It’s tough being a petrolhead in 2025. It seems everything we love about cars is gradually being legislated off the road. Low-emission zones are taxing cheap, interesting modern classics into scrapyards. Driver-assistance technology is steadily pushing us out of the driving seat. Tighter CO2 targets are making it more difficult to develop fast petrol cars, while increasingly strict noise regulations are smothering the life from the few that slip through the net.

Electrification isn’t quite there yet, either. Manufacturers are still figuring out how to build fun electric cars. As comfortable and convenient as they are, they’re generally too sterile and heavy to become a credible alternative for those who want to enjoy the most visceral, mechanical sensations of driving.

But one brand has got it figured out: Hyundai. Specifically, Hyundai’s N division. When it was launched in 2024, the Ioniq 5 N showed the world that electrification can be fun if you hand the development of performance models over to petrolheads rather than accountants. The 5 N mashes the instant power of the electric motor with the tail-happiness of a highly strung petrol car – and, in the process, N division signalled it was here for petrol addicts facing the dawn of hydrocarbon prohibition.

But now the difficult second e-N. The Ioniq 6 N is a lower, wider and much faster version of the swoopy Ioniq 6 streamliner. It takes the best bits of the 5 N and configures them slightly differently. The chassis has been primarily designed for high average speeds, rather than dramatic, tyre-smoking getaways. Its motors have been reworked to deliver more power more often. The aero’s better. The brakes are better. The overall driving experience should be better.

Like the 5 N, it has two motors, one at each end, and as in the 5 N they develop combined maximum outputs of 641bhp and 568lb ft. However, the 6 N serves that power up differently. Thanks to an improved cooling set-up and better magnets inside the motors, you can have all the power under your right foot whenever you want rather than being limited to 10-second bursts using the N Grin Boost button on the steering wheel.

Sven Risch, one of Hyundai N’s senior engineers, tells me this change was quite pragmatic. In track testing, his team realised Ioniq 5 N drivers weren’t pushing the N Grin Boost function as often as they could on the straights. They simply didn’t have enough brain capacity when driving on the ragged edge – and that was hurting lap times.

But life isn’t just about lap times. What makes the 5 N so good is the depth and quality of the mechanical engineering inside that distinctive bodywork – and the same approach has been applied to the 6 N. You get unique adaptive dampers, dedicated springs, a broader track width and a far lower roll centre, all of which Risch says will make it more predictable at the limits of grip. In other heavy, powerful electric cars I’ve found that lack of predictability to be a problem, so I’m very much looking forward to finding out whether it’s worked on the 6 N.

Even though the 6 N has been designed to be grippier than the 5 N, Hyundai hasn’t lost sight of the fun to be had from breaking traction now and again. You get an even more complicated version of the drift assistance system, which will help even the most ham-fisted driver to master the art.

Where the Drift mode in the 5 N was basically an on/off toggle, the 6 N’s version operates like a dimmer switch. It has three sliders that allow you to customise the amount of angle you’d like from your drift, the ease of initiating the drift and – seriously – the amount of smoke you’d like from the rear tyres. Never change, Hyundai.

There have been some upgrades designed to make the 6 N feel even more like a petrol car than the 5 N. You get an improved version of the synthetic engine-noise generator and an updated version of its simulated gearbox with more virtual gears, which Hyundai reckons is going to make it even more engaging for driving enthusiasts, especially since you can now access it in Drift mode.

Hyundai’s ongoing crusade against boring electrified cars is not at the expense of combustion cars. Joon Park, vice president of N division, tells me he’s already waded back into development work on petrol cars.

‘We are not limiting ourselves into EV,’ he says. Delighted as he has been by the success of the Ioniq 5 N, he suspects that some in the industry and buying public mistakenly think it signals the start of an EV-only phase for N, but that’s not the case.

‘The discontinuation of i20 and i30 N was a disaster for me. But it takes time to have a new one. So yes, we are not focusing on EV only.’ He remains a big fan of ‘the smell and the sound’ of high-performance combustion cars, whether they’re on road or track.

Joon says the plan is that these future petrol cars won’t be expensive. Instead, they will fill the void left by the i20 N and i30 N. ‘Hyundai N has to be reachable,’ he says. There are already people who buy into the N division way of doing things – the job now is to keep producing cars that people will want to buy, at prices they’re happy to pay. ‘We are not talking about luxury exotic cars. We are talking about the Hyundai N level.’

He’s aware that most other manufacturers have moved out of that class of performance car – manifested most noticeably in the demise of the stalwart hot Fiesta and Focus from Ford in the B and C segment respectively. Such cars are expensive to develop, and demand is not what it once was.

‘Higher price, higher profit margin, right? Small car, lower price, lower profit margin. So if we want to have a B-segment car then I need to work very hard to persuade everybody. So this is what I’m doing.’

He also lets slip that a fast new EV is on the way, something C-segment size, perhaps inspired by the wild RN24 prototype, which mashed up elements of Ioniq 5 N, World Rally car and go kart.

Intriguing, and exciting. Hyundai may be an essentially mainstream, mass-market brand, but with the likes of Joon Park running the N division it’s also committed to accessible performance cars. The Ioniq 5 N is great. We’ll soon find out if the 6 N moves the game on even further. And with smaller petrol and electric cars from N in the pipeline, it’s feeling like a new golden age.

That’s certainly the view of Tyrone Johnson, who oversees N division’s work in his capacity as head of the Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Centre in Germany. He tells CAR: ‘You don’t really need manual gearboxes now thanks to the technologies available in EVs. I don’t understand the idea that performance cars are dying. If you want to go fast, there’s nothing better than an EV.’ He adds: ‘In suspension, a lot is happening, with software and mechanically. It’s going to be quite interesting.’