Hyundai N v. Hyundai N: An Even Greater Video!
The logistics, obstacles, and difficulty in making a video about an Electric Vehicle
“Behind every bad day there is great story.” This could not be more true about a recent video that my business colleague, Brendan Appel, and I tried filming back in June. Hyundai Motors delivered not one, but two press cars for us to review. And not just any press cars: These were their high-performance ‘N’ versions—the just-released, all-electric 2025 Ioniq 5 N and the refreshed, gasoline powered 2024 Elantra N. When you have two cars like this dropped off at your front door, you simply have no other option but to race them head-to-head on a racetrack! So, we called our good friends at CGI Motorsports who host track days at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, Michigan and set it up. Hyundai’s fastest gas car against their fastest electric—this was going to be legendary!
Nestled right next to Lake Michigan is the charming town of South Haven, known for its eclectic eateries, award-winning wineries, and scenic natural surroundings. There’s just one problem: there are no public level 3 DC fast chargers anywhere in the city—or within a 30 mile radius. There was also no quick and easy way to fast charge our EVs along the route from Chicago to South Haven—Hyundai’s agreement to use Tesla’s network of Superchargers doesn’t start till the end of the year. With the racetrack 134 miles away from my home in Western Springs, and the Ioniq 5 N’s maximum range of only 228 miles, getting to the track wouldn’t be an issue. But driving back home certainly would—and that’s not even accounting for what would happen to the battery level when driven to its absolute limit on a racetrack.
So, on Monday morning, June 10th, with a full charge and 228 miles of range showing on the dash, I began the journey to Gingerman in the Ioniq 5 N with Brendan right behind me in the Elantra N. Because we didn’t need to be at the track all day—we only needed a few laps in each car to set a hot lap time—our strategy was to arrive at Gingerman at noon when the track shuts down for lunch and record some low-speed B-roll video without other cars in the way. Then, later in the afternoon when the flagman, corner workers, and stand-by EMTs returned from lunch, we would set our high-speed lap times and compare the two vehicles.
Everything started off fine, but about 45 minutes into the drive I started to notice that the indicated range was dropping faster than the actual distance I was driving, so it was best to slow things down a bit and reset the cruise to 65mph. I could tell Brendan, who wanted me in front to set the pace, was getting annoyed: we were now going to be late. It was 12:10pm when we arrived with just 36% of battery left—the same 36% that had to last us through our low-speed video shoot, our full-speed hot laps, and the drive to the only charger we could find in the area: a dated level 2 charger 7 miles away in downtown South Haven.
We loaded up the cars with cameras and started recording B-roll, but it wasn’t 20 minutes later when I noticed the battery had drained to down to a 28% charge. There was no way we had enough battery and time left to do what we wanted to do. We had to make an executive decision: do we forgo the hot lap in the Ioniq 5 N, essentially bringing it all the way to the track for no reason? OR do we break just about every rule of the racetrack and set some lap times right now while the track was still technically closed? I stopped the car and we both opened the trunk and took out our helmets—it was game time!
The Ioniq 5 N was an absolute beast on the track. Yes, the track management saw what we did and they were understandably not happy. We received a stern talking-to (actually, there was some yelling involved, too). But, just like the saying goes: “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.” We got the job done, but it wasn’t over yet!
After the hot laps, with only 7% left on the battery, we drove the Ioniq into South Haven and plugged it in at around 1:30pm. It would be fully charged in 8.5 hours. Since we didn’t need a full charge, just enough to get back home (134 miles), we weren’t too concerned about how much time it would take. Boy, would we be wrong. We left the car charging and headed back to the, now open, track in the Elantra N and recorded a hot lap time. When the track closed at 4pm, we headed back to check on the Ioniq 5 N, hoping to be close to our target range of 160 miles. Unfortunately, it was still way under. We called our wives to inform them that we would not be home for dinner and went to get something to eat. About an hour later we went to check the range again and it was only at 120 miles. Frustrated, we decided to head home anyway. We planned to drive slowly and, if needed, stop at a level 3 fast charger once we were closer to Chicago—surely there had to be some available.
To help increase my range as much as possible, I did everything I could think of: turned off the radio, shut off the A/C, and kept the windows up. We set the cruise control to 62 mph in both cars, and I had Brendan drive the Elantra N in front so that I could get right behind him—mere inches away—and take full advantage of his draft. Yes, it got extremely hot inside the car and, yes, I was very nervous driving so close to his bumper—but it worked. The range indicator started adding miles instead of taking them away. After an hour, I had built up enough of a mileage surplus that we were able to increase our speed and I could finally pull back to a much safer distance. Most importantly, I could now turn the A/C back on!
I finally arrived home with only 5 miles to spare and every single warning light and chime blaring at me. What should have been a fun and entertaining day turned out to be a very long and stressful one—all due to the current lack of fast-charging infrastructure, especially for non-Tesla vehicles that don’t yet have access to Tesla’s Supercharger network. Of course, things are only going to improve over the next few years but, as it currently stands, I definitely learned two things that day: charging an EV away from home can be a complete nightmare and, to reword my original quote: “Behind every bad day, there is an even greater video!”
Which car won? Video coming soon at https://www.youtube.com/C/wearemotordriven!
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