2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 AWD First Test Review: The Future Is Now! – MotorTrend

The all-electric 2023 Ioniq 6 looks like it belongs in one of those science magazine renderings that depicts a future filled with silver buildings, blue glass windows, and sleek cars zipping down half-empty freeways. Except, this isn’t a car for the near or distant future—it’s available in dealerships right now. The styling may not be for everyone, but the Ioniq 6 certainly stands out as being a distinctive offering.

This 2023 Ioniq 6 test car is configured in a very similar fashion to our long-term Ioniq 5. It uses Hyundai’s top-shelf 77.4-kWh battery and a dual-motor powertrain developing 320 hp and 446 lb-ft of torque. Thanks in part to its rear-biased all-wheel-drive system, the EV sedan scoots from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.4 seconds in our testing. The turbocharged Sonata N Line was Hyundai’s hottest sedan for a stint, and all it mustered was a 5.3-second sprint.

Although the Ioniq 6 doesn’t purport to be a sport sedan, it’s mighty entertaining in our figure-eight test. The standard simulated torque-vectoring system shuffles twist around as needed, using inside braking for improved cornering. Acceleration remains strong on the straightaways, and the motors are powerful enough to deliver a cheeky drift off the skidpad on exit. After just three laps, we noticed some fade from the tires, so we’d recommend enthusiastic pilots step up to stickier performance rubber if they intend to take their Ioniq 6 to the canyons.

Summer tires could also help with braking, which falls short of our expectations. Stopping from 60 mph happens in as little as 128 feet, which is 5 longer than what the Ioniq 5 accomplished. Although the accelerator feels linear and responsive, the brake pedal is soft, wooden, and numb. The tuning of the stoppers is odd, as well. On our test track, the result of this strange calibration is the front tires hopping and skipping before ABS even kicks in.

On the road, we preferred relying on regenerative braking supplemented by mechanical stopping only as necessary. The car’s iPedal one-foot driving mode is the best way to drive the Ioniq 6 in our experience. This setting provides the smoothest transition between speeding up and slowing back down without upsetting the car’s stability.

Off the track, the Ioniq 6 is borderline luxurious with a few exceptions. The cabin is whisper quiet even at freeway speeds, keeping tire and wind noise to a minimum. Ride quality is firm but supple enough to dismiss most road imperfections. Chassis tuning is excellent, and the Ioniq 6 remains composed on the highway or when making passing maneuvers. Anyone who rode in the rear seats loved the generous legroom and enjoyed the cabin’s openness, a sensation enhanced by the lack of a transmission tunnel down the middle.

The Limited trim is the highest Ioniq 6 grade, and as such it brings extra goodies that make it feel a little more special. These include standard power-folding side mirrors, a power front passenger seat, ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel, and eight-speaker Bose premium audio.

On our test car, configurable colored ambient lighting provided some extra customization to dress up the interior at night. Rippled door panel texturing contributes to the “cyberpunk nightclub lounge” ambiance. The speed-sensing functionality can shift the palette as the car moves faster, treating passengers to something of a Space Mountain experience as you pin the accelerator. Piped-in motor sounds make the ride feel even more like something at Disneyland, and Hyundai offers three volume levels and a mute mode for them.

Although the Ioniq 6’s styling stands out from an increasingly crowded compact EV segment, our team generally agrees it looks better from the front than it does from the rear. A busy deck with a lot of fins, horizontal lines, and lights complicates an otherwise streamlined form. The interior, as much as we praised its spaciousness and features, has a lot of hard plastics that don’t feel as premium as the softer surfaces that line the Ioniq 5’s cabin. Hyundai’s SUV also benefits from a nifty sliding armrest and center console that would improve the Ioniq 6.

One of the perks to the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 is the EV’s 800-volt architecture, which allows it to take advantage of 350-kW Level 3 DC fast chargers. In our road-trip range test, we ran the battery down from 100 percent to 5 percent at a constant speed of 70 mph and traveled 227 miles against its EPA-calculated combined driving range of 270 miles. Although that gulf is somewhat disappointing, the in-car range estimate accurately predicted how many miles were left on the battery at any given time based on our driving habits. During our fast-charging test, the Ioniq 6 recovered 151 miles in 15 minutes and charged from 5 to 80 percent in 20 minutes. Charging from 5 to 100 percent took 47 minutes.

Even when charging on a 50-kW unit we recouped about half of the battery’s juice in an hour, depending on conditions, a little more than 100 miles of real-world driving range. We made use of this capability to slot the Ioniq 6’s charging into our lifestyle. If we were stopping for a coffee or breakfast, we’d pop the Hyundai on a charger and gain some range. Even using a Level 2 charger, which takes 7 hours and 10 minutes for a full charge, returned about 10 percent of charge during a dinner that lasted an hour and a half. Within a week, the Ioniq 6 easily integrated with our routine. For more thoughts on what it’s like to take an EV from Hyundai on a road trip, check out our story with our long-term Ioniq 5.

A pair of 12.3-inch displays resides on the dashboard. The digital instrument cluster takes on a different face with individual themes for each drive mode: Eco, Normal, and Sport. A cool feature that makes the Ioniq 6 unique from the Ioniq 5 is a series of LEDs on the steering wheel face, four dots in a row to make the Morse Code for the letter “H” instead of the Hyundai logo. These pips animate whenever a new driving profile is selected, serving as a reminder of the car’s high-tech predilections.

The touchscreen display for infotainment features beautiful, soft-looking graphics. Our Limited model also came with a wireless charging bay and plenty of USB-A and USB-C outlets. There’s one USB-A port for data and two USB-C ports for charging up front and two USB-Cs for rear passengers.

As a top-trim model, this Ioniq 6 Limited came outfitted with all of Hyundai’s available driver assistance features. The automaker’s adaptive cruise control with lane keeping is excellent and keeps the vehicle square between the lines. Our car’s 360-degree camera view was handy for navigating parking lots and checking on curbs when squeezing into a parallel spot.

We declared the Hyundai Ioniq 6 a segment benchmark in our First Drive review, and that evaluation persists after our longer-term testing. In the past, a mainstream sedan of this size would have struggled to combine refinement and efficiency in the way Hyundai has in its four-door EV. Limited models start at $53,715 with rear-wheel drive; that seems pricey but is only slightly more expensive than the average transaction price of a car in 2023. Our car came with all-wheel drive and fancy Gravity Gold paint, which brought its total to $58,425. As practical and feature-rich as this Ioniq 6 was, we can begin to wrap our heads around that sum.

The Ioniq 6’s main source of competition comes from the Tesla Model 3, which has a lot of badge appeal and benefits from the automaker’s Supercharger network. (Hyundai recently joined a consortium of automakers that plan to launch a new charging network.) A Model 3 starts at just under $42,000, undercutting the 2023 Ioniq 6 SE Standard Range’s sticker price of $42,715. However, Hyundai’s 800-volt architecture and strong dealer support should provide some assurance Tesla cannot. Hyundai also significantly outranks Tesla in the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study.

With eye-catching style, refined performance, and slick technology, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 is a car of the future that’s available now. Not everything is perfect, but this EV takes a strong fight to mainstream and luxury players alike.