FIRST DRIVE: Hyundai RN24 – An Ioniq 5 N on Steroids!

[Dragoon]

N Drift, N Sound+ and N e-Shift are all silly names, but they are also all features on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N that help make it the benchmark performance EV. They were also all technologies first showcased on the Hyundai RN22e concept, an ‘experimental rolling lab’ that gave us a glimpse of how Hyundai wanted to make future electric vehicles fun to drive. Now there’s a new ‘experimental rolling lab’, the RN24, and it’s a mash-up of the 5 N’s electric tech and Hyundai’s WRC title-winning i20 N Rally1 Hybrid racer. If you want a glimpse of how Hyundai will up the excitement ante in its next generation of EVs, this is it…

Highlights include an electric all-wheel drive system designed to mimic that of the rally car – but without expensive motorsport components. And a rally-aping hydraulic handbrake – only it’s not hydraulic and instead uses regen brake force for full rear-wheel lock up. There’s more pumped-in sound too, a short wheelbase, less weight… all the good stuff, basically.

Over to Top Gear’s Contributing Editor, Jethro Bovingdon, for the lowdown…

 

[El Chorizo]

That's a pretty cool little project they did. I'm impressed.