Hyundai Ionic 6 Review

after spending a week behind the wheel I've come to a conclusion the Hyundai ionic 6 is not only a solid competitor to the Tesla Model 3 it's also a solid family sedan for the 21st century let's find out [Music] why let's get the nitty-gritty out of the way first $ 43,560 is where the ionic 6 starts yes that's going to be more expensive than the average Camry accord or Sonata but it is solidly less expensive than the average new vehicle in North America and for that price tag you'll get 361 M of EPA range and on a road trip about 290 Mi of solid range that means that if you want a road trip to Disneyland from San Francisco you're only going to make one 15-minute DC fast charge stop and that means this is going to be an awful lot easier to integrate into your life than the average EV and over the average ownership period this is going to be less expensive than a Camry or an ACC cord perhaps even than a Camry or an Accord Hybrid the story of the ix6 is really a story about efficiency because the more efficient the vehicle is the smaller the battery it needs and that smaller battery is going to be less expensive and lighter and you'll be able to go further on it also charging is going to take less time whether we're talking about miles of range gained per hour of charging at home or miles of range gained per minute of DC fast charging efficiency helps everything out and for the ionx 6 that started with the aerodynamic shape you'll notice it is really really sleek and honestly a little bit Porsche looking from more than one angle we have these full LED headlights here with the Matrix style drls and turn signals below the little Matrix L sort of LED squares are definitely becoming a Hyundai thing you'll notice them down here just below that radar sensor and certainly on the inside and all around the lighting of the ionx 6 we have active Grill shutters down here and you'll notice a very sleek and rounded front end that's also really really low this front bumper is basically knee height for me and that's one of the reasons that we don't find an overly large front trunk in the ionx 6 if they wanted to give us one of those they would have had to have raised the hood up and that would have lowered the range before I get much further I should mention that this is not the 361 M rated model this one is rated for 270 Mi because we get wider tires 245 WID tires on this model and less aerodynamic Wheels it also has an extra motor in the front that extra motor allows this model to go 0 to 60 in 4.27 seconds so significantly faster than a Camry or an accord but this is right in line with that Camry and Accord in terms of its Dimensions 101.1 in Long means this is 1.8 in shorter than a snata but pretty darn close to the Subaru Legacy and the Mazda 6 in terms of its overall length one interesting twist you notice we have this really swoopy style very accentuated sort of wing-like look kind of gives me some Mercedes-Benz CLA Vibes here and there but that's not because of a low roof line this roof roof line is actually 2 to 3 in higher than the average Camry or an accord and that's because we have the battery pack skateboard style under the body and they still wanted to give us a sedan-like experience inside so that kind of bumps everything up a little bit but it's really disguised visually by the swoopy lines The Styling and the proportions really trick your mind when it comes to the dimensions of this vehicle you'll notice we have a really short front overhang in addition to that really dramatically sloping Hood but the hood itself is not terribly long significantly shorter than a c or in a cords hood and that's part of why we find such a roomy interior this is about 4 in shorter than a Porsche tyon but significantly bigger inside because that tyon has that really long classic Hood profile also Playing Tricks on your mind is the rear end styling we have this sort of homage to a Porsche whale tail spoiler on top secondary spoiler below but this is a sedan it's not a liftback or a sport back I kind of wish they'd actually made it a bit Hatcher because that could have improved practicality but again this is all about smoothing out that air flow behind and they didn't want to put the hinge up at the top of the window because that would have reduced rear passenger Headroom eccentric is probably a bit of an understatement when it comes to the style but I do think it looks Thoroughly Modern and I actually dig the pixel style lamps both in the front and in the back I also like how ionic 6 the logo is actually behind this clear plastic section in the light bar that certainly makes that easier to clean and actually the clean lines for clean Arrow make it just easier to clean period at the moment there are two basic ways to get the ionic 6 single motor and dual motor they both use essentially the same motor in the back 225 horsepower back there if you choose the rear wheeel drive model 320 total if you choose the all-wheel drive model the rear motor power output drops ever so slightly if you choose the dual motor version but then we get the second motor up front giving us 320 horsepower total they both use essentially the same battery pack it's a 77.4 KW unit good for up to 361 Mi of total EPA range but we'll talk about range in just a second charging the battery happens either two ways AC charging or DC charging there's an onboard 11 Kow AC charger which will take this battery from empty to completely full in just over 7 hours assuming you have 240 volts at home of course if you want to DC fast charge your ionx 6 that's where the party really starts because this is one of the fastest charging batteries in the EV segment I am of course talking about char time not Peak charge rate because 240 KW is a little bit lower than some of the competition but this will cling onto that fast charge rate for an awful lot longer than a Tesla Model 3 and that's why this takes just 18 minutes to go from 10% to 80% and just 40 minutes to go 10% to 100% And that 10% to 100% is important because if you do like to road trip and you want to drive 300 and some odd miles then stop at the next charge station andri drive another 300 mil this is going to take an awful lot less time than some of the competition that all has to do with what Hyundai refers to as their 800 volt architecture although you should know that the actual battery voltage is somewhere south of 700 volts in all egmp platform vehicles at the moment but Hyundai is absolutely right when they say that the higher voltage is the key to this Pack's charging performance higher voltage means lower current that means less heat on the conductors means the conductors can be smaller and they can be lighter and you have less likelihood of things overheating when it comes to the cabling on the vehicle and on the charging station and that's part of why a lot of Teslas will Peak at 255 but they won't hang on to 255 kilow for very long now to the tricky subject of range if you want to just meet me on the other side I will see you there I don't blame you for skipping this section at all when it comes to the EPA range figures that you'll find on the window sticker remember that is combined range City Plus Highway and it is biased towards City the EPA ratings are 55% City 45% Highway and the highway section averages just 48 M an hour I don't know about you but I tend to not think about range as how many times can I do loops around Manhattan I want to know can I go from point A in the country to point B in the country so the combined range score not that useful in reality and that's part of why when you see some Outlets talking about range scores in an EV like this they're like well I drove it at 70 M an hour on the high Highway and I didn't get 361 mil of range well no poops shlock because that's not what this is rated for out on the highway it's rated for that in Combined driving in fact the 361 M rated version of this is rated for just 327 mil according to the eepa on the highway cycle that's a pretty different number the reason you get to 361 total is that the city range is 394 miles so definitely very very big on that single motor model of course neither one of those numbers is realistic so your real world range is probably going to be somewhere around 290 Mi or so and a number of outlets at 70 mph have been able to get 290 miles out of the single motor model in my initial testing at the launch event for the ix6 I was a little closer to 300 but actually still pretty decent All Things Considered this model is the least efficient version of the ionx 6 and when you calculate the numbers out this is good for 242 Mi of EPA Highway range 285 Mi of C range 270 M combined you'll notice that by the time you get down to this model with the wider tires and the different wheels and the extra electric motor that the city and Highway number are actually much closer together how does that compare to the Tesla shaped elephant in the room well the refreshed model 3 gets 341 miles combined 349 City 328 on the highway so actually pretty similar in terms of Highway range to the longest range version of this but in real world situations it's actually going to be lower because of the way that Tesla calculates their numbers they do not use the exact same method of calculating their EPA modifier as Hyundai does Hyundai chooses a more conservative route Tesla chooses a more aggressive route so the bottom line is this will still go further on a battery if you're talking about longest range version of this and longest range version of the model 3 bearing in mind that we're exploring a fully loaded ionx 6 today I found the front seats to be very comfortable the driver seat and front passenger seat have the same range of motion and they both feature a two-way adjustable lumbar support I do wish that this was a four-way lumbar because that would have made it easier for shorter and taller drivers to find a good driving position we do however have a manual tilt telescopic steering column with a pretty large range of motion and front seat tracks that move really far rearward so if you're looking for an electric sedan and you're on the taller side you might want to take a look at the ion X6 because my legs could easily be about 4 in longer and I'd still have a reasonable amount of thigh support still be able to access the pedals and of course the dead pedal over there on the left side Headroom that's going to be a little bit more limited if you choose the model with the sunroof because I have maybe about an inch of