Hyundai Announces IONIQ 6 EPA Mileage

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Hyundai’s goal with the IONIQ 6 sedan is to have a mass-market sedan built on their existing E-GMP platform (that serves as the basis for the IONIQ 5, Kia EV6, and the Genesis GV60) but with a super-slippery body that will give incredible range in a cost effective package.

So, it isn’t any surprise when their EPA range numbers were announced today that the long range version of the IONIQ 6 is rocking a solid 361 miles of range (in rear-drive form).

But, it is also a lesson in how options like wheel size and all-wheel drive can impact the distance you can go.

Interestingly, the all-wheel drive version of the ‘long range’ trim drops from 361 miles to 316, a reduction of 12.4% or 45 miles.

Range drops even further for the non-long-range trims. They come with 20” wheels (up from the long range models’ 18”) and the same battery capacity. This less optimal rolling stock goes a long way to drop the range of a rear-drive IONIQ 6 to 305 miles (rear-drive) and 270 (all-wheel-drive). This shows a drop this time of 35 miles for all-wheel drive (11.4%) which is roughly in line with the drop we see on the long range trim.

It does suggest that merely going with the bigger wheel and tire package drops range by about 15.5%. This is probably due to a wider and/or stickier tire on those 20” wheels more than any inherent inefficiency in the shape of the bigger wheels.

Given that the IONIQ 6 will come with all the tricks we’ve seen in the other E-GMP models (800V charging) - this should make for a great road-trip car along highway corridors where you have a better chance of finding DC fast chargers that can provide the power the car needs. Combined with the lower prices than other ‘long range’ offerings from Tesla and Lucid…this could be a solid choice for the middle of the market that wants a good car that runs on electric power.

Electric Car Road Trips - What You Need to Know

Electric cars can be intimidating.

For about as long as anyone alive remembers, we have had gas stations in every town. We all had to learn growing up that the gas gauge is something to keep an eye on and we just stop at a station to fill up when needed. We also know that all pumps will work with our car (diesel notwithstanding). We largely understand that octane rating is -something- our car needs and a value listed on the fuel door tells us which hose is ‘required’ or recommended. Additionally, we know about how long a fill-up will take.

Electrics have many similarities, but the industry is still working towards the same sort of ubiquitous supply of charging stations that we expect and need.

However, fewer available chargers with varying plugs and rates of charge lends a certain amount of uncertainty with regard to taking long road trips in an electric.

It is with that in mind that Unhealthy Obsession with Cars is going to try to break down the capabilities of any electric we review to help show what a road trip would entail.

We are based in the Denver area. Out west even gas stations can be far apart. So we picked a significant distance to drive from here that crosses rural America using mainly interstate travel. Increased infrastructure on an interstate should combine with the slowness to roll-out new tech away from population centers to give a nice average.

Our standard road-trip drive will take us from Denver to St Louis, crossing rural Eastern Colorado, Kansas, and northern Missouri.

To help plan the trip as well as to estimate appropriate stopping/recharging points, we will use the amazing route planning service for electric cars ‘A Better Route Planner’ (ABRP) which understands the gory details of individual electric car battery capacity (similar to fuel tank size), driving efficiency (similar to MPG), and the capabilities of charging stations (not exactly analogous to anything in the gas-powered car world - but close to how fast the pump can flow gas into the tank) in order to plan out a route. Their plan is based on how much charge is left after each leg of the journey and how fast and how much you need to add to easily make it to the next stop.

In our recent Ioniq 6 piece, we added this standard road trip to our review of the car. In this case, the high-speed of recharge that the Hyundai is capable of results in guidance of 100-170 miles between recharge stops. That keeps you in the sweet spot for DC fast charging where the Ioniq can charge from that 10% all the way to 80% at the fastest recharge rate. ABRP also directs you to the fast charging stations along the route to minimize the length of stops.

Ioniq 6 Road Trip

Combined the drive is estimated to be a series of 1.5-2.5 hour drives with 15-20 minute stops all the way from Denver to St. Louis. Total time at chargers adds up to 1.5 hours.

To show how using the ABRP service can help evaluate electrics…let’s take a look at the same drive in Ford’s F-150 Lightning with a standard battery pack.

F-150 Lightning Road Trip

Here you can see a similar number of stops along the way (7 instead of 6) but why are the stops a minimum of 32 minutes and as many much as 1 hour and 12 minutes? Also, why is that last leg of the trip yellow?

ABRP helps uncover the impact of details most buyers won’t want to understand. The F-150 has a bigger battery, by far than the Ioniq 5…but it’s consumption per mile is practically 3 times greater than the ultra slippery Hyundai.

This wouldn’t be so bad if you could recharge at the same rate as the Hyundai (which can gulp power at up to 221kW), but the Ford can’t take advantage of the fastest DC fast-charge stations (maxing at 150kW charging). A bigger battery, refilled slower means longer charging times. Total time at the charger for this trip in the Lightning is over 5.5 hours. Additionally, that last leg of the trip highlighted in yellow? To get from Boonville to St. Louis, the Lightning needs to go no faster than 60mph to preserve power and make it before the battery drops below 20% (a value we pick for all cars analyzed so you would have power to get around town once you reach the destination.

So, in this fairly random comparison, we uncover interesting differences to discuss - we will continue to do so in the future so we can all better understand our electric future and see what companies are making better decisions as they design their new products.

The dense details of electric car design are something that will make sense in years to come - but until then, we’ll help turn the facts into something the average driver can feel…time sitting around waiting - since that is what may tell you if a given electric could work for your travel needs.

