Hyundai Ioniq 5 (2021 - ) Electric review

Owning and running an electric car is, of course, a lot easier for those who have their own driveway, off-street parking or garage where they can install a home charging point and, if you’re lucky enough to have that, cars like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 make it very easy to say goodbye to petrol or diesel for good. The Ioniq 5 also benefits from being engineered from the start as an electric car, rather than converted from an existing petrol or diesel model. That means more space for occupants and batteries, more range, better performance and near price parity with the equivalent internal combustion crossover or SUV you might also be considering. That home charging can save you heaps on running costs, the range is sufficient that you won’t be too dependent on more expensive public power points and – as with all EVs – there are huge incentives in VED (or road tax, as it’s known), Benefit In Kind and more to make the switch a no-brainer for both private and company drivers.

The IONIQ 5 is an all-new platform for Hyundai but the firm already has extensive experience of building electrified vehicles and an all-round solid reputation for reliability, so we’d see no reason to be concerned here. Electric vehicles are simpler than internal combustion or hybrid models, too, so there’s generally less to go wrong. And if it does you’re covered by Hyundai’s five-year warranty, which means you can sleep easy for the duration of a typical 48-month finance plan. The battery gets its own eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty, too.

Tech is a big part of the IONIQ 5’s offer, so you’re well covered in terms of the kind of driver assistance systems most people expect these days. Should the worst happen you’ve got plenty of airbags (including a central one up front) and Isofix child seat fixings on the rear bench and front passenger seats but – of course – Hyundai would rather you don’t need to put these to the test in the first place. Even the entry level model has automatic emergency braking that kicks in if you don’t spot pedestrians, cyclists or oncoming cars when pulling out of junctions while the cameras and radar can keep you in lane (and a safe distance from the car in front) to take the stress out of heavy traffic. Given visibility isn’t all that great it might be worth going up a trim level to get the parking sensors and Blind Spot Collision Assist, the top model offering the cost option Tech Pack with even more functionality, including blind spot camera view in the instrument binnacle when you put the indicators on.

One of the great advantages of designing an electric car from a clean sheet of paper like this is freedom to put the batteries and motors out of the way. Hyundai has used this to stretch the wheelbase – the useful space between the front and rear wheels, in other words – to exactly three metres, which is longer even than the VW ID.4 and Skoda Enyaq. This means shorter overhangs front and rear, which makes the Ioniq look more compact than it actually is while also opening up huge space inside. Front seat passengers are as well catered for here but legroom in the back is truly astonishing, to the point the annoyance of little ones kicking you in the back will be a thing of the past on the basis their legs won’t even reach! The flat floor means tons of footwell space front and back, and there’s a nifty sliding centre console between the front seats so you can configure the interior space as you like. The Ioniq 5 is a little bit down on boot space compared with some rivals but not by much and, while the load area is a little shallow, it’s big enough for most family clobber. Long doors help access to both front and back, though might prove less useful when parking beside narrow pavements, or when all the supermarket parent and child spaces have already been bagged. And while the flat floor is good for legroom for all three rear seats the central one is a bit of a lump, so the middle-seat passenger still gets a raw deal. On the road the Ioniq 5 rides well enough, that long wheelbase also helping it feel stable both at speed and over urban obstacles like speed humps. Like all electric cars the lack of engine noise is also very relaxing, though that does show up a bit of tyre roar over poor surfaces that could get intrusive on a longer journey.

Since launch Hyundai has dropped the previous entry-level trim, meaning a higher starting price but better equipment given you start at the Premium level we’d previously said was the one to have. It’s also added a top of the line Namsan Edition, with all the goodies. All get a 12.3-inch central touch-screen with built-in navigation and connected infotainment, along with CarPlay and Android Auto if you prefer to use your phone apps. This is paired with a similarly sized digital instrument cluster for the widescreen effect increasingly becoming the norm on modern cars. While it’s impressive that Hyundai includes this as standard the physical borders around the screens mean it can’t match the slick, premium feel of the equivalent Mercedes set-up. Trim and seating options get progressively fancier as you work up to the top trim level, this one getting leather upholstery and more. Hyundai’s nifty ‘Vehicle 2 Load’ or V2L package is now standard across the range, which means you can turn your Ioniq 5’s charge port into a power source for charging electric bikes or whatever else you might want to run off a domestic style three-pin socket. See Rory’s video for more inspiration on that!

Dedicated EV platforms like that under the Ioniq 5 and its VW family rivals mean manufacturers can offer various different battery and drive options in a way those coming from conventional internal combustion or hybrid powered cars may find confusing at first. Short version? You can get your Ioniq 5 with a choice of two batteries and three power levels. The standard 58kWh battery is only available with a single motor and rear-wheel drive with 170 horsepower, while the bigger 72kWh option has been uprated and is now available in 228 horsepower single-motor or 325 horsepower twin-motor, all-wheel drive. We drove the latter in its slightly less powerful original trim, and even then it’s got a real turn of speed in its sport mode but is equally happy cruising in its standard or eco settings with significant shifts in character from the Porsche-style wheel-mounted mode button. Regeneration is adjusted from the steering wheel, the i-Pedal setting giving you ‘one-pedal’ driving where you can slow to a halt just by lifting off the accelerator. This is good around town but on the open road you might prefer to reduce this effect, which is easily done from the paddles and soon becomes second nature. If range is more important to you than silently blitzing sports cars off the line then the 78kWh, single-motor option is your best choice and the only one listing an official range of over 300 miles. Stick to the Premium trim as well, the bigger wheels on fancier models sacrificing a bit of range for style. It’s also worth noting the Ioniq 5 is one of the fastest charging cars on the market, so if you do need to top up and can find a suitably powerful place to plug in you won’t be stopped for long.