On the road: Hyundai Ioniq is the first car to go green three ways
Cars
The Hyundai Ioniq.
Let's check the test three ways.
Now here's the big headline around the Ioniq.
It's gonna have three sets of guts depending on which version you buy.
There'll be a classic hybrid that goes after the classic Prius.
That's a tall order.
There'll be a plug-in hybrid version More akin to a Chevy Bolt, let's say.
And they'll a pure battery electric, that'll go after Nissan Leaf, or Chevy Bolt.
I hesitate to draw any lines of comparison though to Tesla, because they're playing a very different price tier.
Hyundai will come out first with the non-plugin version of the Ionic, and they plan to have it all for better highway MPG, Even a Prius.
Which does its best MPG in the city.
Hyundai says it only makes sense to buy a scored Highway MPG in the highway centric U.S. Once the full electric IONIQ arrives, it'll likely be benchmarked against the Chevy Bolt.
Which is coming along soon with a 200,000 miles of range, and a $30,000 price range after incentive.
Comparing the powertrain specs of the three IONIQs is a little bit apples to oranges, but some key things to note is that the plugin will have about 30 miles of electric range, the full battery, 155.
It'll get 80% of a charge to do that, in about 24 minutes, they hope.
And of course, each model has big differences in the CO2 emission.
Now like almost every old powertrain car, the Ioniq ends with an ungainly high rump, why do they all do that?
On the other hand, the midsection and the front are actually very attractive in a normal car way.
This guy doesn't scream, I'm driving something with a big battery, interesting market position And by the way it's so hard to tell on camera but it's a smaller car than a Prius by about a scooch.
By the way the EB ionic is expected to lose a little bit of its rare base space its death due to some battery package.
Now in the cabin of the various [UNKNOWN], you're going to find something very different from Prius right off the bat.
It's right here.
An instrument panel.
It's a lot of LCDs but it's still in front of the driver.
You know Prius doesn't have anything here but upholstery and they do an eyebrow display.
Again this reads more normal car.
[MUSIC]
Than Prius.
Much as the outside of this car does.
Now transmissions interesting and the electric car of course you won't really have one.
But in the two hybrid car's, their gonna go with the DCT, the dual clutch transmission.
That's gonna be kinda controversial.
A lot of the folks that have tried putting DTC's in economy cars.
I'm looking at you Ford.
Have had some pretty bad customer reaction.
Customers find them bulky and weird, unless they embrace them as a sport gearbox, which Which isn't the point in an economy car.
So we'll see how it plays out for Hyundai.
Active cruise control and active forward collision detection and braking will be on the Ioniq.
Which is now something you just have to have if you wanna compete with both Prius and I3 in their latest iteration.
Now it's gonna be awhile before I can get you on the road in a prototype Ioniq, I'll do that ASAP.
But in the mean time I'll leave you with this thought.
Hyundai says that between the ionic platform that's coming and the existing Hyundai and Kia Hybrids they've got on the market now, they'll be the number two maker of electrified vehicles in the world in just a few years.
Two things come out of that.
One, that's biting off a big piece Then two, that's conceding Toyota will still be number one.
[MUSIC]
More cars driven CNET style, standing by now at CNETOnCars.com.
Click On The Road.
[MUSIC]
