How many times have you seen a concept car, and wished – nay, lusted – that it had become a production car? But, all too often, the concept gets watered down.
In mid-2019, Hyundai teased us with its 45 Concept EV, – a wedgy and aerodynamic fastback silhouette with diamond-shaped design lines, long wheelbase and short overhangs, and beautifully big wheels. Hyundai called it an “orchestration of concave and convex forms.”
Guess what – here it is as the most concept car-like vehicle in Hyundai’s lineup.
Thanks Hyundai.
So, in a world where Teslas, Nissan LEAFs, Chevy Bolts and Audi Q4 e-trons are becoming commonplace amongst petrol-powered buggies, where does the angular IONIQ 5 fit? By sheer luck, we got to park amongst those EVs and more as our Caffeine and Octane Jacksonville cruise-in hosted the inaugural Drive Electric North Florida Electric Avenue gathering. And despite wet weather, there were lots of EVs on hand. But none looked as radical as the IONIQ 5, and it garnered so much attention.
Related: 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5 Road Test Video And Review
At 182.5 inches in overall length, 74.4 inches wide and 63.0-inches tall, its wheelbase is almost 4 inches longer than a Hyundai Palisade midsize SUV, yet almost 14 inches shorter than that vehicle. It sits on Hyundai/Kia’s E-GMP (Electric-Global Modular Platform), a specific EV platform. So it can look cooler than some other EVs that live on modified gas platforms. And there’s so much 45 Concept there.
The rounded nose gets gentle geometric design lines flowing down corners as a gloss black panel ends with LED lighting – staggered quad headlights framed in rectangular DRLs that double as amber turn signals. Under the slim panel, a gentle V-shaped trim that glows at night. It’s got a central slit that doubles as the charging light. The silver lower fascia gets twin intakes for battery/motor cooling – we caught them opening and closing at Electric Avenue.
The intake’s silver continues around gently-flared front fenders, accents radiating out as they frame amazing flat-faced 15-spoke silver and black areo-optimized wheels wearing P255/45R20-inch Michelin rubber, behind a very short front overhang. Lots of folks loved the look of the wheels, which delightfully fills the openings.
The second most aerodynamic vehicle ever from Hyundai Motor Co, it has a .29 coefficient of drag. Helping that are flush door handles that automatically pop upon approach. Doors are bisected with more geometric lines and unique silver lower sill accents, while the squat roofline gets angular C-pillars topped by a deep spoiler over an angled hatchback. The rear lower fascia echoes the front with unique square dot-matrix taillights in their own black strip. And of course, no exhaust pipes, with a short overhang.
The IONIQ5 looks great in Atlas White — like we have a shuttlecraft in our garage, made by Starfleet. And cruising our local high-end mall the next day under sunny skies, heads swiveled as the IONIQ5 quietly toodled by — gaining gazes that not even the prismatic paint-clad Tesla in front of me was getting.
With wheels pushed out to four corners, that made for a big interior — the IONIQ5 is also wide, 74.4 inches vs. the VW ID.4’s 72.9 inches, and 2 inches lower. And it’s an inch wider than a Hyundai Tucson. So a family of four will find lots of room inside this spare, but elegant Dark Pebble Gray/Dove Gray “Large Car Space,” as Hyundai calls it.
There’s an almost flat floor– no driveline hump. Front seats are perforated white leatherette with power adjustment and dual memory presets for the driver. Its comfy and fairly supportive, with a relaxation feature when parked – the driver’s seat reclines as the bottom cushion rises, as does a calf support for comfort. Both front seats have heat and cooling.
The flat-bottom steering wheel has controls in front for cruise control, phone, lane-keep system, audio and more. There’s also a drive mode button, as well as what look like paddle shifters. They control the intensity of the regenerative braking, all the way to full regen i-PEDAL to a stop – so easy to get used to, I used it all the time.
Then, like so many new cars, there’s a sweeping display in front of the driver — more like two iPads with a white bar in between — with a speaker-like cloth square on the left.
“Is that a speaker?,” a friend asked. Nope — just a cloth square with a steel plate underneath, perfect to plant a fridge magnet with family photo or notes. The 12-inch gauge display in front is easy to read — digital speedometer on the left, miles-to-empty on the right, with unique speed and charge/power use displays in between. In the middle, configurable displays including all-wheel-drive split, navigation, audio, charge and more. The speed and charge/power use displays change when Eco, Normal or Sport drive modes are picked. And a favorite Hyundai feature is here too – the left and right ends of the screen show blind spot camera views when you activate that turn signal.
The center 12-inch touchscreen offers widescreen navigation with the ability to add audio or other info on the right. Or there’s a full EV range screen with interactive button telling you how close the nearest EV charger is – tap the icon and you get routed there. It can show range with, or without climate control activated.
A stubby twist-to-select gear shifter is easy to use, the start/stop button nearby, as is a silver strip of main screen menu buttons over a backlit touchscreen climate control — and a volume knob. Light green ambient lighting glows from door armrests and speaker surrounds.
The flat floor below has a storage nook with 12-volt and USB plug in front, and a center console between the front seats with cup holders, inductive phone charger, more USB ports and a flat storage tray big enough to hold a takeout meal box. It can slide back and forth 5.5 inches. More storage inside the flip-up center armrest.
The back doors are long, offering easy access to a genuine 3-across bench seat with decent legroom. There’s two more USB ports and a storage nook, while rear seatbacks do recline. Overhead, a large glass roof.
The 27.2-cu.ft. rear cargo area hash decent room between the wheel wells, plus storage underneath for charging cable and tire inflation kit. Rear seats split 60/40 and fold flat. The power rear hatch opens hands-free –stand there and after taillights blink and beep, it opens taller than my forehead. Like many EVs, there’s a frunk under the hood, but it is tiny, crowded in with fluid reservoirs and ancillary stuff.
