Review: Hyundai Ioniq 6

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. Admittedly, poor examples following this new path have more than a whiff of “Jell-O-mold” about them (we're looking at you Mercedes EQS), but when done right you get something like the Ioniq 6.

When Hyundai revealed the Ioniq 6 in 2022, SangYup Lee, executive vice president and head of the Hyundai Global Design Center, referred to the car's sweeping silhouette as “streamliner typology,” citing the penchant for aerodynamic automotive design in the 1930s and '40s.

The 6's efficient, single-curve profile affords it a drag coefficient of just 0.21, a mere smidge behind the 0.20 claimed by the aforementioned EQS, currently the world’s most aerodynamic car. But this is the point: I'd swap that paltry 0.01 advantage of the dull Mercedes for the far more considered design of the Ioniq 6 any day. Here Hyundai proves smart, aero-centric design can be attractive, from any angle. Others seem to agree. At the 2023 World Car Awards, the 6 drove off with design of the year, EV of the year, and overall car of the year.

Despite this mighty impressive lack of drag, which helps supposedly propel the Ioniq 6 up to 361 miles on a single charge in the long-range version, Simon Loasby, vice president and head of Hyundai Style Group, wanted more. “We were desperately trying to find solutions to get down to the best drag we could in the early days. I had a T-shirt made that said ‘0.1x,’ because I wanted to get under 0.2 as a goal. We didn't achieve it, of course. But if getting 0.21 is failure, then I'm happy with that failure," he says.

“One of the tricks we came up with was a very simple solution,” says Loasby. “Knowing we have a short front overhang, it's hard to attach the airflow onto the sides of the car. So we filled up the gap in front of the front wheel by 25 millimeters, bridging it, so less turbulence occurs around that front wheel. That gave us the last counts we needed to get down to 0.21. Never seen it on any car before, never actually tried it before.”

Another example of design fostering incremental aero gains comes from Hyundai's head of aerodynamics, who, on analyzing the real spoiler, realized they should ditch a straight shape and instead model the 6's on the Supermarine Spitfire wing, but improve on it by adding downturned winglets at the ends. “Closing the gap between this spoiler and the body surface stops a vortex building up. The vortex puts energy into the wind, and this means lost energy from the car,” says Loasby. “We would love it to be rise and fall spoiler, but that's more weight and more cost.”

Additionally, seemingly superfluous subtle wedge shapes built into either side of the rear bumper are there to reduce drag and help attain that aero efficiency. And to battle that jelly bean look, Loasby says part of the secret was ditching the original plan for the 6. “Early on, on paper, the project was different, and when we built models to the original wheelbase it just wasn't working—we needed an extra 50 millimeters,” he says. “We got into a heated discussion. I said, I know it's not written on the paper, but how do you know your paper's right? I'm looking at models, and I know they're right. Your design team is saying this makes a better car, do you want a better car or not? Fortunately, the decision was: OK, we do it. And it's made all the difference—not only for the overall proportion, but the interior space as well.”

Although both are award-winning, the Ioniq 6's design is, for me, better than the Ioniq 5's. I think it will stay fresh longer. I loved the futuristic appearance of the 5 when it launched in 2021, and still admire it. However, as I see examples driving around, I look at the angular ridge in the middle of the front bumper and, for me, it dates the car. A refreshed look is coming for the 5, and I really hope Loasby and his team address this detail, because apart from that it holds up well.

The 6, I feel, will have no such issues. From all angles it delivers, and, like the 5, pulls off the visual trickery of looking smaller than it actually is. Only when you get close are you struck by its extremely long, 2.95-meter wheelbase, 4.85-meter overall length, 1.88-meter width, and 1.5-meter height. This is indeed a big car, it just doesn’t look it.

Perhaps the star of the exterior show, though, is the rear wing's “parametric pixel high-mounted stop lamp,” which is a staggeringly boring title for something that delivers an eye-catching, animated Knight Rider-esque display when the car is woken up.

Inside, for a car that is by no means in the luxury sector, the finish is impressive. As is becoming increasingly common, eco materials are deployed throughout: recycled pigment paint, eco-process leather and recycled PET fabric seats, bio TPO skin dashboard, bio PET fabric headliner, carpets made from recycled fishing nets. The sheer length of the EV means legroom is very generous; ridged door panels play with the customizable LED lighting and so appear more premium than they have any right to; a digital dash combines a responsive 12-inch touchscreen display and 12-inch digital cluster. Switchgear is kept to a minimum, but, pleasingly, knobs are making something of a cabin comeback. They are present here for those vital functions such as volume and tuning—but not climate control, which is a miss, though it at least gets a dedicated touch panel.

