The freshly unveiled 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6 is a strong design statement from the Korean automaker, and like all design statements, it’s certainly an opinion-splitting exercise.
Like it or not, the Ioniq 6 is here to stay, but it appears that Hyundai is open to expanding the lineup in the future to include a second body style and a performance variant. Asked by Auto Express whether the design team had considered a hatch-style liftback for the Ioniq 6, Hyundai's chief designer SangYup Lee offered a rather surprising answer.
"I can make a great hatchback out of that; a shooting brake."
This suggests a more practical—and arguably more visually appealing—model could be on the cards. Looking at the official photos of the Ioniq 6 sedan, its flowing lines and curved surfaces are practically begging for a shooting brake treatment.
We're sure that renderings of the Ioniq 6 shooting brake will soon surface online, helping us get a better idea of what such a model could look like.
Gallery: 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6
After all, Hyundai Motor Group already offers a shooting brake model, the Genesis G70 Shooting Brake launched in Europe in 2021.
Now, we should add that SangYup Lee also mentioned the possibility of an Ioniq 6 N, saying that the new electric sedan "would also make a great performance model."
We couldn't agree more with that statement seeing as Hyundai is already developing a Ioniq 5 N model; the Ioniq 6 N would clearly make more sense seeing as it’s a smaller, lower vehicle. The Ioniq 5 will gain an N-badged performance variant in 2023, but details about its powertrain are not available yet.
Still, the model is likely to use a similar dual-motor setup as the Kia EV6 GT, which utilizes the same E-GMP platform as the Ioniq 5. More specifically, the EV6 GT combines a 77.4-kWh battery with two electric motors making a combined 577 horsepower (430 kilowatts) and 546 pound-feet (750 Newton-meters) of torque.
It's safe to say the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N would use the same powertrain, which in the EV6 GT crossover is good for a 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) sprint in 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 162 mph (260 km/h).
