July 4, 2024 • 42 mins
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is a fun-to-drive EV with over 600 horsepower that can imitate a gas car. Hosts Tony Quiroga and Eddie Alterman try it out and end up questioning reality.
For more on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N visit Car and Driver online.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, and welcome to Car and Drivers. Into Cars, a
podcast from iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio, brought to you by eBay Motors.
I'm Tony ki Roger, the editor in chief of Car
and Driver, and I'm joined by my co host, former
editor in chief and current Chief Brand and Content Officer,
Eddie Alterman, and together we're Into Cars.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Each episode of this podcast covers a new car that
we think is worthy of your attention. The cars we
select may feature a novel design, cutting edge engineering, or
something entirely new. We'll cover the stories behind the cars,
answering the whys and exploring the whats to bring you
into the experience. We'll drive the things and let you
listen in, and then we'll sit down with the people
who actually made the cars to answer our questions about them.
(00:46):
Come along for the ride and you'll hear it all
the good, the bad, and the ugly and the way
that only carrent Driver delivers.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
This episode of Into Cars focuses on Hyundai's newest electric car,
the Ionic five N. Unlike every other electric car we've experienced,
the Ionic five N is designed to give a gas
car experience through several selectable modes. The Ionic five can
be set up to act like there's a gas burning
engine under the hood and an eight speed dual clutch
doing the shifts, but of course it's all fake. But
(01:14):
how well does it full up the charade? We're joined
today by two Car and Driver writers who have driven
the Hundai Ionic five N during different stages of development.
Senior editor Andrew Krock drove a prototype on a frozen
lake in Sweden, and Managing editor David Beard drove a
development car at the famous Nurburgering racetrack in Germany. Both
(01:37):
are here to help us make sense of this philosophically
and technically complicated vehicle. Welcome to Into Cars, guys. It's
good to have you.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Hey, thanks for having me, Thanks for having us Tony,
you were just down the hall, so we figured.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, So Andrew, why did Hundai take you guys out
to a frozen lakebed in Sweden? What was going on
there and what did you learn? If anything?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Well?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I had a blast first and foremost, it was my
first job at Car and Driver. As a matter of fact,
it was March of twenty twenty three. They schleppt us
off as far north as they possibly could and we
hung out underneath the Aurora Borealis and did some ice
track work with a very early version of the Ionic
five vent Hunda was still deep in development on the
chassis and some of the fine tuning portions of the
(02:19):
five N but they had some small ancillary systems ready
for us to try out, like drift mode and E shift.
So they brought us up to the Arctic Circle and
basically dropped us on a frozen lake bed to spin
around in circles and have a great time, and believe
it or not, we did.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Were you surprised when you learned how much power it had?
I mean, we had the Lamborghini Uricon s Dorado on
and this thing has almost as much power as that.
It's got six hundred and one horse power. And then
when you go into what mode is.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
It and grin boost come and grin boost give you
six for one.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Well, we didn't get too many accelerations on the ice, however,
we did get some lowdown blasting around, and obviously electric
motors produced torque pretty much instantly all the time, so
it felt powerful. I was not terribly surprised by six
ZHO one. I believe it. It's about as close as
we get to a Korean Hellcat these.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Days, powertrain aside and torque delivery aside. Did it feel
because this thing does all those internal combustion style tricks.
Did it feel like a Hellcat?
Speaker 5 (03:24):
It does?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
And the way I have experienced a lot of consumers
who are kind of trying to dip their toes into
the EV space, A lot of folks are kind of
looking for any sort of anchor of familiarity to kind
of be like, oh, well, this reminds me of my
gas car. Therefore, you know, this is not as foreign
of an experience as I thought it would be. And
I think a lot of these enngrin shift stuff and
(03:45):
the fake gear settings and everything. I think a lot
of it just does a really good job of reminding
you that it is still a car underneath.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Has it changed much from production to prototype?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Frankly, it's only gotten crazier.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
I honestly think there's more of an attitude to it
in the production version than there was, so, if anything,
they found that there was room to get even crazier.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Wow, and Dave Beard, he drove this thing at the Ring.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I drove it adjacent the ring. Oh so close, but
yet so far. I drove it on the GP circuit there, okay,
but I did not drive the Norge.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Lipho okay, because if you were to drive the Norge
Lifa you'd only get two laps in.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, when we were there, that was their goal was
two laps with no fall off in performance at all.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Hyundai tested over six thousand development miles at the Nurber Ring.
Was an active sound that is the different modes where
it sounds like an internal combustion car, and was an
E shift active that's where it shifts like an eight
speed dual clutch. Did they let you play with those
at the track?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
These were still pretty early prototype mules and buttons were
taped off so we couldn't really see what things were doing.
But they did let us toggle through a few of
the sounds. You know, the supersonic jet mode which is
pretty synthetic. But what really blew me back was the
two liter synthetic engine noise that kind of pumps through
(05:05):
the cabin. That really throws you off because it does
mimic a gas car pretty well. They had a button
set up where you could turn shift boat on and off,
and the torque in eruptions in the motor it also
does a great job simulating a dual clutch transmission. It
kind of warps your mind that you're in a gas car.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, were you fooled? Did the software fool you?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I was not fooled. I was impressed. I think that
if you put somebody in the vehicle who has not
been around vehicles like we are, that you might actually
be able to fool them.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Dave, you're a gamer and you like to play video games.
I know you like to play racing games. Yeah, that's
a simulation. This is a simulation. Now philosophically, are you
okay with an electric car simulating a gas experience? And
same question for you, Andrew.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I'm okay with it as long as you can turn
it off if you want to, right, Like, don't force
it on me, give me the opption to go back
and forth. But I think we kind of need it.
Electric vehicles, Yeah, they're quick and everything, but they lack character.
And even adding it in digitally is adding a little
bit back to the driving experience of piloting a gas
powered car.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
And Andrew, how do you feel about the simulation and
being part of the simulation.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I've been part of the simulation.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
My whole life, Doney.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
I love it for pretty much every reason Dave said.
Number one, it's not hurting anybody. You can turn it
off if you don't like it. You don't have to
use it. But the fact that it's there expands its appeal,
and it's a very, in my opinion, what is probably
a lower cost way of getting to expand that appeal.
So I'm all for it. Whatever gets more people interested
(06:42):
and excited for electric cars, because I know that we
had the longest time where we all thought we'd be
driving second gen Priuses and we'd all be doing two
miles an hour, hanging out with Ed Bagley Junior and
having the worst time of our lives. Don't knock ed vaguely,
but I think we're at a time where the car
is can be exciting, and they're more exciting than people think.
(07:02):
And whatever gets more eyes on them, I think. Isn't
that positive?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
You know, you see this a lot. Whenever there's a
technology change, some artifacts of the old technology persist into
the new one. To me, and I haven't driven the
car yet, but it's little like controlling a vehicle with
horse reins, you.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Know what I mean, and making horse sounds.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But you know, we're so far into the EV transition anyway,
it seems like this is pretty late in coming. Maybe
this is how it's going to be. I don't know.
I mean, are we that addicted to noise, vibration and harshness.
Maybe we are.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I think I am in a performance car like this,
I want that I would miss it.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Oh yeah, I mean theater is a big reason why
people like performance cars, and I think injecting that an
EV may seem a little more counterproductive because it isn't
making as much noise as an internal combustion engine would,
but I'm all for it.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I should also mention that with ane shift activated, the
car is actually slower accelerating because you get those interruptions
in torque, so it's not even with that experience active,
it's not as quick as your standard EV mode.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And I'm sure it'd be slower on a racetrack as well.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah right. That was the one thing about driving it
around the circuit is your shift points and all that's
playing in your brain as you're out there running laps.
So I found it better to drive with an E
shift activated on the track, just because it was a
level of engagement and it gave me reference points where
things were happening versus you know, just dead silent out there.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Now, speaking of theater, there's also that drift optimization mode.
Did you use that at all?
Speaker 4 (08:46):
They turned that on for us, They gave us a
walk through of how to do it. They brought us
out to this gigantic couple thousand foot ice skid pad,
and we're basically just like, engage you in your hown
go nuts, see if you can hold the drift with
without the mode.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
See how it was.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
And there is a demonstrable difference in how well that
thing engages and holds a drift with that mode active.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, because you would think it'd be kind of hard
to modulate a drift the way it is in an
IC car.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, and I was thinking that too. So the entire
time I'm going around the circle drifting, let's just say,
better than I normally would. I was trying to figure
out how it was all happening in the background, but
my brain was just having the hardest time wrapping around
it because the end result was just such a smooth,
perfect slide that. Yeah, my mind was blown the whole time.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So the production car has N race, which will optimize
the battery for a few quick laps versus staying out
on the track for a longer session. Do you know
what mode your car was in?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
We were not optimized for longer sessions. We were dumping
more power in because we did four laps at a time.
And I don't know how you guys drive on media events,
but I like to drive them pretty hard because we
get such short exposure to them, right, So I was,
you know, definitely abusing the brain and the tires and
leaning on it as hard as I could everywhere. And
I came away really impressed with how well they had
(10:06):
two in the car. I mean, they've got a couple
of fantastic guys running the program over there, with Albert Berman,
former mastermind for all the M cars, and Tyrone Johnson.
