I spent a very happy few days recently driving the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. This, as you’ll probably know, is Hyundai’s latest hot ‘N’ model and the Korean brand’s first performance electric car.
Although that’s drastically underselling it, really. The 5 N is arguably the most important thing to happen to electric cars since Porsche proved with its Taycan that it was possible to make a brilliant, thrilling electric sports GT. In the same vein, the 5 N proves that you can make an electric hyper-hatch that’s a true BMW M3 rival in terms of sheer handling and performance prowess, never mind price and practicality. It is one of those cars that you know you’re never going to forget, before you’ve even left the car park.
The 5 N’s uncanny handling (despite a hefty kerb weight) is arguably its greatest feat, but the thing that really divides opinion are its ‘fake’ features. Three different noises, including one that mimics a high performance petrol engine with all its pops, bangs and shrieks, not to mention a ‘gearbox’ that isn’t a gearbox but mimics the behaviour of one. It’ll even bounce off the ‘rev limiter’.
Now, I understand why so many enthusiasts really hate the idea of pretend engine noises, artificial gearshifts, et al. It’s all fake, after all, and could therefore never replace the real, true beauty of having piston power beneath your right foot, with all its accompanying orchestral delights. The shriek of a naturally aspirated four-pot. The sublime, smooth wail of a meaty six-cylinder. The grumble and fuss of a V8, or even a 10- or 12-cylinder. I get it. And I don’t believe that an electric powertrain can ever feel the same as a mechanical powertrain. I’ll mourn it, too.
As such, I intend to always have a petrol car of some sort in the garage, to scratch that itch, and will stand outside parliament and wave banners with the best of them to encourage the development of synthetic fuels to keep ICE cars on the road forever more.
But that doesn’t mean that we can’t also champion the development of performance EVs. That we can’t celebrate the wins of cars like the Ioniq 5 N. And if we are doing that, we simply can’t ignore that one of the things that does make these electric performance cars fun is the sheer madness of those faked features. You want your car to sound like a jet plane? Great, Hyundai’ll do that for you. Or how about a spaceship from a computer game? Easy – just press that button. You want the car to sound like it’s popping on the overrun, and bouncing off the limiter? A throwback to ‘real’ performance cars? It’s all there.
And more than that, you can turn it all off, too. So why is there so much vitriol and eye-rolling from people who claim to be car enthusiasts, when manufacturers add these features? It’s not Peter Pan, here: a V8 doesn’t die every time an electric car with synthesised engine sounds leaves the factory.
More than that, I think it’d be mad to not have these features on any electric car that is designed to thrill. How about the Abarth 500e, with its comically loud, burbling exhaust sound? Drove me mad after a while on a motorway, but I absolutely made sure it was on every time I was on a good road, or let’s face it – when I pulled up outside a pub, or a mate’s house. Why wouldn’t you? It’s fun. It’s good, hearty, ‘look at me’ fun, and that’s all part of why we love theatrical, crazy cars.
And I’ll say it again… You can turn it all off! And then it’s just lovely and quiet, and you can set off at 4am for that early flight without making enemies of all your neighbours.
So, how about we stop with the knee-jerk dismissal of these EV features? The cliched ‘oh, but it’s not real!’ response. What nonsense that is. Of course it isn’t ‘real’ – it’s a car that can sound like a spaceship. But why should that stop it being great fun, or enhancing your experience of the car? Wouldn’t it be far sadder to not take advantage of the breadth of tricks available to EV makers? Of course it would. What a missed opportunity that would be.
So, here’s my plea, as a fellow petrolhead. As someone who’s made a career out of loving cars, and who’s got an unnecessary amount of shabby old steeds in the garage, yet always wants more. As someone who understands and agrees that nothing will ever replace the honest, mechanical resonance of a piston engine. Nor the snick of a short-shift manual gearchange. I get all of that, and I will always love it and defend it. But it doesn’t mean that electric performance cars are redundant. They are, in a different way, just as brilliant. And it is possible – freeing and wonderful, in fact – to embrace something new while still revering the original.