Headroom sitting in an upright position I'd have to recline if I had a taller torso that's definitely something to keep in mind also something to keep in mind the driving position is a little higher off the ground than the average midsize sedan and that's because we have the battery pack between me and the road so the driver's seat is actually a little higher off the ground as is the floor of the vehicle so direct comparisons to something like a Hyundai Sonata your legs will actually be a little bit more bent rather than stretched out in front of you and that's part of why the leg room figures in here are a little interesting remember that leg room is not simply measured from this seat back to this seat back it's a measurement that actually follows the path essentially of your leg at a knee point and then down towards the ground and that's why you can have two vehicles with very similar legro numbers that feel very very different in person for instance on paper this has very similar leg room to a number of very upright Crossovers and SUVs like a Hyundai Santa Fe but that dashboard feels a mile away in comparison to the Santa Fe because this seating position is much more relaxed and you'll notice the seat bottom cushion is certainly lower to the ground if you're looking for something that's going to be more comfortable for shorter people or kids this is definitely going to be more comfortable because of that but on the adult side of things you're going to get a little bit less thigh support I actually am surprised by the Headroom because sitting in a natural seating position my hair is just barely brushing the ceiling if I try and put my head back there towards the headrest then you'll notice that Headroom is certainly Limited like it is honestly in so many midsize sedans these days and that's just due to the swoopy profile of the ionic 6 moving over here to the middle seat things are a little bit different the seat is higher off the ground than the outboard sitting positions I really do have to Crane my head to one side or sit sort of unnaturally further forward scooting all the way over to the right side of the vehicle I had a 6'4 passenger comfortably sitting in this front seat as you can see I have gobs and gobs of leg room the dimensions of the rear seats may be unexpectedly generous but the trunk is about what you'd expect given the overall profile of the six we have 11.2 cubic feet of storage space back here plus half a cubic foot in the front trunk that is definitely below something like a Camry or an Ultima or an accord most midsize stands are in the 14 to 15 cubic foot range in America and you will find about 15 cubic feet of storage space in the Tesla Model 3 some of the problem is due to the power trunk lid these power hinges occupy a decent amount of space and when you really look in there they could have given you that back into in terms of cargo area also there's just the general rear end profile not only is the front of the ionic 6 quite low but if I close this trunk lid you'll notice that the rear end is also quite a bit lower than something like the Camry or the Accord and there's really no mystery where the extra cargo space comes from it comes from that much boxier back end fortunately the cargo area itself is quite square and the rear seats fold down we have releases for the 6/40 folding rear seat back on either side of the cargo area I was able to squeeze three 24-in roller bags back here going further down the rabbit hole there is a tiny bit of storage space under that load floor just about enough room to put your charge cable in there maybe a little bit of something else if you remove this foam divider the hood opens with a pretty traditional latch in the driver side footwell No Electronic release we find that relatively small storage area here I've removed this cover so you can see there is actually something under there this is the inverter circuitry and of course the front electric motor and part of the HVAC system that uh panel opens up to give you easier access for for maintenance to those systems and then it just snaps right back in place we have a little rubber mat there one nice touch with this sort of front trunk here or fubby whatever you want to call it is that it doesn't have a separate lid like we find in some of the other Hyundai and Kia vehicles Hyundai really wanted to make a statement with this interior not just in terms of design like this tubular dome light but also in terms of the materials used so a large portion of this interior is made from recycled or recyclable or biosourced materials back on the design front we have a combination of touch control like that reading light right there and physical controls like the larger dome light and the door light Etc we find sliding sun visors there and somewhat unusual for a modern e we find an actual sunroof that opens and has a powered fabric shade so you can completely close that off if you want to there's a pro and a con here we don't find that big glass panel over the rear which helps improve rear Headroom but it does give this a much more normal look and in hotter climates it's really going to keep the interior a lot cooler meaning you're going to use less battery power to cool over here we have sliding shoulder belts for the driver and front passenger and two-way adjustable headrests with a similar sort of eccentric sort of a trumpet Bell theme there that we've seen in some other Hyundai I appreciate the contrasting colors in this interior let me know what you think of this design so many new vehicles are just charcoal on charcoal on charcoal and Hyundai has really spent a lot of time thinking about the color combos even if you get the darker interior options there's still enough contrast to add some extra visual interest the front seats are upholstered in imitation leather there's a tiny bit of piping there to give it some visual interest goes from sort of an orange or gold color there to Gray and these seat surfaces are perforated in the center because they are both heated and ventilated we have a little bit more bolstering than I had expected on the seat back cushion but as you can see the seat bottom cushion is relatively flat so larger folks shouldn't have any problem finding a solid driving position moving over to the front doors we find more of that eccentric styling and eccentric materials choices on the material Choice most of the door is made from a hard plastic and some parts are made from a translucent plastic I actually put a little light behind there so you can see that bottom section is translucent and it has sort of a ribbed texture to it that you'll really see in strong daylight lots of storage going on there so bottle holder right down there cargo area we have some ambient Lighting in this area right here and the upper door panel is made from a hard plastic it is on the thin side for a mainstream vehicle so if you press on it you can actually see that the door panel moves a little bit which is part of why it has these ribs to give it extra structure that's part of the lightweight mission of the ionic 6 we then have softer touch materials around this section of the door and that really big speaker Grill although the only speaker in there is right up there towards the front moving over to the dashboard we have that Bose speaker there on the a pillar and a very eccentric dashboard style I'll just zoom out so you can see that a little bit better uh it sort of gives me manta ray Vibes maybe something like that going on the reason is that in some World Mark markets this little panel will house an LCD well it's actually not the same panel it actually would be a taller panel so the lower P part of the dashboard is designed to be used in all markets and then in our Market we get a slightly stunted little wing on top because we have real side view mirrors honestly real side view mirrors are my preference we'll talk about that in a different video for some actual seeing reasons um but if you are a fan of those LCD mirrors you won't find them here we have a soft touch injection molded upper section of the dashboard beyond that hard plastic again more of a color contrast going on there ambient lighting strip running there across the dashboard and more of those little pixel elements that we find on the outside down here we find hard plastics and a reasonably sized slot style glove compartment I was barely able to fit an 11-in tablet computer inside it is fairly tall but it's not overly deep no Modern Hyundai would be complete without a big two-screen LCD setup in the dashboard so of course we find one here in the ionic 6 this is not running the latest hardware and software from Hyundai that version would actually have wireless carplay and Android auto this version does not it is only wired we do have a lot of EV information however including range with the climate control on and the climate control off and the navigation does offer you charging suggestions so for instance if I try and navigate from where I am to I don't know Los Angeles I can hit the route button there and then it will give us routing information to tell us that we need to charge on that route so you see battery capacity sufficient you want to add charging say yes however I disagree with the charging infrastructure suggestions given by the ionic 6 uh right now you can see it's actually suggesting just one stop right there going from 64 to 100% I think that's a little bit odd because that is one of the slower charging windows in an EV going 10% to maybe about 60% is the fastest so you'd be better off actually driving a little bit further and then charging when the battery was a little bit lower which is exactly what a better route planner would give us for instance below the infotainment system we find two large air vents in the middle more of that ambient lighting strip and more of that translucent trim on the interior this really catches the light in an interesting way the light will shine through and the various different densities inside refract the light differently so it really gives it a very 3d effect in strong daylight moving down from there we find a combination touch and physical control button Bank EV start stop button right there controls for the infotainment system up top and then the climate control system in this touch Bank below if you touch this option right here it's actually going to take you to a screen in the infotainment system to adjust the seat Heating and seat ventilation below that we find a CH wireless charging mat