Presenting Automobile and Driver’s 2022 EV of the 12 months

C/D Check Outcomes at a Look

60 mph: 4.5 sec
1/4-Mile: 13.2 sec @ 102 mph
Braking 70–0 mph: 170 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.85 g
Freeway Vary: 210 mi

If you wish to know why the Hyundai Ioniq 5 is our EV of the 12 months, simply take a look at it. Is that this not the best new design on the street? Simply if you thought the two-box crossover form was completely consigned to amorphous wind-tunnel blobbiness, alongside comes this assortment of slashes and rectangles, all rakish and defiant however one way or the other nonetheless scoring a comparatively slippery 0.29 coefficient of drag. That is excessive design for the plenty, proper all the way down to the exotic-looking matte-gray paint—a $1000 possibility. Sure, that is all. The Ioniq 5’s pricing, which begins at $41,245, is the one factor about it that is resolutely regular.

This automotive is confidently bizarre. The motive force’s seat has an influence leg relaxation? Okay! The middle console slides again 5.5 inches, so you may climb into both entrance seat from both facet, ought to that want come up. It’s also possible to drive the automotive ahead or again utilizing the important thing fob, proving Hyundai’s dedication to squeezing into inadvisable parking areas. The cruise management pays consideration to the way you drive, so it will possibly attempt to emulate your model (alternately, it may be manually configured for “indignant Boston man dashing to purchase Powerball tickets”). Once you plug in, a disembodied voice booms “charging began” from someplace beneath the automotive. You’ll be able to flip that down, or off, but it surely’s enjoyable to startle folks at public chargers together with your assertive speaking automotive.

With its normal 58.0-kWh battery, the Ioniq 5 is nice for 220 miles of EPA-rated vary. The bigger battery (77.4 kWh) delivers 303 miles of vary in rear-drive fashions and 256 miles in all-wheel-drive vehicles. These numbers aren’t class-leading (the EPA charges the Tesla Model Y Long Range at 330 miles), however that does not matter a lot given the Hyundai’s 800-volt structure and consequently fast charging capacity—a 350-kW charger can blast the bigger of the 2 battery packs from a ten to 80 % state of cost in 18 minutes. Hyundai’s battery, provided by SK Innovation, can also be capable of act like a generator; Hyundai calls this vehicle-to-load functionality. With an outlet forward of the rear seat and an adapter that plugs into the cost port, you’ve got received 1900 watts accessible for tailgating or preserving your fridge chilly throughout an influence outage. That function may be a boon for tenting, and in reality the Ioniq 5 can haul a tidy little teardrop trailer: Its tow ranking is a modest however helpful 1650 kilos.

You’d hope that our EV of the 12 months can be enjoyable to drive, and the Ioniq 5 would not disappoint there both. In all-wheel-drive type, it hits 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, simply 0.2 second behind a Ford Mustang Mach 1. And that launch would not require any finicky preparation, as evidenced by the 4.8-second 5-to-60-mph time. The Ioniq 5 feels prefer it’s rear-drive, comfortable to hold its tail out. Of its 320 complete horsepower, 221 horses come from the rear motor and 99 from the entrance. In truth, if you’re not deep on the accelerator, the Ioniq is rear-wheel drive, because it’ll present you through the instrument-cluster drivetrain graphic that depicts real-time energy supply to the 4 contact patches. Traction and stability management are absolutely defeatable, often an indication of a automotive that is able to occasion. This factor on winter tires, in a couple of inches of recent powder, shall be a riot.

And if you’re not driving such as you’re on a Rally Finland stage, the Ioniq can morph right into a supremely comfy cruiser. Its 67-decibel inside sound studying at 70 mph is only a decibel larger than that of a Bentley Bentayga S—when it is raining, you actually discover the slap of the windshield wipers as a result of that is all there may be to listen to. The inside feels enormous, a perform of the lavish 118.1-inch wheelbase, which is full-size-SUV territory. Hyundai would not make a giant deal about its Freeway Driving Help 2 system (which mixes adaptive cruise and lane centering), but it surely’s top-of-the-line within the enterprise and looks like it might be able to go hands-free with the addition of a driver-monitoring digital camera. It even helps with lane adjustments—give the steering wheel a nudge and the automotive easily slides over for a move. The pinnacle-up show has an augmented-reality mode, when you want a break from common actuality. As with the outside styling, the Ioniq 5’s inside looks like an idea that most likely will not make it to manufacturing. Besides it already did.

Fails? The tiny frunk—successfully a briefcase sitting atop the power-electronics {hardware}—is a joke, and the turning circle is unusually enormous, a few foot greater than that of a base GMC Yukon. The rotary stalk shifter additionally requires acclimation.

However so what? The Hyundai Ioniq 5 looks like the longer term. And the longer term is nice.