Hyundai IONIQ 5 (2024 - ) Electric review

Changes to the way electric cars are now taxed has thrown a hand grenade into this crucial sector of the new car market, the £40,000 threshold for the ‘expensive car supplement’ adding over £2,000 to the tax costs over a five-year ownership cycle a tricky one for cars like the Ioniq 5. The base-spec version just limbos under that price, so will save you on tax. But it misses out on some of the better bits seen on the rest of the range. That stings, even if the Ioniq 5 is otherwise decent value for money. As for running costs it’s the usual story – those with access to cheaper home charging and company drivers keen to minimise their monthly Benefit In Kind bill are both winners but private owners and those needing to charge on the public network lose out on some of the money saving benefits of EV life.

The Ioniq 5 doesn’t get the same seven-year warranty as the Kia EV6 built on the same foundations, but the five-year cover is still decent and enough to cover you for most typical finance or leasing terms. Hyundai generally builds reliable cars, so we wouldn’t be too worried on this score either way.

Sensors and cameras do all the usual stuff of keeping you in your lane, slamming on the anchors if you don’t respond to a hazard in your path and keeping a fixed distance to the car ahead even in stop-start traffic. A central airbag between driver and front seat passenger is still a noteworthy and welcome additional feature, too. Hopefully none of this will ever be tested, the bad news being in everyday driving the cacophony of bongs and chimes from the various systems is utterly infuriating, to the point of distraction. Which is undoes a lot of the good work. Gimmicky rear-view cameras are, thankfully, reserved for the top model, given the fractional lag in the feed, addition of yet more screens and fact you can’t vary the angle of view make them a lot less user-friendly than traditional mirrors. While we’re moaning the fact the tax-friendly base model doesn’t get the blind-spot interventions means cash-conscious buyers miss out on one of the genuinely useful safety systems.

Being built from the start as an electric car rather than converted from a petrol-powered one or on a shared platform with hybrids and other powertrains means the Ioniq 5 can tuck the batteries and other gubbins away to the maximum benefit of space inside. In practical terms this means a flat floor with no awkward hump running up the middle of the cabin and tons of legroom in the rear, making it a great family car whether your kids are small enough to need child seats or sufficiently lanky to require space for slouchy teenage doom scrolling. On some models it also gets you a nifty sliding centre console to configure storage to your needs. Boot space isn’t quite as generous and the Ioniq 5 is bigger in the metal than it looks in pictures but, overall, it’s a good size and doesn’t feel as unwieldy in everyday situations as some. We were, however, somewhat disappointed in the ride quality of our sporty looking N Line test car, the combination of bigger 20-inch wheels and skinnier-sided tyres making it unpleasantly harsh over sharp bumps. Some rivals – our Cupra Tavascan long-termer included – have adjustable suspension where you can select a more comfortable setting to offset this but the Ioniq 5 doesn’t even offer it as an option.

Base trim levels are usually a token offering to hit an attractive starting price for the marketing department, buyers usually gravitating at least one or two steps up the ladder when putting their money down. But as the only Ioniq 5 to duck that tax penalty for cars over £40,000 the entry level Advance may be on more shopping lists than previously. As such, the fact it misses out on conveniences like wireless phone charging, lumbar support for the passenger seat and that neat sliding centre console are more annoying than before. To be fair, it still gets important stuff like a range-boosting heat pump, a heated steering wheel and the same slick, built-in navigation on the central-screen as the rest of the range. But you do miss out on goodies like ambient lighting, the blind-spot interventions, built-in window blinds in the back, hands-free tailgate and the nifty ‘Vehicle 2 Load’ adaptor turning your car into a driveway powerbank into which you can plug hedge trimmers, lawn mowers, e-bikes or anything else you can run off a domestic three-pin plug. Meanwhile, if you fancy the idea of the sporty N version (and who wouldn’t) but the price and performance look a bit extreme there are now N Line and N Line S trim levels with bodykits for the automotive equivalent of wearing your gym kit to the pub.

Without getting too bogged down in numbers and tech rest assured Hyundai’s early investment in fancy battery and motor tech has effectively futureproofed the Ioniq 5 against rivals, meaning it still stands scrutiny in terms of power, range and charging. In the time the car has been on sale its battery capacity and power outputs have increased, there now being the choice of Standard or Long Range models in single- or twin-motor configurations and three power outputs. We tested the bigger battery with the rear-wheel drive (RWD) configuration, on the basis 228 horsepower is plenty and the 329-mile official range is the best of the bunch. Maybe it was the cool weather or our driving style but on a long motorway cruise the Ioniq was basically done with only 200 miles covered, though, which was disappointing. Charging speeds are, at least, above average and hooked up to a suitably powerful motorway services charger the Ioniq raced to 80 per cent charge in as long as it took to grab a comfort break and coffee. Not a cheap way to charge or travel but sometimes you just have to accept convenience comes at a cost.