Hyundai NPX1 set for Tokyo debut

How to make the Ioniq 5 N even more exciting? Take it racing...

By Matt Bird / Thursday, 4 January 2024 / Loading comments

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is one of the cars we’re most looking forward to trying in the UK this year. It’s not merely eagerly anticipated for an EV, either - there’s cause for everyone to be very excited by its arrival, from the simulated gearshifts and revs to drift assistant. Hopefully, it’ll be one of the driver’s cars of 2024; that still feels a bold statement for a two-tonne electric Hyundai now - it would have been unbelievable just a few years ago.

There’s a very traditional method being employed, however, to further boost the image of the N, as it looks like Hyundai is going to race one. Leaked last year and teased in this short video, something Ioniq 5 shaped called the NPX1 is coming to the Tokyo show on Friday. It would be a surprise to find an even more powerful version of a 650hp road car at this stage, and the original rumours last year were of a one-make championship, so a racer feels like the most logical conclusion.

Especially given the look of it. As is the nature of these things, there’s not much to be ascertained for the moment, but there’s no denying the visual wallop of the new carbon bodykit. The wheel and brake combo looks pretty racy, too. This is surely too OTT to be a street car, but then this is also Hyundai we’re talking about, and it feels like anything is possible for them at the moment. A #NPerformanceParts hashtag implies this might be a range of upgrades for the production model, as was available for the i30 N.

Whatever it is, they’re not saying much for now. There’s just 30 seconds of vid, and a description that states a reveal time of 11:30 Korean Standard Time on Friday. One of the night owls over here, then, but surely not one to be missed whatever time you see it. Hyundai doesn’t tend to miss these days…