Four Super ICE SUVs Challenge The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N EV
Does the Hyundai get schooled by Europe’s finest? The answer might surprise you
- Super SUVs are proving that they can be just as quick as some performance cars in a straight line.
- Lining them up side by side gives us a chance to see how they compare during the race.
- The slowest car here takes only 12.3 seconds to do the quarter-mile dance.
Modern automotive technology enables feats of performance once thought to be impossible for most cars. For example, super SUVs not only exist but they’re objectively very fast.
Hagerty brought a diverse lineup to Willow Springs for this test. The group included the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, the sole electric model with 641 hp (477 kW). It was accompanied by the Maserati Grecale Trofeo, equipped with a twin-turbocharged 3.0L V6 producing 523 hp (390 kW), the Jaguar F-Pace SVR boasting a 550 hp (410 kW) 5.0L supercharged V8, and the Porsche Macan GTS delivering 434 hp (323 kW) from its twin-turbo 2.9L V6.
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Those numbers might make it apparent who has the upper hand and indeed, it’s true. The Hyundai with its gobs of power and electric drivetrain dusts the rest by 12 car lengths. How the quartet actually performs says a lot about the engineering that goes into each though.
For example, the Porsche loses with a quarter-mile time of 12.3 seconds but it actually launches just as hard as the Hyundai thanks to its clever dual-clutch gearbox. The Jaguar, with its supercharged engine, takes a bit to build power and lags behind the rest of the group to begin. By the end of the race though, the two have swapped places and the F-Pace takes second, behind the Hyundai, while the Porsche, again, falls to last.
There is, however, one more car for the Hyundai to take down. That’s the Lamborghini Urus Peformante. A 657 horsepower (489 kW) twin-turbocharged V8 lies under the hood and all of that power routes to all four wheels. In theory, it should be capable of munching the Ioniq 5 N.
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In practice, it doesn’t stand a chance. Sure, the Urus launches harder and puts a car length on the Hyundai but as soon as the big bull starts having to swap gears, the race begins to end. The Ioniq 5 N puts four car lengths on the Lamborghini before the line, which is just downright amazing.
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