Hyundai Ioniq 5 Words Jake Groves Photography Alex Tapley STARSHIP, EARTH Might the electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 – just landed from space – be the most important hatchback since Ford’s Mk1 Focus? 100 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | JUNE 2021 JUNE 2021 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 101 Hyundai Ioniq 5 in the finished product. But I’ve driven produc- homes with on-road obstacles like raised drains, charging cables – there’s a handy storage box DRIVING tion-spec family hatches that are louder than 90º bends and tight squeezes between parked under the bonnet for that. Hyundai’s thought ORIGINS this one. Wind noise is almost non-existent, cars are shrugged off by the Ioniq’s compliant of everything with its new clean-sheet EV. even over the mirrors, and the roar of 20-inch low-speed ride, tight turning circle, one-pedal Truth is, it’s that cohesive sense of every CAN IT DRIVE wheels and tyres over coarse M40 tarmac is driving mode and suite of safety cameras. We’re aspect of the car being without any compromise HOW DID acceptable given the lack of engine to mask it. so quiet we don’t disturb a soul. that defines this new Hyundai. It is very much HYUNDAI Making for Stratford on twisty country As the town sleeps, I park up. The cabin feels the Mk1 Focus of the EV world: jaw-dropping AS GOOD AS roads, plenty of electric cars would feel lumpen way roomier than any family hatch currently looks, balanced and engaging handling from GET HERE? and inert right now, their sheer mass the biggest on sale. Rear legroom is generous (even behind a league way above the norm, space for stuff ’n’ IT LOOKS? buzzkill on an interesting road. Not this one. my 6ft 2in driving position) and the La-Z-Boy things and a thoroughly user-friendly cockpit. Serious R&D investment and The live-wire steering is pin-sharp, nicely reclining front seats are a neat detail. The boot While the Ioniq 5 might look and feel like it’s aggressive head-hunting for weighted and linear in the way the resistance is shallow but otherwise big, and you don’t from a distant galaxy, it’ll settle into life on years have put Hyundai ahead How do you make an i-Pace or ID.3 instantly slip road: check we’re alone, flick the drive mode ebbs and flows with lock, like the rack’s beauti- need to pinch capacity from it to store your Earth like a native. of the pack. It started with look dated? Park it next to the new Hyundai into Sport, go. That irresistible e-whumping of fully lubricated. The addictively instant throttle the hiring of Albert Biermann, Ioniq 5. A sleepy evening in Oxfordshire and, acceleration leaves the petrol-fed crossovers and response is partnered with brakes that actually the engineering ace behind as we plug in for a top-up, you can’t miss the night-shift freight behind me for dust. feel like brakes with real bite, regardless of the brilliant i30N. His focus is mixture of envy and bewilderment on the faces With nine-year-old me temporarily satisfied, which of the four levels of regen you’ve selected on handling brilliance across of the Jag and VW EV owners we meet. They the 5 settles down to a cruise, the range meter – so many EVs offer a stodgy left pedal when everything from the N division thought they had the coolest EV on the block. clocking down one mile for every mile I drive. A you switch the regen off. to family SUVs – and now elec- They don’t. poorly maintained stretch of motorway doesn’t And the body control! Truly this is Mk1 Focus tric cars like the Ioniq 5. A fantastic start, then. But there’s more to a seem to faze the ride: not too firm, not too soft. stuff, and clearly the work of ex-BMW man To work alongside design good family car than just eye-popping looks. There are some audible thumps over potholes Albert Biermann. Sure, there’s a touch of roll – free-thinker Luc Donckerwolke, Ford’s Mk1 Focus, for example, combined pro- but they’re not enough to upset the ride’s equi- this is a family hatch – but direction changes are Hyundai snapped up SangYup gressive design with family friendliness and ace librium, and there’s no jolt through the steering crisp and well controlled. Lee – the man who penned handling dynamics. wheel, either. Into the historic town centre of church spires, Bentley’s Speed Six concept Rolling out of the charge station, we join the We’ve been warned this pre-production car Tudor terraces and wood-beamed pubs. Here and Bentayga – and, more M40, heading north. The adrenaline junkie doesn’t have the full soundproofing, and to the Ioniq’s wild looks feel entirely alien, and recently, it poached Tyrone within immediately gets the better of me on the expect more road noise than engineers want yet the car is right at home. Blocks of terraced Johnson from Ford. Johnson was at Ford for decades and developed the This is not a last Focus RS. ‘If you’d asked concept car: me three years ago if I would repeat, this is not a concept car ever leave Ford, I’d have asked you what vodka you were drinking,’ says Johnson. ‘But what’s happening at Hyundai is unbelievable.’ Hyundai’s fastidious com- petitive analysis and rigorous development schedule were factors in Johnson’s decision to join. He was also drawn by its EV focus. ‘I’m sure part of the reason that this new car is al- ready on the market is because the Kona EV among others have been hugely successful,’ says Johnson. ‘Hyundai and Kia, together with Tesla, were one of the first to EVs.’ ⊲ Ex-BMW man Albert Biermann is leading Hyundai’s charge 102 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | JUNE 2021 Hyundai Ioniq 5 DESIGN No question: the Ioniq 5 is a design master- thick padded seats, a sliding centre console, two A R E A L stroke. While Hyundai says the original design massive screens and a kitsch two-spoke wheel was inspired by the Pony Coupe from the ’70s, like Honda’s E. SHOW this is no slavish pastiche. ‘Creating the platform allows us to start The ‘parametric pixel’ lights front and rear with a clean sheet of paper,’ says creative chief STOPPER, are gorgeously retro without coming across Donckerwolke. ‘It also led to the “universal as twee. And the 5’s blocky, deadpan eyes are island” – a centre console that moves back and THEN? complemented by a glowing front arrangement forth. We were inspired by living rooms more you don’t see when the car is off, something than typical automotive interiors. It was a lib- chief creative o cer Luc Donckerwolke is eration to be free of these cliches of automotive proud of: ‘We have what we call hidden lighting interior styling.’ – a surface that’s micro-perforated so that you What’s more, the 5’s shape deftly hides its have light shining through but it’s coming as a dimensions. It’s longer than a VW ID.4, both surprise through a chromed surface. It’s a part physically and in terms of its wheelbase, and of the enjoyment we want to give.’ about 40mm taller than a Jaguar i-Pace, despite Flush door handles pop out on your approach resolutely looking like a family hatchback – a and you’re welcomed into an airy cabin with new benchmark family hatchback, no less. Hyundai Ioniq 5 PRICE £48,000 (Project 45 trim) POWERTRAIN 72.6kWh battery, twin e-motors, all-wheel drive PERFORMANCE 295bhp, 446lb ft, 5.2sec 0-62mph, 114mph EFFICIENCY 298-mile range, 0g/km WEIGHT 1900kg (est) ON SALE Now, deliveries summer Not a trick of the ##### eye – like space itself, interior is big on space about three miles per day,’ says Ioniq 5 project more to come from Hyundai. TECH manager Askin Kahraman. ‘The roof will also ‘Without wanting to reveal too much, we’re help the 12-volt battery, so the car will never planning a ream of products that will take discharge completely.’ Good to know orbiting a advantage of this platform,’ says Johnson. I S T H E R E vast, near-perfect sphere of plasma has its uses. That includes an Ioniq 6 saloon based on the Underpinning all of this tech is Hyundai and gorgeous Prophecy concept, and a large SUV t Project 45 limited edition version SUBSTANCE Kia’s E-GMP platform. A dedicated platform named Ioniq 7. The future is bright. for a new EV dawn is nothing novel in the BEHIND industry right now: ‘Ford, VW and others have based their future on platform technologies,’ THE S TYLE? acknowledges Johnson, ‘but we’ve developed this platform for our mid-term future.’ E-GMP is more than just a battery skate- The Ioniq 5 is armed to the teeth with the latest board. There are rear- and all-wheel-drive driver assistance and comfort tech. Pioneered powertrain options, an architecture that by the hydrogen fuel-cell Nexo, the blind-spot supports both 400-volt and 800-volt charging monitor shows you a wide-angle view of each infrastructures for super-fast charging times, side of the car when you flick on the indicator to and vehicle-to-load functionality that turns change lanes. Cloud-based navigation gives you your 5 into a rolling power bank. ‘You can plug the best route considering your state of charge in anything you want, and it’ll be charged with and tra c conditions, and the solar-panelled a 3.6kW charging speed as long as the battery roof works as a trickle charger.