Here is an instructive fact. This sleek new Hyundai Ioniq 6 saloon sits on the same platform as the already launched Ioniq 5 crossover SUV. They use the same electric motors, the same battery packs. Beneath the skin they really are the same car. And yet, the Ioniq 5 in the same rear-drive ‘Ultimate’ specification has an official range of 295 miles, the Ioniq 6 some 338 miles. Why? It’s simple: the Ioniq 5 has a highly commendable drag co-efficient (CD) of just 0.29, the Ioniq 6, a freakish 0.21.
But that slippery shape does something else too: it gives the car real character. There are some elements of its lines that remind me of those extraordinary 1930s Silver Arrows autobahn record breakers from Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union, others that are so reminiscent of the Porsche 911 I’d not be surprised to learn they’d heard from lawyers in Stuttgart.
Both in its design and in its styling (for they are not the same thing), the Ioniq 6 seems so much more imaginative than the majority of Europe’s equivalent output. It also has an 800v charging infrastructure like the Porsche Taycan and not many others so that, in theory at least, it can charge from 10-80% in 18 minutes.
No, it’s not great to drive, but what similar car is? Instead Hyundai has been bold, made the most of the advantages inherent within EV architecture and created a genuinely desirable electric car. And in so doing they have achieved something very indeed. AF
Price £50,540
Engine Rear electric motor, 76kWh battery
Power 255bhp
Torque 258lb ft
Weight 1835kg
Power to weight 139bhp per tonne
Transmission Single speed, rear-wheel drive
0-60mph 7.4sec
Top speed 115mph
Range 338 miles (WLTP)
CO2 0g/km
Verdict An EV that isn’t such a drag.
You’ll not have failed to notice that electric vehicles are now being thrown at us thick and fast, and I’m afraid to report that most I drive are still heavy,…
I have always considered what I do to be a young man’s game, inconvenient for me insofar as by the time you chance upon this column, you’ll be reading the…
The late monarch’s Range Rover went for 10 times the typical price of a similar non-Royal model
Late backer of the McLaren F1 team Mansour Ojjeh’s entire 20-car McLaren collection has been snapped up by one undisclosed buyer
This is such a superficially clever car. It’s a quite spacious five door family machine that, like so many other electric vehicles, also goes like hell when you so command.…
If you’ve watched the Netflix series Yellowstone you will want to go to Montana. If you haven’t it comes highly recommended by me and everyone else I know who’s seen…
Is Lotus really going to shut its Hethel factory? Personally, and despite the company saying it has “no plans” to do so, I would not bet against it. We had…
One of the first big jobs I did as a young road tester was to pit a Morgan Plus Eight against an E30-series BMW M3 convertible. The outcome may seem…
Long chat with Gordon Murray after what seems like far too long. As you read this the South African-born son of Scottish parents will have just entered his 80th year,…
It gives me no pleasure to say it, but the only true BMW M car of recent times to which I’ve felt a proper connection is the baby of them…
The news that the threatened 25% tariff on car exports from the UK to the US has been reduced to 10% is clearly to be welcomed. For some companies I…
As a child, Lamborghini was the evil empire. I was a Ferrari man and the only explanation I could find to explain why Boxers and Testarossae always lost comparison tests…