you can see more of those pixel LEDs right there single USB input for Apple carplay we also have the key in this cup holder right here so now is a good time to talk about the key it's actually designed to have a Hyundai logo right there in the buttons hopefully you can see that uh but I've never really cared for the Aesthetics of the design also it does seem to scratch really easily this has some paint missing here and there and the vehicle has under 1,000 M on it right now fortunately you don't have to use this key if you don't want to you can use your smartphone as a key or you can use an NFC key card which is pretty handy going back to the center console we have soft touch materials on either side of those two big cup holders and centrally located buttons for the window switches the door locks and the auto brake hold underneath that we have a big storage area because the center console really is a floating design and it is very very slim so gives you a lot of storage under there for storage of bags things like that and as you can see more of that translucent plastic on either side the LCD cluster is basically the same as the one in the ionic 5 there are three core themes to choose from and then you can select what's going on in the middle whether that's turn BYT turn navigation directions trip computer readouts or vehicle's active safety system readouts as well but the display is not as configurable as some flat bottom steering wheel is similar to the one in the ionic 5 but it has Morse code LEDs in the middle that spells out H just in case you're wondering flat bottom design there sport grips up top and the LED s do respond to various different functions so for instance if I change the drive mode with this drive mode selector you can see that the LEDs respond in the middle blinking different patterns out there on this side we find the controls for the adaptive cruise control system infotainment buttons over here and then the shifter below Park is the button at the end of the shifter stock and then you rotate this portion around for Drive In Reverse the morse code LEDs also respond to the gear position so if I put it in reverse by pulling that back you can see that they turn red if I put it in Drive they turn turn back to Blue here's a better look at the dashboard Wings again if you're in some World Markets where you can get the LCD side view mirrors this section is taller it actually is almost twice as tall because it houses the LCD but this lower portion That Remains the Same that's probably why we get that eccentric shape in the US here's a better look at that ambient Lighting on the door you can really see the ribbing from this angle out on the road the ionic 6 is solidly impressive let's go over the numbers first 0 to 60 happened in this all-wheel drive model in 4.2 seconds 60 is Z happened in 121 ft those are solidly competitive against the mainline competition and the model 3 of course as long as we're talking about comparably priced model 3s now keep in mind there is a model 3 Performance but we all expect there to be an ionic 6n at some point soon so that's probably going to deliver the same level of Bonkers that we find in the ionic 5n in this sleer package here so expect even faster 0 to 60 times and even shorter stopping distances one quick sidebar on the acceleration numbers much like the regular all-wheel drive ionic 5 and the Kia ev6 this uses the front electric motor differently than some EVS when you're in eco mode it's not going to use the front electric motor very much it will use it a bit from a standstill so if I slow down to a complete stop here and then romp on the throttle it is going to use the electric motor to help you accelerate but then by about 30 mph it turns the front electric motor off and then mechanically disconnects it from the equation interestingly that means that even though the max power output is reduced in eco mode and this is significantly slower than 4.2 seconds it ends up at 5.9 seconds that is still actually a little bit quicker than the rear-wheel drive ionic 6 even though this is a little bit heavier and that's because we get a little bit more power and a little bit more torque from that front axle at the very beginning even though the front electric motor ends up dropping out later now don't worry if you're driving on a slippery surface the vehicle will re-engage the front electric motor if it's needed for added traction versus the rest of the mainline competition it should be no shock that this is almost identical to the scores in the Kia ev6 very similar to the ionic 5 and definitely presents some better scores versus comparably priced versions of the Ford Mustang machy the Chevy Blazer and of course the upcoming Honda prologue as well I fully expect this also to do better in those numbers than the Chevy Equinox EV this is notably lighter than the G Motors ULM platform vehicles and that includes the prologue and the upcoming ZDX that was part of Hyundai's Mission with this vehicle really focus on efficiency and really focus on weight because low weight breeds high efficiency and that's part of the reason that the ionx 6 feels so Nimble out on the road without having to have a very firm suspension handling in this model is absolutely excellent and if you're comparing this to something like a Hyundai Sonata or a Toyota Camry this is going to be an awful lot more fun whether we're talking about the all-wheel drive version version or the rear wheel drive version because both versions are solidly rear power biased in this model again we have essentially the same motor in the back as the rear wheeel drive model about 220 horsepower back there and the remainder of the power happens on the front axle so even when the throttle is all the way down most of the power is going to the back now if you're not really comfortable with rear wheeel drive driving Dynamics or if you live in a snowy area that's one reason you might want to choose the competition because this the model 3 and a number of the competition they're also going to be rear wheeel drive the Mustang Mach for instance so you may want to consider one of those front-wheel drive alternatives for better snow traction or of course the all-wheel drive version because that should be just fine when it comes to the handling score I'm going to give this an A minus because I do think that the handling is better in the Tesla Model 3 some of that has to do with the suspension tune and some of that has to do with the relative tire sizes and tire choices that Tesla has made on the model 3 especially if you're comparing this all-wheel drive model to the performance version of the model 3 that's going to be a little bit better to drive out on the road it has a solid Germanic feel to the steering and just the way the suspension is tuned this on the other hand excels when it comes to the ride quality yes the ride quality is firmer than average if we're talking about a midsized family Sedan like a Camry or an accord or a Sonata but it is significantly more comfortable than the Tesla Model 3 and Rumor Mill says if we do get an ionic 6n it's probably going to get an Adaptive suspension so expect it to be a little bit more adjusted adustable as well one thing that I've always liked about the ionic series of vehicles is that they don't have that firm and bouncy feel that we find in a Tesla or in a Mach e Ford really wanted to copy the Tesla driving Dynamics and Tesla suspension tuning and they definitely did with that model so as far as a mainstream vehicle goes this is going to be an easier adjustment out of something like a Camry or an a cord than a model 3 would just the way the suspension is tuned another easy adjustment for family sedan Shoppers is going to be the cabin noise at 50 mph I measured 69 12 DB in here so this gets a solid A+ this is easily quieter than the Camry or an accord or anything else in that segment and a lot of that has to do with the aerodynamics of the vehicle that really help reduce wind noise and the fact that we get that big battery between the road and the cabin so that's really going to help quiet the road noise as well fuel economy that's definitely an A+ as well this is solidly one of the most efficient EVS available in North America yes you can get more efficient EVS but by and large most of them are going to cost you more than this ionic 6 and interestingly that includes the all-wheel drive version I touched on Real World Range a little earlier in the video Let's Take a deeper dive now this model is rated for 270 Mi EPA versus the 361 mil for the longest range version of the ionic 6 but what I find interesting about the ionic is that generally speaking Hyundai has been pretty conservative about the range estimates especially if you compare that to Tesla part of that has to do with the EPA testing modifier I will let you Google the details on that I won't really belabor the point in this video but effectively even though Tesla has recently reduced range on the model three they're still calculating that range differently than Hyundai is and Hyundai is taking a more conservative approach to that range testing a lot of folks have asked me to talk about range in extreme weather well fortunately for me about 45° in the morning is usually about as Extreme as it gets and yes you will notice a range decrease in the ix6 but it's not going to be substantial if you do live in an area with extreme cold you should know that generally speaking Ultra efficient vehicles like this tend to see a bigger effect on the actual range score than a lot less efficient EVS like say a Hummer or an EV pickup truck and that just seems to be the relative impact of the weather on the smaller battery that we find here the aerodynamics of having snow built up underneath the vehicle on top of the vehicle the rolling resistance of driving through snow Etc all of that is obviously going to have an impact on the vehicle as well as the extra heat demands to heat the cabin and keep the battery warm this ionic 6 does have a battery heater and it does have the ability to precondition the battery before DC fast charging but in really really cold weather obviously some of those numbers are going to start shifting when it comes to price and value there is significant overlap between the Hyundai and the Tesla and which one is right for you is really going to be dependent on which options you're interested in and which option boxes are checked on the exact model you're looking at the base version of the ionic 6 is about $22,000 less