February 5, 2025

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Hyundai Ioniq 5 review, test drive

The ‘born electric’ Ioniq 5 is Hyundai’s next wager for India. Hormazd Sorabjee drives a slice of the future.

There are electric powered autos and there are electric powered autos. And they are not all the exact. There is the Hyundai Kona EV and there’s the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and they are not the exact either. If you put your hand on the badge, you wouldn’t feel they both equally belong to the exact mum or dad. In fact, you wouldn’t even feel they share an electric powered powertrain! The Kona EV was designed initially with an IC motor and hence appears to be like like just one more petrol (or diesel) SUV. What presents you a modest clue that it isn’t a single is the blanked-out grille and all the EV details and facts that pops up on the display screens when you get started the auto. But there’s no getting absent from the Kona’s IC motor roots, which is apparent in the total stance and form. That’s genuine of quite a few other EVs in the Indian marketplace, which includes the bestselling Nexon EV.

So, what is an EV intended to appear like? Nicely, radically various and futuristic, for starters EVs are the future, after all. And giving us a excellent appear at the future is the Ioniq 5, which you can right away convey to is no normal auto. That’s mainly because the Ioniq 5 is ‘born electric powered,’ a expression that is extremely much a component of the EV lexicon these days and stands for particularly what it suggests – autos that have been conceived to be driven purely by battery power and never ever with a common Interior Combustion (IC) motor.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 side

Styling is futuristic, nevertheless reminiscent of ’80s hatchbacks.

The Ioniq 5 is Hyundai’s initial ‘born electric’ EV, a new breed that is free from the packaging and design and style constraints of a lump of a transmission and driveline underneath the ground, an even even bigger lump of an motor underneath the nose, and a gas tank underneath the rear seat. It’s designed on a bespoke platform, or ‘skateboard’, which is been optimised for expense, area effectiveness and, of course, electrification. And this skateboard is the Hyundai Group’s E-GMP (Electrical World-wide Modular System) designed close to a battery pack, electric powered motors and allied components, with ample versatility to spawn a huge vary of overall body models.

The Ioniq 5 will be the initial of 6 all-new EVs that Hyundai will provide to India in the next five yrs. Slated for a mid-2022 launch, the Ioniq 5 will direct the Korean car major’s ‘top-down’ approach into India. On the other hand, the Ioniq 5 won’t be inexpensive. It will be introduced as an import, and however it’s an EV, it won’t get any customs duty concessions. We estimate the Ioniq 5 to expense between Rs forty five lakh-60 lakh, depending on the battery size and total specs, which are nevertheless to be made the decision.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 C-pillar

C-pillar impressed by Lancia Delta?

On the lookout Forward

For a auto that does not have to be designed close to the rigid posture of an motor and gearbox, the Ioniq 5, at initial look, appears to be like pretty common, nearly disappointingly so. Gape at it a bit lengthier and the exceptional design and style mix of this bespoke EV begins to soak by means of. The angular proportions give it the silhouette of a eighties hatch and the C-pillar has a contact of the Lancia Delta in it, but it’s the futuristic particulars that seize your awareness. The overall body is replete with ultra-sharp cuts and creases, and the spotlight is the Z-formed slash on the flanks, which has a folded-paper result. Flush door handles, the clamshell bonnet and twenty-inch alloy wheels that appear like they’ve been designed in a wind tunnel appear extremely futuristic, but it’s the higher-tech LED matrix mild clusters that are its most innovative feature. The lights have a pixel topic that is carried all over the auto, and the rear, in unique, has a entire-width matrix strip with a collection of sci-fi hunting square pixel lights. The coolest bit is the Daytime Functioning Lamp mild bar on the major edge of the front bumper, which you really don’t discover right until it’s illuminated. The Ioniq 5’s exceptional lighting signature is what definitely helps make it stand out and shows the world what the future of motoring appears to be like like.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 dashboard

Dashboard a trim panel with screens attached onto it. Hard buttons not carried out absent with nevertheless.

 

The extremely long three,000mm wheelbase and limited overhangs are also clues that the Ioniq 5 is not a common crossover. Stretching the wheelbase as much as attainable is a major priority when building a ‘born electric’ auto on a skateboard mainly because it’s inside the wheelbase that the battery pack is positioned. As a result, a lengthier wheelbase indicates a even bigger battery, which in transform indicates a lengthier vary. Elongating the wheelbase has other strengths too – it frees up extra area inside the cabin and presents designers extra room to enjoy with.

