2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 N review

Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N was the loudest, craziest electric vehicle (EV) the world had ever seen when it arrived in 2024 - and now there’s a wilder, one - the Ioniq 6 N.

How much does 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 N model cost?

The new Ioniq 6 N will cost you quite a lot for something with a Hyundai badge - $115,000.

What is the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 N like inside?

The interior of the new Hyundai Ioniq 6 N is a mix of screen-mad modernity, old-school classy touches - the steering wheel and door card interiors feel properly expensive and there are splashes of leather and Alcantara - and some unfortunately parts-bin feeling cheaper switch gear bits. Unfortunately the things you’re regularly going to touch, like the window switches, take away from the perception of quality you get from things like the N metal pedals. 

There is a sense of thoughtfulness about the car’s cabin, however, with things like extra padding for the driver’s knee on the centre console to make things more comfortable when he or she is bracing themselves to go hurling through corners, something you’ll do a lot of in this car. 

A new N Ambient Shift Light feature also uses mood lamps in the dashboard and doors that respond to the “virtual engine rpm” to visually show how much fun you’re having. 

The rear leg room is also excellent, but the back seats really should come with sick bags because sitting back there while someone is taking full advantage of this Ioniq 6 N’s staggering performance is a recipe for churned stomach surprise.

What equipment does 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 N come with?

The Ioniq 6 N will come in six exterior colours, including pearlescent performance 

blue which makes its debut on this car, while the interior is trimmed with a combination of Alcantara and leather. Spec level is generally high, as you’d expect at this price, and includes 20-inch alloys, LED matrix headlights, an acoustic laminated glass sunroof (it’s a no-cost option to delete this if it’s getting in the way of your helmeted head), 64-colour ambient lighting, aluminium pedals, heated sports steering wheel, heated and ventilated seats, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and much more. 

How safe is the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 N?

The Ioniq 6 received a five-star ANCAP rating, but the N version has not been tested as yet. It does come with seven airbags and all the usual ADAS, including Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, Driver Attention Warning, Rear Cross-traffic Alert, Blind Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist, and Highway Driving Assist 2. 

What powers the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 N? 

The Hyundai Ioniq 6 N has two electric motors, providing drive to both front and rear wheels. At the front is a high-output drive system integrating motor, reducer and inverter making 166kW and 350Nm. At the rear you’ll find the main rear-drive system, which makes 282kW and 390Nm. Combined power is 448kW and 740Nm, but you can also edge the N Grin Boost system, for 10-second bursts of wild acceleration, which adds another 30kW of thrust, for a maximum attack of 478kW, which is enough to hurl the Ioniq 6 N to 100km/h in 3.2 seconds (with N Launch Control also engaged, N Grin Boost alone is enough for 3.3 seconds, or you can achieve a mere 3.4 seconds without pressing lots of screens and just planting it in N Mode). 

The power for all this excitement comes from an 84kWh battery, which is capable of fast charging on either 400V or 800V ultra-fast chargers, which could get you from 10 to 80 per cent of charge in just 18 minutes (perfect for top ups when you’re hurling around a race track, they say). 

The claimed range for the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N is 487km with claimed energy efficiency of 18.7 kWh/100km. In the real world, no one is going to get near either of those figures because the temptation to drive it hard and sap the battery will be too great. 

What is the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 N like to drive?

A rocket with a rocket up its backside? A violent theme park ride? A video game? The Hyundai Ioniq 6 N is unlike any other EV, or any other car for that matter (with the obvious exception of the more SUV-shaped Ioniq 5 N, which is effectively the sister of this track-focused electric vehicle). 

Yes, at first, the idea of an electric track vehicle is very much like a rock concert with none of the amplifiers plugged in and the drummer handcuffed. Porsche and others have previously proven that EVs can be punishingly fast and can set serious lap times, but there’s just something strangely off-putting about tearing around a circuit in silence, and without downshifting for corners and hammering up through the gears on the straights. 

The Ioniq 6 N fixes those issues by attempting to trick your brain into thinking you are driving a shouty, shifty, exciting petrol-powered car, and a very fast one at that. While it has only one real gear, like most EVs, it uses a trick called N e-shift to recreate the feeling of gear changes by coordinating torque and “virtual RPM”. In this mode you use the shift paddles and, with the help of N Active Sound+, you hear what sounds like revs rising as you shift through eight effectively imaginary gears (it even has a fake rev limiter you can smack into).   

The trick is to make the power quickly cut in and out when you change a “gear”, which is effectively making you slightly slower than if you weren’t using the system, so theoretically you would turn it off if trying to set a fast lap. Only I don’t think you would. I did a few laps with an Actual Racing Driver and he said that he found it vital to use it, because the system - combined with the fake noises - gave him a better sense of braking points and so forth, and he also noticed that it helped his passengers/not Actual Racing Drivers to feel less nausea. 

And that is a thing, because the Ioniq 6 N is so fast, and produces its speed in such huge waves of torque, that it pours violence into your body. 

The noises really do help, too, although not as much as the sensation of shifting gears. There are three settings, which should really be called Bearable, Utter Rubbish and Genuinely Offensive.  

Indeed, I’m fairly sure that two of them - Light Speed and Evolution - were only included to make the most racing-car-like one, Ignition, sound better. Without doubt the most hilarious trick they’ve pulled is the huge crack-bangs you get from speakers hidden a few feet behind you if you step off the throttle quickly at high speed, which make it sound like you’ve just made some of the fuel you’re not actually using explode out of the exhaust you don’t have. 

Yes, on the one hand it’s all a bit silly and video-gamey, but at the same time it genuinely does work quite well, and it is inarguably better than driving a normal, overly quiet EV with no gears, particularly around a race track. 

And back in the real world, on less-exciting public roads, you can just turn it off and enjoy silent, effortless, stupidly fast driving. 

Happily, Hyundai has done a good job with the ride and handling balance as well as all the madness and there’s none of the histrionics or brutal suspension hardness that you sometimes get on track cars.

The NRMA’s take on the 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 N

Hyundai’s Ioniq 6 N is, without doubt, the most interesting, invigorating and involving electric vehicle money can currently buy, and its many ersatz features set it apart entirely from all of its competitors. There are faster EVs (although not many), but none that provide the same level of old-school performance puffery as the Ioniq 6 N. 

On the other hand, however, driving one can be a disconcerting and weird experience and even Hyundai admits that it’s difficult to imagine exactly what kind of buyer wants a fully electric track car, and is simultaneously willing to pay more than $100k for a Hyundai badge.  

Then again, more than 300 Australians have done exactly that to get their hands on an Ioniq 5 N, so anything is possible.

Pros

• You'll definitely be the only person in your street with an electric track car.
• Outrageous acceleration
• Perhaps the only properly fun electric sedan in existence

Cons

• Almost too fast for public roads
• Rear design may make your eyes hurt
• Expensive for a Hyundai