expensive than the base version of the model 3 but the base extended range version of the ionic 6 is about three grand more as far as range goes the base version of the model 3 that's actually closer to the base standard range version of the ionic 6 it gets 272 M of EPA range versus 240 on the standard range ionic 6 but there's an important thing that you should know that we should talk about the way that Tesla calculates range for their EPA score is not the same as the way that Hyundai does it I will let you Google the details there but the important thing to know is that real world range is going to be closer than these numbers would indicate in real world driving the model 3 is still going to get you a little further on a charge but it's not going to be as big of a difference as this 30 m Gap would indicate however if you want the longer range ionic then you're going to get significantly more range Than That Base version of the Tesla about 100 Mil more performance in the extended range rear wheeel drive version of the ionic is going to be closer to the base version of the model 3 but the base model 3 is always going to be swifter 0 to 60 you're going to get 5.8 seconds versus about 7 and 1 half seconds in the absolute base version of the Ionix 6 and that's going to go down to about 6 point something seconds if you get the 225 horsepower model as far as features and functions and size goes they're also very evenly matched matched again depending on your preferences I like the infotainment software in the Tesla better it does a better job consistently better job and significantly better job of estimating EV range than the system in the ionic 6 but if you want to drive the vehicle yourself and you don't care about that and you're interested in apple carplay you're interested in an instrument cluster more typical more normative vehicle functions you'll find those in the ionic 6 if you're interested in streaming on the incard display if you just love the look and the feel of that big LCD in the dashboard then clearly you want the model 3 as far as Ruess goes there is significantly more leg room in the ion X6 than there is in the model 3 but the model 3 has effectively more cargo room because we have that decently sized front trunk and depending on the version you're looking at Headroom is going to be more generous in the model 3 than in the ionx 6 that's something a lot of folks noticed when they got into the front seats especially in the ionic 6 the fact that the moon roof opens and it has a shade on it really means that Headroom is drastic reduced versus the big Open Glass canopy that we find in the model 3 although I'm not the biggest fan of a big glass roof that can't be closed off so for me I would rather get the model with no moon roof at all charging is a bit of a double-edged sword because the ionic 6 will charge notably faster than the model 3 but of course you're going to be charging at 800 volt CCS charging stations and if you decide you want to start magic docking or once other adapters come up so that way you could charge your Hyundai at a Tesla Supercharger station keep in mind it's going to charge an awful lot slower than you might think charge rates are really going to be severely limited because the higher voltage architecture on the Ionix 6 means that it has to Buck the DC voltage up to be accepted by the battery pack and that limits charge rates to around 100 kilow or so or sometimes a little bit lower depending on the exact situation and the exact charger that you're looking at so keep that particular limitation in mind when we step up to the dual motor versions the dual motor long range version of the model 3 is less expensive 48840 versus 49,990 for the midlevel trim of the ionx 6 and it's all-wheel drive option I would say that's the best coraly to the base version of the model 3 keep in mind that the features are not identical on these models and The Limited trim is going to be $58,800 sorry $54,600 for the ionx 6 uh still notably more than that model 3 however this is where things come become a little bit tricky so it depends on how you configure your model 3 keep in mind that the paint options are fairly expensive dark gray is the only included paint option any other color is going to be $1,000 to $2,000 extra so Red's two grand more if you want the light interior that's an extra $1,000 and on the ionic 6 you can choose between five different colors for the same base price white is an extra $470 and the matte paint option which is not offered at all on the model 3 is only $11,000 so the paint options are significantly less expensive on the Hyundai and there's no charge for the lighter interior when it's offered with the appropriate coordinating exterior color you cannot get all of the exterior colors with the lighter interior color bottom line these two vehicles are very competitive with one another and again whether you want carplay or whether you'd rather have better incar e routing I think that there is a reason to get either of these options in our real world driving we did find that the ion 6 was more efficient than the last all-wheel drive model 3 that we tested now let's move on to the sort of Alternatives let's just Breeze through them quickly here clearly we have the Kia ev6 it's related to the ionic 6 so if you want a different look if you want a practical hatch in the back bigger cargo area Etc you might want to take a look at the ev6 however it's going to be notably more expensive starting at 43,9 75 that's for the same small battery pack now because the ev6 is pretty aerodynamic it's not a boxy crossover ranges pretty close 232 M for that model the charging speeds are just as quick but we actually get a little bit more power because Kia is ostensibly the sporty brand so we get 167 horsepower versus 149 if you want the rest of the ev6 flavors they're going to be about $4,000 more than the ionx 6 depending exactly which version you're looking at although I have seen some slightly better deals on EV 6s lately than ionic sixes which one is right for you again is going to depend on your particular priorities is the extra car room worth about $4,000 more I would argue no but clearly you're the one that would decide for you outside of that let's take a look at the only other sedan that's close in terms of price that would be the polstar 2 currently but by close I really don't mean close because it's $10,000 more and here it's a case of is the pstar more fun to drive is it faster is it better in many ways absolutely but it's also significantly more expensive if you're looking for the more attractive more Dynamic op the more luxury segment option that's clearly going to be the pstar 2 the rear wheeel drive model is a ton of fun however it's not going to charge as quickly and it is going to be significantly more expensive also notably smaller on the inside now how about aona Eevee this is a really interesting twist for me because the Kona e has a little bit of overlap with the ionx 6 in terms of pricing it starts less expensive at $ 34,50 and Hyundai is uncharacteristically aggressive with the Kona in the fact that they're offering two different batteries and two different Power output levels the base model gives you 197 M of range so less range than the ironx 6 but a smaller price tag as well $34,000 but you also get less power 133 horsepower that is not going to be swift at all on the other hand if you want a bit more power than you get in the ionx 6 you can get 201 horsepower which is 52 more horsepower than we find in the ionic for $38,600 mil of range in that model the downside is that it's a much smaller EV so the interior the seats everything about it is going to feel tighter it's going to feel different more crossover like so a bit more upright in terms of its seating position but certainly smaller the cargo area on the other hand it's actually more practical because it is a hatchback so you have the ability to put bigger in box your items in the cargo area there's certainly a trade-off for the extra cargo capacity and that is charging speed specifically DC charging speed because the AC charging speed is more less identical going 10% to 80% in your ionic is going to take just 18 minutes regardless of the battery pack in the Kona e it's going to take 43 minutes and that's because this is not writing on the newer electrical architecture that we find in the ionic line for some reason they chose not to just snag the ionic battery jam it under the body of a Kona and some Motors and call it good instead the Kona is still using a different generation and a different series of batteries electric motors charging components ET ET my final verdict is that you can't go wrong with the ionx 6 and you can't go wrong with the model 3 which one's right for you again is going to depend on your priorities but I would lean towards the ion X6 mainly because of its faster charging and I like the distinctive style and the fact that we get more interior room now that said again there are solid reasons to buy the model 3 if you want a little bit more Headroom on the inside if you want a little bit more carg capacity and if you do plan on taking your Eevee on CrossCountry road trips then the model 3 is going to be a lot easier easier to deal with because of the supercharging network also if you value the games the streaming the more frequent updates on the infotainment system then that vehicle is for you but for me I like carplay so I never use the native infotainment system in practically any vehicle that I drive these days I'm just in carplay all the time so for me I don't know if I care that much about that native infotainment system I just want a big crisp screen that's really easy to use located nicely and I really like a separate instrument cluster it's right behind the steering wheel where I can see it so let me know what you think about that down there and what would be your top pick in the segment be sure and find us over at Facebook Twitter Instagram Etc and if you want merch like this nacs merch shirt you know uh you can find those over on the merch store so see all of you next [Music] week

