The Hyundai IONIQ 6 2023

I mean everybody buys  SUVs now and yet today we are looking at a  car it looks more alive than most vehicles I  see on the road it has this rounded shape it’s  

almost slippery it’s got these big headlight  eyeballs and a tail a little tail at the back  

I mean it looks like some sort of organism  I’m sorry if you thought that was a little  

weird but today we’re looking at a car that’s  a little weird it’s the Hyundai ioniq 6.

the ionic 6 has an incredibly distinctive  silhouette even more so than its sibling  

the ionic 5. it’s surprisingly long at 191.1  inches it’s longer than a Kia Sorento at the  

front we have the familiar parametric pixel LED  headlight design reminiscent of the ioniq 5 and  

below those Hyundai has equipped active Grill  shutters to help keep things even more aerodynamic  

unlike the ionic 5 this insanely  streamlined profile is as slippery as it looks with a .22 drag coefficient  undoubtedly helping that number are the  door handles walk up with the key in  your pocket and voila voila voila voila .

I forgot the line walk up with  the key in your pocket and voila  

they present themselves now this is a cool  party trick no doubt but it’s one we’ve  

seen before and I know that some of you are  watching this and thinking well that’s just  

one more thing to break so let us know in the  comments are you Pro power flush door handles  

the ionic six has two sets of Wheels an 18 inch  pair that comes on the base model .

I describe  as spicy and these 20s which you can get on  the SEL and limited trims I would describe.  

these as violent our car is painted ultimate red and Hyundai also sells this in a digital  

green and here’s a tip if you show me a green car  I’ll probably like it other than those it’s your  

regular and familiar arrays of blacks and whites.

Silvers Grays there is a gold that I really want  to see in person because maybe it’s time to bring  back champagne paint colored cars do you agree  at the rear this spoiler is about more than  style it also AIDS in the car’s aerodynamics  and that’s a common theme I think that this is the  ionic six’s best angle in large part due to that  spoiler and these parametric pixel tail lights they are cool up front but even better back here  

it is less futuristic in here than it is out there  but there are still some pretty high tech and cool  

features for instance the lights on the steering  wheel in the ionic six they actually show you some  

different status indications so for instance  if I put it into reverse these lights glow red  

if I put it in drive or park they go back to  Blue and it works for the sport mode and the  

Eco Mode as well sport red eco mode green that’s  pretty cool but otherwise there’s not a lot in  

here that’s going to throw you for a loop

I mean  Hyundai’s dual screen layout this is actually  

getting pretty familiar by now and then there are  some retro touches in the ionic six except I don’t  

think that Hyundai necessarily intended them to  be retro first the window switches are on the  

center console rather than the doors they’re also  Square plastic switches which don’t feel great now  

Hyundai put those switches in the center because  the door panels are almost completely buttonless  

and while I appreciate the aesthetic of these  buttonless swoopy doors they look great it’s  

definitely a form over function experience at  least for me

I would rather something that’s  a little more boring and a little more practical  now the car we’re driving in is not cheap it has  an as tested price north of 57 000 and that’s a  lot the worst part is that while plastic isn’t  bad it’s not what you want to find all over  the place in a car that costs almost 60 Grand  and you get in the Hyundai and it doesn’t look  like there’s a lot of plastic everywhere I mean  

we’ve got these nice textured surfaces but then  when I touch them it becomes clear that there is  

actually a lot of plastic components they’re just  hiding in plain sight this center console has a  

huge open space below which is a big benefit  of the Eevee’s lack of a transmission tunnel  

and the bin back here houses two USBC ports  to go along with the usba .

 

data Port up front unfortunately my Headroom is suffering from what  appears to be a poorly placed steering wheel it  just feels too high I’m five foot eleven and by  the numbers I should have plenty of Headroom in  this car but I couldn’t adjust the seat and  the wheel to provide me a good view through  

the wheel to the display a nice arm angle and  good Headroom so I ended up compromising I have  

the Headroom my arms could be a little lower  and I can’t see every corner of the display  

the rear seat offers great leg room and enough  Headroom that I don’t feel like I’m hunched over  

however the rear seat is situated a bit too low  for a relatively High floor and that results in  

a lack of thigh Support also if you do hit a  good bump I think my head’s hit in the ceiling  

cargo volume is rough there’s basically no front  trunk

just this little cubby better suited for a  charge cable and the rear trunk is only 11.2 cubic  feet which is very small more than two cubes less  than a BMW M2 let alone the ionic six’s actual  competition the Tesla Model 3 and the pole star 2.

oh Hyundai sells a few powertrain variations in  the ioniq 6. the SE rear wheel drive long range  

models they have a 168 kilowatt motor that’s  good for 225 horsepower and it pairs with a  

