Can the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N Dethrone the Tesla Model 3 Performance?
The IONIQ 6 N takes an early lead on the Tesla Model 3 Performance - on paper, anyway. The IONIQ 6 N shares a powertrain with its predecessor, the 5 N, which means up to 641 horsepower on tap when you click into N-Grin Boost mode, and 567 pound-feet of torque available whenever. Hyundai quotes a zero to 60 mph time of 3.2 seconds. Both the IONIQ 6 N and the Tesla rely on all-wheel drive and dual electric motors, but while the Tesla Model 3 Performance isn't a slouch, it loses the initial comparison. Base horsepower and torque figures sit at 510 and 554, respectively. Surprisingly, though, Tesla claims a quicker zero to 60 mph time, estimating the sprint takes just 2.9 seconds.
One reason for the quicker sprint to 60 mph might be the Tesla's lower curb weight. The fastest Model 3 tips the scales at a fairly light 4,054 pounds. We don't have official numbers for Hyundai's IONIQ 6 N, but we can take a guess. Comparing the IONIQ 5 to the IONIQ 5 N reveals the standard all-wheel drive car weighs 4,608 pounds, while the N version weighs 4861 pounds. A regular IONIQ 6 with all-wheel drive weighs 4,462 pounds. Assuming the 6 N gains the same amount of weight from the full N treatment, we can guess the IONIQ 6 N's weight at around 4,715 pounds. That 700-pound disadvantage relative to the Model 3 Performance could cost it first place on the dragstrip.
So, finally, there's the price. A bigger horsepower figure doesn't always mean a higher MSRP, but the IONIQ 6 N will start a little bit higher than the Tesla Model 3 Performance. Hyundai hasn't released pricing yet, but since the IONIQ 6 is around $5,000 less expensive than the IONIQ 5, the base MSRP should be right around $60,000. That's a $5,000 premium compared to the Tesla, which starts at $54,990. The Tesla also likely touts a longer range. The mechanically identical 5 N offers an estimated 221 miles, while the Model 3 Performance makes it 298 miles on a full charge.
On the surface, the IONIQ 6 N may look decidedly more like a sidegrade than an upgrade compared to the Tesla Model 3 Performance. However, there are also other key areas where the Hyundai sedan should excel. The Hyundai IONIQ 6 N gets massive brake rotors that dwarf the Tesla Model 3's, measuring 15.7 inches in the front and 14.1 inches in the rear. That's about an inch bigger in the back and nearly two in front. While both vehicles share 20-inch aluminum wheels, only the IONIQ 6 N offers 275-section tires on all four wheels. Finally, the IONIQ 6 N offers a lauded "fake shift," which allows drivers to "change gears" via paddle shifters. These differences may seem small, but they could make a big difference, especially in the kind of driving situations the cars are ostensibly built for.
The Hyundai IONIQ 6 N and Tesla Model 3 Performance are more similar than different, and both look to be incredibly competent performance sedans. Do we think the IONIQ 6 N is objectively superior to the Model 3 Performance? We'll have to drive it to find out. That said, it certainly has some clear advantages. At the very least, the competition will force Tesla to take notes.
Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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(Seemingly in response, Musk parted ways with his operations chief in the U.S. and Europe in June and took over the role himself.) Tesla sales have struggled everywhere, as more buyers appear to be turned off by Musk's politics as well as Tesla's high prices and limited selection of models. But the shift has been particularly noticeable in Europe, where BYD outsold Tesla for the first time in May. 'From the first electric car to the first 1 million cars, it took us 13 years,' Stella Li tells me when we meet in Vienna. Li, BYD's executive vice president, heads its worldwide expansion and is the public face of BYD outside China. 'Then, from 1 million to 3 million it took us 18 months,' she says. 'Now we are adding 1 million cars every two months.' The question is, can BYD sustain this breathless pace, and still thrive—even if the U.S. remains off-limits? The answer could emerge in Europe, where 450 million people live across dozens of countries, many of them wealthy economies. 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I have briefly borrowed a Dolphin Surf from a BYD showroom two blocks away, where it sells for less than €20,000 ($23,200), barely half the price of Tesla's Model 3. Just as I am contemplating the joys of free parking near the Arc de Triomphe—compact EVs park for free in Paris—a sleek black BYD Seal, a plug-in hybrid costing about €47,000, slides into the next lane. To gain a global foothold, BYD has taken a path drastically different from that of other automakers. It was founded in 1995 as a battery company—a move that now looks brilliantly prescient—by Wang Chuanfu. Wang, an engineer orphaned in his teens, borrowed money from his cousin to launch the company. BYD had some success selling lithium-ion batteries to consumer electronics manufacturers—including in the U.S., where Stella Li, then a statistician at BYD, once spent months wooing cell phone maker Motorola. But Wang reinvented BYD in 2003 when he purchased a failing Chinese state-run carmaker, having concluded that his batteries could more easily transform the auto industry than the tech world. That move, in turn, attracted a transformative investor: Warren Buffett, who plowed $232 million into BYD in 2008, through Berkshire Hathaway, for a 10% stake, effectively enabling it to become a competitive automaker. Early vehicles were deemed clunky and ugly: 'Have you seen their cars?' Elon Musk chuckled in2011, when asked whether BYD worried him. But Buffett's stamp of approval helped lure more capital, and continues even today to help BYD open doors. 