after spending a week behind the wheel I&#39;ve come to a conclusion the Hyundai ionic 6 is not only a solid competitor to the Tesla Model 3 it&#39;s also a solid family sedan for the 21st century let&#39;s find out [Music] why let&#39;s get the nitty-gritty out of the way first $ 43,560 is where the ionic 6 starts yes that&#39;s going to be more expensive than the average Camry accord or Sonata but it is solidly less expensive than the average new vehicle in North America and for that price tag you&#39;ll get 361 M of EPA range and on a road trip about 290 Mi of solid range that means that if you want a road trip to Disneyland from San Francisco you&#39;re only going to make one 15-minute DC fast charge stop and that means this is going to be an awful lot easier to integrate into your life than the average EV and over the average ownership period this is going to be less expensive than a Camry or an ACC cord perhaps even than a Camry or an Accord Hybrid the story of the ix6 is really a story about efficiency because the more efficient the vehicle is the smaller the battery it needs and that smaller battery is going to be less expensive and lighter and you&#39;ll be able to go further on it also charging is going to take less time whether we&#39;re talking about miles of range gained per hour of charging at home or miles of range gained per minute of DC fast charging efficiency helps everything out and for the ionx 6 that started with the aerodynamic shape you&#39;ll notice it is really really sleek and honestly a little bit Porsche looking from more than one angle we have these full LED headlights here with the Matrix style drls and turn signals below the little Matrix L sort of LED squares are definitely becoming a Hyundai thing you&#39;ll notice them down here just below that radar sensor and certainly on the inside and all around the lighting of the ionx 6 we have active Grill shutters down here and you&#39;ll notice a very sleek and rounded front end that&#39;s also really really low this front bumper is basically knee height for me and that&#39;s one of the reasons that we don&#39;t find an overly large front trunk in the ionx 6 if they wanted to give us one of those they would have had to have raised the hood up and that would have lowered the range before I get much further I should mention that this is not the 361 M rated model this one is rated for 270 Mi because we get wider tires 245 WID tires on this model and less aerodynamic Wheels it also has an extra motor in the front that extra motor allows this model to go 0 to 60 in 4.27 seconds so significantly faster than a Camry or an accord but this is right in line with that Camry and Accord in terms of its Dimensions 101.1 in Long means this is 1.8 in shorter than a snata but pretty darn close to the Subaru Legacy and the Mazda 6 in terms of its overall length one interesting twist you notice we have this really swoopy style very accentuated sort of wing-like look kind of gives me some Mercedes-Benz CLA Vibes here and there but that&#39;s not because of a low roof line this roof roof line is actually 2 to 3 in higher than the average Camry or an accord and that&#39;s because we have the battery pack skateboard style under the body and they still wanted to give us a sedan-like experience inside so that kind of bumps everything up a little bit but it&#39;s really disguised visually by the swoopy lines The Styling and the proportions really trick your mind when it comes to the dimensions of this vehicle you&#39;ll notice we have a really short front overhang in addition to that really dramatically sloping Hood but the hood itself is not terribly long significantly shorter than a c or in a cords hood and that&#39;s part of why we find such a roomy interior this is about 4 in shorter than a Porsche tyon but significantly bigger inside because that tyon has that really long classic Hood profile also Playing Tricks on your mind is the rear end styling we have this sort of homage to a Porsche whale tail spoiler on top secondary spoiler below but this is a sedan it&#39;s not a liftback or a sport back I kind of wish they&#39;d actually made it a bit Hatcher because that could have improved practicality but again this is all about smoothing out that air flow behind and they didn&#39;t want to put the hinge up at the top of the window because that would have reduced rear passenger Headroom eccentric is probably a bit of an understatement when it comes to the style but I do think it looks Thoroughly Modern and I actually dig the pixel style lamps both in the front and in the back I also like how ionic 6 the logo is actually behind this clear plastic section in the light bar that certainly makes that easier to clean and actually the clean lines for clean Arrow make it just easier to clean period at the moment there are two basic ways to get the ionic 6 single motor and dual motor they both use essentially the same motor in the back 225 horsepower back there if you choose the rear wheeel drive model 320 total if you choose the all-wheel drive model the rear motor power output drops ever so slightly if you choose the dual motor version but then we get the second motor up front giving us 320 horsepower total they both use essentially the same battery pack it&#39;s a 77.4 KW unit good for up to 361 Mi of total EPA range but we&#39;ll talk about range in just a second charging the battery happens either two ways AC charging or DC charging there&#39;s an onboard 11 Kow AC charger which will take this battery from empty to completely full in just over 7 hours assuming you have 240 volts at home of course if you want to DC fast charge your ionx 6 that&#39;s where the party really starts because this is one of the fastest charging batteries in the EV segment I am of course talking about char time not Peak charge rate because 240 KW is a little bit lower than some of the competition but this will cling onto that fast charge rate for an awful lot longer than a Tesla Model 3 and that&#39;s why this takes just 18 minutes to go from 10% to 80% and just 40 minutes to go 10% to 100% And that 10% to 100% is important because if you do like to road trip and you want to drive 300 and some odd miles then stop at the next charge station andri drive another 300 mil this is going to take an awful lot less time than some of the competition that all has to do with what Hyundai refers to as their 800 volt architecture although you should know that the actual battery voltage is somewhere south of 700 volts in all egmp platform vehicles at the moment but Hyundai is absolutely right when they say that the higher voltage is the key to this Pack&#39;s charging performance higher voltage means lower current that means less heat on the conductors means the conductors can be smaller and they can be lighter and you have less likelihood of things overheating when it comes to the cabling on the vehicle and on the charging station and that&#39;s part of why a lot of Teslas will Peak at 255 but they won&#39;t hang on to 255 kilow for very long now to the tricky subject of range if you want to just meet me on the other side I will see you there I don&#39;t blame you for skipping this section at all when it comes to the EPA range figures that you&#39;ll find on the window sticker remember that is combined range City Plus Highway and it is biased towards City the EPA ratings are 55% City 45% Highway and the highway section averages just 48 M an hour I don&#39;t know about you but I tend to not think about range as how many times can I do loops around Manhattan I want to know can I go from point A in the country to point B in the country so the combined range score not that useful in reality and that&#39;s part of why when you see some Outlets talking about range scores in an EV like this they&#39;re like well I drove it at 70 M an hour on the high Highway and I didn&#39;t get 361 mil of range well no poops shlock because that&#39;s not what this is rated for out on the highway it&#39;s rated for that in Combined driving in fact the 361 M rated version of this is rated for just 327 mil according to the eepa on the highway cycle that&#39;s a pretty different number the reason you get to 361 total is that the city range is 394 miles so definitely very very big on that single motor model of course neither one of those numbers is realistic so your real world range is probably going to be somewhere around 290 Mi or so and a number of outlets at 70 mph have been able to get 290 miles out of the single motor model in my initial testing at the launch event for the ix6 I was a little closer to 300 but actually still pretty decent All Things Considered this model is the least efficient version of the ionx 6 and when you calculate the numbers out this is good for 242 Mi of EPA Highway range 285 Mi of C range 270 M combined you&#39;ll notice that by the time you get down to this model with the wider tires and the different wheels and the extra electric motor that the city and Highway number are actually much closer together how does that compare to the Tesla shaped elephant in the room well the refreshed model 3 gets 341 miles combined 349 City 328 on the highway so actually pretty similar in terms of Highway range to the longest range version of this but in real world situations it&#39;s actually going to be lower because of the way that Tesla calculates their numbers they do not use the exact same method of calculating their EPA modifier as Hyundai does Hyundai chooses a more conservative route Tesla chooses a more aggressive route so the bottom line is this will still go further on a battery if you&#39;re talking about longest range version of this and longest range version of the model 3 bearing in mind that we&#39;re exploring a fully loaded ionx 6 today I found the front seats to be very comfortable the driver seat and front passenger seat have the same range of motion and they both feature a two-way adjustable lumbar support I do wish that this was a four-way lumbar because that would have made it easier for shorter and taller drivers to find a good driving position we do however have a manual tilt telescopic steering column with a pretty large range of motion and front seat tracks that move really far rearward so if you&#39;re looking for an electric sedan and you&#39;re on the taller side you might want to take a look at the ion X6 because my legs could easily be about 4 in longer and I&#39;d still have a reasonable amount of thigh support still be able to access the pedals and of course the dead pedal over there on the left side Headroom that&#39;s going to be a little bit more limited if you choose the model with the sunroof because I have maybe about an inch of Headroom sitting in an upright position I&#39;d have to recline if I had a taller torso that&#39;s definitely something to keep in mind also something to keep in mind the driving position is a little higher off the ground than the average