Image Credit: Hyundai.
Stop the presses! Hold the phone! The car we've been waiting for, the one Hyundai's N division has been teasing for what feels like a geological epoch, is finally here. It's the Ioniq 6N, and it's an all-electric, 650-horsepower sedan designed to put a massive, childish grin on your face. It's the slinky, "streamliner" sibling to the angry Ioniq 5N lunchbox. Hyundai has finally released all the official specs and on paper, it's a monster.
But here's the problem. While Hyundai's engineers were busy perfecting this thing, adding fake gearshifts and giant wings, the rest of the world went completely and utterly bonkers. I've just come back from a trip that's made me question everything I thought I knew about fast electric cars. So, as brilliant as this new Hyundai is, I have to ask: Has it completely missed the boat?
Image Credit: Hyundai.
Right, the good bits first - and boy, are they good. The Ioniq 6N is not just a standard Ioniq 6 with a big battery. It's a complete tear-down. It uses a dual-motor system that, in its "normal" state, produces a perfectly adequate 609 horsepower. Yawn. But then you find the little red button on the steering wheel. The one labeled "N Grin Boost." Yes, really. Press that, and for 10 seconds, you unleash the full-fat 650 horsepower and 568 lb-ft of torque. Using the launch control, this four-door family sedan will rocket from 0 to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds, and it'll keep pulling all the way to 160 mph. That, in any language, is properly quick.
But the N division insists its cars aren't just for drag racing. They're built on three pillars: "Racetrack Capability," "Everyday Sportscar," and my personal favorite, "Corner Rascal." Although it sounds like a character from a children's book, to earn this adorable name, the engineers have injected some serious stiffness into the 6N. The whole chassis is stronger, with dozens of extra weld points and gobs of structural adhesive. This lets the all-new, "stroke-sensing" electronically controlled suspension and the electronic limited-slip differential at the rear do their magic, hopefully turning this 194-inch long sedan into a ballet dancer.
Image Credit: Hyundai.
Now, we get to the weird part. Hyundai knows that people like me - crusty old journalists who miss the smell of gasoline and the clack-clack of a good gearbox - find EVs a bit sterile. Soulless, even. So, they've decided to engineer the soul back in. And first is the "N e-Shift" system - a virtual 8-speed dual-clutch transmission that not only mimics the sound, but it mimics the feel as well. It actually gives you a proper, physical jolt in the back as it "shifts" and will even "rev-limit" if you hold a "gear" too long. It's completely unnecessary, it's fake, and yet… I love the madness of it.
To go with your fake jolts, you get fake noise. "N Active Sound+" pumps a variety of soundtracks through 10 speakers. You can have a futuristic "Evolution" sound, a motorsport-inspired "Supersonic" (which sounds like a fighter jet), or one that pretends to be a grumbling gas engine. It's nothing but an automotive karaoke, and the purists are probably having an aneurysm right now. But I say if you have to drive an appliance, it might as well pretend to be a rocket ship. There's even an "N Drift Optimizer," a special mode to help you hold heroic, smoky slides like a driving god, even if you have the coordination of a newborn giraffe.
Image Credit: Hyundai.
Of course, it still has to be an electric car. Under the floor is a beefy 84.0 kWh battery pack. And because it's built on Hyundai's whiz-bang 800-volt architecture, it charges like it's late for a very important meeting. Plug it into a 350 kW charger, and you'll see the battery jump from 10% to 80% in just 18 minutes. Even I can't be sarcastic about that. That's just brilliant. It also has clever battery preconditioning for the track, with modes for "Drag" (max power, one-shot) or "Endurance" (multiple laps). Range is estimated at around 300 miles on the optimistic WLTP cycle.
You won't mistake it for a regular Ioniq 6, either. This N version is wider, measuring 76.4 inches across to cover its massive 20-inch forged wheels and sticky Pirelli tires. But the real giveaway is that wing. It's not some subtle lip spoiler. It's a massive, motorsport-inspired, swan-neck rear wing bolted to the back of what is supposed to be a "streamliner" sedan. This car is a philosophy professor wearing a backwards baseball cap - literally. It's a glorious contradiction, and it apparently helps the car make real downforce.
Image Credit: Hyundai.
It's fast, it's clever, it's loud (fakely), and it looks mean. It's the perfect electric sports sedan. It's coming in early 2026. And the speculation is landing it right around $74,000. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is where the wheels come off. Because I just got back from China. And I've seen the future. And it's not this.
In China, I had a go in a car called the XPENG P7. It's a handsome electric sedan. It has 600 horsepower. It's beautifully built. And it costs $31,000. Thirty. That's less than half the price of this Hyundai, for 90% of the horsepower. Suddenly, the Ioniq 6N doesn't look like a performance bargain. It looks like a terrible value proposition.
Image Credit: Hyundai.
But it gets worse. While I was there, I saw the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra. Yes, the same Xiaomi that makes your phone. The Ultra has 1,500 horsepower - that's Bugatti Veyron power. And the price for this 1,500-horsepower electric missile? You guessed it. $74,000. The exact same price Hyundai is rumored to be asking for its 650-horsepower Ioniq 6N.
Can you see my problem? The Ioniq 6N is, by all accounts, a fantastic piece of engineering. It's a car designed by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts. It has all the right bits, plus a healthy dose of wonderful, digital-age madness. But it's arriving in 2026. It's arriving at a party that it was supposed to host. Instead, it's showing up late, only to find the place already wrecked by rivals who are faster, cheaper, or, in one case, unbelievably faster for the exact same money.
Image Credit: Hyundai.
Hyundai is lucky that we no longer can - officially - get our hands on any Chinese metal. Those silly tariffs on imported EVs cleared up the competition field for the 6N, and it only has the Tesla Model 3 Performance to deal with. And yet, if I had to choose between the two, I know which one I'd go for - and it wouldn't be the pride of California.
Image Credit: Hyundai.
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