The 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6: A streamlined look equals serious range
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
this is ticking all the boxes i wanted from an electric car
fast charging - check
long range (mercedes EQS but wayyy cheaper!) - check
carplay support (oops, sorry tesla) - check
reasonable price - check
power output (sure it's no F-150 power-your-house...) - check
physical controls - partial check (volume is nice but climate would be better)
soon as it's available on my company car scheme i'll be ordering. thanks for the write-up.
fast charging - check
long range (mercedes EQS but wayyy cheaper!) - check
carplay support (oops, sorry tesla) - check
reasonable price - check
power output (sure it's no F-150 power-your-house...) - check
physical controls - partial check (volume is nice but climate would be better)
soon as it's available on my company car scheme i'll be ordering. thanks for the write-up.
Upvote
31
(33
/
-2)
The larger wheels even look like shit, in addition to making the range shit.
Dunno what Hyundai is thinking. This is maybe their fourth or fifth car with wheels that are dramatically oversized. Looks like trash to my eye.
Dunno what Hyundai is thinking. This is maybe their fourth or fifth car with wheels that are dramatically oversized. Looks like trash to my eye.
Upvote
1
(13
/
-12)
- Add bookmark
- Featured
- #43
I drove the Ioniq 6 a week ago.
The good:
The Bad:
The Ugly:
The good:
- Charging speed & Range
- Acceleration
- Infotainment (though navigation feels like its 10 old, but it works)
- Interior Design
- One-Paddel driving
- Physical Buttons for important things!
The Bad:
- Trunk
- Like the Ionic 5 its quite big (for EU standards), have fun with parking. Even the wheels are huge.
- Touch is surprisingly good, but still bad while driving
- I dont like Video-mirrors
- Doorhandles have a strange feeling
The Ugly:
- According to the dealer at least 10 month delivery time
Last edited:
Upvote
35
(35
/
0)
Yeah, the styling isn't quite right. I don't mind the front, but the droop on the rear doesn't seem to flow from the main lines of the car, but sag like the rear end was melted.
Last edited:
Upvote
11
(11
/
0)
They're more vulnerable to damage from potholes, too.
I was beginning to wonder if I was the only guy in the world who thought oversized wheels look goofy and trashy. I don't get what most people see in them.
Upvote
35
(36
/
-1)
The bridge between the front seats is interesting. It's convenient for storage and controls, but also means you can't slide over very easily. Handy sometimes when someone parks too close on the driver's side.
Upvote
1
(4
/
-3)
They also tend to be unique to the car.
30 years ago, before low profile tires became fashionable, there where only a dozen or so tire sizes in common use for cars. This meant that if you needed replacement tires, any tire shop would have some in stock with a good choice of brands to choose from. Even on a road trip you could easily get a replacement tire in the next town.
Now there are hundreds of different tire sizes, many are unique to one or two models of car. Replacement tires need to be ordered in advance and are rarely available same day especially in remote places. There is often only one brand available and they charge what they like.
Upvote
21
(22
/
-1)
It's partially that and that bigger rims also tend to be proportionally wider, which kills aerodynamic efficiency. They also have more rotational mass/inertia, so it takes more power to change its velocity (a sort of flywheel effect). The rims alone may only be 10% larger (20" vs 18"), but the weight is at least 20% greater .. remember area of a circle = pi*r2.
Upvote
17
(17
/
0)
A bit like the first Panamera it seems like a very nice looking car is wanting to come out of that Ioniq 6.
Not that it's ugly but definitely some room for improvement.
Not that it's ugly but definitely some room for improvement.
Upvote
7
(8
/
-1)
I used my (somewhat) trusty 2003 Daewoo Evanda with a trailer to both haul lumber and transport my snowmobile as recently as this weekend.
Upvote
14
(14
/
0)
Have they gotten around to approving dynamic headlights? I thought they had finally been "approved" about a year ago, but were still bogged down in some bizarre "real" regulatory approval state. They've been available in Europe, at least, for many years, but maybe they're just too much for a nation where 40% of inhabitants haven't mastered walking on their hind legs yet.