He was from Ford, he did the Fiestast and the
focus RS.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Great drift mode cars. I mean, we should pause for
a second to talk about how good these N cars are.
And I don't know if the general public really understands
just how amazing something like Alantra N is and just
how good it is to drive, how much kind of
front end authority these cars have. They really do feel
like they're set up by real race guys. They're just
(10:43):
awesome to drive.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, they're tons of fun. The chassis works well. The
veloster En sort of got them to this point, and
then the Lantra end just took it to the next level.
I mean, it's a fantastic car, tons of grip. I
think it's close to a G on the skid pad.
They're incredibly quick, and it's affordable. It's in the low
thirty thousands. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Just for my brief time hanging out over there with
the end team, they're very enthusiastic about their brand and
they want them to be good, and they want them
to drive well and provide the very entertaining experience. Like
they really care about their product, and I think that
shows with how well these end cars drive.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So, Andrew, did you have any reindeer when you were
up there?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Reindeer meat? Like eating it? Or did you see reindeer?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
For a second, in my head, I was like, did
he ask if I hit a reindeer while I was
out there?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
No, did you have the reindeer chili?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Sadly, everywhere Hun they took us, they did not offer
us any sort of local quadruped fair Man.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You got the short end of the stick there.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Really, I was there once and there was a guy
beating on a drum and they were parading a reindeer around,
and then like thirty minutes later we're all eating a reindeer.
So I don't know if that was like, was.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
It that same reindeer?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
They never said, but we had the chili.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Really, it was just theater. Hopefully it was as real
as the Ionic.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, those noises, it's not like ritual sack price apocalypse now.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
A long time since. It's been one of those press trips.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Let's go drive it.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Here. It is in the carent driver garage and it's
bigger than you think it's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, that's the thing with Ionic ends, they're always it's
got this beautiful hatch shape, so in your mind you
think eighties hatchback, right, and it's so much bigger than that.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Let's been described the regular Ionic's been described as like
a Minecraft GTI or Delta into.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Graalitg Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
It has an eight bit feel to it. You know.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I love the design of this, and you've got a
larger rear spoiler. This one has matte blue paint. It's
like that light blue gulf Matte paints. It's the end color, right,
And it's got the little n on the rockers. It's
got the much larger wheels and tires. It's got p
zeros on it. It's got a lot of rubber underneath
it too.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Twenty one inches two.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Seventy five's in the back, two seventy fives in the front.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
They're square and there's a little bit of extra width
in the car to accommodate those. I got to say, though,
the hood fit isn't great over those flares. Do you
see that.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It's sort of hanging out over it, but perhaps intentionally
because it sort of meets up with the fender that way. Okay,
and it's got the cool eight bit headlights I mentioned, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But does that reinforce the idea that this is just
a robot.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, it doesn't have that much of a dead lie look,
does it. It's cool. It's got radiators for the motors,
got radiators for the batteries. I mean, this is the
high performance EV right now.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So I mean it's basically, you know, an Ionic five
from the exterior with a little bit more flair.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, they say, even more of a rally car. Look,
it's the Carlos Science version of the Ionic five.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Excellent. Let's get in it all right, Let's get in
these cool flush door handles.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Oh the seeds.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Oh it's nice. My critique of the base Ionic is
that it looks like a work cubicle inside, you know,
like made in Grand Rapids.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
You're going to be hotelling at this for the next
couple of days.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
It's got a little business center with a fax machine.
But this thing looks proper.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, it's got the center, it's got the larger center
console up here.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Oh did you hear that? It's occurring? Okay, what are
you walking through now?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
So I'm going to go through the active end sound
and we can choose our different sound. So this is
a ignition, which imitates in an internal combustion engine evolution,
which is the usual sound of an ev that's piped in,
and then supersonic, which is apparently inspired by the movie
typ Gun.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Okay, let's go with ignition.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We'll go back to ignition. You know, it's a weird.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Thing that all the sound is happening on the inside.
You've got this fake exhaust noise, but there's no exhaust.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It's on the outside. It's not for anybody else but us.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
It's very eerie.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
And then I do love like the wheel is the
cereingel is gorgeous. I mean it almost looks like a
BMW steering wheel. It does, but it has avoided being
as large as modern BMW steering wheel.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You've got these n shortcut button. You have NNGB. That's
the what was that n.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
N grin boost. Yeah, and that's how you get your
six forty one for ten seconds.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, from it goes from six hundred and one horse
power to six and forty one, So next forty horse
power boost for ten seconds. For ten seconds, that's it.
But there are so many features and options. And look
at this menu here that we're going through. This an
launch control and shift which is the fake eight speed
and actors Salwich is the fake exhaust. So moving on
(15:29):
the end, Drift Optimizer.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
That's the one that keeps us drifting. That's the one
that Andrew was talking about on the lake that made
him a champion drifting.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Only available in rear drive mode and ESC is Minimized
Stability Control. N race mode is for track driving.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, and that one allows you to discharge the battery.
Is if you're only going out for a quick lap
time or if you're going out for a long session.
That's sprinting endurance.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And you can adjust the torque front and rear. Ok So, yeah,
there's a little fly. Look at that. Oh my god,
let's activate it.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
So let's go to E shift and turn on the
eight speed, the virtual eight speed. Hit activate on the screen. Okay, Oh,
and now it's a commoner. Look at that, Eddie, listen
to that.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
It is a video game. It totally is a game. Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
That's wild. And like you said, it's only playing it
for us inside, it's not playing it out.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Can hear it outside?
Speaker 6 (16:33):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That is wild. Maybe you will never upset a neighbor.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
It's quiet all the time.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah. And these seats too, are much more highly Yeah, they're.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Not hard to get it out of. If they're easy
to get it out of. And there's tons of bowl strings.
You've got tons of shoulder support.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Nice wing. You can wear your stets in in this baby.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Shall we try it out?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Then? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (16:53):
Let's drive it all right?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You know it's funny, even though if you don't like
the idea of all this fake sound. It's really cool.
Sound it sound right, it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
A fake gearbox has done so convincingly.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You have to be impressed and seduced by it a little. Right,
it sounds great, it feels great.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
I did not I haven't driven this car until today.
I did not expect it to be this convincing. I mean,
it feels like there's an icy engine underneath you, and
there feels like there's an eight speed and.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Let's not forget and icy with Lamborghini power exactly in
a Hyundai. Now, this thing is a lot more expensive
than the base Ionic five. It's sixty eight grand, yeah
to start.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
So over twenty thousand dollars more than the bass Ionic five.
But the performance is pretty ridiculous. It's three seconds to sixty.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Oh my god, it's super cool. It feels like the
power delivery is not like an EV No, it is
absolutely this is really wild, like an icy car wild.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
And you don't have to really feel guilty about, you know,
downshifting and keeping it at quote unquote four thy five
hundred rpm all day long either. Right, All right, let's
turn off the E shift for a second and see
how it is this a regular EV and it's still
making the noise because we have an active sound on.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
But the torque delivery feels much more like an EV, right.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, and I think it'll just pull on that one
gear forever.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So how does it do it.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I think they just have all the software written so
that the electric motor is delivering torque in the same
way that an IC engine would wild so it's like software.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It's detuned. This is so weird.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
We're so plugged into the matrix.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, it's so weird. But again, it's like in the
earliest days of the car, people would have to walk
in front of cars with flags.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Right exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
This is kind of like that. You know, that's the
old technology persists in the new one.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
But it's also I mean, you can do it both ways.
You can play with this as a regular EV, or
you can play with it as with an eighth speed
and a fake for cylinder engine under the hood.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It's truly what makes it like a video game to me.
I wouldn't be surprised if more performance evs went this route.
I hope they do, because, as you say, you know,
on paper, it really sounds like a gimmick, but when
you get in the car and you experience it, You're like, oh,
this is what my car does. Yeah, yeah, and it
gives it a lot of character. It's a different mode.
(19:52):
It's a cool drive mode that's very concrete and distinct
from the regular EV modes.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And it feels authentic, it feels real. And why not
give me a V twelve Lamborghini engine?
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Right?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Why are we stopping at trend? Right? And yeah, I
know there's a lot of corporate pride, but come on,
but how about like a Colombo V twelve.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
How about Colombo's pougio.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
For oh good, good call man.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Well, now we're in evolution.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I don't like it as much. This is weird. Just
sounds like an ev that's broken.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It sounds like there's somebody's vacuuming in the other room.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Okay, let's get out of this. Let's go to supersonic. Okay,
this is the jet noise.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, this is the oh yeah, this one sounds like
there's a there's a small jet engine a few rooms.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Over, like an A three twenty on takeoff.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Because it's a lot quieter. And these are adjustable for
sound as well. You can you can crank up the
sound on these it's not long enough, too many adjustments. Okay,
there's somebody vacuuming nearby. Let's go back to this.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, it's the best one. It is the best one.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Or you can turn it completely off and just listen
to the sweet sounds of nothing. Go back, and then
when you use launch control you can dial in how
much grip there is. You can go from high, medium
to low.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Why would you want low?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
The stability control system optimizes for it, like if you
try to do it on the slippery surface, it won't
introduce as much torque immediately. And this is all we'll
drive do. But that's just how much power this thing is.
