Hyundai’s next EV is here, and the press release is persistent in its pushing of personalization.
Questionable alliteration aside, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 really does intrigue, at least on paper, and not just because of a bunch of buzzy marketing BS about how owners can use the car in ways that best fit their unique personalities.
Let’s start with some specs. The battery here is a 77.4-kWh unit, and range is promised at over 610 kilometers or about 380 miles.
Hyundai is promising available ultra-fast charging that can take the battery from 10 percent to 80 percent in 18 minutes.
The car has a wheelbase of about 116 inches and a length of about 191 inches and will offer either 18- or 20-inch wheels.
“IONIQ 6 is designed and engineered to seamlessly enhance our daily lives as space to awaken your potential,” said Thomas Schemera, Executive Vice President, Global Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience Division, Hyundai Motor Company, in a press release. “The innovative interior is meticulously thought out as a cocoon-like personal space, enhanced with the latest technologies to create a safe, fun, and stress-free driving experience. The spacious interior, with sustainability and usability at its heart, once again represents a step forward for electric vehicles, in line with the values of our customers.”
Inside, available ambient lighting gives the customer 64 colors and six pre-set themes to pick from. The brightness of the lights can even change with the car’s speed. Optional front seats promise to increase comfort via a simple change in seat angle — though Hyundai doesn’t say how. All available seats are thinner, allowing for more space, and the car offers four Type-C ports and one Type-A.
Back to performance — drivers can adjust power, steering effort, accelerator-pedal sensitivity, and driveline mode, all with a few button presses.
“IONIQ 6 connects an emotional convergence of functionality with aesthetics,” said SangYup Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Hyundai Design Center, in the release. “The distinctive streamlined design is the result of close cooperation between engineers and designers, with obsessive attention to detail and customer-centric values at the core. We have created the IONIQ 6 as a mindful cocoon that offers [a] personalized place for all.”
The car will be either rear-wheel drive or have a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup. The latter version will make about 320 horsepower and 446 lb-ft of torque, with Hyundai claiming a 0-100 km/h (about 0-62 mph) time of 5.1 seconds.
Vehicle-to-load, or V2L, tech allows the owner to use the car to charge other electronic devices.
The dash has a 12-inch gauge cluster and 12-inch infotainment screen, and of course Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are part of the features list. The Bluetooth system allows for the pairing of more than one phone, and there’s a Bose audio system with subwoofer. Hyundai’s BlueLink connected-car service helps keep the navigation system up to date, and over-the-air updates keep the whole system current.
Advanced driver-assist systems include smart cruise control that learns how you drive, highway driving-assist 2 (centers the vehicle, maintains distance from the car ahead), and forward collision-avoidance assist. Upper trims will have junction-crossing assist and systems that help the driver avoid crashes when changing lanes. There will also be available high-beam assist, driver-attention warning, and intelligent speed-limit assist, which matches the car’s speed with that of the limit.
Blind-spot monitoring and collision-avoidance assist systems are also available, as is rear cross-traffic collision-avoidance assist, safe exit warning, and a 360-degree camera.
Production is slated to begin this fall.
Did we mention personalization way up top? We did. Well, Hyundai’s launch materials included a video of three characters working eye-rolling jobs such as metaverse designer, showing how each character can customize the car and driving experience to best fit his or her lifestyle.
Excuse me while I go refund my lunch after that bit of unpleasant marketing babble.
It gets worse — Hyundai is promising virtual test drives in the metaverse.
Back here in the real world, the Ioniq 6 looks intriguing, no matter how cringe the outreach to Millennials and Gen Z the marketing is.
The performance specs alone seem nice and strong. We’ll see where the pricing falls, but Hyundai may just have itself an EV flagship sedan — one that’s very nice but no so nice that it has to get Genesis branding.
The EV future is going to be interesting
[Images: Hyundai]
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Can I customize it so it doesn’t have the garbage roofline?
Can I customize it so that it doesn’t have any driver assistance technology or constant connectivity that allows me to be monitored?
It’s interesting to look at but perhaps it really will be best-suited to metaverse designers. I prefer something more real.
They stole the CLA250’s inverted banana profile.
that ass was last seen on an Infinity J30S, circa @1995
and it didn’t work then either
Nice C-54 in the background.
That’s a beautiful airplane. Although I would settle for a DC-3 and the funds to operate it. That thing parked next to it is not appealing.
My Dad’s first job after the war as a purser on DC-4s (converted C-54s) flying across the Atlantic to/from places like Rio, New York, Lisbon and Copenhagen. Flying the North Atlantic at 10,000 feet in the weather (these were unpressurized) must have been an experience. The first chance he got at a desk job, he took it.
Is there a Kia version coming too?
Here in Soviet Canada, the “5” and “6” of the Ioniq range represent the number of each of those models that will be imported to the country for each year.
We’re on an 18-24 month waiting list for our Ioniq5, so we should see Ioniq6’s show up some time in 2027, or so…
Worth a repeat:
https://youtu.be/CLW7r4o2_Ow
Decisions, decisions…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F02P2JO7yfc
That’s the most revoltingly ugly vehicle I’ve seen since [insert any SSangYong]. Likely $90K worth of ugly.
This thing was revealed by other automotive media outlets earlier last week. It seems to have one good photographic angle, but unfortunately the rest of the photos show it for what it is, a brokeback car.
Bloody ‘orrible, mate! Some rather basic styling design cues seem to have been jettisoned for an ultralow CdA. Like the bigger Mercedes cars, they and this EV6 remind me of a beached dead whale. Distressing and depressing to gaze upon, let alone having to sniff the pong that arises from the decaying carcass. A double vane wing/trunk lid in profile at the rear is not a strong enough visual cue to lift that sad sack rear end off the apparent floor.
Now be good lads — go home and try again.