Upvote
-4
(5
/
-9)
@Dr Gitlin — Hope you had a nice time in San Clemente! Great shot of the Ole Hansen beach club. You’re about 500 feet from where some houses fell off a cliff in a storm a few weeks back … some family in town mentioned PCH was a nightmare, guessing that was cleared up by the time you passed through?
Upvote
0
(1
/
-1)
Because if they increase the headroom and storage they'd have an Ioniq 5, and they already have an Ioniq 5.
It's really clear that they were going for the lowest drag they could manage, and when you do that, physics becomes your designer. And physics doesn't allow for a lot of wiggle room. Now why they paired a slippery design with 20 inch wheels is beyond me, but that's the car market for you.
Upvote
27
(27
/
0)
I don't think you're wrong. Also, the rotational moment and weight of the larger wheel is...well, larger, so there's that as well; they're just harder to turn than smaller wheels.
Upvote
1
(1
/
0)
Upvote
1
(1
/
0)
Agree, I have no desire for a crossover and much prefer a sedan. Or a roadster, even; a Miata EV would definitely catch my attention. But I do like the styling of this car.
Upvote
22
(22
/
0)
I have a Kia Niro, and we ended up with the larger wheels because we wanted some of the features on the higher trim level (vented seats, for example). I would have preferred to keep the smaller wheels, but I guess that's the "in" thing.
The Ioniq 5 is on my list to replace my other car, but one thing I don't like about the E-GMPs is the no front-wheel drive option. I live in the Northeast and I've always heard that RWD is terrible for driving in snow and bad weather, which implies I'd have to go with AWD and the lower range. Though I'd be curious to hear other people's experience with RWD and snow, I've only ever had FWD.
Upvote
3
(6
/
-3)
"The relatively small frunk makes sense when you realize there's a motor and some power electronics that live between the front wheels." Yet it still does not make sense given than Teslas and Fords also have electronics, HVAC, steering and motor and still manage to have very decent frunks. There is no excuse for an EV to have a lame frunk or no frunk at all. Also, applicable to other brands (VW), inexcusable for an EV to be front wheel drive.
Upvote
-13
(3
/
-16)
Thicker sidewalls are better for noise and comfort - there is more air and rubber to absorb shocks/sounds.
Upvote
24
(24
/
0)
The RWD thing is a feature of ICE cars where the front wheels carry most of the weight and the rear wheels are relatively light, and therefore don't grab as well. BEV shouldn't have that problem, the skateboard design they're all using means the weight is more evenly distributed so the snow handling improvement on an ICE FWD goes away.
Upvote
23
(24
/
-1)
Europe has a lot better selection of compact hatchbacks. It makes sense the sedan is dead there. Here in California 5 of the top 10 best-selling models are sedans: Tesla 3, Toyota Camry and Corolla, and Honda Accord and Civic.
Upvote
9
(10
/
-1)
I wish the price had come in lower like some of the early press indicated. Seems big for a sedan, too. Plan to upgrade from my Bolt now seems to be to wait for some 3-4 year old Ioniq 5s to show up on the used market.
Regarding the wheel size, could I just buy smaller aero wheels to replace the big ones and get the range back?
Regarding the wheel size, could I just buy smaller aero wheels to replace the big ones and get the range back?
Upvote
6
(6
/
0)
They definitely designed those headlights as an homage to Porsche. If you look at the original concept, it's crystal clear that it's echoing the Porshe Taycan - and I think some of the toning down was to a avoid a lawsuit. This car in gray doesn't have the same effect at all, but I'm also less enamored of this 'frenchish' styling than, say, an actual Citroen DS.
To be fair, I'd guess that the front-end Porshe styling was intentional in the concept and the DS backend was not, since aerodynamics are so clearly informing here.
What's funny to me is how Hyundai seems completely unhinged on frontend/headlight design. The Santa Fe/Santa Cruz is my least favorite design right now, and I imagine hurts the trucklet's sales. This vs Ioniq 5 is night and day difference on two of their EVs, ie 70s Citroen vs 80s hatch. Then compare these three to the EV Kona or Genesis.
