Hyundai Ioniq 6 2023 review: Prototype drive

Officially, Hyundai Australia hasn’t confirmed the price of the Ioniq 6 EV - but CarsGuide has been given a strong indication that it will be more affordable than you might think.

It is confirmed the new Ioniq 6 model will be offered in two “highly specified” trim grades, with pricing “expected to be similar to Ioniq 5”, being between $70,000 and $80,000.

And while that mightn’t be “affordable” for everyone, it seems a pretty attractive price given the EV landscape, and is pretty much bang-on when measured against the 2022/2023 Ioniq 5 strategy with Dynamic RWD base model ($69,900 MSRP) and Techniq AWD flagship ($77,500).

You can probably expect the Ioniq 6 trim names and thinking to mimic that, though exact details on pricing will be available closer to the car’s quarter-one 2023 launch.

Expected as standard on the Ioniq 6 in both trim lines locally will be 20-inch wheels.

Expected as standard on the Ioniq 6 in both trim lines locally will be 20-inch wheels (18s are a possibility, but unlikely), full LED exterior and interior lighting, ecologically sustainable interior trim finishes, and the option of digital exterior “mirrors”.

Also inside you will find four USB-C ports and a USB-A port, a pair of clear and crisp 12.0-inch displays - one for the driver, the other a touchscreen for media and including sat nav with real-time driving data to help you map out your route and recharge points if necessary. Bank on heated and ventilated seats, a heated steering wheel, and dual zone climate control as well.

Inside you will find a pair of clear and crisp 12.0-inch displays, one for the driver, the other a touchscreen for media and including sat nav.

You can also expect Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Bluetooth with the option to pair two phones (one for calls, one for music/podcasts), and an eight-speaker Bose stereo with subwoofer.

The Ioniq 6 will be the brand’s first EV with the capability for over-the-air updates, allowing owners to update components of the car, autonomous driving systems (if available), battery software and more. 

When you’re talking about EV design, you probably understand there’s an element of “blank sheet of paper” to the way a car can look.

Convention can find itself thrown out the window - witness the Hyundai Ioniq 5 crossover SUV, which isn’t really like any other car on the road.

And nor is the Ioniq 6 a conventional looking car. The brand doesn’t even call it a sedan, despite the fact it really is one. There’s the traditional three-box design (bonnet, cabin, boot), and it has four doors and a proper opening trunk, too. 

This is a purposeful piece of automotive art, with a curvaceous body, sleek lines, a swoopy roof and sumptuous detailing.

But ask Hyundai’s design team and they will insist (repeatedly, with more force each time they’re asked about it), that this is a unique and unseen form in the world of automotive, something they term an “Electrified Streamliner”.

AKA, electric sedan.

Semantics aside, this is a purposeful piece of automotive art, with a curvaceous body, sleek lines, a swoopy roof and sumptuous detailing. If you ask me, the trademark Ioniq pixel lights are a little bit out of place here… imagine what could have been, if this car had solid, streamline LED light bars front and rear.

It has a best-case aerodynamic efficiency of 0.21 Cd.

Either way, the car is designed to do a job. It has a best-case aerodynamic efficiency of 0.21 Cd (with the right wheels - not the 20s Australia will get), and the company says the streamlined shape is all about helping it cut through the air more easily, therefore increasing the electric driving range. While the cars we drove were heavily camouflaged, it's great to see colour options like Digital Green Pearl and Biofilic Blue, the latter of which was inspired by the Prophecy concept car that spawned the production Ioniq 6.

The streamlined shape is all about helping it cut through the air more easily.

And yes, while it might look like a liftback / hatch, the boot is most certainly a boot. Designer Simon Loasby said the company looked at making it a more practical cargo zone by way of a hatchback tailgate, but the hinges would have eaten into the headspace too much… it was probably the right move, based on my backseat impression. More on that below.

Ambient lighting - 64 colours which you can mix and match - helps make the cabin feel a bit more lively, though it might be best to reserve final judgment for when the production model arrives. They say light is the new chrome, and there’s an absence of the latter here.

While it might look like a liftback / hatch, the boot is most certainly a boot.

One illuminative touch that is nice is the four ‘pixel’ blocks on the steering wheel, which - in the Ioniq 6 - light up to give you an ‘at a glance’ view of the state of charge of the car.  Pub trivia tidbit for you - 'H' in morse code is four dots, which is why the badge lights up as such.

The dashboard also features a wing-tip design, inspired by jet fighter aircraft (we saw a few inspirational examples above the Namyang proving ground - it's not too far from the North Korean border, after all), and those panels turn into monitors for the optional "digital mirrors" with rearward facing cameras feeding screens at the edge of the dashboard.

Overall, though, the interior design is less of a shift in terms of design than the exterior. It’s kind of exactly what you might expect of a current Hyundai product - it’s clean and mostly clutter-free but thankfully still has buttons and dials, instead of running everything through the touchscreen. Please keep doing that, Hyundai!

There’s still a start button (some other EVs just start when you sit in the car), and there’s a steering column-mounted gear selector, as per Ioniq 5. Cup holders are front centre and rear centre by way of a flip-down armrest, and there are the requisite bottle holders fore and aft, plus vents and charge points where they should be.

It has other helpful touches that most EVs get, like the flat floor that means you get better footroom, and the lack of a transmission tunnel running through the middle of the cab, either.

