Hyundai Ioniq 5


Debut: 2021
Maker: Hyundai
Predecessor: No


 Published on 22 Sep 2021
All rights reserved. 


Probably the most attractive and unusual EV since BMW i3.


While Volkswagen makes a lot of noises about its EV offence, its ID range of cars and crossovers are neither innovative nor very well executed. In fact, a little disappointing, because they do not match the high standard of design and build quality used to characterize the German brand. In contrast, Hyundai group worked silently on its EV programs, but they turn out to be the best yet we have seen among all mainstream car makers, Tesla excluded. The first product from the Korean group is Ioniq 5, a very stylish and well-made crossover.

The Ioniq 5 looks like a Golf-size hatchback, but it is actually a mid-size car, which is evident in its 4635mm length, 1890mm width and 1605mm height. Hyundai’s designers successfully disguise its size with huge, 20-inch wheels that are pushed to the corners, as well as a body profile remarkably close to Lancia Delta – although they insisted the car was inspired by Pony, the first Hyundai small car that successfully entered the US market. The influence from the Italian rallying classic is evident: not only the silhouette but also the shape of the C-pillars and side windows, the paper-folding surfacing and the straight crease line that runs across its doors. However, unlike how Great Wall Motors copied Volkswagen Beetle to make Punk Cat, the Ioniq 5 is not a copycat. While inspiration comes from Lancia, the execution is original, and there are tons of creativity shown in the details, such as a diagonal crease line added to the side, the clamshell bonnet and pixelated LED head and tail lights. These make the Ioniq 5 really stylish. Premium even.



Hyundai said its styling is inspired by Pony. I say Lancia Delta.


Yes, the Ioniq 5 is set to be a premium product that an ID.4 or even Audi Q4 E-tron can never accomplish. Priced between £37,000 and £48,000 before incentives, it enters the heartland of BMW 3-Series, Mercedes C-class, Audi A4 etc. In the EV side, it competes with Tesla Model 3, Polestar 2, Ford Mustang Mach-E and the aforementioned German nameplates. Stiff competition. Is it good enough?

Judging from the interior, it is a winner. While the materials and switch gears are not up to BMW standards, they can easily shame any Volkswagen ID. The design is so fresh and trendy. There is an MBUX-style panel that holds a 12.3-inch instrument display and an infotainment touchscreen of the same size. The interface looks good and responds quickly, plus there are some physical switches for air-con etc. The environment is light and airy, with excellent visibility all round. Super-spacious, too. All occupants sit high in the cabin yet enjoy generous headroom and vast of legroom, especially rear seat, thanks to the incredible 3000mm wheelbase. The flat floor and the lack of transmission tunnel also help freeing up legroom. Moreover, this cabin offers plenty of features used to be reserved for MPVs, such as a sliding rear seat that allows you to alter legroom and luggage space, a center console that slides back and forth on rails, and front seats that recline, fold and have calf support. In fact, the Ioniq 5 is as tall as a Renault Scenic. You might just see it as an MPV disguised in a much more attractive hatchback body. Why didn’t MPV makers think of that?



Interior is stylish, super-spacious and offered with many MPV features.


At the back, the boot is quite high and shallow, as the motor is working underneath, but it is wide and flat, offering 527 liters of space. The tiny frunk is a joke, just big enough to store charging cables and tools.

The Ioniq 5 as well as more upcoming Hyundai and Kia EVs are built on the group’s first skateboard EV platform called E-GMP. All batteries are placed under the floor and within the wheelbase. You can opt for 58kWh or 73kWh battery capacity, single-motor or twin-motor setup. The single-motor drives the rear wheels, offering 170hp or 218hp depending on battery size, and they sprint from 0-60 mph in 8 and 7 seconds, respectively. Twin-motor offers 306hp and 4WD functionality, capable to sprint from rest to 60 mph in 5 seconds, trailing only Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2. For an EV without a performance badge, it is remarkable. However, don’t forget a similarly-priced BMW M340i xDrive manages 0-60 in 4.2 seconds and has a top speed 40 mph beyond the electric Hyundai.



Suspension is strongly oriented for comfort, failing to deliver tight body control.


Quick though it is, the Ioniq 5 is not designed to be hustled. If you do so, you will find its soft, long-travel and comfort-oriented suspension fails to contain its body roll in corner, pitch and dive in acceleration and braking. The steering is light and muted. So the Lancia Delta shape is only an illusion. Ride quality is generally good. It does a good job to absorb potholes and low-speed bumps. However, as speed rises, the car could feel floaty over undulations, lacking the tight damping required for a composed ride. I know an Ioniq 5 N is under making, but I think a decent body control and composed ride should be the basic requirements for a premium car like this.

If you push the car, you will find the battery drain out in alarming rate, just like any EVs. Drive more leisurely, however, the larger battery might last 300 miles (481km) for single-motor or 267 miles (430km) for twin-motor, pretty good. Charging performance is excellent, as it supports 800V / 350kW charging stations, which beats even Porsche Taycan’s 800V / 270kW capability. This means, recharge from 10 to 80 percent takes only 18 minutes, provided you can find such a charging station.

