Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Bound For Gran Turismo 7

Usually, we have to wait til towards the end of the month for details on what the next Gran Turismo 7 update will bring to the table, but thanks to a little in-game announcement we now know one of the cars that’ll be heading to the game before too long: the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.

Hyundai’s first crack at a performance EV, the 641bhp, dual-motor Ioniq 5 N has mightily impressed us – on our first drive earlier this year, we called it “the first truly great performance EV” and awarded it a full five stars.

Confirmation that it’s on its way to GT7 comes as part of the in-game prizes offered to viewers of the finals of the Gran Turismo World Series e-sports competition, which kicks off in Amsterdam next week. Viewing the various different streams will award players with different prizes, with the original online announcement stating that watching the Nations Cup final on 8 December will grant players a to-be-announced prize.

Hidden in plain sight, though, has been confirmation of what that prize will be: the Ioniq 5 N. It’s no huge surprise that it’s making its way to the game, with an announcement back in May that Hyundai and Gran Turismo would be linking together for “various sim-racing activities.”

We still don’t know what these activities actually entail, although that announcement also sort of, maybe, kinda, possibly hinted that the Pikes Peak Hill Climb could finally be returning to Gran Turismo.

For now, though, the inclusion of the 5 N appears to be the first fruit of this collaboration. As for when it’ll arrive, we just know it’ll be “after the next update.” With GT updates traditionally landing on the last Thursday of a month, the smart money is on that update arriving on 26 December, with full details likely arriving a few days before Christmas. Whether the update will bring any other Hyundai content remains to be seen.