previously we reported on an incredible story of a new hyundai model that was to receive a design
change only after two years of the release and this time we will report on the model that is
undergoing a facelift even before it's launched that model is ionic 6 a highly anticipated sedan
follow-up to the very successful ionic 5 crossover in this episode we will talk about how a new car
that has not even seen the light of the day would receive a facelift even before it's released
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the question that's presented at the end of the video a few months ago we unveiled the prototype
of the much anticipated ionic 6 electric sedan on our channel the first ever dedicated ev sedan from
hyundai was long sought after because it was to be based on the sensational hyundai prophecy concept
that shot the world with its sleek coop-like body perhaps the sexiest car ever to come out of korea
in history however when the veil was lifted as prototypes made their public introduction it was
met with one of the harshest criticisms ever on hyundai with its conventional and boring looking
three box proportion and the roof line with doors that are more reminiscent of the early 2000s
family sedan it was a far cry from the futuristic shape of the prophecy concept that was promised
with an impending design disaster hyundai immediately took action not only because the
company pride itself on being one of the leaders in producing aesthetically pleasing automobiles
in recent years but it was already trying to dig itself out of a hole with another design fiasco
the eighth and the latest sonata codenamed dn8 was supposed to be the most striking hyundai ever to
be produced in the company's history based on the awe-inspiring la phil rouge concept of 2018
the conspicuous french name of the concept translates to common thread in english and
the swoopy four-door concept was supposed to preview the korean automaker's future
design language which will find its way onto its cars and crossovers in the coming years
however something really got lost in the translation and what the consumers were
left with was a catfish face sedan with over accentuated and confusing character lines
the public's utter disappointment immediately reflected on the sale of the new family sedan
which has been hyundai's all-time best seller since its inception losing out to the platform
sharing and perennial underachieving little brother kia k5 in sales for the first time
in decades hyundai moved just 76 997 sonatas in the us in 2020 down from over 200 000 just
a few years prior the company immediately sought to find a solution to the problem
and the executive decision was made to completely abandon a scheduled upgrading of the current body
in lieu of creating an entirely new ninth generation sonata which is almost unheard of in
the industry to scrap a new model only after two years of production this was a costly mistake for
hyundai's hundreds of millions of dollars would be needed to create an entirely new model even though
the new car was to utilize the existing platform and power plant so with a lesson it learned from
sonata it seems to make sense that hyundai took the criticism of the ionix 6 design very seriously
rather than spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fix the design after the production hyundai
opted to spend a few million dollars required to implement design change before the release
a pre-production facelift if you will when this drastic decision was made back in august of 2021
the prototypes that roamed the streets near the testing centers in korea disappeared overnight
and since then we have yet to spot a new prototype with a new design revision but when we do we will
be the first one to let you know please stay tuned so how long will this new design revision
take and what will this mean to the launch date of the ionic six from the internal schedule of
the company the production line conversion of the asan factory from the current sonata production to
ionic 6 is now postponed to january of 2022 from the original schedule of november 2021
this implies that the original production date of march 2022 would be delayed until may or june 2022
however luckily the design is not the only thing that will be changed during the revision although
most of the design change would take place in the front end and the rear end to accommodate the new
sleeker design the overall length of the electric sedan is to grow from the original plan of 4900
millimeters or 193 inches which is the size of the current sonata to 4990 millimeters or 196 inches
which is in the genesis g80 realm the lengthening of the car is seen as a trendy way of giving the
vehicle a sleeker profile and we hope that it would aid in replicating the prophecy sensuous
look secondly the new ionic sedan is to receive a boost in the range originally reported to be
utilizing the 72.6 kilowatt hour long range battery used in the european ionic 5. the new
revision is to now feature a 77.4 kilowatt hour long-range battery of the north american ionic 5
and the kia ev6 the previous range estimate was a respectable 482 kilometers or 300 miles
but with the new revision the new range is estimated to surpass 500 kilometers or 311 miles
finally ionix 6 will be the first ionic model to receive what the company calls lighting grill
as electric vehicles do not require a traditional grill for engine cooling
hyundai feels that it would be the perfect location to place the group of leds to act
as a signboard to indicate such information as charging stage
emergency information and any information that the driver would like to convey to other cars
interestingly this design concept was first exposed in discussing ionic's future large suv
likely to be called ionic 9 which implements such technology as part of the ionix trademark
parametric pixel design feature and it appears that the lighting grille will be another new brand
defining design feature that would be applied to all ionic models for more information on the
chevy tahoe sized electric suv from ionic please check out our feature video by clicking on the
link in the top corner hyundai believes that such a method of communicating between the drivers will
become essential as cars become more autonomous with the advancement in self-driving technology
speaking of self-driving technology ionic 6 is to receive the company's latest hda2 feature
which hyundai says is a more advanced form of level 2 self-driving autonomy
which is where tesla's autopilot currently resides however by the time ionix 6 is released in 2022
the level 3 hands-free driving capability would be commercialized through the introduction of the
company's luxury brand genesis g90 sedan featuring two lidar sensors front and back which is the
world's first and there is even a possibility that this more advanced self-driving feature would be
available as an option in conjunction with the vehicle's ota or over-the-air online update
system as for the performance of the vehicle it will adapt the ionic 5 single motor rear wheel
drive layout good for 215 horsepower and the dual motor all-wheel drive setup with 308 horsepower
the torque figure is 258 pound-feet and 446 pound-feet respectively the performance of the
ionic 6 is also expected to be similar to the ionic 5 with 0-60 miles per hour time of mid-7
seconds for the rwd model and low 5 seconds for the awd model being essentially the sedan version
of ionic 5 ionix 6 also offers the same v2l function that extracts power from the battery to
power anything from a laptop to another ev and the incredible charging speed of only 18 minutes to 80
backed by its 800 volts architecture of the egmp dedicated ev platform
finally ionix 6 will also share the ionic 5's excellent interior features such as dual 12.3
inch lcd screens augmented reality navigation system and zero gravity seats however it will come
without the added versatility such as a moving center console that makes passenger movement
within the cabin easier being a low slung sedan instead of a crossover as mentioned previously
the anticipated new launch date of the ionix 6 electric sedan is the summer of 2022.
the estimated starting price still remains at just under 50 000 despite the improvement over
the originally planned model as for the end of the video question with only the front and the rear
end change with added length do you think that the revision would make a significant difference
to change your opinion about the ionic 6 which was heavily criticized please vote and share
your views by clicking on the link in the comment section below thanks for watching auto vision your
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