Review: Hyundai Ioniq Electric

This version of the Ioniq is all-electric. Does that mean it’s all good?

1/6

7 October 2016

Hyundai’s Ioniq is based on the same underpinnings as the Kia Niro crossover, which is a good start. Whereas that vehicle is a hybrid, however, the version of the Ioniq tested here is 100% electric.

So what? So to make enough space for the batteries, the Niro’s multi-link rear suspension gives way to a more basic torsion beam.

The alternative would be to take a bigger bite out of the luggage space in the boot. But the Ioniq is aimed at punters who are more interested in carrying capacity than they are in driving dynamics, and who won’t be put off by road and wind noise or wallowy, understeery handling and an over-firm ride.

Those of us who do get put off by these things are forever looking at electric cars and fretting about what a waste they are of all that lovely, instant output. Hyundai quotes ten seconds dead for the 0-62 sprint, but the Ioniq feels much faster – especially when you first get on the throttle, which at speeds-around-town is likely to light up the front tyres.

The crikey-we’re-off acceleration is aided by the lack of a traditional gearbox. Even though 118bhp and 218lb ft sound quite modest, the way they’re delivered is lively indeed – so, to come back to its dynamics, the car’s power train is a lot more exciting than its chassis.

Its brakes can be quite exciting too, mind you. Just turn the regenerative function up to max, and feel the way it slows the moment you lift your foot off the wheel. We found it enough to have us worrying if the guy in the rear-view mirror was paying attention, so pretty soon we moved the switch back to blouse mode.

Said switch lives in a cabin that bears more than a passing resemblance to another Hyundai in te shape of the Tucson. That’s no bad thing, and neither is a general level of kit that includes things like an 8.0” touch screen and all the phone integration you can handle.

You also get all the electric-only motoring (sic) you can handle, so long as you can only handle 174 miles at a time. Even if you never actually get that in the real world, it’s still enough to make this Ioniq worth a look alongside the other EVs on the market.

With a steepish screen price to overcome, though, you’d need to be determined to join the electric car set for the Ioniq, as tested here, to make real sense alongside the best of its conventionally engined rivals. As EVs go, it’s a decent one – but as cars in general go, it’s hard not to feel that plug-in motoring has a way still to go before it really (apologies in advance) plugs in and switches on to what makes other cars good and bad.

KEY STATS - 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric

Price £24,495 (after gov't grant)
Engine Electric motor
Power 118bhp
Torque 218Ib ft
Gearbox Single-speed reduction gear
Kerb weight 1420kg;
Top speed 103mph
0-62mph 9.9sec
Range 174 miles
CO2/tax band 0g/km/7%

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