Category Archives: Hyundai

The best 300-mile+ electric cars

June 23, 2023Electric Cars, Hyundai, Kona Electric, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Range anxiety is still one of the biggest barriers to electric car ownership, but these models can all cover more than 300 miles on a charge – and some can go a lot farther than that…

Best 300-mile electric cars

Tempted by an electric car but think range might be an issue? Well, thanks to advances in technology, it really isn’t with many of the latest models. Right now, 33 cars in all shapes and sizes, from small SUVs to luxury saloons, offer a range of 300 miles or more, according to official tests. And some can even go beyond 400 miles.

We should point out that few electric cars can match their official ranges in real-world use; even the weather can affect performance. However, the cars on this list should still cover most longer trips without the need to pause for a battery top-up.

As well as naming the models with the longest official ranges, we’ll include the results of our real-world range tests (where applicable). We’ll also highlight each car’s usable battery capacity and tell you how long it takes them to be charged from 10-80% at their peak charging rate. They are ranked in order of range, from lowest to highest.

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UK Drive: Hyundai’s Ioniq 6 arrives to turn heads in the EV market

June 8, 2023Electric Cars, Hyundai, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The Ioniq 6 might look like nothing else on the road, but what else does it have to offer? Jack Evans finds out.

What is it?

Boy, that electric car segment doesn’t stop growing, does it? We’ve got new models cropping up from manufacturers across the board, while companies that have already established a solid foothold in the market are now taking things further and pushing the envelope wherever possible.

Take Hyundai, for example. It has already wowed the sector with its futuristic Ioniq 5, but is it stopping there? No way. We’re here with the new Ioniq 6, which is an EV that looks like nothing else on sale today. Is it all show and no go, though? We’ve been driving it in the UK to find out.

What’s new?

Dubbed a ‘streamliner’ by Hyundai, the Ioniq 6’s design has been shaped by its need to be bar-as-soap slippery through the air. Less drag means more range, after all, which is why the 6’s look is as smoothed-out as it is. It’s underpinned by Hyundai’s E-GMP modular platform which you’ll find tucked under a variety of the groups’ EVs, too, such as the Genesis GV60 and, of course, the Ioniq 5.

Inside, we’ve got some clever tech – including ‘digital’ wing mirrors which replace mirrors with screens – and super-speedy charging that means a ten to 80 per cent charge can be conducted in as little as 18 minutes.

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Review: Hyundai Ioniq 6

May 10, 2023Electric Cars, Hyundai, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The South Korean company’s new electric ride is a triumph in design and drive tech—and it’s just the beginning of an unbelievable brand turnaround.

AT THE START of 2023, the good people at the Department of Experimental Psychology at University College London surveyed 200 men between the ages of 18 and 74, and supposedly discovered scientifically what we all knew already: Men driving fast cars likely have small dicks.

Put more precisely, the authors stated that there was “a casual psychological link between fast cars and small penises.” The thinking, according to their paper, is that men who believe they are somehow lacking in the trouser department are more likely to rush out and buy, say, a Porsche 911 or a Ferrari.

It gets worse for older gentlemen. The experiment, which has not yet undergone peer review, found that “males over 30 in particular rated sports cars as more desirable when they were made to feel that they had a small penis.”

One suspects the academics could hear the cries of “Quelle suprise!” even before they finished their study.

Car design is, sadly, still almost exclusively a male space. But now, thankfully, the nature of EVs and the need for range-extending slippy aerodynamics has at least started to shift new car forms away from todger-compensating tropes such as power bulges, aggressive haunches, and ridiculous spoilers, instead bringing in subtler, aero-friendly lines.

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Autocar Awards 2023: the Hyundai Ioniq 6 is our Best Company Car

May 4, 2023Electric Cars, Hyundai, IONIQ Electric, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionRepost

Ioniq 6 is an impressive EV with good efficiency, a long range, generous rear seat space – plus, those BIK rates…

It ought to be unsurprising that Hyundai’s second flagship EV, the Ioniq 6, surprises with its looks.

Thanks in part to the firm’s design director SangYup Lee, who received last year’s Design Hero award, Hyundai has in recent years become one of the most innovative car companies when it comes to styling. It has built up a mainstream range of good-looking cars, but its EVs are where it really stretches out.