Hyundai, unlike Kia, hasn't really had a coherent brand design, but even so, it's remarkably divergent right now for a single company. It's not a bad strategy. People with money and multiple cars choose for styling as much as anything else, might as well offer diversity.
Upvote
4
(4
/
0)
Statistical
Ars Legatus Legionis
It isn't a Hyundai thing it is an all vehicles from all OEMs thing. Apparently clown wheels with condom thin expensive and fragile tires is "cool". The Gensis (Kia) is the first mainstream vehicle with OEM 22" wheels. As even mom cars get larger wheels the trend is for sporty cars to get even larger wheels. So expect 23" & 24" in the coming years.
As least Hyundai gives you the option to retain the 18" wheels. In most new cars the upgrades and AWD and paywalled behind clown wheels.
Upvote
8
(11
/
-3)
Europe, the home of BMW and Mercedes Benz? You might be overstating it a bit. I'm sure it's declined, but far from dead. BMW's new EV is a sedan, and so is the Model 3, at the top of some sales charts.
Upvote
13
(14
/
-1)
Nice to see an actual car EV that is relatively affordable. Not everyone wants a crossover.
Upvote
11
(11
/
0)
Statistical
Ars Legatus Legionis
In most cases the answer is yes. To avoid the cost of modifying the axle & suspension all trims usually have roughly the same outside diameter. A 20" wheel vs an 18" wheel simply has a thinner tire. Outside diameter is what matters. As long as that remains roughly the same you are fine. If it isn't exactly the same the spedo/odo needs to be calibrated but any decent tire shop knows how to do that. You can even do it yourself it is just a pain to measure off a distance for one calibration.
Upvote
8
(8
/
0)
Statistical
Ars Legatus Legionis
There are at least four factors.
1) Aerodynamics. The sidewall of the tire is smooth and relatively aerodaynamic. The wheel is a chaotic vortex of air creating quite significant drag. Larger wheel and smaller tires maximizes the portion that is high drag.
2) Wheel width. This isn't as large of a factor as some people think but it exists. Wider wheels mean more contact with the road which means more rolling resistance. In the Ioniq 6. The 18" wheels had a width of 225mm. The 20" ones have a width of 245mm. For some OEMs the tire width is identical so this isn't a factor.
3) Tire material. The larger wheels usually come with sportier tires they have softer rubber designed for additional grip. That also means additional resistance and reduced longevity.
4) Unsprung weight. Wheels have higher density than tires. So for same total diameter the more of it coming from wheels and not tires the more unsprung weight which reduces efficiency when it comes to acceleration and braking. That can be avoided with $10k+ carbon fiber wheels which tend to have lower mass than stock smaller wheels.
The last three can possibly be avoided with the right options although they may not always be available. The first one though is hard to avoid or even mitigate without significantly different wheel designs.
Weight is one factor. Another however is the drag from the second motor and axle when coasting. Also due to higher total horsepower the AWD trims usually have more aggressive throttle response meaning it isn't exactly apples to apples as EPA tests require using all modes. Putting both cars in eco mode will have a smaller delta. Then again it is probably good it is tested this way. People buying more powerful cars tend to drive them more aggressively (and less efficiently).
Last edited:
Upvote
17
(17
/
0)
Only if the brakes fit. I wanted to put a smaller wheel on my GTI from years ago but 18 was the smallest that would fit around the brake.
Even the sensible brands are dialing the wheel diameter up. My 2020 Honda Insight is probably the last car Honda will ever make with 16-inch wheels. It is comfortable and gets great mileage and the tires are dirt cheap.
Upvote
15
(15
/
0)
Statistical
Ars Legatus Legionis
That is exactly it. Wheels aren't an off the top of your head source of aerodynamic drag but they are especially at highway speeds. As the cars continue to get more optimized for drags things like mirrors and wheels start having a larger impact. The chaotic vortex of air disrupts the laminar flow of air around the vehicle increasing drag.
