19-02-2025
The Ioniq 5 N Isn't Moving in Big Numbers, But Hyundai Says It's 'Selling Well'
The electric hot hatch known as Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is approaching the one-year anniversary of its sales launch in spring 2024. It's won a whole lot of critical praise, including our 2025 Performance EV of the Year award for the under-$100,000 category. Clearly, the goods are there inside what's one of the first high-performance EVs designed with the racetrack in mind — but are enthusiasts responding by taking them home?
Unfortunately, Hyundai does not individually break out Ioniq 5 N sales from the Ioniq 5 model as a whole, so an exact figure is not possible. When queried, though, senior manager of product planning Mike Evanoff let on that the proportion of Ns sold are, at most, one-twentieth of the electric crossover's total volume.
'It was never intended to be a huge mix,' Evanoff tells Road & Track. "So it is less than 5% and below... but yes, it's selling well, and it's a very niche product.'
Let's do some quick math. The Ioniq 5 N went on sale in Q2 last year, and Hyundai sold a total of 37,578 Ioniq 5s from Q2 through the end of 2024. If around 5% of those were N models, that'd put 2024 sales just under the 1900 mark. Considering that Evanoff suggested the proportion of Ns was 5% 'and below,' however, the actual number of sales could be well below that, perhaps dipping closer to 1500 than 2000 for the year.
But Hyundai considers those numbers 'selling well' for the time being – check out the best-selling sports cars of 2024 numbers here for comparison. It's also consistent with the sales breakdown of its other performance model, the Elantra N. Just like the Ioniq 5 N, Evanoff says the Elantra N accounts for a portion around/below the 5% mark. Of course, the Elantra sells in far greater numbers; we'd approximate Elantra N sales to be right around 5500 for the same timeframe. Don't be too surprised at such a disparity between the two, though. An Elantra N stickers for $35,100 and the Ioniq 5 N for $67,475, making the former far more accessible.
In addition to overall sales, we asked about what sort of cars people are swapping from when they buy the Ioniq 5 N.
'A lot of it, it's coming from you know either higher horsepower cars or just pure ICE cars,' Evanoff starts. 'This is their first EV, but they want a performance EV.'
We'll see how this plays out in time, but it seems Hyundai is feeling optimistic about the Ioniq 5 N's U.S. reception so far. But the brand isn't planning to let the hot hatch crossover stand still in terms of updates while buyers take them in; Evanoff tells us the 2026 model year will see the 5 N's transition to the North American Charging Standard, along with the rest of the Ioniq 5 lineup that makes the switchover for 2025.
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