the hyundai ioniq electric is a complicated car under some complicated
circumstances in a very complicated market the ioniq electric is available
now but only in parts of California looking at the outside the ionic
electric has a distinctive look a lot of efficient cars don't look that good this
one is actually pretty neat I particularly like the smooth gloss black
front-end on the electric version of the ionic the vehicles that have the gas
engine whether they're hybrid or plug-in hybrid have more of a conventional
grille now looking at the size of the ionic electric it is about a foot longer
than the Chevy both Evie and about an inch longer than the current Nissan Leaf
by current I mean the 2017 first generation because it's about to get
updated told you things are complicated right now now it's hard to beat the bolt
in general because it has an EPA estimated range of 238 miles on a charge
the ionic electric is 124 miles the Nissan Leaf is 107 now if that seems
like very short-range no at least that it starts seven thousand dollars less
than the bolt evey now this is something you've seen before common among
efficient hatchbacks we've got the split rear window now having that split rear
window is a little bit odd I admit but you might be looking at it the wrong way
the other way to look at it is if it weren't for that lower pane if they just
gave you the upper one you'd be saying I can't see it well enough out the back
the ioniq electrics acceleration is quite good it's not to the level of the
Chevy Volt EB which is very quick but this is no slouch I'd compare more to
the current Nissan Leaf the first generation still being sold as a 2017
quick enough off the line one interesting thing they've done with the
ioniq electric an adjustment of the amount of regenerative braking
as you break an electric or a hybrid car it uses the inertia of the car to turn
the drive motor which acting as a generator recharges the battery so
typically you go to the brake pedal and it will engage that regenerative braking
before the conventional brakes ever take bike in this case what you can do is you
can adjust the amount of regenerative braking you get just by lifting off the
accelerator pedal there are four levels level 0 1 2 and 3 and level 0 there's
essentially none the car practically coasts by itself and what you do is you
hit the paddle on the left here and it increases it by one level this is the
difference between this and the bolt the bolt you squeeze it and it activates and
you release and it deactivates it's kind of like having a handbrake level to
gives you more regeneration and now level 3 gives quite a lot you might even
be able to see the cars passing me faster and reason being it's actually
stopping fast enough to trigger the brake lights which is good you want that
if you go to level 3 of regeneration you can actually do what's called one pedal
driving you're driving with the accelerator pedal this is all one pedal
slowing down speeding up which is good because it means anytime you're not
accelerating or keeping a steady state you are regenerating electricity which
is good for your efficiency and your range as far as handling car handles
reasonably well I'm gonna give more points to the Chevy Volt in that regard
as well it has a shorter wheelbase it's a little bit more nimble feeling this
car again closer to the Nissan Leaf the wheelbase is actually the same as the
Leafs four inches longer than the bolt and that can help with the ride quality
the bolt can feel a little bit busy even though it is reasonably well suspended
the ioniq electric seats aren't that bad but I still found them a little bit kind
of hard and uncomfortable strange overall it's a real nice roomy cabin the
passenger volume is 96 cubic feet that - more than the bolt and four more than
the leaf the ioniq electrics backseat is also roomy it has about two and a half
inches more legroom than the first-generation leaf one inch less
legroom than the bolt overall pretty roomy with twenty three point eight
cubic feet of cargo volume behind the backseat the ioniq electric is quite
roomy better than the bolts sixteen point nine cubic feet it's just about
the same as the first-generation leaf and having the folding back seats and
hatchback versatility makes a big difference the bow TV may have more than
a hundred miles greater range than the ioniq electric but there's an impressive
number here - the ioniq electric has the highest efficiency rating of any vehicle
in miles per gallon equivalent it's rated 136 mpg e versus the bolt at 119
which makes very little difference in the cost to drive but a noticeable
difference in charging so what we found is when a car is efficient like this the
same amount of charging time translates to greater range the if you are buying a
car like this you are going to need what's called level 2 charging 240 volts
that's what this unit is here now once it's plugged in the ioniq adds about 27
miles of range for an hour of level 2 charging versus the bolt to 25 miles the
first generation leaf at as much as 18 miles and the e-golf at 21 miles
there is another charging rate and that is DC fast charging and on the ioniq
electric it is a standard feature which is nice now this is something that you
find only in public and we try to and in exceeded expectations it started with
the battery 22% full and after 30 minutes it had hit 90% the estimated
range went from 27 miles to 124 miles that's 97 miles of range added in 30
minutes and that's really good we did the same test with the Chevy Volt
evie and that added only 61 miles of range
61 vs. 97 is not a coincidence it is partly reflecting that this is a more
efficient car and as a result the amount of time you put into
discharging pays off in range you know with that pesky Chevy bolt Evie and a
Tesla Model 3 in their range of more than 200 miles it's hard for an Eevee to
get noticed anymore if weren't for those two I think the ionic electric would be
making a bigger splash and it should because does cost about $7,000 less it
is extraordinarily efficient and that pays off not just in costs of driving
but in speed of charging I do hope that it extends beyond California because
there's an awful lot to like here
you