The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N will set you back a hefty £65,000

"Christ that’s not cheap!" Those are the exact words of a fellow TopGear.com staffer when told this morning that the new Hyundai Ioniq 5 N will cost a towering £65,000. Pretty restrained, right? The reaction, not the figure.

There aren’t many hot hatch EVs to provide context here, nonetheless… the MG4 XPower is almost a full £30k cheaper, as is the Cupra Born. But then neither of those pack 641bhp, do they?

You’ll be familiar with the details already, but as a refresher the highlights are thus: the insane power comes from a dual-motor set-up and results in a 0-62mph time of 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 161mph.

Meanwhile Hyundai’s engineers have used their thinking caps to combat the lack of feedback often provided by EVs. To that end there is much reinforcement within to improve stiffness, and ‘specially tuned’ rack-mounted power steering increases the steering ratio and enhances torque feedback.

Then there are the entirely fake - and actually very convincing - simulated gear shifts, as well as an ‘N Drift Optimizer’ setting and fully variable torque distribution with 11 levels. Yup, the electronic limited slip diff can literally be turned up to 11.

We’ve driven a pre-prod version and the results were predictably astonishing. Order books in the UK are open now and standard kit basically amounts ‘everything you could possibly want’: included are 21-inch wheels shorn in Pirelli P Zeros, Alcantara/leather bucket seats, a pair of 12.3-inch screens and much else besides.

In fact, all you need to do is pick your paint (nine colours), and go/no-go a panoramic sunroof, and that’s it. Then stump up the £65k, of course. Christ, that’s not cheap is it?