The Hyundai Ioniq Electric is an EV with 311km/193mi of range from a 38.3kWh battery. We reckon that’s a pretty usable distance – but is the 2020 Ioniq Electric a good update to Australia’s cheapest electric car? In this episode of Chasing Cars, Tom drives the new Ioniq around Sydney to find out.
I’m tom baker this is chasing cars and today we’re driving the updated hyundai ioniq electric which sits here behind me now the ioniq electric has only been on the market in australia for eighteen months give or take but it’s already coming in for a facelift and a fairly major upgrade under the skin and it’s an upgrade that really matters because what electric cars
Actually need is not a more pretty front it’s actually more batteries and therefore more range but this one gets both so battery capacity is up to thirty 8.3 kilowatt hours which is almost 40% bigger than before they’ve made it denser it’s a better battery it’s now liquid cooled and as a result of all of that range on the wot p rating is actually 311 kilometers so
It’s broken through the 300 k mark that’s getting into really useful territory i reckon and this car is still under 50 grand in mid spec elite form there isn’t really a base model for this car in australia so it’s pretty affordable there’s zero tailpipe emissions and it doesn’t look too bad either well what’s the ionic like inside who will find out in just a second
And if you haven’t subscribed please do so below the video and hit that notification bell there are also quite a few changes to the interior of the ionic and they’re pretty much all for the better when the ionic came out in australia i sort of remarked that it wasn’t particularly futuristic in fact it felt a lot like an elantra inside and that has changed because
There’s now a sort of a real element of modernity and sort of electric mobility type of feel if that’s even a thing well i’m using a lot of technical language there basically it feels a lot newer so that starts with this piano black console here which now has a much bigger screen to have got a ten and a quarter inch wide screen through the high-rez so you can do
Two panes of information i’ve got the maps and the battery status here and it’s clever it tells you where your nearest evie charger is so it’s a lot easier to use than some other electric car infotainment systems you’ve got another 7-inch screen in front of you with some graphics about your range and consumption and stuff like that but nothing too complicated
Then there’s this centre console here more piano black lots of buttons but you’ve got your controls for you not so much gearbox more like your forward and back quit modes lots of storage down here because like all electric cars there’s lots of packaging opened up because you don’t have all the hard bits from combustion vehicle otherwise there’s a lot of standard
Hyundai stuff as well so we’ve got a normal here and a steering wheel feels good in the hand the paddle shifters do the regen braking we’ve got seats that feel like they’re out of an elantra or something similar pretty comfortable pretty supportive the premium it’s got electric adjustment with memory and other wise material qualities okay so soft touch up here on
The doors kind of faux leather pad on the dash which is not really soft but it certainly looks good but the other benefit is there’s adequate space in the back so let’s check that out adequate space if you’re not on the basketball team that is because the sloping roofline of the ioniq means the headroom is limited i’ve got maybe just under an inch left and i’m
6 foot tall big rims no problem toe room is a little bit constrained and that’s because like most electric cars the floor is a bit higher to accommodate a skateboard of batteries underneath so the gap under the seat is just a bit more compact but it’s really no problem and you could almost fit three people in here because that floor is nice and low you also get
Air vents to keep the air pumping that’s great in a hot country like australia you also have an armrest with two and a half cup holders however there are a couple of elements of the sting’s the material shifter hard here only get one pocket behind the seats but those are really slim pickings are they so what is the facelifted ionic electric light to drive well
Pretty good actually because hugh and i have concentrated on improving this car in the areas that really matter to people who are buying an electric vehicle and that is of course battery capacity and range battery capacity is off almost forty percent to thirty eight point three kilowatt hours and range is of a third to three hundred and eleven kilometers on the
Wot p rating cycle and that’s closer to real-world driving than the previous emissions standard so i reckon just over 300 k is is getting into pretty useful territory for another mm sort of 10 grand a little bit more than 10 grand you can of course step into a kona electric which has over 400 kilometers of range but you know not everybody has 60 grand or more to
Spend on an eevee and i reckon hugh and i are still worthy of congratulations for selling australia’s least expensive electric car which is the ionic electric elite this particular car is a premium but as i explained inside that you know the premium stuff is really just tinsel on top of the same package so what are we making under the bonnet or not really under
The bonnet except it is under the bonnet because that’s where the motor is in this car well the ioniq electric generates now 100 kilowatts of power and 295 newton meters of torque so it’s not as you know rapid as other electric cars out there don’t go expecting tesla model s types of acceleration but it’s definitely decent it feels to us like sort of a larger
Capacity four-cylinder engine maybe a two and a half litre four-cylinder but without any noise at all and it’s really pleasurable zero tailpipe emission motoring because you just sort of glide around with an easy sort of fairly linear talk basically in silence the refinements pretty good too they’ve worked hard on getting road noise down and it’s definitely not
Too noisy in the cabin though without the sound of a combustion engine that’s kind of all you can hear the rest of the vehicle is very inoffensive trending towards good to drive the handling is very neutral because the weight of this car is nice and low that shelf of batteries sits very very low in the chassis it actually doesn’t mind going around a corner quickly
You know it’s nice and foursquare in the corners there’s definitely some push understeer as you reach for this cars limits but i don’t think anyone will really be doing that around town it’s nice and easy to drive the steering is a little bit meteor than you might expect maybe a bit heavier than i generally like but it’s nothing to complain about visibility out of
The thing is generally pretty good apart from the sort of bar not spoiler but that sort of thing in my rear vision mirror you know it’s very very nice and easy and pretty plush to drive the rides well sorted to that’s because it goes through hugh and i australia’s local shooting program so it’s sort of as more towards compliance and some other human days that are
Sold in this country it’s a good blend of good low urban ride good low-speed urban ride while still being you know firm enough and compliant enough on a country road to know you’re not going to get thrown off into the ditch as for safety stuff every model in the ioniq range has a really good suite if you spend more on a premium like this car you get sort of more
Advanced lane trace assist and also adaptive cruise control but everything else you know a ebe blind spot monitoring reversing camera that’s nice and crisp but that’s all standard and of course i should remind you that the electric is just one of three ionics there’s a conventional hybrid just like a toyota prius and achieves mid threes in terms of fuel economy
And there’s also a plug-in hybrid which can do 63 case of driving on pure electric range which i think is pretty good but this electric really is to stand out for me so that’s my opinion of the new facelifted you and i on ik electric this car has had a nice little update that’s focused on the things that matter a battery capacity and range while also giving it a
Slightly fresher look outside and better technology inside if you’re looking for zero tailpipe emissions murdery and you’ve got 50 grand to spend this thing is not a bad car to look at far from it it’s actually a very accomplished urban car that actually can stretch a little bit beyond that with its now enhanced range if you haven’t already subscribed to chasing
Cars please do so below the video leave me a comment let me know what you think about the ionic electric and as always thanks for watching
Transcribed from video
Hyundai Ioniq Electric 2020 review By Chasing Cars
