I had contemplated buying a Hyundai IONIQ 5, but poor dealership experience turned me off of that path. Which was just as well, because my ideal Hyundai isn’t available for purchase anyway. An IONIQ 5’s SUV form factor is not my first choice as it is far larger than I want in a car. What I would love is to have that design language in a 2-door sports car.

We got a preview of that idea’s greatness with Hyundai’s N Vision 74 concept. It has a hydrogen-electric hybrid powertrain featuring fuel cells and batteries feeding electric motors. Optimized for high performance on the race track, complete with aerodynamic assists like a deep front splitter and a huge rear wing. But most importantly, it applied IONIQ 5 school of design to a sports car form factor. This has been very well received with many calling for Hyundai to put the concept into production. I’ve read that Hyundai is contemplating building a very limited number of them as six figure track toys for the rich, which isn’t actually what I had hoped for when I wished for a production version.

I don’t want the N Vision 74 as-is, I wanted a production car that the concept race car implied. Something without race aerodynamics and with an interior usable for daily living. Remove the hydrogen tank and fuel cell leaving a pure battery electric car. And since I’m wishing anyway, sell it around IONIQ 5 price range and make it smaller. According to numbers floating around on the internet N Vision 74 is about twenty inches longer and eight inches wider than my 2004 Mazda RX-8. That’s enormous! Some of that length might be aerodynamic bits and some of that width are race car tires, but it clearly casts a big shadow.

For an analogy, Hyundai recently released a race-ready variant of the IONIQ 5 N called the eN1 Cup car. Featuring suspension, tire, and aerodynamic aids appropriate to track duty. The relationship between that eN1 Cup car and a normal IONIQ 5 is the same relationship between the N Vision 74 and an electric two-door coupe of my dreams. Too bad that car does not exist but, if it ever comes into being, it might entice me to walk back into a Hyundai showroom.

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Images from Hyundai news room