Hyundai beat its rivals to the mid-sized family EV segment with a bold, cleverly configured hatchback-cum-SUV
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 made a powerful statement, when it first appeared on the UK car market in 2021, for a car-maker looking to really capitalise on a competitive advantage in electric cars that it had already spent close to a decade building.From its chiselled styling, to its 1980s retro body proportions, to its eye-catching ‘parametric’ lighting features, this family-sized ‘CUV’ hatchback was made to stand out. So many years later, it still does.However, while this car has been through incremental changes since that market launch, including the addition of the red-hot drift enabled Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, the rest of the mid-sized EV market has been seeking to aggressively rein in Hyundai’s established lead when it comes to fully electric family cars; so life now isn’t quite so straightforward for a car that went straight to the top of its class three years ago. From Polestar to BMW, Mercedes and Lexus, there are now plenty of premium brands targeting the Ioniq 5’s positioning from the top down; while the ranks of Europe’s bigger-volume players, among them Skoda, Cupra, Peugeot, Renault and others, look to move in from the bottom up – and so many emergent Chinese brands like BYD and MG Motor effectively seek to pull the rug out clean from underneath it.So, under such competitive pressure, how is Hyundai’s all-electric poster boy ageing in the market – and exactly where does it sit next to so many fresher rivals? We ran the ruler – and the road test timing gear – over a mid-range, single-motor, 77kWh Ultimate model to find out.
