Almost five stars
EVs are here to stay, but are they saving us money...yet? I prefer to not rely on fossil fuel, but cost varies based upon what's available in the area. Everyone that rides in my SEL seems impressed with it. It does some strange things every now and then, such as disabling sensors and other features while I'm driving, which is remedied by stopping and restarting the car. So far it only happens in the morning, so it may be some kind of electrical issue.
The torque is unreal, so if you like fast you'll love the G-force of a car that doesn't have to shift. Without a transmission there is ample room as well. The stereo sounds great and the car practically drives itself when you enable the lane centering and vehicle spacing features. It even steers around wide turns, but you have to be careful about the short ones because if your cruising speed is too high it will launch forward and may even pull off the road. I put the car in sport mode to get into a lane and it practically shot me into the other lane, the torque can be intense.
The SEL came with a number of incentives and rebates so there were definite savings right out of the starting gate. I wasn't seeing that with other brands. It has every kind of sensor you'd need as well as alarms and visualizations. Just about every review I've seen online has been positive and for good reason really. The warranties are top notch and best-in-class. The crash tests are stellar as well. Those two things alone convinced me this was a good buy.
So why four stars? I'm not crazy about the passenger seat being manual and something about the leg room on the driver side isn't optimal for long legs, but that might just be me. I wouldn't mind the wheel coming a little farther out. While I drive mostly in eco mode I'm still charging more than I used to with my old Lexus hybrid. I'm not sure I'm spending less money and the electrical anomalies have me a little concerned. I'd probably do a little more with the map feature to find charging stations. It's not intuitive for finding L3 stations. After you use it you kind of get the hang of it, but I think it could be better. I miss having a sunroof, but I'm getting use to it now. When you charge you also have to keep in mind what you're using because if you start the car with AC it's going to show you have fewer miles than if you drive without it. It's tricky getting a feel on how many miles you actually have, but it does let you know when you're getting low. I generally have to park for half an hour for an 80% charge when I'm at an L3 station. Hopefully I'll get the L2 set up at home soon.
I switched brands after owning three Lexuses because I wanted to try an EV and for the money this was the best of the best in the EV space after doing some research. Lexus is best in class as a brand so switching to Hyundai was not something I expected to do. However, at ~$50K the Ioniq is still a better investment given all the savings up front and I don't think I compromised on quality. It's a luxury vehicle by most standards and the nod to Porsche's design with a conservative interior that still looks like a car (as opposed to what Tesla offers) is well balanced. It still feels like a car instead of a computer workstation.
I suppose I should mention the Bluelink app is a nice feature as well. I can remote into the car to start the AC, lock the doors, and a number of other things. So far that works pretty well, although I haven't figured out why the AC turns off sometimes after I've started it remotely. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or maybe it's another computer bug.
So maybe 4.5 stars is more accurate, but that's not an option for this review. I think Hyundai is giving other brands a run for their money if they continue to improve their lines and bring the value.
Recommended
Verified Owner
