Hyundai’s first electric N model has already started something of a trend, with a few brands, including Porsche and BMW, now borrowing some of its signature features.
For the 2026 model year, Hyundai is upping the ante. Hyundai announced on Wednesday that the 2026 IONIQ 5 N has a “substantially lower starting price” at just $59,900, or $6,300 less than last year’s model.
“Our 2026 IONIQ 5 N is one of the most critically acclaimed models we’ve ever offered,” according to Ricky Lao, director of product planning at Hyundai Motor North America.
Despite the lower price, the new 2026 model brings a few updates. For one, the 2026 IONIQ 5 N now has a native NACS port, following the standard IONIQ 5, enabling access to Tesla Superchargers without an adapter.
Having recently driven a bunch of EVs while shopping for a replacement to my poor dead subaru, the 5N is… painfully fine. Like if someone offered you one for free say yes, but… It just kinda feels like you’re driving your standard daily driver, and someone snuck in and replaced the engine with some star trek bullshit. It’s as comfy as a nissan minivan, and has better acceleration than anything short of a true ICE supercar, and it’s just… I don’t know, it’s a really weird feeling to drive. Honestly it was just a little too discordant for me and I passed. If you want an EV that really nails the feeling of driving a proper classic muscle car though, the Mustang Mach-E is by far the best. Kinda a stupid car by every other metric (just like the ICE mustangs!) but damn if it isn’t satisfying to some deep, cliche’d part of my soul.
(That said if you like rally, the ioniq 5 XRT is the best rally car I have ever driven. Mach-E Rally feels deeply undercooked in comparison, XRT with a bit of suspension tuning feels like the car is having just as much fun as you are)
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Also, and this is incredibly petty of me, embrace the NACS port. It’s not particularly better than CCS (but everyone has finally agreed on a standard, so that’s good at least) and the adapters are clunky and a pain, but Tesla drivers get so damn butthurt about non-teslas taking up slots at the superchargers, and it’s Fucking Wonderful. I see your “I got it before I knew he was crazy sticker” and nah, fam, you’re driving a model Y; we all knew what he was by that point. Nice try, now get in line – the non-fascists need to charge.
…
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NA EV choices are shit, but Canada will be getting these next year…
And we are getting DONGFENG models. Check out my big shiny DONG.
Yeah, the fascists have really fucked the EV market here. Canada/Mexico are maneuvering to get around our bullshit, but it’s been… disappointingly slow. We all get some really kickass options if you want to spend ~$50,000 USD (or more) on a car, but I don’t think there even ARE any EVs available in the US for less than ~$30,000 sticker price, and then on top you’re paying 10%-25% in taxes + fees. Anecdotally I know tons of people that want an EV in the US, but the capacity to purchase a new car is plummeting (by some reporting it’s even hit an all-time low) right now thanks to Trump’s economy, and there really hasn’t been time for a used-EV market to establish itself.
Hoping the Dongfeng cars aren’t absolutely obliterated with regulatory/procedural bullshit by the Trumpers because man do we need something to fill that market segment already.