Upvote
10
(10
/
0)
On the 18 vs 20 Wheels Front…..
Back in the day, racing cars ran bigger wheels to fit bigger brakes. the barrel size dictating the maximum size rotor and associated brake capilers. Wider rims also means more lateral grip, but because they are heavier, they hurt both acceleration and handling (unsprung weight) .
The weight penalty is especially bad - a typical 20” wheel and tyre combination in the same width will weigh 5-10kg more than the equivalent 18” version.
While that is ‘only’ 20-40kg total, that is all unsparing weight, the brakes have to work harder, acceleration is reduced, handling is impacted.
So the cars with the bigger (heavier) wheels may need a slightly different suspension tune, generally accelerate slower and generally have longer stopping distances. In order to overcome some of this, they fit stickier rubber, which last less time and is considerably more expensive to replace.
Wile rolling on 20’s (or 22/24/26) looks good, the performance hit, the range hit and the running costs hit feel pretty silly to me….
Back in the day, racing cars ran bigger wheels to fit bigger brakes. the barrel size dictating the maximum size rotor and associated brake capilers. Wider rims also means more lateral grip, but because they are heavier, they hurt both acceleration and handling (unsprung weight) .
The weight penalty is especially bad - a typical 20” wheel and tyre combination in the same width will weigh 5-10kg more than the equivalent 18” version.
While that is ‘only’ 20-40kg total, that is all unsparing weight, the brakes have to work harder, acceleration is reduced, handling is impacted.
So the cars with the bigger (heavier) wheels may need a slightly different suspension tune, generally accelerate slower and generally have longer stopping distances. In order to overcome some of this, they fit stickier rubber, which last less time and is considerably more expensive to replace.
Wile rolling on 20’s (or 22/24/26) looks good, the performance hit, the range hit and the running costs hit feel pretty silly to me….
Upvote
16
(16
/
0)
Exactly. It’s not consumers. It’s heavy marketing and pointing by automakers into selling a product that deepen their pockets the most. There’s a pre-Covid German study on the situation.
Upvote
16
(16
/
0)
Amazing what efficiency is gained, and the waste lessened, when you’re not pushing a tall box through the air.
Upvote
13
(13
/
0)
It can be very wheel design dependent, I ran BBS LM’s and OZ Ultraleggera’s on my GTI in 17x8’s (cannot remember the offset) and they fitted perfectly (about 1-2mm spare), but I could not squeeze a set of Enkei RPF1’s on the front without 5mm spacers.
Upvote
1
(2
/
-1)
Statistical
Ars Legatus Legionis
and the tires cost more too and usually because you are only going to find them in sportier tire compositions they don't last as long.
So you end up with inefficient, expensive, reduced lifespan tires that provide less protection to the expensive wheels.
Upvote
6
(6
/
0)
In addition to what darthslack said (which is spot on), traction control on EVs is light-years better than ICEVs for snow, so the FWD/RWD issue is lessened for traction.
The one benefit I will begrudgingly give FWD is that you can sometimes turn the drive wheels left then right to find traction that wouldn't otherwise be there. But if you expect that to be a big enough issue, snow tires and/or AWD is probably worth it.
Upvote
14
(14
/
0)
Now I only need one question answered: how do I buy one?
I've called local dealers and they seem absolutely clueless, one even saying that "I don't have the 2023, but I have the 2022 if you want to come in and test drive it today." Um... I am hoping he means the Ioniq 5, but no, I don't want to test drive that one.
I didn't get into the reservation list, but absolutely would love to take delivery of one of these in Q4 2023.
I've called local dealers and they seem absolutely clueless, one even saying that "I don't have the 2023, but I have the 2022 if you want to come in and test drive it today." Um... I am hoping he means the Ioniq 5, but no, I don't want to test drive that one.
I didn't get into the reservation list, but absolutely would love to take delivery of one of these in Q4 2023.
Upvote
5
(6
/
-1)