I recently drove 246km in a Australian Hyundai Ioniq 6 Dynamiq 2023 RWD electric car around Sydney. I didn’t have time to do a long drive but there were lots of short less than 10km trips as well as a 60km return drive from Marrickville to Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden return.
The Hyundai Ioniq 6 Dynamiq refers to the base spec 2023 version which is rear wheel drive and has a longer range (614km WLTP) than the more premium all wheel drive Techniq and Epiq which have almost 100 lower range (519km WLTP) .
Disclosure: The car was loaned by Hyundai Australia for 8 days to review. I agreed to meet all the associated running costs e.g. tolls, charging etc.
What I Liked
Exterior Design
Like the Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 the Hyundai Ioniq 6 has a unique eye catching design. It certainly stands out from the many common white Tesla’s you see on Sydney roads.
Whether you like it or hate it the design isn’t boring and it isn’t yet another boxy EV SUV shape.
One of my neighbours thought the Ioniq 6 looked like a modern batmobile while it reminded me of 1920’s era streamlined designs for American cars and train locos.
Like the Ioniq 5 the Ioniq 6 also has a 80’s style pixelated theme for front and rear lights.
Amazing Efficiency and Leading Tech
Hyundai says the Ioniq 6 is “designed like a wing of an aeroplane … to slip through the air”. The efficiency of this car is amazing especially considering it’s length of almost 5 metres and weight of about 2 tonnes.
As you can see below after 246km of driving in mild Sydney weather without air con my average battery usage was 12.8kWh/100km which is even better than 14.3kWh/100km promised by Hyundai marketing!
With an ultra-low drag coefficient of just 0.21, Ioniq 6 is one of the most aerodynamic and energy efficient EVs on the market and this enables a 614km WLTP range for this Dynamiq base model.
Of course the Ioniq 6 also has lots of great internal design and tech such as internal and external V2L, super fast industry leading DC fast charging rate, dual 12.3 inch screens for infotainment and driver information, great 360 cameras, buttons for commonly used features and Bluelink remote control app.
Front and back seats lots of leg room
As you can see in my photos below there is ample leg room and space in the front row and back seats for passengers who are small and in baby seats all the way to adults.
The light coloured cabin in my loan car also helped make the interior feel spacious. Hyundai does offer darker interior colour options as well.
Personally I think a light colour interior should be the default for EV’s sold in Australia because these don’t heat up as much in our harsh summer sun like a black interior does. Just like a white/silver exterior painted car stays cooler than a black car does.
What Could Be Better
Too many Beeping irrelevant speed warning sounds
Audible school zone speed zone warning sounds are really annoying as they occur at all times of day and during weekends. If the car sees a truck speed limit sign it will beep a warning saying you’re exceeding that, if it sees a highway off ramp speed limit it will beep a warning saying you’re exceeding that.
You get the idea. While Hyundai means well, the constant speed beeps and sounds will annoy drivers and may cause them to miss real alerts that are actually important.
You can turn these audible speed warnings off but it requires digging into the menus, has to be done each time the car turns on and disabling also turns off visual speed warnings that are actually useful.
I’m not the only one who thinks so, these are comments by other Aussie reviewers:
Drive – “the speed limit warning system will alert you to a school-zone speed outside of a school-zone time and beep at you as if you’ve made a dire mistake. You can turn all this off, but it does reset each time you start the car”
Car Expert – “While the bulk of Hyundai’s SmartSense features work well, the constant binging and bonging of the Intelligent Speed Limit Assist would drive me to murder”.
EV Central – “The most annoying thing about driving the Ioniq 6 is its desire to bing and bong warnings for speeding”.
No i-Pedal memory setting & i-Pedal turns off if you reverse
Like all other Hyundai and Kia EV’s I’ve reviewed so far you have to turn i-Pedal (one pedal driving) on for the Ioniq 6 every single time you turn the car on because it defaults to Level 3 strong-ish regen.
Even more annoying each time you put the car into reverse eg: to get out of a car park or do a 3 point turn i-Pedal turns off for some reason and has to be manually turned on again.
It doesn’t have to be this way because of any government rules because another EV the Polestar 2 which I’ve also driven recently always remembers your preferred regen braking setting and doesn’t turn it off if you reverse.
Boot Space & Headroom in Rear Seats
The super aeroydnamic swoopy design of the Ioniq 6 does have two catches.
The first is head room in the rear seats which is a bit tight for tall passengers eg: just a hands width of space if I’m sitting there. I’m 1.91 tall for reference. Realistically though 95% of people are shorter than me so they will have plenty of head room in the back.
The second is boot space which is deep and alright in total litre capacity but has a short height and small sedan style access area as you can see below so some items may be difficult to fit in.
To see my full storage space tests go to Australian Hyundai Ioniq 6 DYNAMIQ 2023: how much luggage and shopping fits in the boot and frunk?
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