Hyundai’s pure electric IONIQ 5 SUV – highly innovative newcomer

Driving Hyundai’s innovative battery electric IONIQ 5 SUV, as I said earlier, one of the most technically impressive new models to arrive this year. I’m driving the dual electric motor all wheel drive variant at $75,900, a 72.6kwh battery powering both axle mounted electric motors with final drive through a single-speed reduction gear.
With 225kW of power, 605Nm of torque it can reach 100km/hour in just 5.2 seconds – it actually feels quicker as it’s so quiet in action. I picked the IONIQ 5 up with a full 430kms of range showing, on a steady average throttle you’ll get 1km of distance for 1 km of charge, however, drive it hard and you’ll use up battery power far more quickly relative to the distance travelled.
I’ve been charging it each night on a conventional power socket – 5 per cent of range takes around 3 hours 20 minutes so it takes roughly a day to gain 35 percent of charge. However, using a 350kW DC ultra-fast charger you can achieve up to 100km of range in just five minutes but finding a fast charger at present is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Whereas a standard wall box type home charger which most owners would install will give you a complete charge in a little over 6 hours. I’ll be talking more about this innovative IONIQ 5 in coming weeks.
I’m David Berthon.
Click PLAY to listen!
Download this podcast here