midsize sedan and that&#39;s because we have the battery pack between me and the road so the driver&#39;s seat is actually a little higher off the ground as is the floor of the vehicle so direct comparisons to something like a Hyundai Sonata your legs will actually be a little bit more bent rather than stretched out in front of you and that&#39;s part of why the leg room figures in here are a little interesting remember that leg room is not simply measured from this seat back to this seat back it&#39;s a measurement that actually follows the path essentially of your leg at a knee point and then down towards the ground and that&#39;s why you can have two vehicles with very similar legro numbers that feel very very different in person for instance on paper this has very similar leg room to a number of very upright Crossovers and SUVs like a Hyundai Santa Fe but that dashboard feels a mile away in comparison to the Santa Fe because this seating position is much more relaxed and you&#39;ll notice the seat bottom cushion is certainly lower to the ground if you&#39;re looking for something that&#39;s going to be more comfortable for shorter people or kids this is definitely going to be more comfortable because of that but on the adult side of things you&#39;re going to get a little bit less thigh support I actually am surprised by the Headroom because sitting in a natural seating position my hair is just barely brushing the ceiling if I try and put my head back there towards the headrest then you&#39;ll notice that Headroom is certainly Limited like it is honestly in so many midsize sedans these days and that&#39;s just due to the swoopy profile of the ionic 6 moving over here to the middle seat things are a little bit different the seat is higher off the ground than the outboard sitting positions I really do have to Crane my head to one side or sit sort of unnaturally further forward scooting all the way over to the right side of the vehicle I had a 6&#39;4 passenger comfortably sitting in this front seat as you can see I have gobs and gobs of leg room the dimensions of the rear seats may be unexpectedly generous but the trunk is about what you&#39;d expect given the overall profile of the six we have 11.2 cubic feet of storage space back here plus half a cubic foot in the front trunk that is definitely below something like a Camry or an Ultima or an accord most midsize stands are in the 14 to 15 cubic foot range in America and you will find about 15 cubic feet of storage space in the Tesla Model 3 some of the problem is due to the power trunk lid these power hinges occupy a decent amount of space and when you really look in there they could have given you that back into in terms of cargo area also there&#39;s just the general rear end profile not only is the front of the ionic 6 quite low but if I close this trunk lid you&#39;ll notice that the rear end is also quite a bit lower than something like the Camry or the Accord and there&#39;s really no mystery where the extra cargo space comes from it comes from that much boxier back end fortunately the cargo area itself is quite square and the rear seats fold down we have releases for the 6/40 folding rear seat back on either side of the cargo area I was able to squeeze three 24-in roller bags back here going further down the rabbit hole there is a tiny bit of storage space under that load floor just about enough room to put your charge cable in there maybe a little bit of something else if you remove this foam divider the hood opens with a pretty traditional latch in the driver side footwell No Electronic release we find that relatively small storage area here I&#39;ve removed this cover so you can see there is actually something under there this is the inverter circuitry and of course the front electric motor and part of the HVAC system that uh panel opens up to give you easier access for for maintenance to those systems and then it just snaps right back in place we have a little rubber mat there one nice touch with this sort of front trunk here or fubby whatever you want to call it is that it doesn&#39;t have a separate lid like we find in some of the other Hyundai and Kia vehicles Hyundai really wanted to make a statement with this interior not just in terms of design like this tubular dome light but also in terms of the materials used so a large portion of this interior is made from recycled or recyclable or biosourced materials back on the design front we have a combination of touch control like that reading light right there and physical controls like the larger dome light and the door light Etc we find sliding sun visors there and somewhat unusual for a modern e we find an actual sunroof that opens and has a powered fabric shade so you can completely close that off if you want to there&#39;s a pro and a con here we don&#39;t find that big glass panel over the rear which helps improve rear Headroom but it does give this a much more normal look and in hotter climates it&#39;s really going to keep the interior a lot cooler meaning you&#39;re going to use less battery power to cool over here we have sliding shoulder belts for the driver and front passenger and two-way adjustable headrests with a similar sort of eccentric sort of a trumpet Bell theme there that we&#39;ve seen in some other Hyundai I appreciate the contrasting colors in this interior let me know what you think of this design so many new vehicles are just charcoal on charcoal on charcoal and Hyundai has really spent a lot of time thinking about the color combos even if you get the darker interior options there&#39;s still enough contrast to add some extra visual interest the front seats are upholstered in imitation leather there&#39;s a tiny bit of piping there to give it some visual interest goes from sort of an orange or gold color there to Gray and these seat surfaces are perforated in the center because they are both heated and ventilated we have a little bit more bolstering than I had expected on the seat back cushion but as you can see the seat bottom cushion is relatively flat so larger folks shouldn&#39;t have any problem finding a solid driving position moving over to the front doors we find more of that eccentric styling and eccentric materials choices on the material Choice most of the door is made from a hard plastic and some parts are made from a translucent plastic I actually put a little light behind there so you can see that bottom section is translucent and it has sort of a ribbed texture to it that you&#39;ll really see in strong daylight lots of storage going on there so bottle holder right down there cargo area we have some ambient Lighting in this area right here and the upper door panel is made from a hard plastic it is on the thin side for a mainstream vehicle so if you press on it you can actually see that the door panel moves a little bit which is part of why it has these ribs to give it extra structure that&#39;s part of the lightweight mission of the ionic 6 we then have softer touch materials around this section of the door and that really big speaker Grill although the only speaker in there is right up there towards the front moving over to the dashboard we have that Bose speaker there on the a pillar and a very eccentric dashboard style I&#39;ll just zoom out so you can see that a little bit better uh it sort of gives me manta ray Vibes maybe something like that going on the reason is that in some World Mark markets this little panel will house an LCD well it&#39;s actually not the same panel it actually would be a taller panel so the lower P part of the dashboard is designed to be used in all markets and then in our Market we get a slightly stunted little wing on top because we have real side view mirrors honestly real side view mirrors are my preference we&#39;ll talk about that in a different video for some actual seeing reasons um but if you are a fan of those LCD mirrors you won&#39;t find them here we have a soft touch injection molded upper section of the dashboard beyond that hard plastic again more of a color contrast going on there ambient lighting strip running there across the dashboard and more of those little pixel elements that we find on the outside down here we find hard plastics and a reasonably sized slot style glove compartment I was barely able to fit an 11-in tablet computer inside it is fairly tall but it&#39;s not overly deep no Modern Hyundai would be complete without a big two-screen LCD setup in the dashboard so of course we find one here in the ionic 6 this is not running the latest hardware and software from Hyundai that version would actually have wireless carplay and Android auto this version does not it is only wired we do have a lot of EV information however including range with the climate control on and the climate control off and the navigation does offer you charging suggestions so for instance if I try and navigate from where I am to I don&#39;t know Los Angeles I can hit the route button there and then it will give us routing information to tell us that we need to charge on that route so you see battery capacity sufficient you want to add charging say yes however I disagree with the charging infrastructure suggestions given by the ionic 6 uh right now you can see it&#39;s actually suggesting just one stop right there going from 64 to 100% I think that&#39;s a little bit odd because that is one of the slower charging windows in an EV going 10% to maybe about 60% is the fastest so you&#39;d be better off actually driving a little bit further and then charging when the battery was a little bit lower which is exactly what a better route planner would give us for instance below the infotainment system we find two large air vents in the middle more of that ambient lighting strip and more of that translucent trim on the interior this really catches the light in an interesting way the light will shine through and the various different densities inside refract the light differently so it really gives it a very 3d effect in strong daylight moving down from there we find a combination touch and physical control button Bank EV start stop button right there controls for the infotainment system up top and then the climate control system in this touch Bank below if you touch this option right here it&#39;s actually going to take you to a screen in the infotainment system to adjust the seat Heating and seat ventilation below that we find a CH wireless charging mat you can see more of those pixel LEDs right there single USB input for Apple