If you’re shopping for an EV with big range and a low price, look no further than the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6. This “electrified streamliner” as the automaker calls it may cost more than a Chevy Bolt or Nissan Leaf, and it can’t go as far on a full charge as a Lucid Air or Tesla Model S, but the Ioniq 6 still manages to strike a perfect balance between range and price. Properly equipped, this sleek four-door can go up to 361 miles with a fully juiced battery, a stellar figure to be certain, one this car delivers with a sticker price of less than 47 grand including destination.
The Ioniq 6 is offered with several powertrains and a few trim levels, but to get that eye-popping range estimate you have to nab a base SE model with rear-wheel drive, the 77.4-kilowatt-hour battery pack and 18-inch wheels. If you don’t check all those boxes, expect significantly less – though by no means uncompetitive – range.
Aerodynamic styling plays a major role in giving this car such long legs. With a clean front end, active grille shutters, retractable door handles, carefully designed wheels, a gently sloping roofline and not one but two spoilers at the rear, the Ioniq 6 has a slippery coefficient of drag of just 0.22. All that attention paid to cheating the wind also pays major efficiency dividends. This EV is rated at an astounding 153 miles per gallon equivalent city, 127 highway and 140 MPGe combined.
Aside from the saggy beltline and awkward rear end, this is a handsome sedan, one that’s also quite practical. A small, 0.5 cubic-foot front storage cubby is found under the hood, while the trunk clocks in at 11.2 cubes. The second-row backrests also fold down, further increasing this car’s versatility.
This long-range Ioniq 6 is hauled around by a single, rear-mounted electric motor. Graced with 225 amped-up horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque, this drivetrain delivers good, if not astounding acceleration. All-wheel-drive versions are significantly quicker, but the SE model seen here should still be able to hit 60 mph in the mid-6-second range, a perfectly adequate showing. In everyday use, you’re never wanting for giddy-up.
What’s more impressive than the straight-line acceleration, however, is the DC fast charging performance. This car’s upsized pack should top out at around 235 kilowatts, enough for it to go from 10 to 80% in a mere 18 minutes, a damn-near industry-leading speed.
On the road, Hyundai’s Ioniq 6 has a light and lively feel. The steering is soft to the touch and the ratio is fairly quick. The car handles well in corners, staying flat even when pushed. Ride quality is another strong suit, as the Ioniq 6 feels extremely refined, filtering out roadway imperfections both large and small. Very little texture or grittiness from the pavement – or wind noise, for that matter – makes its way into the cabin.
As with other E-GMP-based cars including the Kia EV6 and Ioniq 5, there are multiple intensities for the regenerative braking, and you adjust this with paddles on the steering wheel. The iPedal setting, Hyundai’s name for a one-pedal driving mode, is my choice, as the car will quickly but smoothly slow itself down to a stop when you take your foot off the accelerator.
This Hyundai also comes with plenty of advanced driver aids. Adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capability is included, as is rear cross-traffic alert, blind spot monitoring, front and rear parking sensors and even a fantastic implementation of lane centering, which you can easily activate (or disable) at the push of a button on the steering wheel. Having all these features greatly enhances safety, especially since visibility through the back window is quite restricted thanks to the swooping roofline and multiple spoilers.
Inside, there’s nothing fancy about the Ioniq 6 SE’s interior, but it’s still well made and feels like quality. The various plastics, both hard and soft, are rather plain but none of them seem cheap. The seats are covered in cloth, a material that also feels sturdy. This car’s backseat has a flat floor and plenty of legroom, though taller folks will find that the roof intrudes quite a bit. A pair of air vents and two USB type-C ports are a nice consolation prize for anyone seated in the rear.
Like many other Hyundai vehicles, the Ioniq 6 has a pair of 12.3-inch displays on the dashboard, a crisp digital instrument cluster in front of the driver with a lovely touchscreen toward the center of the vehicle. The infotainment system that runs here works extremely well and is one of the more intuitive and responsive multimedia arrays in the automotive industry today. One downside, however, is that while this setup does support both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, neither of these smartphone-mirroring systems can connect to the vehicle wirelessly, so make sure to bring a cable.
If you’ve driven a recent Hyundai or Kia EV, nothing inside the Ioniq 6 will surprise you, though there are two unusual design choices. First, this sedan has centrally mounted window switches; they’re on the console between the front seats, just like in an old E46 BMW 3 Series or a Pontiac G8. This is fine, but thanks to muscle memory I’m forever reaching for the door panel when I go to lower or raise a window. The second strange design choice is on the far ends of the dashboard. There are little wings that protrude slightly upward. In certain global markets, screens for the digital sideview mirrors would mount here, a feature that, unfortunately, is not really permitted in the US.
Overall, the Ioniq 6 is a superb EV, easily one of the best electric offerings available today. This streamlined four-door provides excellent DC fast charging performance, the driver aids are top notch, this car has a high-quality and comfortable interior, the range is fantastic and the pricing is more than fair. As for downsides, they’re few in number and generally insignificant. The rearward visibility could certainly be better, the centrally mounted windows switches take some getting used to and the saggy exterior beltline doesn’t look all that great, at least to my eye.
How much does all this streamlined excellence cost? An entry-level SE model, the Ioniq 6 evaluated here checks out for $46,825 including $1,195 in destination fees and just one option: $210 for carpeted floor mats. Overall, that’s more than reasonable for everything this sleek sedan offers.
This isn’t the fanciest EV out there today, nor is it the quickest or most versatile, but the Ioniq 6 is an incredible value, easily one of the best in the electric vehicle world today.