LA Auto Show - Hyundai Ionic 6

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Hyundai showed their new Ionic 6 in North American spec this year’s Los Angeles auto show.

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Built on Hyundai/Kia’s Electric Global Modular Platform (EGM-P) that has previously served as the basis for the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and the Genesis GV60. This is a ‘skateboard’ chassis developed exclusively for Hyundai/Kia’s latest electric models. EGM-P is made up of a low and wide electric battery pack with subframes front and rear supporting the independent suspension as well as either a rear or a front and rear drive motor.

Additionally EGM-P supports 800V DC fast charging that allows charging from 10 to 80% in a mere 18 minutes. Normal level 2 charging will do the same task in just under an hour on the small battery equipped and about an hour and a quarter with the big battery pack.

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At the LA show, Hyundai gave specifics on the version of this sedan that we’ll be getting. Specifically, there will be 3 powertrain combos on offer. A small battery (53kWh), rear-drive option will be the entry model. This model will also be the slowest with 149hp and 258 lb-ft of torque.

A large battery (77.4kWh), rear-driver will sit in the middle. The extra battery capacity will allow 225hp but the same 258 lb-ft.

Rounding out the options will be the same big-battery, but with all-wheel drive. That will be spritely with a total output of 320hp and 446 lb-ft. This option will almost certainly be what UOwCars will see most when they start being sold in the mountain west. The big battery, AWD model will be genuinely fast. 0-60mph will be under 5 seconds. The rear-drive models will be slower, but still in line with gas-powered mid-sized sedans.

Additionally, the Ioniq 6 is one of the most aerodynamic cars on the road. Coefficient of drag will be a low-low 0.22. This allows the Ioniq 6 with the large battery and one motor to have a estimated range of 340 miles (compare to the similarly spec-ed but less slippery Ioniq 5’s 303 miles). The dual motor, large battery drops the range 310.

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Taking the specifications of the Ioniq 6’s maximum range variant, we used the tools at A Better Roadtrip Planner to figure out how long it would take to cross the middle of the US from Denver to St. Louis to estimate how usable this car would be for travel. This is a long and relatively flat area made up of rural highways. This route is exclusively interstate, which helps offset the rural areas with some charging infrastructure investment. This should give decent route to use to compare electrics over time while having the infrastructure to reward the latest charging capability models.

For instance, there are enough 350kW chargers along the I-70 corridor to provide often allow the DC fast charging Hyundai to flex it’s fast 10-80% charge time. This means that the entire cross-country trip breaks nicely into 1.5-2 hour drive intervals with about 15 minutes of charging between each leg.

UOwCars Standardized Road Trip Preview

UOwCars Standardized Road Trip (Denver to St Louis)

UOwCars Standardized Road Trip Charge Detail

For a total 14.5 hour road trip, expect 6 charging stops with a total downtime of 1.5 hours. This shows that appropriate charging infrastructure and cars, like what Hyundai has developed, with high wattage charging is very near being on par with gas-powered cars, if you aren’t the sort of masochist who wants to spend many hundreds of miles at a stretch behind the wheel, you could be very happy taking long trips in this car.

The Hyundai group products are not the electrics where you need to plan hour+ breaks, often, to make it across the country. Nice.

We can’t wait to get some time behind the wheel of Hyundai’s latest to see how it really performs. It really looks like it could be a car that could easily replace a mass-market gas car.

More Seoul Auto Show debuts - Hyundai Veloster

Now that we are done hearing of the concepts the major automakers debuted at the New York show, we are starting to hear reports of concepts shown at the 'other' major show starting this week - the Seoul Auto Show in Seoul, South Korea.

Yesterday, we showed you the Kia KND-4 concept and now we have a sport-coupe concept from Hyundai - the Veloster.

Expect this to preview some styling elements we might see in the new Tiburon, though this concept is one step smaller and could preview a brand new, Elantra-based coupe.

This concept also furthers the automakers fascination with coupes that are really 2-door, steeply-raked sport wagons...which the automakers see as a way to get customers buying sporty 2-doors again (by tempering their natural lack of utility with an extra-large cargo area out back).

See some more pictures over at:

Winding Road: Hyundai Unveils Veloster Coupe Concept in Seoul

Hyundai Genesis - real pics

Finally, Hyundai has put out some actual photos of the Genesis concept. I still think it bears more than a passing resemblance to some other products already on the market (the Toyota Avalon comes to mind first).

This 'concept' previews a new rear-drive, V-6 and V-8 powered Hyundai that we should be seeing in production very soon.

Expect the V-8 model to start under 30k and pack over 300hp.

Hyundai Genesis - did we really need a rear-drive Camry?

For all the work Hyundai and Kia have done to make their cars competitive with the best in the industry - there is one place where they still are years behind...styling.

They understand fit and finish, build quality, perceived quality, and a myriad of things that customers want.

They just don't yet 'get' what styling should be about for any manufacturer.

Witness just about any car they've done to date (the current Sonata is a mild exception)...they either ape a competitor's product or look like some alien contraption.

Another lesson about styling they have yet to learn - find a corporate look and stick with it. Buyers need to be able to say 'that is a Hyundai' or 'that is a Kia' without having to look for the badge.

The latest example of this lack of understanding of auto styling are these renderings of the Hyundai Genesis concept that will debut in April at the New York Auto Show. The front has elements of the current Toyota Camry/Avalon. The rear seems Infiniti/Lincoln MKZ-esque.

The Japanese went through this phase as well, so it is reasonable to expect that the Koreans will get there eventually. It just makes me sad to see yet another missed opportunity.