While the seats don't fold flat like they do in the 5—a real shame—Hyundai has instead thought about what you can do while the car is stuck at a charger. The center storage console has been made deliberately flat, so it's possible rest a laptop or tablet there. What's more, thanks to the car's 800-volt fast-charging E-GMP architecture (the same as in the Ioniq 5), the 77.4-kWh battery is capable of powering household items—so you can, as I did, charge your MacBook from the plug socket in the rear while you watch Netflix or browse the web.

Instead of putting the brand badge on the steering wheel, Hyundai has put its branding ego aside and inserted a four-dot light system under the fabric. This shows the car’s level of charge or indicates when the car’s digital assistant is listening, just like on a smart speaker. It’s a great idea. Why hasn’t it been done before? The only problem is that Hyundai's assistant is not good. Unless you get the commands just right, it doesn't work.

There is some granularity there, admittedly, so you can not only turn on heated seats by voice, for example, but also set the warmth level. But the number of things it can do is not extensive, and it can't chain commands or remember what you've previously asked. For such a forward-looking car, and company, this is not up to the standard we're all used to. Many car brands try to do voice controls themselves and can't. BMW for one. Volvo and Polestar have the right idea just turning such matters over to Google. Indeed, Hyundai needs to improve its user interface in general if it's going to avoid such comparisons.

For those worried that EVs sharing architecture and platforms will result in cars all ending up alike, just try out the Ioniq 5, and then the 6. Beneath the skin, most everything in both is identical, but the 6 drives completely differently. This is a good thing. Gone is the slightly wallowing ride of the 5 (it's a family car, after all), and in its place is a much sharper, stiffer experience. The 6 responds reasonably precisely, and has power when you want or need it. Standing to 60 mph is 5.1 seconds in the 320-bhp twin-motor version. I drove the 225-bhp rear-drive car and it's plenty fast for my liking. If you're so inclined, you can certainly have fun in this EV.

But the 6 isn't about hooning, it's built for cruising. Get up to speed on the freeway, set the regenerative braking to minimum, take your foot off the power, and, yes, you'll be struck by how quiet the 6 is, but also how little speed is lost thanks to that 0.21 aero efficiency.

Hyundai says the 6 can manage up to 338 miles on a charge, but that range will be shorter in real-world driving conditions, of course. On my day at a Hyundai-hosted media drive in the UK, after 100 miles in the 6, the readout estimated 165 miles left in the battery. Looking at the data, I managed about 3 miles per kWh, but in fairness this was down to a mix of spirited and sedate driving over hours on a wet, cold day (9 degrees Celsius, or 48 degrees Fahrenheit), all on twisty country lanes. I've also tried the 6 on longer trips and got between 4 and 5 miles/kWh.

When it comes to filling the battery, Hyundai and sister brand Kia, with 800-volt charging tech, have some of the best kit in cars currently out on the road. The 6 can precondition its pack by heating it as you're driving, meaning you can start charging at the max rate, so if you do manage to find a 220-kW ultra-fast charger, you can go from 10 to 80 percent in just 18 to 36 minutes. For a more realistic stat, by plugging it into my Hive home wall charger on 7 kW for 40 minutes, I managed to add 5.11 kWh, or an extra 5 percent.

The Ioniq EVs have fundamentally changed the perception of what kind of car company Hyundai is. In just two vehicles, Hyundai has gone from being seen as a brand pumping out high-volume value vehicles to a manufacturer of premium, award-winning electric rides. In anyone's book, that’s quite the turnaround. And, what’s more, it thoroughly deserves that shift in reputation. The Ioniq 6 is excellent in design, tech, and build. More is coming too: The Ioniq 7 SUV lands in 2024, and this year's revamped Kona Electric takes on the winning new design language.

True, the 6 isn't perfect. The UI should be better, not just in navigability, but in the backend—the reason why Hyundai's don't have wireless CarPlay, for example, is apparently due to software incompatibility. Why Hyundai (and Kia) still hasn't fixed this nagging problem is beyond me. The optional digital wing mirrors are still not better than old-school mirrors. The voice assistant is not great, and limited in function. The “frunk” is small.

But, thanks to those design efforts and struggles for aero marginal gains, not only does the Ioniq 6 look like nothing else on the road right now (which is a good thing), despite being on the same platform as the Ioniq 5, it can go 100 km farther per charge. It feels premium to drive and be in. The range and charging are great. It drives smoothly but can bound if you need it to. And to top it all off, it's an excellent value.

Frankly, if I didn't own a dog and could get away with driving something smaller, I'd buy one. Perhaps understandably, then, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Hyundai carries its current enviable form through to next year's SUV.