Other tech: a unique animated head-up display that projects turn-by-turn navigation, safety systems and even the cars in front and in either lane on each side. Change lanes, and the wide HUD shows the IONIQ5 doing the same. There’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, while Bluetooth pairs two devices at once. Finally – seats, headliner, door trim, floor and armrest, use eco-friendly materials like recycled PET bottles, plant-based and natural wool yarns and bio paint with plant extracts.
The IONIQ5 has two flavors of battery — 58 kWh and our car’s 77.4 kWh. There’s rear motor only, or top-of-the-line dual motor with all-wheel drive and a combined 320 hp (74 kW front + 165 kW rear), and 446 ft.-lbs. of torque. The single motor (rear-wheel-drive) gives an estimated 303 miles of range on a charge; our dual motor all-wheel drive model showed a 256-mile range on a full charge.
We got our IONIQ5 with almost a full charge, and only used a bit more miles of range to get home, where we had only Level 1 (115-volt) to top off those batteries. If we drained the Hyundai dry of drive, it would take about 68 hours to charge from 10 to 100 percent on 115 volts. On Level 2, it’s a seven hours to 100 percent. Find a Level 3 fast charger, and it’s only 18 minutes from 10 to 80 percent charge.
With two electric motors, no transmission and all that torque, our 13,000-mile-old IONIQ5 is fast in Eco mode, and very fast in Sport mode, which really tightens up steering and applies all power NOW! In Eco, it launches moderately, then gains speed with a delightful turbine-like whirrrr to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds. A full power launch in Sport mode snaps your head back as the IONIQ5 raises its nose and bursts out of the gate, full traction on all four tires and no wheelspin as we hit 60 mph in quick 4.5 seconds. It’s so quick, the speedo digits almost blur, yet there’s no torque steer or drama – like it has been launched on a rail. There’s a top speed of 115 mph, and it can tow up to 2,000 pounds.
FYI – after each day’s average 35-mile round trip commute, I’d see range go from that 100 percent charged/256 miles range to 86 percent charged/208 miles range, driving mainly in power-saving Eco mode. That’s 48 miles of range lost for only 35 miles of driving, with a very tall bridge and some highway passing done. One morning, the car claimed 100 percent charged but only 244 miles of range in Eco mode; but 247 miles if you turn off the climate control. Switch to Sport mode, which noticeably juiced the motors, and predicted range dropped to 231 miles with climate control off, and 226 miles range with it on.
Driving in i-Pedal for full regen every time I slowed down, I’d see a mile or two of range reappear. The bad news – plugging in our IONIQ5 with that daily average 85 percent range left saw an estimated 12 hours for a full charge displayed on the gauge screen.
FYI — you can use or charge any electric devices off a 120-volt outlet adapter on the car’s outside charging port.
It handles just fine, McPherson strut up front, and 5-link rear with sports damping, if a bit softer than I’d like in suspension tuning. That said, it just zipped around corners with no drama and a bit of body roll, quite composed as the all-wheel-drive display showed front motor/axle activation, then power flow back to battery when I backed off in i-Pedal mode.
There’s no gearbox, so no downshifting. But i-Pedal’s regen braking acts like a smooth downshift, so back off into a turn; the car takes a set, then power out with no understeer. Our IONIQ5 with dual motors is rear-wheel-drive biased, and we could briefly juice out the back end in spirited driving until traction control grabbed it. This is no sports car, but it sure was fun to play with thanks to dual motor all-wheel-drive. And a little birdie told me an N-Line version is in the works – a tauter suspension and even more serious road-holding, with a bit more power.
The rack and pinion-type steering was precise, with decent feel in Eco mode; firming up noticeably in Sport mode with no slop, yet felt a bit artificially boosted. The 12.8-inch disc brakes front and rear offered a nice initial bite high on the pedal when In used them, since i-Pedal’s regenerative braking was so easy to use. But they had a precise control and good stopping power with no fade after repeated hard stops from 60 mph.
Lots of safety in here. There’s Smart Cruise Control that starts, stops and resumes with a button or pedal tap. Speed Limit Assist adjusts speed to match the speed limit, and there lane-keep assist to nudge you back in line. And there’s SmartPark, which moves the car slowly in or out of tight parking spots via key fob.
A base 2023 Hyundai IONIQ5 SE Standard Range is $47,330; our 2022 Limited AWD started at $54,500 with almost all here standard bar white paint and carpet mats standard – final price $56,320. A Tesla Model Y AWD may be faster, with a bit more range, but it’s also closer to $65,000. And experts said our IONIQ 5 charges faster.
Bottom line: Looks cooler than most EVs; fits any parking space and still carries 5; very quick when it needs to be and very sure-footed. And the price surprised most folks who already have other EVs, meaning it must be a bit cheaper.
2023 Hyundai IONIQ 5 Limited AWD
Specifications – compact 5-passenger EV crossover
Base price – $54,500 ($56,320 as tested)
Motor type –Dual Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motor with 77.4 kWh Lithium-ion Polymer battery
Combined horsepower (net) – 320
Combined torque (lb-ft) – 446
Wheelbase – 118.1 inches
Overall length – 182.5 inches
Overall width – 74.4 inches
Height – 63 inches
Front headroom – 39.1 inches
Front legroom – 41.7 inches
Rear headroom – 37.5 inches
Rear legroom – 39.4 inches
Cargo capacity – 27.2 cu. ft./59.3 w/rear seat folded
Frunk capacity – .85 cu. ft.
Curb weight – 4,663 lbs.
Range – 256 miles on full charge/113 combined MPGe