Let's go to turn an E shift on again.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I think i'd get task overload in this car.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
There's a lot going on. You can lock in a
bunch of your settings into the end modes, but still
there's a lot going on. I wish there was one
button just to turn on the eight speed transmission and
the sound. So the skip has just a giant three
hundred foot radius circle and most cars, when you drive
around it, the front tires give up first. That's understeer.
(22:03):
But in this car, the test team came back and
was like, I've never driven a car like that on
the skid pad. It just oversteered. It just wanted to
drift the entire time.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And you can control the drift.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yes, yeah, it's all programmable.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
It's all part of the simplit.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's amazing. And it's a heavy, heavy car, it is.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
It's almost five thousand pounds. I think it's like forty
eight and change, right.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah, but at least it's big, you know, at least spacious.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I've taken a regular Ionic five to Ikea and I
fit a lot of stuff in the car because it
basically has an suv shape.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
It's just a little bit so right. Yeah, it's like GTI.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Were in first gear right now, just creeping around.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I mean, they.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Could really tune this to drive like any car. But
I imagine they should give me more modes, but just
make it easier to cycle through them. So now we're
in eighth gear. The engine while the tachometer is turning
over fourteen hundred rpm and im floor it. Yeah, and
it just lugs along just like it as if it
was an a laundra n in eighth gear.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
And this is a much stiffer structure than the regular
ionic Like there's like forty two additional welding points. There's
almost seven feet of additional structural adhesives. Making it stiff
is really important for the suspension to do its optimal job.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
It's even the tachometer. You can hear sort of the
idle bouncing as if it's got a really hot canon
or something.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I mean, it's a very welcome con you know, it is.
It's very true, good tasting poison.
Speaker 7 (23:55):
The verbal.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
No, this thing is set up pretty damp stuff too.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
It is.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
I was gonna go around art de facto a skip
bad year. It's got tons of grit. Body control is good.
The steering feels terrific. Getting some mid corner bumps here nice.
Oh my god, I am fooled. I am completely fooled.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
This is really metal, you man, this is really amazing. Wow,
way to go, and all right, well done.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
I mean, they really know how to tune a car.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, and stacular, and they know what a car is
supposed to feel like, yeah, I'm gonna take a turn
at it.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Can't be fooled by this. Oh yeah, you get a
(25:12):
little vibration through the pedal. It's weird. It's like it
feels authentic. It does, and you can just have it.
You can have it earwaight like burger.
Speaker 7 (25:22):
King dude, nuts no lift shift? Yeah is that why?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah? You definitely feel it in your inner ear.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
But it's so much more fun to accelerate in this
than in a regular EV even though EV's are.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Brutally quick and with those auto down shifts. Dude, this
is great. And the breaks are solid.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, the breaks are nice. It's got gigantic breaks. I
think there are fifteen point seven inch roders, but it.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Feels like completely friction breaking, like no region, right.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I mean, they spent a lot of time. There were many, many,
many prototype drives of this metal. How long the development.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Took, but it worked. And I've always been so impressed
by what they do in the end shop. You know,
they really take their cars up, you know, several notches.
How much have we depleted the battery since we started?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
I think we're at like eighty five percent. Okay, a
couple of hard excels.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
You know, you can get all the hockey gear and
the kids in the back, and that's something you don't
normally get in a performance car. You get in a
performance suv, but there are real trade offs for an
internal combustion performance suv because all the masses are high,
whereas here they're all low and centered between the axles.
And it really is like the ULTI I met big GTI.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, it's the ultimate hot hatch. Yeah, exactly what I
was thinking. I can't think of any other hot hatch
that delivers this kind of performance. I think it was
three seconds to sixty eleven to one in the quarter
at one hundred and twenty three miles an hour. It's
just ridiculous that before wild and it's not boring. I'm
not bored by this car.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
How can you be? That's just so awesome. Now it's
throwing all kinds of warning mites and coats.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Well, you just leap onto traffic so quickly and doesn't
know what to do.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Okay, I'm using the reach end panels to shift, which
I like. That's a very sort of natural intuitive experience.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
But kudo's to Hyundai for doing this first. Right. Everybody
else has sort of like played at the idea, has
discussed I don't know, maybe we'll do that. I think
Toyota was playing with a manual transmission, but here it
is and it works, and.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I'm fooled, so smart, I'm totally fooled, and I'm happy
to be fooled. It's like a very much an idealized
version of an internal combustion car with all the smoothness
of an EV but the sound and the fury of
the experience. Yes, but it's kind of the best of
(28:20):
both worlds.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, you can have both.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
All right, I'm buy this.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So that was way too much fun. But how did
they actually do it? Good question?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Coming up, we'll chat with Hyundai product planner Andre Ravinovich
about how they brought the all new Ionic five N,
the N Active and the NE Shift systems to life.
Welcome back to car and drivers into Cars.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Our guest today is Andre Ravinovich. Andrey is a senior
product planner in charge of the Hundai Ionic five N,
and he's agreed to answer some of our lingering questions.
Welcome to into Cars, Andre.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
Hi, Tony, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
I'm excited.
Speaker 9 (29:05):
It's obviously a really exciting car that I'm happy to
be a part of, and I'm excited to talk more
about it.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
So we've just experienced N Active Sound and n E Shift,
the way these systems fool you into thinking that this
electric car has an internal combustion engined under the hood
is so convincing it's leading me into an existential crisis.
Who had the brilliant idea of N active sound and
N E shift.
Speaker 9 (29:27):
So, you know, in talking to some of the engineers
in Korea, nomyank right, I think there is really no
benchmark for this car is how they approached it, and
they want to look at it, find a way to
create a product and create a performance EV model that
kind of allow that bridge for enthusiasts to get into
something that's in the EV and become engaged and happy
about driving. Me personally, for example, a lot of times
(29:49):
I saw evs as not necessarily end of the world,
but not the most engaging things to be a part of, right,
And I think that was the approach for those two features,
is to beat almost like a key bridge feature for
enthusiasts to be really engaged with EV vehicles.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
One of the things about evs is that they've sort
of taken acceleration out of the equation and you guys
have put it back, you know, with six hundred and
one horse power and the way that that power is
delivered through the kind of fake shift mode. It really
feels just staggeringly quick, but it doesn't have the kind
(30:23):
of torque characteristics of a classic EV. There's a bit
of a ramp up to the torque delivery, right.
Speaker 9 (30:30):
Yeah, So every single gear in that kind of simulated
any shifts function has its own torque curve. So it's
a combination obviously of kind of simulating that build up
you would have in tor kind of a peak as
you get to the top end of the gear, and
that kind of transition to the next gear obviously is
a combination between playing around I guess with the primeters
of the motor as well as actually the regen So
the regen system of the car helps to simulate that
(30:51):
kind of shift shock fuel a normal car transmission, that
transition between one gear and another is really could theoretically
be really smooth if there wasn't a clutch or if there
was any kind of channical componentary to it. Right, you're
just shifting torque curves essentially, and I think that that
addition of the combination of playing around I guess with
the motor parameters and the regen system bring back that
kind of mechanical shift shock feel, which makes them really
(31:13):
engaging to drive.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
So it sounds like you could do anything. So you
could do anything from like a Ferrari V twelve to
an unmuffled tau Va to a Geometro even have you
considered programming different cars as an option? I would pay
a lot extra if I had that in my Ionic five.
Speaker 9 (31:28):
N Yeah, you know, that's something that's been commonly asked
of us recently. I think it's something that would be
relatively easy to do. I think we want to start
with the sounds that we have in the car now,
and we'll have to see what comes in the future.
Like you said, it could be anything, and to be
something that I think personally would be very exciting for
customers to be able to kind of pick and choose.
And you can tailor other parameters of the car, not
just the sound. You can tailor the shifting right. Instead
(31:49):
of simulating an eight speed dual clutch, why couldn't you
simulate a five speed manual right and have a longer
transition between gears right. It doesn't necessarily have to be
a very fast DCT. So yeah, I think that that's
actually the excitement of what this opportunity brings right. I
think this to us is just the beginning.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
It's a big car, it's a heavy car, but it's
great on the track. And have you measured lap times
with and without an E shift enabled?
Speaker 5 (32:13):
Me personally, I have not.
Speaker 9 (32:15):
We did an event at Luguna Seka about a month
or so ago and we had some of our drivers
that are actually running Pike's Peak in about a month
or so. They obviously had a lot of track time
and drove the car both ways with and without any shift,
and I think, as you would expect without an E
shift is obviously faster, but I think the feedback from
them was it's actually more engaging to have the N
shift on. It also helps you on track because it
(32:37):
helps put in perspective where you are on the course
and entry speeds into corners right, all the things that
you typically would find that a normal gasoline car that
kind of get lost a little bit in evs right,
You get into a corner in then EV and you
kind of just go off thought. Obviously the regent is
going to kick in a little bit, but you don't
have that sense of like, am I going too deep
into a corner?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Am I?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
You know?
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Am I at the right breaking point.
Speaker 9 (32:54):
I think the shifting kind of gives a sensible way
to know where you are right.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
You don't have to say second guess yourself. You don't
have to predict how the regen is going to break
you into a corner. So I would think that it
would give you an extra measure of control and confidence. Definitely.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
Now you mentioned regent and you know I said before
the regen is part of this an E shift function.
But the more I talked to some of the engineering
guys and Nommeo, I find how incredible amount of thought
went into all the details of all the features in
this car. Typically, when you drive an EV you kind
of choose, you know, regen level like one, two, three.