The Ioniq 5 is an impressive effort from Korea. Extremely stylish and tasteful, well made, incredibly spacious yet offers strong performance, it has many things lo love. On the downside, the loose handling and flawed ride quality rules out pure driving excitement, something Tesla, Polestar, or even better, a conventional BMW 3-Series can easily excel. Still, it is probably the most attractive and unusual EV since BMW i3.
Verdict:
 Published on 7 Dec 2023
All rights reserved. 
Ioniq 5 N


Hyundai's N division proves that EVs can be great driver's cars.


Electric cars are boring, but theoretically they can be made exciting to drive, because everything can be tuned by software. First of all, if you are good at acoustic engineering, you can simulate the noise of a V8, V10 or a V12 and play it through audio speakers. You may even place the subwoofer under the bonnet and pump the sound through pipes into the cabin, just to make them as real as possible. It all depends on how serious you want to emulate the character of combustion cars.

Not happy with the on/off switch-like throttle response and flat torque curve of electric motors? By reshaping the torque curve, you can get a power delivery that encourages you to rev the motor like a good old Honda VTEC. You may also program the motor output as if it works through a dual-clutch gearbox, dropping revs after every gearchange, hitting rev limiter after each downshift, with the torque changes according to rev and gear. Too perfectly smooth? Add jolts to each gearshift by momentary pause and engagement. Because silicon carbide inverter is so powerful and comes with zero delay, you can simulate whatever powertrain characteristics.

As for chassis, the freedom to control front and rear motors or even all 4 wheels individually through power electronics create unprecedented opportunities: variable torque split from 0:100 to 100:0 or anything in between, infinite torque vectoring between front wheels and/or between rear wheels, drift mode, crab walk, playing donut or even self-rotate.

I think many automotive engineers have envisioned these benefits long ago. The question is, which manufacturer is serious enough to pour the necessary budget to develop such an electric driver’s car. Porsche? BMW M? Toyota Gazoo Racing? Surprisingly, it seems that Hyundai’s N division arrives there first.

The N division has earned a strong reputation in recent years. It was established by ex-BMW M boss Albert Biermann in 2014 (who has now retired and acts as special advisor only) and strengthened further by recruiting Tyrone Johnson as its vehicle development head in 2019. Johnson’s CV included the last Ford Focus RS. He works at Hyundai Europe’s R&D center in Russelsheim, Germany, explaining why the N models are thoroughly tested in Nurburgring. Following i30 N, i20 N, Veloster N, Elantra N and Kona N, the division’s latest and biggest challenge is to make the electric Ioniq 5 as exciting to drive as its ICE siblings.

The Ioniq 5 is a very good basis to start with. It looks pretty and funky, with a strong resemblance to the classic Lancia Delta giving it a psychological advantage when it has to fight against super hot compact cars like Mercedes A45 S, BMW M2 and Audi RS3. Moreover, the Ioniq 5 runs state of the art 800V electrical architecture and 350kW charging rate, something Mercedes and BMW’s electric cars struggle to match. This should make it easier to squeeze more power out of the package.



What impresses most is how exciting it feels to drive. All the controls are expertly tuned...


The Ioniq 5 N is derived from the dual-motor Ioniq 5, but it gets very extensive modifications. The chassis is reinforced with extra spot welds and adhesives, widened by 50mm and lowered by 20mm. Stronger front and rear subframes are employed, as are stiffer mountings for steering, motors and batteries. The steering ratio is tightened, suspension is stiffened up, while massive (275/35ZR21) Pirelli P-Zero rubbers are fitted, accompanied with monster-size brakes (400mm front and 360mm rear), extra spoilers and skirts. Inside, there is a pair of new bucket seats, an Alcantara steering wheel, some extra mode buttons and aluminum pedals.

As for powertrain, the battery is enlarged from 77 to 84 kWh, accompanied with upgraded inverter to enable higher output. Both motors are new, spin faster (up to 21,000 rpm) and generate more power. Combined output surges to 609 hp and 546 lbft, while overboost can take it further to 650 hp and 568 lbft for up to 10 seconds. An electronic LSD is fitted to the rear motor, which is about 70 percent more powerful than the front motor to deliver a rear-biased handling balance.

With so much power, the Ioniq 5 N is able to overcome its 2.2 tons kerb weight and sprint from rest to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. It will top out at 162 mph, not the 115 mph limit of lesser Ioniq 5 models. Fast enough to beat the aforementioned A45 S, M2 or RS3 from a stop light. Admittedly, that is what we all expect from an electric hot hatch that costs comparable money to the German premium cars, i.e. £65,000. However, it is not all about straight line speed. Hyundai promises that it has enough energy and cooling to lap Nurburgring under 8 minutes for a couple of times, then take only 20 minutes charging to start it all over again. Maybe not quite as enduring as petrol cars, but nonetheless impressive for an electric performance car.

