Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 is one of the defining cars of the past few years – a vehicle with bold design and tech that marked the Korean brand’s emergence as a real superpower, particularly in the electric-car era. Now the company is aiming to build on that success with the Ioniq 6, a swoopy new saloon that’ll start arriving in dealers by the summer. And we’ve been able to try an early production example on UK roads.
The nomenclature might lead you to expect the 6 to be positioned a notch above the 5, but that isn’t quite the case. There is a premium, but it’s a modest one; the new model’s line-up starts with a 225bhp rear-wheel-drive edition at £46,745, just £600-odd up on the comparable 5.
The new arrival is a remarkably different-looking creation than the five-door, and while you are more likely to notice some similarities between the two cars on the road, there are significant differences as well. Everything in the drivetrain seems to have been tightened up a notch, so while the Ioniq 5 was never whiny or jerky, the 6 achieves another level of refinement. The fact that our version recently tested was rear-wheel drive probably helps here, but it’s hard to detect much electric motor noise at all.
The more slippery shape gives the 6 a longer range than its stablemate; its 74kWh (usable) battery is enough for 338 miles on a single charge. Again, the Hyundai’s figures are a rough match for those of the rear-drive Tesla Model 3, although that car is cheaper.
There are compromises on space, though. While there’s oodles of legroom for five adults, anyone measuring six feet tall or more may well struggle for headroom in the 6 – not only in the rear, where they’re likely to find their head squished against the roof liner, but even behind the wheel. Adopt an upright driving position and you may well find the top of your head disappearing into the sunroof cutout.
The boot, too, is long, wide and shallow, and the aperture to load items through is an odd shape, so the load bay probably isn’t quite as practical as the decent enough capacity of 401 litres would suggest. At least the rear-drive editions get a 45-litre ‘wetbox’ trunk beneath the bonnet – handy for stowing the charging cables.
Definitely a car that we think you should be checking out if you are in the market for a new premium electric car.