carplay we also have the key in this cup holder right here so now is a good time to talk about the key it&#39;s actually designed to have a Hyundai logo right there in the buttons hopefully you can see that uh but I&#39;ve never really cared for the Aesthetics of the design also it does seem to scratch really easily this has some paint missing here and there and the vehicle has under 1,000 M on it right now fortunately you don&#39;t have to use this key if you don&#39;t want to you can use your smartphone as a key or you can use an NFC key card which is pretty handy going back to the center console we have soft touch materials on either side of those two big cup holders and centrally located buttons for the window switches the door locks and the auto brake hold underneath that we have a big storage area because the center console really is a floating design and it is very very slim so gives you a lot of storage under there for storage of bags things like that and as you can see more of that translucent plastic on either side the LCD cluster is basically the same as the one in the ionic 5 there are three core themes to choose from and then you can select what&#39;s going on in the middle whether that&#39;s turn BYT turn navigation directions trip computer readouts or vehicle&#39;s active safety system readouts as well but the display is not as configurable as some flat bottom steering wheel is similar to the one in the ionic 5 but it has Morse code LEDs in the middle that spells out H just in case you&#39;re wondering flat bottom design there sport grips up top and the LED s do respond to various different functions so for instance if I change the drive mode with this drive mode selector you can see that the LEDs respond in the middle blinking different patterns out there on this side we find the controls for the adaptive cruise control system infotainment buttons over here and then the shifter below Park is the button at the end of the shifter stock and then you rotate this portion around for Drive In Reverse the morse code LEDs also respond to the gear position so if I put it in reverse by pulling that back you can see that they turn red if I put it in Drive they turn turn back to Blue here&#39;s a better look at the dashboard Wings again if you&#39;re in some World Markets where you can get the LCD side view mirrors this section is taller it actually is almost twice as tall because it houses the LCD but this lower portion That Remains the Same that&#39;s probably why we get that eccentric shape in the US here&#39;s a better look at that ambient Lighting on the door you can really see the ribbing from this angle out on the road the ionic 6 is solidly impressive let&#39;s go over the numbers first 0 to 60 happened in this all-wheel drive model in 4.2 seconds 60 is Z happened in 121 ft those are solidly competitive against the mainline competition and the model 3 of course as long as we&#39;re talking about comparably priced model 3s now keep in mind there is a model 3 Performance but we all expect there to be an ionic 6n at some point soon so that&#39;s probably going to deliver the same level of Bonkers that we find in the ionic 5n in this sleer package here so expect even faster 0 to 60 times and even shorter stopping distances one quick sidebar on the acceleration numbers much like the regular all-wheel drive ionic 5 and the Kia ev6 this uses the front electric motor differently than some EVS when you&#39;re in eco mode it&#39;s not going to use the front electric motor very much it will use it a bit from a standstill so if I slow down to a complete stop here and then romp on the throttle it is going to use the electric motor to help you accelerate but then by about 30 mph it turns the front electric motor off and then mechanically disconnects it from the equation interestingly that means that even though the max power output is reduced in eco mode and this is significantly slower than 4.2 seconds it ends up at 5.9 seconds that is still actually a little bit quicker than the rear-wheel drive ionic 6 even though this is a little bit heavier and that&#39;s because we get a little bit more power and a little bit more torque from that front axle at the very beginning even though the front electric motor ends up dropping out later now don&#39;t worry if you&#39;re driving on a slippery surface the vehicle will re-engage the front electric motor if it&#39;s needed for added traction versus the rest of the mainline competition it should be no shock that this is almost identical to the scores in the Kia ev6 very similar to the ionic 5 and definitely presents some better scores versus comparably priced versions of the Ford Mustang machy the Chevy Blazer and of course the upcoming Honda prologue as well I fully expect this also to do better in those numbers than the Chevy Equinox EV this is notably lighter than the G Motors ULM platform vehicles and that includes the prologue and the upcoming ZDX that was part of Hyundai&#39;s Mission with this vehicle really focus on efficiency and really focus on weight because low weight breeds high efficiency and that&#39;s part of the reason that the ionx 6 feels so Nimble out on the road without having to have a very firm suspension handling in this model is absolutely excellent and if you&#39;re comparing this to something like a Hyundai Sonata or a Toyota Camry this is going to be an awful lot more fun whether we&#39;re talking about the all-wheel drive version version or the rear wheel drive version because both versions are solidly rear power biased in this model again we have essentially the same motor in the back as the rear wheeel drive model about 220 horsepower back there and the remainder of the power happens on the front axle so even when the throttle is all the way down most of the power is going to the back now if you&#39;re not really comfortable with rear wheeel drive driving Dynamics or if you live in a snowy area that&#39;s one reason you might want to choose the competition because this the model 3 and a number of the competition they&#39;re also going to be rear wheeel drive the Mustang Mach for instance so you may want to consider one of those front-wheel drive alternatives for better snow traction or of course the all-wheel drive version because that should be just fine when it comes to the handling score I&#39;m going to give this an A minus because I do think that the handling is better in the Tesla Model 3 some of that has to do with the suspension tune and some of that has to do with the relative tire sizes and tire choices that Tesla has made on the model 3 especially if you&#39;re comparing this all-wheel drive model to the performance version of the model 3 that&#39;s going to be a little bit better to drive out on the road it has a solid Germanic feel to the steering and just the way the suspension is tuned this on the other hand excels when it comes to the ride quality yes the ride quality is firmer than average if we&#39;re talking about a midsized family Sedan like a Camry or an accord or a Sonata but it is significantly more comfortable than the Tesla Model 3 and Rumor Mill says if we do get an ionic 6n it&#39;s probably going to get an Adaptive suspension so expect it to be a little bit more adjusted adustable as well one thing that I&#39;ve always liked about the ionic series of vehicles is that they don&#39;t have that firm and bouncy feel that we find in a Tesla or in a Mach e Ford really wanted to copy the Tesla driving Dynamics and Tesla suspension tuning and they definitely did with that model so as far as a mainstream vehicle goes this is going to be an easier adjustment out of something like a Camry or an a cord than a model 3 would just the way the suspension is tuned another easy adjustment for family sedan Shoppers is going to be the cabin noise at 50 mph I measured 69 12 DB in here so this gets a solid A+ this is easily quieter than the Camry or an accord or anything else in that segment and a lot of that has to do with the aerodynamics of the vehicle that really help reduce wind noise and the fact that we get that big battery between the road and the cabin so that&#39;s really going to help quiet the road noise as well fuel economy that&#39;s definitely an A+ as well this is solidly one of the most efficient EVS available in North America yes you can get more efficient EVS but by and large most of them are going to cost you more than this ionic 6 and interestingly that includes the all-wheel drive version I touched on Real World Range a little earlier in the video Let&#39;s Take a deeper dive now this model is rated for 270 Mi EPA versus the 361 mil for the longest range version of the ionic 6 but what I find interesting about the ionic is that generally speaking Hyundai has been pretty conservative about the range estimates especially if you compare that to Tesla part of that has to do with the EPA testing modifier I will let you Google the details on that I won&#39;t really belabor the point in this video but effectively even though Tesla has recently reduced range on the model three they&#39;re still calculating that range differently than Hyundai is and Hyundai is taking a more conservative approach to that range testing a lot of folks have asked me to talk about range in extreme weather well fortunately for me about 45° in the morning is usually about as Extreme as it gets and yes you will notice a range decrease in the ix6 but it&#39;s not going to be substantial if you do live in an area with extreme cold you should know that generally speaking Ultra efficient vehicles like this tend to see a bigger effect on the actual range score than a lot less efficient EVS like say a Hummer or an EV pickup truck and that just seems to be the relative impact of the weather on the smaller battery that we find here the aerodynamics of having snow built up underneath the vehicle on top of the vehicle the rolling resistance of driving through snow Etc all of that is obviously going to have an impact on the vehicle as well as the extra heat demands to heat the cabin and keep the battery warm this ionic 6 does have a battery heater and it does have the ability to precondition the battery before DC fast charging but in really really cold weather obviously some of those numbers are going to start shifting when it comes to price and value there is significant overlap between the Hyundai and the Tesla and which one is right for you is really going to be dependent on which options you&#39;re interested in and which option boxes are checked on