The Ioniq 6’s streamliner looks won’t please everyone, but no one could ever accuse it of being bland.

Hyundai Ioniq Electric Handover (Image: T. Larkum)

First came the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which questioned whether an SUV actually needs to look like an SUV, and introduced a new brand of retro-futurism that has clearly struck a chord with buyers.

But while most of Hyundai’s range (and most other manufacturers’ model ranges) becomes ever more SUV-heavy, the Korean manufacturer has decided to embrace the traditional saloon and has done so with un-traditional means.

In some ways the Ioniq 6 is quite old-fashioned, being a four-door saloon with a boot lid that is laser-focused on streamlining and aerodynamics. At the same time, it is a cutting-edge EV offering 800V architecture, ultra-fast charging, a large battery, good mechanical efficiency and a class-leading range as a result.

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Going green for Earth Day? These are the EVs with the longest range

April 25, 2023Electric Cars, Hyundai, News, Reviews and Comment, TeslaRepost

You’ll be able to skirt range anxiety with these 10 EVs

Charging continues to be one of the main problems with electric vehicle ownership. Having a vehicle that requires less maintenance and doesn’t run on gasoline are some major benefits of making the switch to an EV, but then you have to worry about finding a place to get electricity. Range anxiety might be blown out of proportion in the U.S., but it’s a very real thing.

Luckily, automakers are making impressive strides when it comes to range. New battery chemistry, larger battery packs, and innovative charging features mean most modern electric vehicles are now hovering around 300 miles of range. Keep in mind that getting an EV with an impressive amount of range isn’t cheap. But if money isn’t an obstacle, these 10 EV cars are some of the longest-range electric cars that are currently on sale.

1. 2022 Lucid Air Grand Touring: 516 miles

Lucid practically came out of thin air and usurped Tesla with the impressive Air sedan. The California-based automaker’s first electric vehicle, the Air, has the longest range of any EV on sale with up to 516 miles. To get that kind of range out of the Air, you’ll have to go with the Grand Touring trim with 19-inch wheels.

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‘Hyundai’s Ioniq electric car range is wiping the floor with rivals’

April 21, 2023Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, Hyundai, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionRepost

If, a decade ago, those ‘in the know’ were asked to predict which country and company would clean up on the international awards front in the early 2020s, I suspect the experts would have opted for a German firm – Audi, perhaps? Or an up-and-coming US one such as Tesla? Another safe bet – maybe a less exciting, but more dependable Japanese brand?

Back then, nobody in their right mind would have gone for an Asian country whose land area, population and access to natural resources were – and still are – smaller and lower than the UK’s. Even less likely was that an unglamorous, non-premium firm from that tiny Asian peninsula would headline on the global awards stage and in other international arenas.

But that’s exactly what Hyundai, its designers and its Ioniq models have done. Almost unfathomably, they’ve taken on and beaten countless ‘better’ and longer-established premium firms and products.

The ball started rolling in summer 2021, when the Ioniq 5 was crowned Auto Express Car of the Year, and autumn saw it crowned Germany’s Car of the Year. By the winter, a panel of bestcarsoftheyear.com judges from the global motor, motorsport and media industries named the Ioniq 5 the New Car World Champion. And in spring 2022, the same model won 50 per cent of the World Car awards for that year.

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Hyundai Ioniq 6 takes three trophies in World Car of the Year awards

April 17, 2023Electric Cars, Hyundai, IONIQ Electric, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The EV sedan repeats the feat the Ioniq 5 achieved last year

The New York Auto Show has hosted the prize-giving ceremony for the World Car of the Year awards for nearly 20 years. Guests in attendance for this year’s laurels might have wondered if they’d ended up at the 2022 New York show, Hyundai taking the same three awards this year as last. In 2022, the Ioniq 5 won World Car of the Year, World Electric Vehicle, and World Car Design of the Year. At this week’s New York Show, the Ioniq 6 repeated that trifecta. The battery-electric sedan beat 29 other vehicles with a variety of powertrains, that initial group whittled down to the BMW X1/iX1, Ioniq 6 and Kia Niro.