As you're driving Ionic five N in any shift mode,
(33:31):
that level of regen is different depending what gear you're on,
And that's kind of similar to if you're driving a
gasoline car. If you're in a higher gear versus lower gear,
you have more engine breaking versus lge engine breaking depending
what vehicle speed and gear you're on. So that's all
played into that kind of adding the realism to this function.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Is there a part of the Ionic five N of
which you're particularly proud that you're like, well, yes, we
got that through.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
I mean, you know, I think the NY shift is
obviously the star feature in many ways. I know we've
been talking a lot about it, but there's a lot
to it. I think one of the things that spent
a lot of focus on is getting that longevity of
the car. So I think one of the challenges with
EV's is being able to do, for example, multiple laps
consistently in a race course and be able to have
the consistency in speed, being able to have the consistency
(34:14):
and cooling performance and battery performance and motor output. And
I think this is another huge aspect of this car,
is how much differentiation there is to the five end
versus the regular five and focusing on cooling, and focusing
on track performance and continuity.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Andrea, is an E shift patented? Did you guys patent
this or is it open to everyone else in the
EV sphere now? Which is a great thing. I hope
that's the answer.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
That's a good question, And I honestly don't know.
Speaker 9 (34:40):
I personally kind of hope that it, you know, as
much as I would love to protect it for ourselves,
I kind of hope that it's not. I think what's
exciting about this car, and talking to a lot of
the team and OMNIONG is that they wanted to kind
of set not only a benchmark, but kind of set
the starting point right. They know the five end is amazing,
but they know it's not perfect. And I think everybody's
excited about what this could bring to EV's in general.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That's exactly how how we felt about it. Immediately. We
were like, yes, we're part of the matrix now and
we're down with it.
Speaker 9 (35:06):
To me, it's so exciting that evs are so configurable. Essentially,
you can do anything right. You can detune the power
on this car, you can shift toward front the rear,
you can simulate a real, real drive car. Tony, you
asked earlier about different sounds, right, It just blows my mind,
like how much opportunity there is for the future of
what we can do with cars like this.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
The mixing board has a lot of knobs on dre Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
And I know that the team stiff in this car
tremendously versus the regular Ionic five and it does really
have a very compliant fluid suspension. What else did you
do to the suspension aside from stiffening the chassis to
make it work better.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Yeah, it was actually quite a lot.
Speaker 9 (35:47):
There's a significant amount of difference between the regular five
and the five N different suspension layout, obviously different dampers.
They're also dynamic dampers. The ability to kind of obviously
shift damping characteristic the platform itself, the body and white.
It's solf a lot more welding points, a lot more
structural adhesives. Typically a lot of times you find derivatives
like this of another product, you don't have this level
of change.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
So we've had a few product planners on the show
this season. Tell us a little bit about your job
and what your day to day activities are like in
product planning.
Speaker 9 (36:17):
It's funny you mentioned day to day, right, and that's
what I love about the job. There is no day
to day. I'm responsible for a few products in the
Honday lineup, and what's amazing about this type of role
is that you have a chance to kind of shape
the future of products, which is essentially the goal of
the team, and shape the future of products, not just
for what we think, right, because if it was up
to meet, it's the running joke they would all be
brown manual station wagons. But you know, obviously we have
(36:38):
to shape the products for what we need them to
be to be successful in the US market. We work
very closely hand in hand with the R and D side,
with the engineering teams both in Korea here in the US,
do a lot of you know, benchmarking and testing and
ride and drive evaluations here in the US as well
as with the design team in Korea. That to me
personally is one of my most favorite aspects of the
role is having a chance to go to Korea and
see the models throughout the different of development and have
(37:01):
a chance to kind of give the US market voice
an employ a lot of times, being the biggest market
in the world for certain products, we have a very
strong voice. We have a chance to kind of truly
shape the product for what we want to be. And
you see that in some of the recent Honda launches
like Santa Fe for example, that was you know, a
big push from the US market to get what we
want for the US on that product.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
What's next for the N division? Where does it go
from here?
Speaker 9 (37:24):
I think the team sees this it's just a start.
There's a lot of lofty goals for what we want
to achieve with Island five N like the end e
shift is a great example. It's something that you know,
honestly could have gotten the wrong one hundred different ways.
It could have been something that could have been seen
by a lot of people as just gimmicky, right. I remember,
for example, the first time I saw a CVT vehicle
with paddle shifters, I'm like why, And this could have
(37:44):
been the same thing. It could have been like why
bother So, I think seeing the possibilities and seeing what
we were able to do with this car, and seeing,
like we were talking before about what else could be
out there, and that kind of openness. Tony mentioned that
mixing knobs and the tuning board. I mean, it just
kind of an exciting time, right to kind of see
what's next.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Yeah, I mean we were skeptical, but then you get
in the car and you experience it and you realize
just how entertaining and gratifying it is to drive.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It's the best DCT I've ever driven, and it's not
even a DCT.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
And tomorrow we can make it a six pe manual
if we want.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
It to right right exactly, And just to give back
a little bit to this question of M, like, are
the ambitions to make it a full range option? Is
it going to be like BMW's M division or AMG
where every Mercedes or BMW has an AMG variant? What
is the philosophy?
Speaker 9 (38:38):
I think for now, the philosophy has always been picked
the right product that it fits with where the market
is going next, where some of the trends are going next.
I guess in this case, you know, Ionic five being
an SUV type of a product, I think that kind
of fit you know, the market in some ways. I
don't know if I see it as being something that's
a crossing entire lineup. I think it's something that it
needs to be the right product for it to fit
(38:58):
well with the core goals of every end product. The
duality right being kind of an everyday sports cars we
like to call it, as well as being something that
can't be actually track focused, and not every product could
do that right. So I think there's probably some others
in our lineup that you could maybe see that that
would make sense. But I don't know if every product
it would be right for this.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Andre, what was your first car?
Speaker 9 (39:18):
I originally grew up in Brazil and My grandfather had
a few cars, some older, some newer ones, and we
had a Chevrolet station wagon was a nineteen seventy seven
in Brazil called a caravan, so if you look that up,
it kind of looks like an Impala type of a wagon.
And he actually taught me to drive that when I
was I want to say I was seven or eight
years old actually, you know, in Brazil, like most cars
(39:40):
at the time, they were all manual transmission. And I
think by eight or nine, I want to say, I
was driving it around the streets in the neighborhood by myself,
which was awesome, a big massive alcohol field, you know,
Brazil has a lot of gasoline and alcohol, like dual
field cars and kind of a fun car still to
this deck and remember the smells inside that car.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
So you had your first car when you were seven, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (40:00):
And I have pictured to prove it. I pictured to
prove Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
If I'd known that when I was seven, I would
have moved to Brazil.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Things are a little bit different there.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (40:08):
And then obviously move moving here to the US and
I was eleven, so obviously couldn't touch cars for a while.
But my true first car here in the US was
an Eagle Talent turbo.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Oh wow, yeah, it.
Speaker 5 (40:17):
Was a ninety one. Eagle bought it a great price.
It had its quirks, had its issues.
Speaker 9 (40:21):
After a few let's say, challenges we have with the
power train that you had to keep the air conditioning
going otherwise it would stall, which was great for Pennsylvania winters.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
You know.
Speaker 9 (40:30):
The compressor would keep those RPMs just at the right
amount so that it wouldn't stall at a red light
because it was an empty So it was it was
fun cool.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Thanks Andre, Thanks for your time, Thanks for joining us
into cars and answering all of our questions.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
This was great. Thanks Andre, that was great.
Speaker 9 (40:44):
You know, as you can talk big enthusiasts. Loved talking
about products in general. And I think the five N
is a pretty fantastic car that you know. Like I said,
just to start, I think we're all excited to see
where this goes next.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah, keep it going.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
That interview was brought to you by Ebaymotors. Visit ebaymotors
dot com for more.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Car friends. The Hundai Ionic five end shocked and surprised
us with its ability to be a great electric vehicle,
but it also mimics a really fun and engaging car
with an internal combustion engine. All of the fake stuff works.
The sound might not be great, but it's the first
electric vehicle that can do that, and I hope that
dual nature spreads to more evs.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah, this thing really does it all, and I love
that dual nature. I was really skeptical before this episode
going in about the fake engine sounds and the fake
shift points, but it really turned me around and convinced
me that this is a compelling way to engineer an EV.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
For more on the Hyundai Ionic five end, visit Car
and Driver dot com and be sure to pick up
the latest issue of Car and Driver magazine.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Tune in next week for our season one finale, where
we go off roading in the reinvented Toyota land Cruiser.
Are you locked up? Are we already stuck in here?
Speaker 1 (41:56):
It's quickly going to turn into a lost scenario. I
know we've died in hearing this offload park for the
rest of our existence.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Thank you for joining us on Car and Drivers Into Cars.
If you enjoyed the show, join us every week for
new episodes, and don't forget to rate and review wherever
you listen. To podcasts.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Car and Drivers Into Cars is a production of Car
and Driver and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio. Our show is hosted
by Eddie Alterman and myself, Tony ki Rogo. Our executive
producer is Matt Romano. Our EP of Post Production is
Matt Stillo. Our Supervising producer is Sierra Kaiser. This show
was edited by Sierra Spreen special thanks to our location
sound recordist Matthew Cisco. Thanks for listening. We'll see you
(42:37):
next time.
