√Hyundai Ioniq 5 N electric hot hatch: 126 pre-orders in first 12 hours

Hyundai Australia says it is “happy” with the demand for its most expensive car ever, the electric Ioniq 5 N, which is more than twice the price of the petrol Hyundai i30 N hot hatch.

More than 120 Australians placed down a deposit for the 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N electric hot hatch – priced from $111,000 plus on-road costs each – when order books opened for a limited time earlier this month.

Hyundai Australia said it received 126 pre-orders worth $2000 each for the Ioniq 5 N – the company’s most powerful, quickest-accelerating and most expensive car ever – in a 12-hour pre-sale on September 15.

The first cars are due to be produced in November ahead of local showroom arrivals at the end of this year, or start of next year.

The company expects most Ioniq 5 Ns on pre-order to be delivered “no later than early January” – depending on if matte or metallic paint was chosen, and if the $2000 ‘Vision Roof’ panoramic sunroof was optioned.

Pre-orders opened for another brief period at the Melbourne EV Show event over the weekend, and are due to open formally at a later date closer to showroom arrivals.

“We had a little [internal guess] going on between all of us and it ranged from 100 [orders in the pre-sale] to 500-plus,” Hyundai Australia chief operating officer John Kett told a media briefing in Sydney.

“It’s still a pretty significant price, so we’re happy with what we’ve got. [For] the enthusiasts that are very much connected to [Hyundai] N or a performance [electric car], we’re probably the first to come to market.

“Getting it out there and giving people some experiential touch, look and feel is our next step.”

Later in the briefing Mr Kett added: “I was unhappy because I put my money on a slightly higher number, but there’s a few other people who are closer to me that were right on the button [in terms of the number of orders].”

The high-ranking Hyundai executive said the final deposit in the pre-sale was received at 11:35pm – minutes before it closed at midnight – for a vehicle that costs more than $120,000 drive-away in some states and territories.

Hyundai Australia says it is too early to determine the types of vehicles Ioniq 5 N buyers are coming from.

“Anecdotally we know there’s around 24 or so from within the existing N online customer groups, the social media groups … We’re going to do a poll to work out where some of [the buyers] have come from,” said Hyundai Australia spokesman Bill Thomas.

Across other models in Hyundai’s range, about 78 per cent of buyers are new to the South Korean brand, and 22 per cent are existing owners, Mr Kett said.

The company says it is expecting good stock of the Ioniq 5 N, and is forecasting 3000 to 4000 sales of all Ioniq electric vehicles – across the regular Ioniq 5 line-up, and recently-arrived Ioniq 6 sedan – next year.

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