As such, there’s a great double-decker storage section in between the front seats, with ample storage below, and a flat space up top with cup holders and, interestingly, the power window switches are placed here, too. 

You can see why the brand's designers describe it as a "mindful cocoon".

That’s not the case for the back - the doors get the controls where they should be, there - but the front door cards are sleek and minimalist, with ambient lighting on both the top and bottom edge of the armrest (meaning you can see into the storage sleeve below it at night).

Speaking of the back, you can see why the brand's designers describe it as a "mindful cocoon" - it’s kind of hard to get in and out for anyone taller or wider than average. I’m 182cm or 6’0”, and not exactly Slenderman, and I noticed I had to squeeze myself into the back over the quite wide lower sill, and once in the headroom wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped it might be.

Sitting upright my head was brushing the lining, and there were also unexpected limitations to the foot space available, with the floor - while flat - being positioned quite high, making for a ‘knees-up’ seating position. 

There is no stated boot space but the cargo capacity looks to be about 450 litres - accessed by way of a quite small but wide boot opening. 

If you’re aware of the Ioniq 5’s guts, you won’t be surprised about the innards here. This story will focus on the long-range model, as that’s what we’re getting in Australia in two versions.

It runs a 77.4kWh battery pack, and while power outputs for the single-motor rear-wheel drive (RWD/2WD) version remain unknown, the twin-motor all-wheel drive (AWD) is good for a healthy 239kW of power and 605Nm of torque. 

The twin-motor all-wheel drive (AWD) is good for a healthy 239kW of power and 605Nm of torque.

According to Hyundai, that’ll help this sleek machine sprint from 0-100km/h in 5.1 seconds.

That’s not the end of the story on speed, though - an Ioniq 6 N is all but certain to come later on, and if the RN22e concept shown in Seoul when I drove this car is anything to go by, it’ll have 440kW and 740Nm, AWD, and possibly a 0-100 time in the three-second range. 

The headline act in the Ioniq 6 range when it comes to efficieny is in one of the versions of the car we won’t get in Australia.

That’s the smaller-battery (read: lighter) 53kWh version with rear-wheel drive, which Hyundai claims can manage a WLTP estimated energy efficiency rating of less than 14.0kWh/100km. 

If that’s the front page news, then page three above the fold will tell you the good news about the Aussie-spec 77.4kWh RWD model, which is expected to offer a claimed WLTP driving range of more than 610 kilometres. Actually, maybe that should have been on the front page…

No matter which version of the Ioniq 6 you end up going for, though, it’ll be on the brand’s E-GMP underpinnings with 800-volt fast charging capability, which Hyundai claims will allow you to juice up from 10 to 80 per cent in just 18 minutes when using a high-speed 350kW DC charger.

While our short drive in the prototype models in sweltering Seoul summer heat (34 degrees, 90 per cent humidity) gave very little real-world indication of what to expect, it was nice to see the driver info screen suggesting I’d be able to drive more than 320 miles (more than 530km) in Eco mode with three onboard and the air-con blasting.

A few caveats: how closely the prototype models I drove will represent the final product we receive in Australia remains unclear, and I didn’t get extensive drive time to offer a definitive judgment on that either.

 As you’d expect, though, the Ioniq 6 offers sprightly acceleration from a standstill, with very little in the way of noise to accompany said briskness. It was, in fact, very quiet - quieter than many other EVs I’ve driven, including Polestar 2 and Tesla Model 3.

The long-range dual-motor AWD model I sampled rode on the 20-inch wheels similar to what we’ll get in Australia, and they did have an impact on the comfort of the ride.

The Ioniq 6 offers sprightly acceleration from a standstill, with very little in the way of noise to accompany said briskness.

It was hardly uncomfortable, but there was some perceptible bumpiness on lumpy road surfaces, while the general ride - when the road was good - was nice. Hyundai Australia will conduct a local tune on the suspension, too.

What was also nice was the steering calibration - it was light but not feathery or floaty to steer, and felt nimble in tighter turns. There was good grip from the Pirelli P Zero All Season tyres (245/40/R20), too.

There was good grip from the Pirelli P Zero All Season tyres (245/40/R20).

There’s regenerative braking, as you’d expect, and while I didn’t find it to be as assertive or aggressive in its action as some other EVs, our colleagues from other Aussie media outlets said the car they drove was more eager. That could come down to the car I drove, so let’s not read too much into it. Suffice to say, however, the brake pedal feel was typical of an electric car - a little grabby, and sometimes hard to predict.

Of course there are different drive modes to choose from that alter the calibration of the steering, powertrain and the cabin soundtrack, but until we sample the finished product it is best to reserve judgment on those aspects. 

Final details are TBC, but you can expect a full gamut of safety equipment and technology, including high and low speed AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane keeping assistance, blind spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert with auto braking, and airbag coverage for front and rear row occupants.

More on that when the details are confirmed.

All Hyundai models come with a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty plan, though the brand’s electric cars also include eight-year/160,000km cover for the battery and high voltage components.

You can also expect a capped-price servicing plan for the Ioniq 6, with maintenance due yearly. Prices are currently unknown - but taking the Ioniq 5 as a guide, the average service cost should be about $330 per year (or every 15,000km).

If you service your car with Hyundai, you’ll get roadside assistance renewed every year, up to 10 years.