But what impresses most is how exciting it feels to drive. All the controls are expertly tuned – the steering is feelsome and nicely weighted; the brake pedal is responsive, suffering no dead feel as in some EVs; the suspension is firm but controls the car's massive weight pretty well. There is some more pitch and roll in sudden change of direction than a usual hot hatch, but rarely hurt your confidence. With torque split set to rear-biased, the car's turn-in is particularly impressive, sharp and faithful. Turn off stability control and you can induce some oversteer like a proper rear-drive performance sedan. The great balance and adjustable manner remind us some of the best BMW M cars in the past.

The N e-Shift mode does a good job to simulate the behaviour of an 8-speed DCT. You use the steering wheel pedals to trigger artificial upshift and downshift, altering the torque and sound, hitting the artificial limiter at 8000 rpm and even achieves engine braking with it. So good that after a while you might forget that you are driving an EV.

Less successful is the N Active Sound synthesizer, as none of the 3 soundtrack options sound real enough to please keen drivers. Likewise, the N Drift mode is an unsuccessful attempt to replicate the drift mode of AMG or BMW's all-wheel drive systems. It is just impossible to hold the slide. More development work is needed. As it is, the Ioniq 5 fails to play 4-wheel drift that its Group B rally special looks suggested. In fact, being a much bigger and heavier car, it is not exactly a hot hatch in the same sense of a Megane Trophy-R or Civic Type R. Instead, it is a more matured high-performance car.

What makes the 5 N even more impressive is while it is fun to drive, it keeps the easy-going manner and practicality of the standard car mostly intact. A firmer ride and more tire noise aside, it is just as useable as a daily driver as the regular Ioniq 5. The cabin is spacious and well made. The hatchback versatility is kept. The charging from 10 to 80 percent takes just 18 minutes, and the range is still a respectable 250-280 miles (estimation).

Hyundai's N division has successfully created a great driver's car based on an EV. While you might say Porsche did that first with Taycan, the Ioniq 5 N is an even bolder attempt, just check the artificial gearbox and variable torque split and you will see. At half the price of the fast Taycans, the 5 N is also more relevant to most motorists. Yes, £65,000 is a lot of money for a Hyundai, and I don't think too many people will buy it instead of A45 S or M2, but it proves that electric cars can be fun to drive. Sooner or later the same genes will be passed on the company's smaller, cheaper electric hot hatches.
Verdict:

Specifications





Year
Layout
Chassis
Body
Length / width / height
Wheelbase
Engine
Capacity
Valve gears
Induction
Other engine features
Max power
Max torque
Transmission
Suspension layout
Suspension features
Tires
Kerb weight
Top speed
0-60 mph (sec)
0-100 mph (sec)
Ioniq 5 58kWh RWD
2021
Rear-motor, RWD
Steel monocoque
Mainly steel
4635 / 1890 / 1605 mm
3000 mm
Electric motor x 1
58 kWh battery
-
-
-
170 hp
258 lbft
1-speed
F: strut; R: multi-link
-
235/55WR19
1830 kg
115 mph (limited)
8.0 (c)
-
Ioniq 5 73kWh RWD
2021
Rear-motor, RWD
Steel monocoque
Mainly steel
4635 / 1890 / 1605 mm
3000 mm
Electric motor x 1
73 kWh battery
-
-
-
218 hp
258 lbft
1-speed
F: strut; R: multi-link
-
255/45WR20
1910 kg
115 mph (limited)
7.0 (c)
-
Ioniq 5 AWD
2021 (2022)
Front & rear-motor, e-4WD
Steel monocoque
Mainly steel
4635 / 1890 / 1605 mm
3000 mm
Electric motor x 2
73 kWh (77 kWh) battery
-
-
-
306 hp (325 hp)
446 lbft
1-speed
F: strut; R: multi-link
-
255/45WR20
2020 kg
115 mph (limited)
5.0 (c) / (4.9 (c) / 4.5*)
(12.6*)




Performance tested by: *C&D





Year
Layout
Chassis
Body
Length / width / height
Wheelbase
Engine
Capacity
Valve gears
Induction
Other engine features
Max power
Max torque
Transmission
Suspension layout
Suspension features
Tires
Kerb weight
Top speed
0-60 mph (sec)
0-100 mph (sec)
Ioniq 5 N
2023
Front & rear-motor, e-4WD
Steel monocoque
Mainly steel
4715 / 1940 / 1585 mm
3000 mm
Electric motor x 2
84 kWh battery
-
-
-
609 hp (overboost 650 hp)
546 lbft (overboost 568 lbft)
1-speed
F: strut; R: multi-link
Adaptive damping
275/35ZR21
2235 kg
162 mph (c)
3.3 (c) / 3.0* / 3.5**
6.9* / 7.8**
















































Performance tested by: *C&D, **Autocar




AutoZine Rating

Ioniq 5


Ioniq 5 N



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