There are electric cars and there’s the Hyundai Ioniq 5. There are electric cars that look like, well, a regular car and there’s the Ioniq 5. Clap your eyes on the Hyundai and you know in a shot that it’s something from the future. And that future is an electric one, shaken free from the internal combustion engine that has powered cars since they were invented.
Giving us a good look at that future is Hyundai’s latest all-electric car, which you can tell instantly is no ordinary car. It’s a new breed of ‘born electric’ EVs, that are free from the packaging and design constraints that a lump of an engine and transmission under the hood and floor impose on car designers.
Which is why the Ioniq 5 is a kind of car you’ve never seen before. It’s a unique mix of traditional and ultra-futuristic bits that will leave you staring in wonderment at its radical design. The angular proportions give it the silhouette of a 1980s hatchback, but it’s the techy details that grab your attention. The body is replete with ultra-sharp cuts and creases, and the highlight is the Z-shaped slash on the flanks, which has a folded-paper effect. Flush door handles, 20-inch alloy wheels that look like flying saucers and high-tech LED matrix light clusters make this a car that belongs more in a Blade Runner sequel than on crowded Indian roads.
The exceptionally long 3,000mm wheelbase and short overhangs are also clues that the Ioniq 5 is not a conventional car. Stretching the wheelbase as much as possible is a top priority when designing a ‘born electric’ car on a skateboard, because it’s within the wheelbase that the battery pack is placed. Hence, a longer wheelbase means a bigger battery, which in turn means a longer range. Elongating the wheelbase has other advantages too—it frees up more space within the cabin and gives designers more room to play with.
{{/usCountry}}The exceptionally long 3,000mm wheelbase and short overhangs are also clues that the Ioniq 5 is not a conventional car. Stretching the wheelbase as much as possible is a top priority when designing a ‘born electric’ car on a skateboard, because it’s within the wheelbase that the battery pack is placed. Hence, a longer wheelbase means a bigger battery, which in turn means a longer range. Elongating the wheelbase has other advantages too—it frees up more space within the cabin and gives designers more room to play with.
{{/usCountry}}This is immediately obvious the moment you slide into the Ioniq 5’s cabin. Behind the wheel, it’s more like an office seat than a cockpit because the traditional centre console has been done away with, which frees up space ahead of the front seats. The rear seat is extremely generous too, with more than enough room even for six-footers, and the completely flat floor makes sitting three abreast pretty convenient too. There is also a disadvantage of having a battery pack under the floor. It raises the floor height and forces you to sit in a slightly awkward knees-up position.
The dashboard is a pancake-slim panel with a pair of 12.3-inch screens sitting on the top, and a separate touch sensitive control panel for the air-con housed below. The touchscreens are super-sharp, easy to read even in broad daylight, but a touch slow to respond. The outer edge of the touchscreen panel is magnetic so you can attach toll tickets, parking receipts or pictures of your spouse, your favourite car, or whatever you like.
We expect EVs to dart forward the instant you prod the accelerator and the 306hp Ioniq 5 does just that, like a rabbit prodded with an electric rod. It disguises its 2,100kg kerb weight rather well, be it in the way it accelerates or handles. Going from zero to 100kph in a claimed 5.2 seconds makes it quicker than anything else for the money, but like most EVs, the Ioniq 5 too runs out of volts at the top end, and beyond 130kph, performance drops off quite sharply.
More impressive than the performance is the butter-smooth ride, a very relaxed and hushed driving experience which, along with the spacious cabin, marks the Ioniq 5 out as possibly the most comfortable EV you can buy. Yes, at an estimated `50-60 lakh, it will be expensive, but what you are buying is a piece of the future. And that future is coming to you in the near future, which is mid-2022 when Hyundai will launch this revolutionary new EV.
The views expressed by the columnist are personal
From HT Brunch, January 23, 2022
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