the exact model you&#39;re looking at the base version of the ionic 6 is about $22,000 less expensive than the base version of the model 3 but the base extended range version of the ionic 6 is about three grand more as far as range goes the base version of the model 3 that&#39;s actually closer to the base standard range version of the ionic 6 it gets 272 M of EPA range versus 240 on the standard range ionic 6 but there&#39;s an important thing that you should know that we should talk about the way that Tesla calculates range for their EPA score is not the same as the way that Hyundai does it I will let you Google the details there but the important thing to know is that real world range is going to be closer than these numbers would indicate in real world driving the model 3 is still going to get you a little further on a charge but it&#39;s not going to be as big of a difference as this 30 m Gap would indicate however if you want the longer range ionic then you&#39;re going to get significantly more range Than That Base version of the Tesla about 100 Mil more performance in the extended range rear wheeel drive version of the ionic is going to be closer to the base version of the model 3 but the base model 3 is always going to be swifter 0 to 60 you&#39;re going to get 5.8 seconds versus about 7 and 1 half seconds in the absolute base version of the Ionix 6 and that&#39;s going to go down to about 6 point something seconds if you get the 225 horsepower model as far as features and functions and size goes they&#39;re also very evenly matched matched again depending on your preferences I like the infotainment software in the Tesla better it does a better job consistently better job and significantly better job of estimating EV range than the system in the ionic 6 but if you want to drive the vehicle yourself and you don&#39;t care about that and you&#39;re interested in apple carplay you&#39;re interested in an instrument cluster more typical more normative vehicle functions you&#39;ll find those in the ionic 6 if you&#39;re interested in streaming on the incard display if you just love the look and the feel of that big LCD in the dashboard then clearly you want the model 3 as far as Ruess goes there is significantly more leg room in the ion X6 than there is in the model 3 but the model 3 has effectively more cargo room because we have that decently sized front trunk and depending on the version you&#39;re looking at Headroom is going to be more generous in the model 3 than in the ionx 6 that&#39;s something a lot of folks noticed when they got into the front seats especially in the ionic 6 the fact that the moon roof opens and it has a shade on it really means that Headroom is drastic reduced versus the big Open Glass canopy that we find in the model 3 although I&#39;m not the biggest fan of a big glass roof that can&#39;t be closed off so for me I would rather get the model with no moon roof at all charging is a bit of a double-edged sword because the ionic 6 will charge notably faster than the model 3 but of course you&#39;re going to be charging at 800 volt CCS charging stations and if you decide you want to start magic docking or once other adapters come up so that way you could charge your Hyundai at a Tesla Supercharger station keep in mind it&#39;s going to charge an awful lot slower than you might think charge rates are really going to be severely limited because the higher voltage architecture on the Ionix 6 means that it has to Buck the DC voltage up to be accepted by the battery pack and that limits charge rates to around 100 kilow or so or sometimes a little bit lower depending on the exact situation and the exact charger that you&#39;re looking at so keep that particular limitation in mind when we step up to the dual motor versions the dual motor long range version of the model 3 is less expensive 48840 versus 49,990 for the midlevel trim of the ionx 6 and it&#39;s all-wheel drive option I would say that&#39;s the best coraly to the base version of the model 3 keep in mind that the features are not identical on these models and The Limited trim is going to be $58,800 sorry $54,600 for the ionx 6 uh still notably more than that model 3 however this is where things come become a little bit tricky so it depends on how you configure your model 3 keep in mind that the paint options are fairly expensive dark gray is the only included paint option any other color is going to be $1,000 to $2,000 extra so Red&#39;s two grand more if you want the light interior that&#39;s an extra $1,000 and on the ionic 6 you can choose between five different colors for the same base price white is an extra $470 and the matte paint option which is not offered at all on the model 3 is only $11,000 so the paint options are significantly less expensive on the Hyundai and there&#39;s no charge for the lighter interior when it&#39;s offered with the appropriate coordinating exterior color you cannot get all of the exterior colors with the lighter interior color bottom line these two vehicles are very competitive with one another and again whether you want carplay or whether you&#39;d rather have better incar e routing I think that there is a reason to get either of these options in our real world driving we did find that the ion 6 was more efficient than the last all-wheel drive model 3 that we tested now let&#39;s move on to the sort of Alternatives let&#39;s just Breeze through them quickly here clearly we have the Kia ev6 it&#39;s related to the ionic 6 so if you want a different look if you want a practical hatch in the back bigger cargo area Etc you might want to take a look at the ev6 however it&#39;s going to be notably more expensive starting at 43,9 75 that&#39;s for the same small battery pack now because the ev6 is pretty aerodynamic it&#39;s not a boxy crossover ranges pretty close 232 M for that model the charging speeds are just as quick but we actually get a little bit more power because Kia is ostensibly the sporty brand so we get 167 horsepower versus 149 if you want the rest of the ev6 flavors they&#39;re going to be about $4,000 more than the ionx 6 depending exactly which version you&#39;re looking at although I have seen some slightly better deals on EV 6s lately than ionic sixes which one is right for you again is going to depend on your particular priorities is the extra car room worth about $4,000 more I would argue no but clearly you&#39;re the one that would decide for you outside of that let&#39;s take a look at the only other sedan that&#39;s close in terms of price that would be the polstar 2 currently but by close I really don&#39;t mean close because it&#39;s $10,000 more and here it&#39;s a case of is the pstar more fun to drive is it faster is it better in many ways absolutely but it&#39;s also significantly more expensive if you&#39;re looking for the more attractive more Dynamic op the more luxury segment option that&#39;s clearly going to be the pstar 2 the rear wheeel drive model is a ton of fun however it&#39;s not going to charge as quickly and it is going to be significantly more expensive also notably smaller on the inside now how about aona Eevee this is a really interesting twist for me because the Kona e has a little bit of overlap with the ionx 6 in terms of pricing it starts less expensive at $ 34,50 and Hyundai is uncharacteristically aggressive with the Kona in the fact that they&#39;re offering two different batteries and two different Power output levels the base model gives you 197 M of range so less range than the ironx 6 but a smaller price tag as well $34,000 but you also get less power 133 horsepower that is not going to be swift at all on the other hand if you want a bit more power than you get in the ionx 6 you can get 201 horsepower which is 52 more horsepower than we find in the ionic for $38,600 mil of range in that model the downside is that it&#39;s a much smaller EV so the interior the seats everything about it is going to feel tighter it&#39;s going to feel different more crossover like so a bit more upright in terms of its seating position but certainly smaller the cargo area on the other hand it&#39;s actually more practical because it is a hatchback so you have the ability to put bigger in box your items in the cargo area there&#39;s certainly a trade-off for the extra cargo capacity and that is charging speed specifically DC charging speed because the AC charging speed is more less identical going 10% to 80% in your ionic is going to take just 18 minutes regardless of the battery pack in the Kona e it&#39;s going to take 43 minutes and that&#39;s because this is not writing on the newer electrical architecture that we find in the ionic line for some reason they chose not to just snag the ionic battery jam it under the body of a Kona and some Motors and call it good instead the Kona is still using a different generation and a different series of batteries electric motors charging components ET ET my final verdict is that you can&#39;t go wrong with the ionx 6 and you can&#39;t go wrong with the model 3 which one&#39;s right for you again is going to depend on your priorities but I would lean towards the ion X6 mainly because of its faster charging and I like the distinctive style and the fact that we get more interior room now that said again there are solid reasons to buy the model 3 if you want a little bit more Headroom on the inside if you want a little bit more carg capacity and if you do plan on taking your Eevee on CrossCountry road trips then the model 3 is going to be a lot easier easier to deal with because of the supercharging network also if you value the games the streaming the more frequent updates on the infotainment system then that vehicle is for you but for me I like carplay so I never use the native infotainment system in practically any vehicle that I drive these days I&#39;m just in carplay all the time so for me I don&#39;t know if I care that much about that native infotainment system I just want a big crisp screen that&#39;s really easy to use located nicely and I really like a separate instrument cluster it&#39;s right behind the steering wheel where I can see it so let me know what you think about that down there and what would be your top pick in the segment be sure and find us over at Facebook Twitter Instagram Etc and if you want merch like this nacs merch shirt you know uh you can find those over on the merch store so see all of you next [Music] week

Transcript for:Hyundai Ionic 6 Review

Transcript for:
Hyundai Ionic 6 Review