Hyundai Ioniq 6 N review – The modern dream car.

Do kids today put posters on their wall of great cars they love? Where do you even get a poster today? Anyway, if there was a place to get posters of amazing cars, I could imagine the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N standing out on many a teenager’s wall.

The EFTM Snapshot: The Hyundai Ioniq 6 N is a $150,000 electric sports sedan with fake gears and a fake exhaust, and it’s the most fun I’ve had in a car all year.

But seriously, with magazines by the wayside and kids and even adults today just watching YouTube videos to get a sense of what’s new and what’s cool, what’s fast and what’s interesting, I’m not sure there’s an easy way to lust over a vehicle like there was when I was a kid.

From a Group A SS Commodore to a Nissan Skyline GT-R, I had posters from Racing Car News on my wall because racing cars was what I loved.

I guess in reality it wasn’t aspirational. It was just the sheer love of those cars that made me want to put them up on the wall. And driving the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N for the last week, that made me think, this is the car that I’d want on my wall if I was a teenager.

Heaven Forbid You Enjoy An Electric Car

The funny thing is though, not many people will ever get to experience this car, because it’s very expensive and it sits in this space where hatred lives and breathes. It’s an electric car.

Heaven forbid someone enjoys driving an electric car.

Heaven forbid someone gets a smile out of looking at, let alone sitting in, let alone driving in an electric car.

The fact is more people have wandered by the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N parked at the front of the EFTM garage in the last week and stopped and taken photos than probably any car I can ever remember.

I Hate The Look Of The Ioniq 6. Not This One.

And that’s not because the Ioniq 6 is a good looking car. In fact, to be honest, I hate the look of the Ioniq 6. It gives me Ford Taurus (1996) vibes, that weird either the front or the back could be the front or the back, you never quite know what you’re getting. But actually, in this guise, it’s like I can see what the designers actually had in mind when they penned the Ioniq 6.

The Price of the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N, And Then The Carbon Fibre

In simple terms, the list price of this car is $115,000. The matte paint it’s draped in is another $1,000, in addition to the colour choice at $750. Drive away without much else, this is a $125,000 car.

But that’s not all. The Hyundai Ioniq 6 N in the EFTM garage this week has a bunch of N Performance parts added on. There’s a carbon fibre rear wing spoiler. There’s a front splitter, side skirts, rear diffuser, 20 inch alloy wheels. Even things that you probably can’t see, like an underbody turning vane. There’s even a carbon fibre wheel cap and a door scuff.

All those things together, this swathe of carbon fibre, is another $24,000. Oh, and it’s gonna cost you $600 to get them fitted. So we’re definitely talking about a car that’s gonna be $150,000 drive away, give or take. That makes this aspirational. That makes this out of the leagues of most people.

Hyundai Ioniq 6 N is my New Lotto Car

The first day I drove the Porsche Taycan, I knew that it was my dream car. That car that when you say to someone “if I win the lotto, the first thing I’ll buy is…”, well, for me now it’s the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N.

Yeah, I still want a Porsche, definitely. Who doesn’t want a Porsche or Ferrari in their driveway or car barn? But I could see the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N sitting at home ready for a weekend squirt.

It’s Also A Very Easy Car To Live With

Yeah, around town it’s actually a lovely drive. It’s not too brutal, in Eco mode it doesn’t sound crazy or feel crazy, and actually sitting behind the wheel it’s so comfortable because of the side hugging sport seats. A comfortable wheel and just plenty of space.

By the way, this thing is huge. Inside, the leg room at the back of this car is like nothing I can remember other than a 7 Series BMW. They’ve packed so much between the wheels of this. You really aren’t left wanting for anything.

Press Every Button in the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N and Everything Changes

And then you look down at the steering wheel and there’s some interesting buttons there.

There’s the obvious drive mode button. Yeah, I can switch from Eco into Sport mode. Giddy up. But there’s two separate N buttons and the NGB button. What does that stand for? Literally, N Grin Boost.

Now I can’t tell you exactly what you need to press to make it all happen, but what I do is press them all. Put it in Sport mode, press the Grin Boost, press both Ns, and everything changes.

In front of me on the head up display is a bold orange tachometer style graph, and under my foot, the sports car sound. Leave it in neutral, this car revs. The tacho moves. It all happens. Redlining it feels less dangerous than any car before, because it’s an entirely artificial sound.

The Rev Of An Engine That Doesn’t Exist

Apparently there’s three varieties of this N Active Sound+ technology. I think I only heard one. No, it doesn’t sound like a V8 sports car. No, it doesn’t sound like a Ferrari when you drop it down a gear and plant it. It sounds electric, but not in a Jetsons way that many cars have introduced, and that’s a good thing for a sports car.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the pseudo electric sound that’s been created in a lot of electric cars. But in a sports car, you need to get a feeling of up and go.

Critically, with all those buttons pushed, you also get gear shifts that do absolutely nothing in reality. There are no gears, there is no gearbox. But it does something to the drive. There’s even a lurch forward and back when you’re up and down through the gears at the right ferocity.

But it’s the exhaust burbles from an exhaust that doesn’t exist. It’s the rev of an engine that doesn’t exist, that makes you feel like maybe we haven’t lost the love of the raw motoring experience.

If electric cars came first, and for a hundred years we’d been driving them silently with a purr or a whine, and then someone invented the V8 engine and put it in a car, there’s no doubt many of us would be drawn to that throbbing sound. Does it matter that we’re reverse engineering this and putting that sound into an electric car? No. It’s something we expect of a performance car, it’s something we want from a performance car.

I know there’s plenty of haters, people that would not go near this car with a 10 foot barge pole because they don’t ever want to have an electric car. Fine, good, enjoy your life. But if you’re someone who is hating on this purely because it exists, you’re missing out.

Hyundai Ioniq 6 N The Modern Dream Car

I think a car like the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N is the modern dream car. I think if my kids, who know electric cars better than most kids, were to dream of something they’d never experienced, it might be something like this.

Now, I’m probably a generation ahead of things here with the dream car concept, because of course the Porsche 911 GT3 RS still exists. My kids have seen that and ridden in that, so they probably want that first.

The very fact that this thing has a rear wing that rivals a 911 GT3 RS, and a style that isn’t just for show, and the fact that this has genuine track credentials, makes it a compelling vehicle and a glimpse into the future.

In the electric future, we’re still going to want to go fast. We’re still going to want to go to a racetrack. We’re still going to want to go around corners faster than we would on the road.

Utterly love this vehicle. Don’t want to hand the keys back, but I’m leaving the country, so I probably should. Well done, Hyundai. No notes.

Web: Hyundai