Slovaks are shocked by the design, crowds turn behind him. We tested the electric Ioniq 5 – FonTech

So far, we’ve only written about the revolutionary Hyundai Ioniq 5, but this week we finally got a chance to try it out for ourselves and see why the Korean carmaker’s electrical novelty is so great and whether everything that’s written about it is actually true. .

At the outset, we can say that the Ioniq 5 is a really great electric car and in many ways destroys the competition. Unfortunately, the perfect car has not yet been produced by any car manufacturer in the world, and even here you will find details that will not suit people.

We only got the car for three hours, which is really not enough to try out all its functions and features and at the same time bring a sober look at the driving characteristics and impressions of driving.

In the article you will learn:

• How to drive the highest version of the Ioniq 5
• In what way it is absolutely revolutionary against the competition
• How ultra-fast charging works on the Ionity station
• What is the function of V2L and what does it look like in practice
• What are the consumptions on the highway, districts and in the city
• What technological equipment does Ioniq 5 offer?
• What shortcomings we noticed during the first hours with this car

There were three Ioniqu models at the show and we were lucky to get the best one in the Premium edition with a price tag of just over € 55,000. The car was almost fully equipped and lacked nothing from a head-up display with augmented reality to the additional V2L function, which we will get to later.

The power of the pair of electric motors is 225 kW (300 hp) and of course all-wheel drive. This most powerful version of the Ioniq 5 so far accelerates from 0 to 100 km / h in 5.2 seconds, and just for comparison, the fastest Hyundai i30N with a burner accelerates to 100 in 5.4 seconds.

The agility of a futuristic-looking electric car is definitely not lacking. The chassis handles it very well, even when driving sharper, the car does not falter drastically. On the other hand, when driving calmly in Eco or Normal mode, it floats beautifully on the road and filters out unevenness.

Speaking of modes, these are the three and a pair mentioned above complements the Sport mode and is switched by a button on the steering wheel.

With a 72.6 kWh battery, the most powerful version with 4 × 4 drive can travel 430 km according to the WLTP standard on a single charge. When we took over the car, it was 90% charged and the virtual alarm clocks lit a range of 357 km, while the previous ride shone consumption at the level of 17.2 kWh.

So we chose our own “quick” consumption test and as a reference route we chose the route from Modra to Trnava, of course off the highway. We managed to do about 30 km with a fantastic consumption of 14.1 kWh / 100 km, but we admit that we drove gently. However, you can easily count on consumption up to 15 kWh / 100 km during standard driving.

Wandering through beautiful Trnava also drew an average of 14 kWh of energy per 100 km from the battery. As with any car, not just an electric car, fuel consumption is directly proportional to driving style.

As soon as we chose the sport mode and “stomped” on it a bit, consumption climbed above 25 kWh / 100 km. We can state the consumption at the motorway pace at a speed of 140 km / h, when the consumption stretched up to 27 kWh / 100 km.

But we can imagine that at a calm pace on the highway at speeds up to 120 km / h, we could drive up to 22 kWh / 100 km. We will verify this information in a full review.

What we also managed to try was the extremely fast charging of the new Ioniq 5. The car has an 800 V electrical architecture, thanks to which it can theoretically charge up to 350 kW. However, the reality of other tests has shown that the maximum power is somewhere up to 232 kW.

Unfortunately, as we have already mentioned, three hours with such a revolutionary electric car are really not enough and we basically did not manage to run more than 20% of the battery capacity. That’s why we came to Ionity station with 70%.

After starting the charge, the charging power jumped almost immediately to 130 kW and remained above 100 kW even after reaching 80% capacity. We did not approach the mentioned 250 kW, but such power is achieved in the range of 30% to 50%. Charging at 100 kW at 80% is still fantastic.

When we mention that the Ioniq 5 is in many ways better than the competition, charging is just one of them. With competing electric cars of the Volkswagen Group, the maximum charging power is 150 kW, while Ioniq achieves such power at practically the “weakest” charging moments, ie after reaching 80% charge.

But the Ioniq 5 is not just about charging itself, because the car can charge or power other appliances or even another electric car. Thanks to the V2L function, which is not currently offered by any other competition sold in Slovakia, you can draw energy from the Hyundai Ioniq 5 up to 3.6 kW. You can easily connect it to, for example, a coffee machine or even a whole smaller cottage.

The technological equipment is also rich. The highway assistant works well, even works with augmented reality. If another vehicle is in the blind spot, this information will also appear on the head-up display in the “real world”.

Hyundai implements a whole host of small useful functions in its vehicles, such as notifying the driver that the vehicle has moved in a column in front of you. When changing lanes, the image from the camera on the rearview mirror is projected on the left or right virtual alarm clock, so you can see better whether you can shift safely.

Such “trifles” are a lot in the car and we probably didn’t even manage to reveal them all. But let’s take a closer look at the interior. In front of the driver there are two displays embedded in one panel. An experienced car enthusiast does not have to think for a long time where Hyundai was inspired by this solution.

The layout of the Mercedes-style displays is one thing, the functionality and intuitiveness of the infotainment is another. In this respect, Hyundai is a weaker average. We do not claim to be lost in the menu, but some functions deserve hardware buttons and not just setting through the right display.

Specifically, I come across the adjustment of heating / ventilation of seats. Ioniq 5 has a nice separate panel to control the air conditioning, but the buttons to turn on the comfortable functions of the seat are not there. It is therefore necessary to go to the menu and only here can the mentioned heating or ventilation be switched on.

They were also very pleased with the physical controls for the radio and media. It may seem unusual to someone, but for us it absolutely fits into the overall style of the car.

One more thing, for us personally, a big disappointment occurred when pairing a smartphone with infotainment. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay only work via cable. In a car that represents the future and that even looks like it should be up to 10 years old on the market, it is important for us that the technological functions are as comfortable as driving impressions. And we don’t have to lie, the cable in the car is no longer very comfortable nowadays.

Summary

The new Hyundai Ioniq 5 is truly revolutionary in many respects over the competition. Ultra-fast charging, V2L function or huge interior space, all this plays into the carat of a Korean electric SUV.

Whether it is better or worse, such as Enyaq a ID.4? We can’t say that for now, but we believe that he will definitely find his target. It has fantastic consumption, “youthful” and futuristic design, an interesting price tag and technological equipment at a level that is more or less standard for the middle class today.

For the first few kilometers, the Ioniq 5 definitely caught our hearts, but in most cases it is the case that the car first burns out and reveals its strengths. Defects and shortcomings will only begin to appear during longer testing, which we are definitely looking forward to and during which we will check in detail all the capabilities of an ambitious electric car.