrates the Ioniq 5 N’s torque curves to resemble a gasoline car. It has redlines for each gear. It kicks on flat-foot upshifts, and it engine brakes just like a gas car using regen when you get off the pedal.
It makes sounds like an uncorked Elantra N (or a selection of two other non-vehicular soundtracks, if you prefer), and it's not just one sound. By playing selectively portions of ICE car sounds from different parts of the car, such as intake and turbo noise from the front, and exhaust burble from the back, it provides depth that gives you exactly what you need, how you need it, to know what the car is doing, and to know what you’re doing to the car. Even though you know it’s fake, it works. It helps you drive the car better.
Even at 4800 pounds, the Ioniq 5 N drives like an Evo, as long as you get the settings right, which can take either an in-depth lesson or a lot of trial and error. If I have one real criticism of this car it’s that “menu bloat” has really crept in. Just because you can make a car do anything and everything doesn’t necessarily mean you should. My Goldilocks setting, powertrain, and diffs in Sport+, Steering in Sport, Shocks in Comfort, and ESC Full Off, which results in a rowdy yet controlled experience. You can lift-off-rotate into corners with the help of “downshifting,” flick the steering, then set the car and smash the throttle for a big, smoky, controlled slide, banging off the synthetic 8000 RPM rev limiter.
There’s even 40 extra horsepower on tap with the push of a red button on the steering wheel, but if you use it, it deactivates manual gears and engine sound. So just… don’t push it. It’s not worth it.
Then there’s the longevity issue - how long can an electric powertrain last on a race track? Porsche brags that its quarter-million dollar Taycan EV can do a lap of the ‘Ring at full power. Hyundai says the Ioniq 5 N can do two. Now, I know the bar is pretty low here, but in practice, the Ioniq 5 N can do a full 20-minute track session, approximately 13-15 laps of Laguna Seca, with no perceptible degradation in performance. Yes, if you’re timing laps, they may drop off a little bit. But for a fun, recreational trackday, you absolutely can do a whole session on a charge and without overheating the powertrain, even if you’re sliding the car around, at least on a pleasant spring day. The brakes and tires will last, too.
In between track sessions, 10 other people drove the cars and I stood around chatting. You know what you heard inside the bowl that is Laguna’s paddock? Nothing. Just the occasional, faint howl of a PZero (N-Spec) in the distance. I went up to the track entrance, above Turn 5’s famous sound meter and the closest point to a home while on property, and it was even quieter. I guarantee no neighbors even knew we were there.
I’m not saying that Laguna Seca should become America’s first electric-only race track. I don’t think the cars, as a whole, or the infrastructure is there to have full-on EV track days or races at scale, at least not today. And as a gearhead who still loves gasoline-powered sports cars, I still want to drive this iconic track in as many types of cars as possible while I’m alive.
But if the alternative would mean shutting it down entirely, or drastically restricting its use to so few days that billionaires are the only people who can afford to drive it anymore, I’ll happily run lap after lap in the Ioniq 5 N. We may not be able to do anything about traffic on the two-lane road that leads to Laguna Seca, but we can make it a whole lot quieter for the neighbors, while screaming for joy inside the car.
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