Hello, and welcome to Car and Drivers. Into Cars, a
podcast from iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio, brought to you by eBay Motors.
I'm Tony ki Roger, the editor in chief of Car
and Driver, and I'm joined by my co host, former
editor in chief and current Chief Brand and Content Officer,
Eddie Alterman, and together we're Into Cars.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Each episode of this podcast covers a new car that
we think is worthy of your attention. The cars we
select may feature a novel design, cutting edge engineering, or
something entirely new. We'll cover the stories behind the cars,
answering the whys and exploring the whats to bring you
into the experience. We'll drive the things and let you
listen in, and then we'll sit down with the people
who actually made the cars to answer our questions about them.
(00:46):
Come along for the ride and you'll hear it all
the good, the bad, and the ugly and the way
that only carrent Driver delivers.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
This episode of Into Cars focuses on Hyundai's newest electric car,
the Ionic five N. Unlike every other electric car we've experienced,
the Ionic five N is designed to give a gas
car experience through several selectable modes. The Ionic five can
be set up to act like there's a gas burning
engine under the hood and an eight speed dual clutch
doing the shifts, but of course it's all fake. But
(01:14):
how well does it full up the charade? We're joined
today by two Car and Driver writers who have driven
the Hundai Ionic five N during different stages of development.
Senior editor Andrew Krock drove a prototype on a frozen
lake in Sweden, and Managing editor David Beard drove a
development car at the famous Nurburgering racetrack in Germany. Both
(01:37):
are here to help us make sense of this philosophically
and technically complicated vehicle. Welcome to Into Cars, guys. It's
good to have you.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Hey, thanks for having me, Thanks for having us Tony,
you were just down the hall, so we figured.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, So Andrew, why did Hundai take you guys out
to a frozen lakebed in Sweden? What was going on
there and what did you learn? If anything?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Well?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I had a blast first and foremost, it was my
first job at Car and Driver. As a matter of fact,
it was March of twenty twenty three. They schleppt us
off as far north as they possibly could and we
hung out underneath the Aurora Borealis and did some ice
track work with a very early version of the Ionic
five vent Hunda was still deep in development on the
chassis and some of the fine tuning portions of the
(02:19):
five N but they had some small ancillary systems ready
for us to try out, like drift mode and E shift.
So they brought us up to the Arctic Circle and
basically dropped us on a frozen lake bed to spin
around in circles and have a great time, and believe
it or not, we did.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Were you surprised when you learned how much power it had?
I mean, we had the Lamborghini Uricon s Dorado on
and this thing has almost as much power as that.
It's got six hundred and one horse power. And then
when you go into what mode is.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
It and grin boost come and grin boost give you
six for one.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Well, we didn't get too many accelerations on the ice, however,
we did get some lowdown blasting around, and obviously electric
motors produced torque pretty much instantly all the time, so
it felt powerful. I was not terribly surprised by six
ZHO one. I believe it. It's about as close as
we get to a Korean Hellcat these.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Days, powertrain aside and torque delivery aside. Did it feel
because this thing does all those internal combustion style tricks.
Did it feel like a Hellcat?
Speaker 5 (03:24):
It does?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
And the way I have experienced a lot of consumers
who are kind of trying to dip their toes into
the EV space, A lot of folks are kind of
looking for any sort of anchor of familiarity to kind
of be like, oh, well, this reminds me of my
gas car. Therefore, you know, this is not as foreign
of an experience as I thought it would be. And
I think a lot of these enngrin shift stuff and
(03:45):
the fake gear settings and everything. I think a lot
of it just does a really good job of reminding
you that it is still a car underneath.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Has it changed much from production to prototype?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Frankly, it's only gotten crazier.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
I honestly think there's more of an attitude to it
in the production version than there was, so, if anything,
they found that there was room to get even crazier.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Wow, and Dave Beard, he drove this thing at the Ring.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I drove it adjacent the ring. Oh so close, but
yet so far. I drove it on the GP circuit there, okay,
but I did not drive the Norge.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Lipho okay, because if you were to drive the Norge
Lifa you'd only get two laps in.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, when we were there, that was their goal was
two laps with no fall off in performance at all.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Hyundai tested over six thousand development miles at the Nurber Ring.
Was an active sound that is the different modes where
it sounds like an internal combustion car, and was an
E shift active that's where it shifts like an eight
speed dual clutch. Did they let you play with those
at the track?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
These were still pretty early prototype mules and buttons were
taped off so we couldn't really see what things were doing.
But they did let us toggle through a few of
the sounds. You know, the supersonic jet mode which is
pretty synthetic. But what really blew me back was the
two liter synthetic engine noise that kind of pumps through
(05:05):
the cabin. That really throws you off because it does
mimic a gas car pretty well. They had a button
set up where you could turn shift boat on and off,
and the torque in eruptions in the motor it also
does a great job simulating a dual clutch transmission. It
kind of warps your mind that you're in a gas car.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, were you fooled? Did the software fool you?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I was not fooled. I was impressed. I think that
if you put somebody in the vehicle who has not
been around vehicles like we are, that you might actually
be able to fool them.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Dave, you're a gamer and you like to play video games.
I know you like to play racing games. Yeah, that's
a simulation. This is a simulation. Now philosophically, are you
okay with an electric car simulating a gas experience? And
same question for you, Andrew.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I'm okay with it as long as you can turn
it off if you want to, right, Like, don't force
it on me, give me the opption to go back
and forth. But I think we kind of need it.
Electric vehicles, Yeah, they're quick and everything, but they lack character.
And even adding it in digitally is adding a little
bit back to the driving experience of piloting a gas
powered car.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
And Andrew, how do you feel about the simulation and
being part of the simulation.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I've been part of the simulation.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
My whole life, Doney.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
I love it for pretty much every reason Dave said.
Number one, it's not hurting anybody. You can turn it
off if you don't like it. You don't have to
use it. But the fact that it's there expands its appeal,
and it's a very, in my opinion, what is probably
a lower cost way of getting to expand that appeal.
So I'm all for it. Whatever gets more people interested
(06:42):
and excited for electric cars, because I know that we
had the longest time where we all thought we'd be
driving second gen Priuses and we'd all be doing two
miles an hour, hanging out with Ed Bagley Junior and
having the worst time of our lives. Don't knock ed vaguely,
but I think we're at a time where the car
is can be exciting, and they're more exciting than people think.
(07:02):
And whatever gets more eyes on them, I think. Isn't
that positive?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
You know, you see this a lot. Whenever there's a
technology change, some artifacts of the old technology persist into
the new one. To me, and I haven't driven the
car yet, but it's little like controlling a vehicle with
horse reins, you.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Know what I mean, and making horse sounds.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But you know, we're so far into the EV transition anyway,
it seems like this is pretty late in coming. Maybe
this is how it's going to be. I don't know.
I mean, are we that addicted to noise, vibration and harshness.
Maybe we are.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I think I am in a performance car like this,
I want that I would miss it.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Oh yeah, I mean theater is a big reason why
people like performance cars, and I think injecting that an
EV may seem a little more counterproductive because it isn't
making as much noise as an internal combustion engine would,
but I'm all for it.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I should also mention that with ane shift activated, the
car is actually slower accelerating because you get those interruptions
in torque, so it's not even with that experience active,
it's not as quick as your standard EV mode.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And I'm sure it'd be slower on a racetrack as well.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah right. That was the one thing about driving it
around the circuit is your shift points and all that's
playing in your brain as you're out there running laps.
So I found it better to drive with an E
shift activated on the track, just because it was a
level of engagement and it gave me reference points where
things were happening versus you know, just dead silent out there.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Now, speaking of theater, there's also that drift optimization mode.
Did you use that at all?
Speaker 4 (08:46):
They turned that on for us, They gave us a
walk through of how to do it. They brought us
out to this gigantic couple thousand foot ice skid pad,
and we're basically just like, engage you in your hown
go nuts, see if you can hold the drift with
without the mode.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
See how it was.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
And there is a demonstrable difference in how well that
thing engages and holds a drift with that mode active.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, because you would think it'd be kind of hard
to modulate a drift the way it is in an
IC car.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, and I was thinking that too. So the entire
time I'm going around the circle drifting, let's just say,
better than I normally would. I was trying to figure
out how it was all happening in the background, but
my brain was just having the hardest time wrapping around
it because the end result was just such a smooth,
perfect slide that. Yeah, my mind was blown the whole time.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So the production car has N race, which will optimize
the battery for a few quick laps versus staying out
on the track for a longer session. Do you know
what mode your car was in?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
We were not optimized for longer sessions. We were dumping
more power in because we did four laps at a time.
And I don't know how you guys drive on media events,
but I like to drive them pretty hard because we
get such short exposure to them, right, So I was,
you know, definitely abusing the brain and the tires and
leaning on it as hard as I could everywhere. And
I came away really impressed with how well they had
(10:06):
two in the car. I mean, they've got a couple
of fantastic guys running the program over there, with Albert Berman,
former mastermind for all the M cars, and Tyrone Johnson.
He was from Ford, he did the Fiestast and the
focus RS.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Great drift mode cars. I mean, we should pause for
a second to talk about how good these N cars are.