The top prize is contested among vehicles sold in at least two major world markets on two continents between January 1, 2022, and March 30, 2023, priced below the luxury-car level in the primary markets, and produced in greater than 10,000 units during the sales timespan.

The Hyundai beat 20 other vehicles for the World Electric Car title, a category the WCOTY board inaugurated in 2022. The market qualification is the same here, but there’s no price cap and the production threshold is lowered to 5,000. The runners-up in the category are the BMW i7 and the Lucid Air. The consolation prize for the Lucid Air was winning the World Luxury Car award, beating the BMW 7 Series/i7 and Genesis G90.

New 2023 Hyundai Kona EV grows to boost practicality

March 21, 2023Electric Cars, Hyundai, Kona Electric, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Crossover to be “upscaled” with new multi-powertrain platform based on learnings from Ioniq 5 and 6

The new second-generation Hyundai Kona has been “taken to the next level” through a focus on the electric version and learnings from the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Hyundai Ioniq 6.

Already on sale in Korea and due to arrive in Europe this summer, the new Kona arrives just six years after the original. It will continue to be offered with petrol, hybrid and electric versions – but while the first-gen version was developed as an ICE car, the EV was the priority for the new model.

The EV accounted for around 40 per cent of first-gen Kona sales in Europe, and with the continent moving to electric cars that ratio will increase sharply in future. Hyundai design chief Sang-Yup Lee said the focus was on ‘upscaling’ the car in both size and quality.

The Peugeot 2008 rival switches to a new multi-powertrain platform, and has grown substantially – Hyundai refers to it as being ‘upscaled’. At 4355mm the new Kona is 175m longer than its predecessor; it is also 25mm wider and 20mm higher, while the wheelbase has been stretched by 60mm. That makes it slightly smaller than the closely related Kia Niro EV, leaving the Bayon as the smallest SUV in Hyundai’s line-up.

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Hyundai Ioniq 6 UK first drive

February 8, 2023Hyundai, IONIQ Electric, Model 3, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, TeslaRepost

Sleek Ioniq 5 sibling finally reaches the UK to take on the Tesla Model 3

Last year, the Toyota GR86 famously sold out in just 90 minutes, giving Glastonbury a run for its money in the popularity stakes. But there was another fast-selling in-demandcar that slipped under most people’s radar: the Hyundai Ioniq 6 First Edition, which was all gone in just 24 hours.

Granted, that’s not quite Billie Eilish fast, but for an electric car, and a Hyundai at that, it’s still some statement. As a result of its global popularity and the (yawn) ongoing supply problems, we’re only just getting into a first review of the car in the UK, despite it being available in Korea back in October. The proper dealer allocation won’t even come through until March, with UK prices for the Ioniq 6 starting at £46,745

What can people expect when it does finally arrive? Certainly one of the more individually styled cars on the road. I was in the design preview briefing for the Ioniq 5 with Hyundai chief creative officer Luc Donckerwolke and thought at the time that car was punchy, but on the road the 6 is arguably even more distinctive, with its streamliner profile and twin-deck rear.

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IONIQ TRICKS The Hyundai Ioniq 6 is a sleek electric saloon with class-leading charge times and an impressive range

December 15, 2022Electric Cars, Hyundai, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

I’M guessing you’ve seen Hyundai’s pitch-side advertising at the World Cup.

They’ve got animations of Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 nudging footballs along the touchline and munching the word Hyundai as they go.

Reminds me of Pac-Man. But then so do the cars.

Every Ioniq model has pixel lights inspired by Eighties video games. Very cool.

Now check out the steering wheel. It has four square dots in place of the usual H logo which glow red, green or white depending on whether you’ve selected Sport, Eco or Normal mode. Also very cool.

When Hyundai launched the all-electric Ioniq family almost two years ago, it promised “no more boring clones”.

Ioniq 5 is an angular hatch, 6 an arc-shaped saloon and 7 a big, boxy SUV coming in 2024.

Nothing copy and paste here, then, except for those pixel lights and the cutting-edge battery tech under the skin.

We’ve just tried Ioniq 6 as part of judging for the 2023 World Car of the Year awards.

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