77.4 kilowatt hour battery pack now that beautiful  combination is good for up to 361 miles of driving  

range and that number more than anything

else is  what makes the Hyundai ioniq 6 noteworthy now if  

you get all-wheel drive it adds another motor  to the mix and brings horsepower up to 320.  

that’s pretty good it also uses the same 77.4  kilowatt hour battery pack but because of the  

additional power it’s now down to 316 miles  of range of course if you get the scl or The  

Limited trims well those have 20 inch wheels  and that hurts efficiency so those with rear  

wheel drive then we get 305 miles and if you  do add all-wheel drive like our test car has  

well then the number drops to 270.

personally  I would rather have more driving range than  

more power but I’m not going to deny that the 320  horsepower is pretty nice and the 446 pound-feet  

of torque well that is really nice acceleration is  delightful as it is in most electric cars there’s  

nothing quite like the silent rapid power  delivery that you can experience in an EV  

it doesn’t have the same kind of drama but  this will still cook your typical V8 Pony car  

handling is a mixed bag the steering feels great  very direct and quick and the suspension does a  

nice job of absorbing bumps

but the ionic  six feels uncomfortably heavy for its size  

all that weight translates to a lot of inertia  through the corners and the ionic six it just  

never feels quite as composed in really aggressive  driving as I would like it to now if you’re gonna  

buy this EV well then you should be doing so  for the fuel efficiency because yes even though  

this is an electric car we can still talk about  efficiency during testing our car was traveling  

about three and a half miles per every kilowatt  hour of energy consumed and that’s really good but  

here’s the rub in order to see that kind of number 

you’re going to have to practice some serious  

self-control because every time I started playing  with the throttle I saw that number drop so get  

into the 320 horsepower or the 446 pound-feet of  torque well you’re not going to see a number that  

you like truthfully I think the 225 horsepower is  all you need in this car and the 361 mile driving  

range well that’s outstanding that equates to  140 mpge or about 4.6 miles per kilowatt hour  

I mean if you can get away with rear-wheel  drive instead of all-wheel drive then I say  

go with the SC rear-wheel drive extended Range  model because it really is what makes the ionic  

six a standout in the EV segment this can do  a lot now unfortunately the icons still all  

look a bit too similar and the responsiveness  is not quite as fast as I would like it to be  

and together that means that you end up  taking your eyes off the road longer than  

should be necessary also while we have Apple  carplay and Android auto they still require  

a wired connection now there are benefits  to using a wire but when the competition  

increasingly showcases Wireless CarPlay .  

Hyundai’s at risk of being left behind  but back to what it can do basically everything  that we talk about in these reviews satellite  radio navigation smartphone projection yada  yada can do all of that but being an EV  can do some EV stuff too the navigation system  can find charging stations along your route it can also update finding new battery charging  stations along your route as the vehicle’s battery  depletes and critically it has the capability to  show .

you are how many Chargers are currently in use  at those stations Hyundai Blue Link offers remote  access remote start or remote control for charging  remote Diagnostics a vehicle tracker and finder a  voice recognition system all of that stuff comes  as complementary it’s free now buy my research  a lot of automakers offer some of that stuff for  free but no automaker except for Hyundai offers  all of it for free now safety comes free too  

Smart Sense comes standard and is equipped with an  impressive array of driver assistance systems.

Now if you move up to the SEL trim you get highway  driving assist too and that can help maintain  

distance it’ll adjust the positioning of your car  if a car in the adjacent Lanes gets a little too  

close can even assist with Lane changes and it  uses machine learning to help figure out what  

your Tendencies are in terms of vehicle spacing  and acceleration it’s really impressive stuff and  

if you go all the way up to the limited trim you  get those features plus the outstanding blind view  

monitor system the biggest thing working against  the 2023 Hyundai ioniq 6 at least for now is  

price the starting price starting price is a  frighteningly high forty six thousand six hundred  

and fifteen dollars which includes the 1115  destination fee but get a limited all-wheel drive  

model like our test car here that could be as high  as 57 425 dollars that’s what we’re working with  

like the ioniq 5 the ionic six should  be getting an SE standard Range model .  

it’ll be a little cheaper and it’s  going to show up later this summer  but it’s still likely going to cost over forty  two thousand dollars and that’s including the  destination fee and it only gets 149 horse powerand  a 240 mile driving range and both of those  figures well they really strip away a lot of the  things I like about the ionic six I recommend a  rear-wheel drive SC extended Range model because  the 361 mile driving range really is this car’s  differentiator but let us know what you think in  the comments section would you take a decontented  SE model and enjoy that driving range or is 270  miles plentygiven our car’s premium comfort and  safety features .