And I don't know if the general public really understands
just how amazing something like Alantra N is and just
how good it is to drive, how much kind of
front end authority these cars have. They really do feel
like they're set up by real race guys. They're just
(10:43):
awesome to drive.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, they're tons of fun. The chassis works well. The
veloster En sort of got them to this point, and
then the Lantra end just took it to the next level.
I mean, it's a fantastic car, tons of grip. I
think it's close to a G on the skid pad.
They're incredibly quick, and it's affordable. It's in the low
thirty thousands. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Just for my brief time hanging out over there with
the end team, they're very enthusiastic about their brand and
they want them to be good, and they want them
to drive well and provide the very entertaining experience. Like
they really care about their product, and I think that
shows with how well these end cars drive.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So, Andrew, did you have any reindeer when you were
up there?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Reindeer meat? Like eating it? Or did you see reindeer?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
For a second, in my head, I was like, did
he ask if I hit a reindeer while I was
out there?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
No, did you have the reindeer chili?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Sadly, everywhere Hun they took us, they did not offer
us any sort of local quadruped fair Man.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You got the short end of the stick there.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Really, I was there once and there was a guy
beating on a drum and they were parading a reindeer around,
and then like thirty minutes later we're all eating a reindeer.
So I don't know if that was like, was.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
It that same reindeer?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
They never said, but we had the chili.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Really, it was just theater. Hopefully it was as real
as the Ionic.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, those noises, it's not like ritual sack price apocalypse now.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
A long time since. It's been one of those press trips.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Let's go drive it.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Here. It is in the carent driver garage and it's
bigger than you think it's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, that's the thing with Ionic ends, they're always it's
got this beautiful hatch shape, so in your mind you
think eighties hatchback, right, and it's so much bigger than that.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Let's been described the regular Ionic's been described as like
a Minecraft GTI or Delta into.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Graalitg Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
It has an eight bit feel to it. You know.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I love the design of this, and you've got a
larger rear spoiler. This one has matte blue paint. It's
like that light blue gulf Matte paints. It's the end color, right,
And it's got the little n on the rockers. It's
got the much larger wheels and tires. It's got p
zeros on it. It's got a lot of rubber underneath
it too.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Twenty one inches two.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Seventy five's in the back, two seventy fives in the front.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
They're square and there's a little bit of extra width
in the car to accommodate those. I got to say, though,
the hood fit isn't great over those flares. Do you
see that.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It's sort of hanging out over it, but perhaps intentionally
because it sort of meets up with the fender that way. Okay,
and it's got the cool eight bit headlights I mentioned, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
But does that reinforce the idea that this is just
a robot.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, it doesn't have that much of a dead lie look,
does it. It's cool. It's got radiators for the motors,
got radiators for the batteries. I mean, this is the
high performance EV right now.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So I mean it's basically, you know, an Ionic five
from the exterior with a little bit more flair.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, they say, even more of a rally car. Look,
it's the Carlos Science version of the Ionic five.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Excellent. Let's get in it all right, Let's get in
these cool flush door handles.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Oh the seeds.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Oh it's nice. My critique of the base Ionic is
that it looks like a work cubicle inside, you know,
like made in Grand Rapids.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
You're going to be hotelling at this for the next
couple of days.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
It's got a little business center with a fax machine.
But this thing looks proper.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, it's got the center, it's got the larger center
console up here.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Oh did you hear that? It's occurring? Okay, what are
you walking through now?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
So I'm going to go through the active end sound
and we can choose our different sound. So this is
a ignition, which imitates in an internal combustion engine evolution,
which is the usual sound of an ev that's piped in,
and then supersonic, which is apparently inspired by the movie
typ Gun.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Okay, let's go with ignition.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We'll go back to ignition. You know, it's a weird.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Thing that all the sound is happening on the inside.
You've got this fake exhaust noise, but there's no exhaust.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It's on the outside. It's not for anybody else but us.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
It's very eerie.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
And then I do love like the wheel is the
cereingel is gorgeous. I mean it almost looks like a
BMW steering wheel. It does, but it has avoided being
as large as modern BMW steering wheel.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You've got these n shortcut button. You have NNGB. That's
the what was that n.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
N grin boost. Yeah, and that's how you get your
six forty one for ten seconds.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, from it goes from six hundred and one horse
power to six and forty one, So next forty horse
power boost for ten seconds. For ten seconds, that's it.
But there are so many features and options. And look
at this menu here that we're going through. This an
launch control and shift which is the fake eight speed
and actors Salwich is the fake exhaust. So moving on
(15:29):
the end, Drift Optimizer.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
That's the one that keeps us drifting. That's the one
that Andrew was talking about on the lake that made
him a champion drifting.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Only available in rear drive mode and ESC is Minimized
Stability Control. N race mode is for track driving.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, and that one allows you to discharge the battery.
Is if you're only going out for a quick lap
time or if you're going out for a long session.
That's sprinting endurance.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And you can adjust the torque front and rear. Ok So, yeah,
there's a little fly. Look at that. Oh my god,
let's activate it.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
So let's go to E shift and turn on the
eight speed, the virtual eight speed. Hit activate on the screen. Okay, Oh,
and now it's a commoner. Look at that, Eddie, listen
to that.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
It is a video game. It totally is a game. Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
That's wild. And like you said, it's only playing it
for us inside, it's not playing it out.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Can hear it outside?
Speaker 6 (16:33):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That is wild. Maybe you will never upset a neighbor.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
It's quiet all the time.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah. And these seats too, are much more highly Yeah, they're.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Not hard to get it out of. If they're easy
to get it out of. And there's tons of bowl strings.
You've got tons of shoulder support.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Nice wing. You can wear your stets in in this baby.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Shall we try it out?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Then? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (16:53):
Let's drive it all right?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You know it's funny, even though if you don't like
the idea of all this fake sound. It's really cool.
Sound it sound right, it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
A fake gearbox has done so convincingly.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
You have to be impressed and seduced by it a little. Right,
it sounds great, it feels great.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
I did not I haven't driven this car until today.
I did not expect it to be this convincing. I mean,
it feels like there's an icy engine underneath you, and
there feels like there's an eight speed and.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Let's not forget and icy with Lamborghini power exactly in
a Hyundai. Now, this thing is a lot more expensive
than the base Ionic five. It's sixty eight grand, yeah
to start.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
So over twenty thousand dollars more than the bass Ionic five.
But the performance is pretty ridiculous. It's three seconds to sixty.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Oh my god, it's super cool. It feels like the
power delivery is not like an EV No, it is
absolutely this is really wild, like an icy car wild.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
And you don't have to really feel guilty about, you know,
downshifting and keeping it at quote unquote four thy five
hundred rpm all day long either. Right, All right, let's
turn off the E shift for a second and see
how it is this a regular EV and it's still
making the noise because we have an active sound on.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
But the torque delivery feels much more like an EV, right.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, and I think it'll just pull on that one
gear forever.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So how does it do it.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I think they just have all the software written so
that the electric motor is delivering torque in the same
way that an IC engine would wild so it's like software.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It's detuned. This is so weird.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
We're so plugged into the matrix.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, it's so weird. But again, it's like in the
earliest days of the car, people would have to walk
in front of cars with flags.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Right exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
This is kind of like that. You know, that's the
old technology persists in the new one.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
But it's also I mean, you can do it both ways.
You can play with this as a regular EV, or
you can play with it as with an eighth speed
and a fake for cylinder engine under the hood.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It's truly what makes it like a video game to me.
I wouldn't be surprised if more performance evs went this route.
I hope they do, because, as you say, you know,
on paper, it really sounds like a gimmick, but when
you get in the car and you experience it, You're like, oh,
this is what my car does. Yeah, yeah, and it
gives it a lot of character. It's a different mode.
(19:52):
It's a cool drive mode that's very concrete and distinct
from the regular EV modes.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And it feels authentic, it feels real. And why not
give me a V twelve Lamborghini engine?
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Right?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Why are we stopping at trend? Right? And yeah, I
know there's a lot of corporate pride, but come on,
but how about like a Colombo V twelve.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
How about Colombo's pougio.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
For oh good, good call man.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Well, now we're in evolution.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I don't like it as much. This is weird. Just
sounds like an ev that's broken.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It sounds like there's somebody's vacuuming in the other room.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Okay, let's get out of this. Let's go to supersonic. Okay,
this is the jet noise.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, this is the oh yeah, this one sounds like
there's a there's a small jet engine a few rooms.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Over, like an A three twenty on takeoff.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Because it's a lot quieter. And these are adjustable for
sound as well. You can you can crank up the
sound on these it's not long enough, too many adjustments. Okay,
there's somebody vacuuming nearby. Let's go back to this.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, it's the best one. It is the best one.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Or you can turn it completely off and just listen
to the sweet sounds of nothing. Go back, and then
when you use launch control you can dial in how
much grip there is. You can go from high, medium
to low.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Why would you want low?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
The stability control system optimizes for it, like if you
try to do it on the slippery surface, it won't
introduce as much torque immediately. And this is all we'll
drive do. But that's just how much power this thing is.
Let's go to turn an E shift on again.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I think i'd get task overload in this car.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
There's a lot going on. You can lock in a
bunch of your settings into the end modes, but still
there's a lot going on. I wish there was one
button just to turn on the eight speed transmission and
the sound. So the skip has just a giant three
hundred foot radius circle and most cars, when you drive
around it, the front tires give up first. That's understeer.