'A couple of years ago no one in Europe, and certainly not in America, had heard of this Chinese company BYD,' says Sándor Nagy, deputy mayor of Szeged. 'But Warren Buffett: They have heard of him.' In this corner of Hungary, BYD's disruption is well underway. Hungarian far-right Prime MinisterViktor Orbán—a close ally of President Trump—has spent years luring Chinese investors. In May, Li flew to the country with Wang to announce that BYD's European headquarters would soon open in Budapest and include a research center with 2,000 engineers. The Hungarian venture is a departure for BYD. For decades, its strategy has centered around tight control of its supply chain, including the most valuable parts of all EVs: batteries, powertrain electronics, and driver assistance systems. The company makes about 16.4% of the world's EV batteries. It also produces its own semiconductors, has stakes in mining companies for batteries' raw materials, and even exports cars on its own freighters. In 2023, the Swiss bank UBS concluded that the company's tight vertical integration gave it at least a 25% cost advantage over automaker rivals. BYD's presence could transform Szeged, a quiet university town of 200,000 people. The company has said its factory will hire up to 4,000 workers, perhaps rising to 10,000. But BYD stands to gain far more than the host city. By producing within Europe, it avoids tariffs of about 17.5%, imposed last year after the E.U. accused Chinese automakers of undercutting competition through state subsidies. (Analysts at Germany's Kiel Institute for the World Economy estimate BYD received about €3.4 billion, or about $3.76 billion, in subsidies between 2018 and 2022.) Many analysts caution that this rate of expansion won't be sustainable for BYD and other Chinese EV makers. So far, it has entailed mounting debt and a willingness to forgo profits, and snags have ensued. Suppliers have reported BYD taking many months to pay their bills, and in July, the Wall Street Journal said BYD had billions in unexplained 'external current account' charges on its balance sheet. BYD reports total debt of about $5.67 billion, but analysts told the Journal the company's debts to suppliers had risen to $54 billion over the past five years. (BYD says its financial details are fully disclosed in quarterly audited reports.) Complicating matters, Chinese automakers are engaged in a gloves-off battle to grab slices of the rocketing EV market by slashing prices. BYD sells its wildly popular Seagull hatchback, called the Dolphin Surf in Europe, for under $8,000 in China. 'The brutal price war in China's auto industry is obliterating profitability,' S&P Global Ratings warned in June. BYD and others do not seem to care, at least for now. Chinese automakers launch new models attwice the rate of Western rivals and at half the investment cost, according to New York–based consultancy AlixPartners. Since 2020, when Tesla unveiled the Model Y, BYD has launched about 40 new vehicles. 'Chinese automakers prioritize time to market above all else,' says Stephen Dyer, head of AlixPartners' Asian auto industry team. Their playbook is not Detroit or Germany: It is Silicon Valley. 'They have to keep products fresh,' he says; a Chinese EV 'is much more like a smartphone. A diminutive woman with almost frenetic energy, Stella Li has emerged as BYD's crucial ambassador and strategist, with titles including CEO of BYD Americas and Europe. Li zips across the globe furiously, rarely making it back to her current home in Los Angeles, she says. The day I meet her in Vienna, she has flown in from Istanbul and will sleep that night in Germany. Europe is crucial to BYD's global push, Li says: 'If we can be successful here, we can be successful in any other country.' Li has come to Vienna to ink a supply deal for the Szeged plant with Austrian steel manufacturer Voestalpine. The signing ceremony takes place on a rooftop in the museum quarter, with a sweeping view of the area's ornate domed buildings. For Li, it's also an occasion to tout BYD to a select audience of steel executives and Chinese diplomats. A blur of motion in a pastel-blue pantsuit, she bounces about in thick-soled white sneakers, her arms darting around, while a wall-size screen behind her shows a series of BYD statistics. In a rapid-fire cadence, she says BYD will add a sales presence in 12 more European countries this year, totaling 1,000 stores. The company has just rolled out its one-millionth Seagull, and in February, it launched its God's Eye driver-assistance software, which it plans to bring to Europe. Perhaps most crucially, its new flash-charging technology can take drivers 670 miles on a single charge, with 250 miles of drive time for every five minutes of recharge—as fast as pumping gas. 'It means we can drive from here to Rome without stopping!' Li gushes, while a map of Europe flashes on the screen. When we sit down together, I ask Li whether she feels vindicated by BYD's growth. She says the company was long underrated as a battery manufacturer, and that was one reason Wang pivoted to making cars. 'We were too small,' she says. 'Nobody looked at us.' Those days are gone. In recent months, BYD has hired several executives from European automakers like Stellantis. The vehicles whose designs Musk once mocked are now crafted by engineers whom BYD has lured away from Audi and Alfa Romeo. Musk is no longer laughing: In 2023, he called BYD cars 'highly competitive'—a remark that proved an understatement. In Europe, Li says, the company will build sales partly by tapping the talent and networks that have defined the region's industry for a century— beating its rivals, in a sense, by co-opting them. 'European companies have a legacy; they have a lot of traditions,' she says, admiringly. 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