 

Hyundai Ioniq 5 screens

Two twelve.three-inch screens sharp and straightforward to browse.

This is quickly evident the second you slide into the Ioniq 5’s cabin. At the rear of the wheel, it’s extra like an business seat than a cockpit mainly because the regular centre console has been carried out absent with. This frees up area forward of the front seats which would if not have been taken up by the air-con blower unit, which has been moved to underneath the bonnet, wherever an motor generally sits. This relocation of the HVAC method is attainable only in a ‘born electric’ EV and is a excellent instance of the packaging rewards this bespoke architecture delivers. With no centre console, the front seats can be moved forward to release extra area in the rear. Not amazingly, the rear seat is very generous, with extra than ample room even for 6-footers, and the absolutely flat ground helps make sitting down 3 abreast quite effortless too. The flat ground has other strengths as effectively. It allows the console between the front seats to slide a excellent 140mm. So if you need a bit extra legroom for the center passenger behind, you can slide it forward. But, if individuals behind want straightforward accessibility to the pair of charging details behind the console, it can be slid back.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 front seats

The lacking regular centre console frees up area forward of the front seats.

There are also, even so, negatives of the E-GMP, which have extra to do with the slab of lithium sitting down underneath the ground. The battery pack pushes the ground up and forces you to sit in a a little bit knees-up posture. It’s not not comfortable but on long drives you will miss out on a absence of underneath-thigh assistance. The seats on their own are pretty slim but you really don’t really feel a absence of cushioning, and the mild, eco-friendly fabrics that adorn the relaxation of the seats have a minimalist enchantment to them, which is in maintaining with the car’s ‘save-the-world’ ethos.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 rear seats

There is hundreds of room in the rear and flat ground helps make seating 3 straightforward.

The dashboard is a very simple and pancake-trim panel with a pair of twelve.three-inch screens sitting down on the major and a different contact delicate manage panel for the air-con housed under. The touchscreens are super sharp, straightforward to browse even in wide daylight and give you all the details you need. They are a contact gradual to answer but a tweak in program need to kind them out. The outer edge of the touchscreen panel is magnetic so you can connect toll tickets, parking receipts or shots of your wife or husband, your favorite auto (not a Kona EV, then!) or what ever you like.

On A Charge

The Ioniq 5 arrives with a option of two battery packs. The base design will get a 54kWh pack which is excellent for 383km in the formal check cycle, although a 72kWh battery stretches vary to a claimed 481km. The E-GMP has a superfast 800V charging ability which, technically, can thoroughly demand the battery in eighteen minutes! But, in India, wherever most chargers have a 25kW or 50kW output at best, it will be a although before the Ioniq 5’s quickly-charging ability can be applied to the fullest.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 rear

Impressively swift, with 306hp, and it disguises its fat pretty effectively.

There are multiple power outputs as effectively the base variant puts out 170hp and is rear-wheel-push only. It’s most likely that Hyundai will provide the major-spec variant that creates a extra energetic 306hp and is a 4×4 as effectively with two motors (a single for each axle). It’s this major-spec variant I briefly drove and, expectedly, it was impressively swift straight off the bat. We anticipate EVs to dart forward the immediate you prod the accelerator and the Ioniq 5 does just that, like a rabbit prodded with an electric powered rod. It disguises its 2,100kg kerb fat rather effectively, be it in the way it accelerates or handles. Going from to 100kph in a claimed 5.2sec helps make it faster than anything else for the money, and the effortless and noiseless way this auto lunges forward is an included reward. Like most EVs, the Ioniq too runs out of volts at the major end, and outside of 130kph, general performance drops off pretty sharply. It’s quickly and effortless for most overtaking responsibilities and a flex of the right foot is met with a gratifying lunge to the horizon, but what is also evident is that the Ioniq 5 is not a sporty, general performance auto and in fact feels pretty the contrary.

The battery pack ties it down nicely and the steering is swift and exact, but the total dynamics won’t tempt you to look for out a twisty highway or toss the auto into a corner. What you get is an extremely plush ride, a extremely relaxed and hushed driving knowledge, which, together with the spacious cabin, marks the Ioniq out as potentially the most relaxed EV you can invest in. Indeed, it will be highly-priced, but what you are buying is a piece of the future and right now, there’s no auto as significantly forward into the future as the Ioniq 5.