It’s been 3,000 miles since I took delivery of the Hyundai Ioniq. Not much and a rolling average of around 9,000 miles a year which is actually in line with my lease but the miles would be much higher if the Ioniq was able to get more than 100 miles on a charge. This 2019 Hyundai Ioniq is limited by a 28KWh battery meaning 136 maximum miles but as soon as you get on the highway or turn on the heat, that range is more like 80 and as soon as the temperature drops below 32F (0C), that range is more like 60-70 miles.
I wanted to detail a few of the gripes I have with this car but first, the good.
It’s a solid cheap vehicle. It drives like a car that cost about $20K, it has $20K car amenities and the only reason it costs more is because EVs cost more. ICE cars are just cheaper to make but more expensive to maintain. This does not drive like a car that costs $36K. The infotainment system is pretty good, TFT system looks great on the dashboard and the heated seats really put out some heat. I like that it’s a hatchback but my dog would like a little more ceiling space back there. It tapers a bit too aggressively for him as opposed to our Golfs which allow him to stand up comfortably. I wouldn’t go on a road trip with him in the back which is an easy decision given the small battery.
The seats are okay, the ergonomics are just okay and I find visibility and drivability to be pretty good. It’s a decent grocery getter or first car for a teen. I would like a system added that told me when I’m getting too close to another car in the parking lot but that’s only on the limited trim.
Now….the bad:
Range, this was covered initial 1 month review. And everything there still stands. I charge this car every day and when I get home from work, it has 50% charge and is re-charged by 6AM using about 1200 watts of power every second (about 153 of the cost of running my clothes dryer). So 12 hours a day, I’ve added 1200 watts to my power bill so it’s using about 12K watt hours a day to my power bill.
There are really no crazy amenities. The seats have no bolstering, no power adjustments, the windows are power down on one side and the rest are hold until up or down. The lighting sucks and I’ve already upgraded to LED headlights in the projector housing.
The stock tires are so skinny that getting traction from a standstill or turning onto a busy highway introduces some crazy torque steer and traction control so I have to ease on the throttle or risk getting t-boned when I fail to get any reasonable traction. I have been able to live with the All Season tires throughout a New Hampshire winter purely because on really snowy days, I took my Ford Escape which has large 18” Michelin X-Ice 3 tires. I’d like all wheel drive on the Ioniq but it’d cut the range down to 50 miles easily.
I still have not installed a level II charger at the house. If I do take the Ioniq down to 10% battery, it takes 30 hours to re-charge the car but I’ve only done that 3 times so far and luckily, we have another car to drive when the Ioniq is charging for almost 2 days. It’s still cheaper to charge at home than any public charger and driving 20 minutes into town to plug in at $1 an hour for a 20 mile an hour charge is a bit ridiculous. It’ll take 8 hours, $8, and if I am late picking it up, I still pay $1 per hour to park there so I’ve used that charger twice when we are going to a restaurant in that neighborhood but that’s it. Home charger is certainly the best way to do it for cost given we have the solar panels
The January freeze we had in NH was probably the worst of it for range. We had lows at -10F and most days at 0F and I was getting to about 40% charge every day when I got home and some days not getting back to 100% on my home charger before having to go to work. Now that temps are up in the 30s, the range has improved a bit.
I’ve stopped pre-heating the car as well because if I pre-heat it, that takes it down to 97% charge and then it’s 1.5 hours to get it back to 100% from there due to the nature of how Lithium Ion batteries charge at near full capacity so to ensure I leave the house at 100% charge, I don’t pre-heat anymore.
Also the vehicle is a little too low for our area. The frost heaves have started popping up and I’m bottoming out quite a bit on those.
Day to day, the vehicle is livable as a grocery getter. Oddly enough, I got another check from Hyundai for a few hundred bucks in January so in total they’ve given me $2,000 and I’ve given them $1000 down and $400 so far in monthly payments. With effectively zero maintenance cost and charging via solar panels, this will continue to be a net zero car for me. Insurance is the same as it is on my VW Golf.
Finally, I have not seen another Ioniq electric. I did see a Plug in Hybrid in Connecticut the other day but no EVs. These are pretty rare vehicles but I sort of see why. Outside of the insane lease deal, these are not economical when you consider purchase price and functionality.
Here are a few photos from a super cold day:
