The Hyundai Ioniq 6 Is Car and Driver’s 2023 EV of the Year

[Music] thank you welcome to Car and Driver this is the Hyundai ioniq 6 and it's our EV of the year for 2023. [Music] cheer We Gather the newest and most interesting all-electric vehicles on the market ranging from entry-level commuters to high-end luxury vehicles to trucks and ten thousand pound SUVs over the course of two weeks we test the performance and range of each and drive them back to back on the same roads we evaluate usability driving enjoyment value and so on within the context of each vehicle's segment this may only be our third running of this event but expectations Run High oh your car offers 300 miles that's okay but not a big deal anymore ditto with sub 5 Second 60 mile an hour times in Crazy Fast DC charging speeds while internal combustion engines continue to evolve gradually after More Than A Century of incremental improvements with EVS the rate of improvement is like going from carburetors to fuel injection every year Tesla enthusiasts have probably already pointed out by now that their favorite vehicle wasn't included this year and that's because this is the first year Tesla had nothing new to offer one thing we've learned in the short history of this contest you can't take Innovation for granted a company that's out in front one year might be in the middle of the pack the next or it might stay on a hot streak continuing to reimagine mainstream transportation for an electric future speaking of hot streaks let's consider the Hyundai Kia group last year the winner was the ionic 5 and this year it's that model's sedan sibling but also considers strong performances this year by the Genesis gv70 electrified and Kia ev6 GT when you do a picture begins to form in the broad swath of the EV Marketplace the Hyundai Kia group is clearly out in front please the ionic 6 shares much with the ioniq 5 but we also think it does a little bit more consider design the ionic 5 looks great with that boxy retro futuristic quasi-cyberpunk Vibe but this looks every bit as striking but for different reasons Hyundai says the 1930s Stout Scarab was a design inspiration we also see a bit of first generation Mercedes-Benz CLS in that sloping roof line but no matter what it evokes in you you just have to acknowledge this is a great looking sedan [Music] in the aerodynamic design too this shape gets you a drag coefficient as low as 0.22 and we also appreciate that this is just a good looking sedan instead of yet another generic crossover [Music] [Applause] as for propulsion you get a couple options there's a single motor mounted on the rear axle that delivers 149 horsepower with smaller battery pack the larger battery steps at the 225 horsepower and there's a dual motor all-wheel drive setup that cranks out 340 horsepower and most ionic sixes are going to have a battery pack that's 77.4 kilowatt hours as for range it's also quite a spread we tested a limited long range and that went 220 miles on our real world Highway Loop where we drive at a constant 75 miles an hour that's about 80 percent of its 270 mile EPA range rating now if you need more mileage than that they also offer a rear Drive SE I believe it's called on 18 inch wheels that one's rated at 361 miles and we got 300 miles roughly during our real world range test all right what matters more on long distance drives is charging speed and a properly working DC fast charger of course while our infrastructure is still growing the ionic 6 has an 800 volt architecture that averaged 153 kilowatt in our charge test but what does that mean in reality we made a theoretical map of how far each Eevee of the Year Contender could drive in 10 hours based on our test results we assume each vehicle starts at a full charge stops to recharge at 10 percent and continues driving after an 80 percent fill as charging slows dramatically in the batteries upper reaches we also optimized the last stint to maximize distance in the allotted time so a vehicle wasn't spending its last few minutes at the charging station the Lexus rz450e has the least Highway range 120 miles and it isn't particularly quick to recharge so it's plugged in for just over three hours in five stops and makes it only 515 miles in 10 hours a massive battery such as the Hummer EVS can help with range on the first stint but a vehicle needs to be both efficient and quick to recharge to do well for those reasons the Hyundai ioniq 6 narrowly emerged as the distance champ requiring 58 minutes of charging over three stops to go 678 miles with the BMW i7 and Lucid air pure a mere five miles behind while the ionic 6's result is certainly impressive a BMW m340i xDrive burning gas at a rate of 33 MPG could go 747 miles in 10 hours with a single fuel stop of just over a minute [Music] [Music] the charging speed isn't the only thing that's quick this dual motor version reached 60 miles an hour in 4.3 seconds in our testing where the single motor version is of course a little bit slower that needed 6.2 seconds you can also expect more of a Slowdown with the smaller 53 kilowatt hour battery the solid structure and quality of the damping gives you a nice ride over Michigan's less than perfect roads let's say Hyundai's also figured out the braking both in terms of pedal feel and how you adjust the amount of regenerative braking you use these paddles behind the steering wheel and that allows you to switch between the various modes which goes from Max regen which will take you all the way to a stop or none at all it's the kind of simple Elegance or Brilliance that makes you wonder why other automakers have such difficulty figuring this out foreign [Music] don't expect crazy upscale materials though the interior design is quite inventive we also really like these Sleek door panels yeah thankfully Hyundai didn't reinvent the wheel with its infotainment system it's simple and straightforward and so is all the surrounding switch gear which unlike some other EVS isn't different just for the sake of being different thank you Hyundai now as for storage the space up here in the center console is plenty usable though the trunk is a bit smaller than we'd like and this frunk is basically useless from its design to its charging speed to the way it feels from behind the wheel the ionic 6 is a well executed EV and a car we actually want to drive this polished machine makes only a few this steps as it puts Hyundai into the Winner's Circle again [Music] [Applause] thank you

Channel: Car and Driver

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Keywords: Car and driver, Ioniq 6, hyundai ioniq 6, ioniq 6 review, Hyundai ioniq 6 review, 2023 hyundai ioniq 6, 2023 ioniq 6, ioniq, hyundai, hyundai ioniq, best ev cars 2023, best ev 2023, best ev car, ev, ev cars, ev news

Id: KkJ9GpP8UaM

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2023