Hyundai’s N Division has brought its first all-electric performance car to the digital realm, with the Ioniq 5 N debuting at the Gran Turismo World Series 2024 World Finals ahead of its arrival in the video game next year.
The Ioniq 5 N was used in the GT World Series’ qualifying time trial session of the Nations Cup World Final, which ran from December 7-8 in Amsterdam, and was concurrently offered as a ‘Viewers Gift’ item to players who tuned in to the Nations Cup via the campaign banner in the World Map of Gran Turismo.
However, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N won’t make its in-game debut until January, forming part of a running update for the Gran Turismo 7 title. The downloadable Viewers Gift from the GT World Series campaign will be distributed then also.
It’s the first product of Hyundai’s collaboration with the Gran Turismo franchise that was first announced in May at the Nürburgring 24 race. Luxury arm Genesis, however, has been designing vehicles for the popular racing game for the past three years.
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In-game footage shown
Hyundai’s vice president of N Brand Management Group – Joon Park – confirmed the Korean brand’s collaboration with Polyphony Digital won’t end with the Ioniq 5 N, either.
“[The] Ioniq 5 N is an excellent starting point for the collaboration between both companies, and we will develop various Hyundai N models in Gran Turismo 7 so that more people can experience the high performance of Hyundai N in the virtual space.”
Kazunori Yamauchi, Gran Turismo series producer, added: “Hyundai’s N brand has achieved remarkable success in motorsports this year, including its TCR class victory at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, securing the TCR World Tour drivers’ title, setting consecutive new records at Pikes Peak, and a WRC drivers’ championship”.
“We look forward to future collaborations between Gran Turismo and Hyundai in the Esports sector.”
Mr Yamauchi’s comments suggest we may soon see digital versions of the Elantra N TCR and i30 N TCR race cars which recorded the aforementioned TCR class victory at the ‘Ring, in addition to their road-going counterparts.
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Gran Turismo World Series
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is powered by a dual-motor electric drive system putting out up to 478kW and 770Nm in its most aggressive N Grin Boost mode, mated to an 84kWh battery.
Hyundai quotes a 0-100km/h time of 3.4 seconds on its way to a top speed of 260km/h. In normal driving, the Korean brand quotes a WLTP driving range of 448 kilometres.
While an electric Hyundai may not sound like the typical ‘dream machine’ of the game screen, the high-performance electric crossover has proven to be quite the giant slayer in the real world, at least in CarExpert’s testing.
Founder Paul Maric recently pitted the Korean EV missile against a range of exotic supercars from household names like Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren. He even raced a 1800hp modified Holden HQ Kingswood!
Want proof? Check out our collection of videos below!
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