(22:03):
But in this car, the test team came back and
was like, I've never driven a car like that on
the skid pad. It just oversteered. It just wanted to
drift the entire time.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And you can control the drift.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yes, yeah, it's all programmable.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
It's all part of the simplit.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's amazing. And it's a heavy, heavy car, it is.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
It's almost five thousand pounds. I think it's like forty
eight and change, right.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah, but at least it's big, you know, at least spacious.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I've taken a regular Ionic five to Ikea and I
fit a lot of stuff in the car because it
basically has an suv shape.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
It's just a little bit so right. Yeah, it's like GTI.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Were in first gear right now, just creeping around.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I mean, they.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Could really tune this to drive like any car. But
I imagine they should give me more modes, but just
make it easier to cycle through them. So now we're
in eighth gear. The engine while the tachometer is turning
over fourteen hundred rpm and im floor it. Yeah, and
it just lugs along just like it as if it
was an a laundra n in eighth gear.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
And this is a much stiffer structure than the regular
ionic Like there's like forty two additional welding points. There's
almost seven feet of additional structural adhesives. Making it stiff
is really important for the suspension to do its optimal job.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
It's even the tachometer. You can hear sort of the
idle bouncing as if it's got a really hot canon
or something.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I mean, it's a very welcome con you know, it is.
It's very true, good tasting poison.
Speaker 7 (23:55):
The verbal.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
No, this thing is set up pretty damp stuff too.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
It is.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
I was gonna go around art de facto a skip
bad year. It's got tons of grit. Body control is good.
The steering feels terrific. Getting some mid corner bumps here nice.
Oh my god, I am fooled. I am completely fooled.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
This is really metal, you man, this is really amazing. Wow,
way to go, and all right, well done.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
I mean, they really know how to tune a car.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, and stacular, and they know what a car is
supposed to feel like, yeah, I'm gonna take a turn
at it.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Can't be fooled by this. Oh yeah, you get a
(25:12):
little vibration through the pedal. It's weird. It's like it
feels authentic. It does, and you can just have it.
You can have it earwaight like burger.
Speaker 7 (25:22):
King dude, nuts no lift shift? Yeah is that why?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah? You definitely feel it in your inner ear.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
But it's so much more fun to accelerate in this
than in a regular EV even though EV's are.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Brutally quick and with those auto down shifts. Dude, this
is great. And the breaks are solid.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, the breaks are nice. It's got gigantic breaks. I
think there are fifteen point seven inch roders, but it.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Feels like completely friction breaking, like no region, right.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I mean, they spent a lot of time. There were many, many,
many prototype drives of this metal. How long the development.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Took, but it worked. And I've always been so impressed
by what they do in the end shop. You know,
they really take their cars up, you know, several notches.
How much have we depleted the battery since we started?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
I think we're at like eighty five percent. Okay, a
couple of hard excels.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
You know, you can get all the hockey gear and
the kids in the back, and that's something you don't
normally get in a performance car. You get in a
performance suv, but there are real trade offs for an
internal combustion performance suv because all the masses are high,
whereas here they're all low and centered between the axles.
And it really is like the ULTI I met big GTI.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, it's the ultimate hot hatch. Yeah, exactly what I
was thinking. I can't think of any other hot hatch
that delivers this kind of performance. I think it was
three seconds to sixty eleven to one in the quarter
at one hundred and twenty three miles an hour. It's
just ridiculous that before wild and it's not boring. I'm
not bored by this car.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
How can you be? That's just so awesome. Now it's
throwing all kinds of warning mites and coats.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Well, you just leap onto traffic so quickly and doesn't
know what to do.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Okay, I'm using the reach end panels to shift, which
I like. That's a very sort of natural intuitive experience.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
But kudo's to Hyundai for doing this first. Right. Everybody
else has sort of like played at the idea, has
discussed I don't know, maybe we'll do that. I think
Toyota was playing with a manual transmission, but here it
is and it works, and.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I'm fooled, so smart, I'm totally fooled, and I'm happy
to be fooled. It's like a very much an idealized
version of an internal combustion car with all the smoothness
of an EV but the sound and the fury of
the experience. Yes, but it's kind of the best of
(28:20):
both worlds.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, you can have both.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
All right, I'm buy this.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So that was way too much fun. But how did
they actually do it? Good question?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Coming up, we'll chat with Hyundai product planner Andre Ravinovich
about how they brought the all new Ionic five N,
the N Active and the NE Shift systems to life.
Welcome back to car and drivers into Cars.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Our guest today is Andre Ravinovich. Andrey is a senior
product planner in charge of the Hundai Ionic five N,
and he's agreed to answer some of our lingering questions.
Welcome to into Cars, Andre.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
Hi, Tony, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
I'm excited.
Speaker 9 (29:05):
It's obviously a really exciting car that I'm happy to
be a part of, and I'm excited to talk more
about it.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
So we've just experienced N Active Sound and n E Shift,
the way these systems fool you into thinking that this
electric car has an internal combustion engined under the hood
is so convincing it's leading me into an existential crisis.
Who had the brilliant idea of N active sound and
N E shift.
Speaker 9 (29:27):
So, you know, in talking to some of the engineers
in Korea, nomyank right, I think there is really no
benchmark for this car is how they approached it, and
they want to look at it, find a way to
create a product and create a performance EV model that
kind of allow that bridge for enthusiasts to get into
something that's in the EV and become engaged and happy
about driving. Me personally, for example, a lot of times
(29:49):
I saw evs as not necessarily end of the world,
but not the most engaging things to be a part of, right,
And I think that was the approach for those two features,
is to beat almost like a key bridge feature for
enthusiasts to be really engaged with EV vehicles.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
One of the things about evs is that they've sort
of taken acceleration out of the equation and you guys
have put it back, you know, with six hundred and
one horse power and the way that that power is
delivered through the kind of fake shift mode. It really
feels just staggeringly quick, but it doesn't have the kind
(30:23):
of torque characteristics of a classic EV. There's a bit
of a ramp up to the torque delivery, right.
Speaker 9 (30:30):
Yeah, So every single gear in that kind of simulated
any shifts function has its own torque curve. So it's
a combination obviously of kind of simulating that build up
you would have in tor kind of a peak as
you get to the top end of the gear, and
that kind of transition to the next gear obviously is
a combination between playing around I guess with the primeters
of the motor as well as actually the regen So
the regen system of the car helps to simulate that
(30:51):
kind of shift shock fuel a normal car transmission, that
transition between one gear and another is really could theoretically
be really smooth if there wasn't a clutch or if there
was any kind of channical componentary to it. Right, you're
just shifting torque curves essentially, and I think that that
addition of the combination of playing around I guess with
the motor parameters and the regen system bring back that
kind of mechanical shift shock feel, which makes them really
(31:13):
engaging to drive.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
So it sounds like you could do anything. So you
could do anything from like a Ferrari V twelve to
an unmuffled tau Va to a Geometro even have you
considered programming different cars as an option? I would pay
a lot extra if I had that in my Ionic five.
Speaker 9 (31:28):
N Yeah, you know, that's something that's been commonly asked
of us recently. I think it's something that would be
relatively easy to do. I think we want to start
with the sounds that we have in the car now,
and we'll have to see what comes in the future.
Like you said, it could be anything, and to be
something that I think personally would be very exciting for
customers to be able to kind of pick and choose.
And you can tailor other parameters of the car, not
just the sound. You can tailor the shifting right. Instead
(31:49):
of simulating an eight speed dual clutch, why couldn't you
simulate a five speed manual right and have a longer
transition between gears right. It doesn't necessarily have to be
a very fast DCT. So yeah, I think that that's
actually the excitement of what this opportunity brings right. I
think this to us is just the beginning.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
It's a big car, it's a heavy car, but it's
great on the track. And have you measured lap times
with and without an E shift enabled?
Speaker 5 (32:13):
Me personally, I have not.
Speaker 9 (32:15):
We did an event at Luguna Seka about a month
or so ago and we had some of our drivers
that are actually running Pike's Peak in about a month
or so. They obviously had a lot of track time
and drove the car both ways with and without any shift,
and I think, as you would expect without an E
shift is obviously faster, but I think the feedback from
them was it's actually more engaging to have the N
shift on. It also helps you on track because it
(32:37):
helps put in perspective where you are on the course
and entry speeds into corners right, all the things that
you typically would find that a normal gasoline car that
kind of get lost a little bit in evs right,
You get into a corner in then EV and you
kind of just go off thought. Obviously the regent is
going to kick in a little bit, but you don't
have that sense of like, am I going too deep
into a corner?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Am I?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
You know?
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Am I at the right breaking point.
Speaker 9 (32:54):
I think the shifting kind of gives a sensible way
to know where you are right.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
You don't have to say second guess yourself. You don't
have to predict how the regen is going to break
you into a corner. So I would think that it
would give you an extra measure of control and confidence. Definitely.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
Now you mentioned regent and you know I said before
the regen is part of this an E shift function.
But the more I talked to some of the engineering
guys and Nommeo, I find how incredible amount of thought
went into all the details of all the features in
this car. Typically, when you drive an EV you kind
of choose, you know, regen level like one, two, three.
As you're driving Ionic five N in any shift mode,
(33:31):
that level of regen is different depending what gear you're on,
And that's kind of similar to if you're driving a
gasoline car. If you're in a higher gear versus lower gear,
you have more engine breaking versus lge engine breaking depending
what vehicle speed and gear you're on. So that's all
played into that kind of adding the realism to this function.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Is there a part of the Ionic five N of
which you're particularly proud that you're like, well, yes, we
got that through.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
I mean, you know, I think the NY shift is
obviously the star feature in many ways. I know we've
been talking a lot about it, but there's a lot
to it. I think one of the things that spent
a lot of focus on is getting that longevity of
the car. So I think one of the challenges with
EV's is being able to do, for example, multiple laps
consistently in a race course and be able to have
the consistency in speed, being able to have the consistency
(34:14):
and cooling performance and battery performance and motor output. And
I think this is another huge aspect of this car,
is how much differentiation there is to the five end
versus the regular five and focusing on cooling, and focusing
on track performance and continuity.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Andrea, is an E shift patented? Did you guys patent
this or is it open to everyone else in the
EV sphere now? Which is a great thing. I hope
that's the answer.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
That's a good question, And I honestly don't know.
Speaker 9 (34:40):
I personally kind of hope that it, you know, as
much as I would love to protect it for ourselves,
I kind of hope that it's not. I think what's
exciting about this car, and talking to a lot of
the team and OMNIONG is that they wanted to kind
of set not only a benchmark, but kind of set
the starting point right. They know the five end is amazing,
but they know it's not perfect. And I think everybody's
excited about what this could bring to EV's in general.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That's exactly how how we felt about it. Immediately. We
were like, yes, we're part of the matrix now and
we're down with it.
Speaker 9 (35:06):
To me, it's so exciting that evs are so configurable. Essentially,
you can do anything right. You can detune the power
on this car, you can shift toward front the rear,
you can simulate a real, real drive car. Tony, you
asked earlier about different sounds, right, It just blows my mind,
like how much opportunity there is for the future of
what we can do with cars like this.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
The mixing board has a lot of knobs on dre Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
And I know that the team stiff in this car
tremendously versus the regular Ionic five and it does really
have a very compliant fluid suspension. What else did you
do to the suspension aside from stiffening the chassis to
make it work better.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Yeah, it was actually quite a lot.
Speaker 9 (35:47):
There's a significant amount of difference between the regular five
and the five N different suspension layout, obviously different dampers.
They're also dynamic dampers. The ability to kind of obviously
shift damping characteristic the platform itself, the body and white.
It's solf a lot more welding points, a lot more
structural adhesives. Typically a lot of times you find derivatives
like this of another product, you don't have this level
of change.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
So we've had a few product planners on the show
this season. Tell us a little bit about your job
and what your day to day activities are like in
product planning.
Speaker 9 (36:17):
It's funny you mentioned day to day, right, and that's
what I love about the job. There is no day
to day. I'm responsible for a few products in the
Honday lineup, and what's amazing about this type of role
is that you have a chance to kind of shape
the future of products, which is essentially the goal of
the team, and shape the future of products, not just
for what we think, right, because if it was up
to meet, it's the running joke they would all be
brown manual station wagons. But you know, obviously we have
(36:38):
to shape the products for what we need them to
be to be successful in the US market. We work
very closely hand in hand with the R and D side,
with the engineering teams both in Korea here in the US,
do a lot of you know, benchmarking and testing and
ride and drive evaluations here in the US as well
as with the design team in Korea. That to me
personally is one of my most favorite aspects of the
role is having a chance to go to Korea and
see the models throughout the different of development and have
(37:01):
a chance to kind of give the US market voice
an employ a lot of times, being the biggest market
in the world for certain products, we have a very
strong voice. We have a chance to kind of truly
shape the product for what we want to be. And
you see that in some of the recent Honda launches
like Santa Fe for example, that was you know, a
big push from the US market to get what we
want for the US on that product.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
What's next for the N division? Where does it go
from here?
Speaker 9 (37:24):
I think the team sees this it's just a start.
There's a lot of lofty goals for what we want
to achieve with Island five N like the end e
shift is a great example. It's something that you know,
honestly could have gotten the wrong one hundred different ways.
It could have been something that could have been seen
by a lot of people as just gimmicky, right. I remember,
for example, the first time I saw a CVT vehicle
with paddle shifters, I'm like why, And this could have
(37:44):
been the same thing. It could have been like why
bother So, I think seeing the possibilities and seeing what
we were able to do with this car, and seeing,
like we were talking before about what else could be
out there, and that kind of openness. Tony mentioned that
mixing knobs and the tuning board. I mean, it just
kind of an exciting time, right to kind of see
what's next.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Yeah, I mean we were skeptical, but then you get
in the car and you experience it and you realize
just how entertaining and gratifying it is to drive.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It's the best DCT I've ever driven, and it's not
even a DCT.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
And tomorrow we can make it a six pe manual
if we want.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
It to right right exactly, And just to give back
a little bit to this question of M, like, are
the ambitions to make it a full range option? Is
it going to be like BMW's M division or AMG
where every Mercedes or BMW has an AMG variant? What
is the philosophy?
Speaker 9 (38:38):
I think for now, the philosophy has always been picked
the right product that it fits with where the market
is going next, where some of the trends are going next.
I guess in this case, you know, Ionic five being
an SUV type of a product, I think that kind
of fit you know, the market in some ways. I
don't know if I see it as being something that's
a crossing entire lineup. I think it's something that it
needs to be the right product for it to fit
(38:58):
well with the core goals of every end product. The
duality right being kind of an everyday sports cars we
like to call it, as well as being something that
can't be actually track focused, and not every product could
do that right. So I think there's probably some others
in our lineup that you could maybe see that that
would make sense. But I don't know if every product
it would be right for this.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Andre, what was your first car?
Speaker 9 (39:18):
I originally grew up in Brazil and My grandfather had
a few cars, some older, some newer ones, and we
had a Chevrolet station wagon was a nineteen seventy seven
in Brazil called a caravan, so if you look that up,
it kind of looks like an Impala type of a wagon.
And he actually taught me to drive that when I
was I want to say I was seven or eight
years old actually, you know, in Brazil, like most cars
(39:40):
at the time, they were all manual transmission. And I
think by eight or nine, I want to say, I
was driving it around the streets in the neighborhood by myself,
which was awesome, a big massive alcohol field, you know,
Brazil has a lot of gasoline and alcohol, like dual
field cars and kind of a fun car still to
this deck and remember the smells inside that car.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
So you had your first car when you were seven, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (40:00):
And I have pictured to prove it. I pictured to
prove Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
If I'd known that when I was seven, I would
have moved to Brazil.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Things are a little bit different there.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (40:08):
And then obviously move moving here to the US and
I was eleven, so obviously couldn't touch cars for a while.
But my true first car here in the US was
an Eagle Talent turbo.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Oh wow, yeah, it.
Speaker 5 (40:17):
Was a ninety one. Eagle bought it a great price.
It had its quirks, had its issues.
Speaker 9 (40:21):
After a few let's say, challenges we have with the
power train that you had to keep the air conditioning
going otherwise it would stall, which was great for Pennsylvania winters.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
You know.
Speaker 9 (40:30):
The compressor would keep those RPMs just at the right
amount so that it wouldn't stall at a red light
because it was an empty So it was it was
fun cool.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Thanks Andre, Thanks for your time, Thanks for joining us
into cars and answering all of our questions.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
This was great. Thanks Andre, that was great.
Speaker 9 (40:44):
You know, as you can talk big enthusiasts. Loved talking
about products in general. And I think the five N
is a pretty fantastic car that you know. Like I said,
just to start, I think we're all excited to see
where this goes next.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah, keep it going.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
That interview was brought to you by Ebaymotors. Visit ebaymotors
dot com for more.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Car friends. The Hundai Ionic five end shocked and surprised
us with its ability to be a great electric vehicle,
but it also mimics a really fun and engaging car
with an internal combustion engine. All of the fake stuff works.
The sound might not be great, but it's the first
electric vehicle that can do that, and I hope that
dual nature spreads to more evs.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah, this thing really does it all, and I love
that dual nature. I was really skeptical before this episode
going in about the fake engine sounds and the fake
shift points, but it really turned me around and convinced
me that this is a compelling way to engineer an EV.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
For more on the Hyundai Ionic five end, visit Car
and Driver dot com and be sure to pick up
the latest issue of Car and Driver magazine.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Tune in next week for our season one finale, where
we go off roading in the reinvented Toyota land Cruiser.
Are you locked up? Are we already stuck in here?
Speaker 1 (41:56):
It's quickly going to turn into a lost scenario. I
know we've died in hearing this offload park for the
rest of our existence.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Thank you for joining us on Car and Drivers Into Cars.
If you enjoyed the show, join us every week for
new episodes, and don't forget to rate and review wherever
you listen. To podcasts.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Car and Drivers Into Cars is a production of Car
and Driver and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio. Our show is hosted
by Eddie Alterman and myself, Tony ki Rogo. Our executive
producer is Matt Romano. Our EP of Post Production is
Matt Stillo. Our Supervising producer is Sierra Kaiser. This show
was edited by Sierra Spreen special thanks to our location
sound recordist Matthew Cisco. Thanks for listening. We'll see you
(42:37):
next time.
Hosts And Creators
Eddie Alterman
Tony Quiroga
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