Hyundai Ioniq 5 Owner Review - Best car I’ve ever had!

Hyundai Ioniq 5 Pros and Cons

Pros:

This car saves me $1500-$2000 and 7000 pounds of carbon per year over its comparable ICE car-the Hyundai Tucson.
Vehicle-to-load capability. There is a 110-volt plug in the back that we can use to plug in appliances, like our garage refrigerator, if we lose power for an extended period. This car also has the ability to be plugged into a bi-directional solar inverter/charger to power our whole house. We would consider this if our grid becomes unstable.
No more gas stations! Charging takes about 1 minute--30 seconds to plug in and 30 seconds to unplug. The charging happens in our garage.
Driving free on Nevada sunshine off our rooftop solar
Large battery gives us about 200-mile range on the road with 20% battery remaining, but our personal max is about 150 miles! Range is closer to 275 in town with regenerative braking.
Heated and ventilated front seats and heated steering wheel
Highway Driving Assist system is very good, even on curvy mountain roads. We use this as our road trip car.
Nice, low, two-paneled screen design—not in your face like a Tesla. Heads-up display helps keep my eyes on the road.
Power and handling-great on turns, ease of passing and getting on freeways, smooth and quiet ride.
Fast charging rate on superchargers. Free adaptor to charge on Tesla network. Works well, but charging port is in wrong location without extended cables. We prefer Electrify America stations, which are also faster than Tesla.
Lots of cargo space with the rear seats down.
The anti-collision system which has saved me from accidents on more than one occasion. It will actually perform evasive maneuvers and apply the brakes-amazing!
Spacious car with a luxury feel to it at this trim level. Passengers in the rear say it feels like a limo and love the large pano roof! We love that the pano has a cover to cut down on glare and heat when the sun is high. We like the light grey leatherette seats, which stay cooler in summer.
Good in the snow, AWD works great
Fun and unique design. I love the blend of white, silver and black on the body. The rims are really cool! This car was designed from the ground up to be an EV. Hyundai used its 7-seat wheelbase, which makes this car feel very spacious. Big windows with good visibility and light. Pixel design used throughout including the headlights, gives it an 80’s retro style.
Three levels of regenerative braking allow driver to choose the level they like. For example, I use level 3 for in town and level 1 for road trips. Regenerative braking both generates power for the car and reduces wear and tear on the brakes. It also helps with braking going down mountain passes, so you hardly use the brakes.
Great backup camera shows you direction you are heading. I also love the overview, 3-D rendering of the car in the screen that I can rotate with my finger in all directions and see exactly where the car is while parking.
Controls for the most-used features are on the dash and in the steering wheel, so everything is not embedded in the touchscreen. Easier to access while driving.
Great Bose sound system
Adjustable front seats go to zero gravity and driver’s seat has a foot recliner as well.
Nice lighting inside and out-love the blue lights inside!

Cons:

ICCU controller issues that have resulted in a few recalls. 12-volt batteries don’t last very long. Got stranded once in my mother’s garage-interesting towing adventure! Now we keep a smart battery jump starter for jumping the car in the back, in case the 12-volt dies, which it did again recently… This is our 2^nd 12-volt battery in 4 years.
Apple CarPlay requires you to plug in your iPhone manually.
Problems with charging on our Level 2 solar inverter/charger, so we use a 110 outlet (Level 1) instead. This requires a little more prior planning but is accomplished easily while the car is parked in the garage. Given where the car is parked in the garage, it is actually more convenient to use the 110 outlet. But it would be nice to have both options.
Noisy rear hatch, especially in winter. Fix is hokey at best, but better than it was before.
EV’s chew through tires faster than ICE’s and the tires are more expensive, but this will ultimately be offset by the lower maintenance costs.
No rear window wiper. Not too bad in our high desert climate, but a bummer on mountain passes in snowstorms or in heavy rainstorms.
Charging access port is difficult to open—it’s automatic, but you have to press hard. It can be opened with the key FOB. The Level 3 charge port has a plug cover that can be hard to open. It does have a cute pixelated display that shows you how much charge the car has.
Having to brake to shift from reverse to forward gear.
No heated rear seats
Rear passenger doors require a firm shove to close securely.

Owner Review

Best car I’ve ever had!

I’m in love with this car! It is my favorite car ever and a true joy to drive—fast and responsive. Of course, my favorite thing about it is that we drive free on Nevada sunshine, thanks to the solar panels on our roof, and emit zero harmful emissions. I love guilt-free driving and saving $1500-$2000 per year over an ICE car!

The Ioniq is spacious, comfortable and the Limited trim makes it feel like a luxury car. It has a helpful Highway Driving Assist system that makes road and freeway trips easier, especially on my chronic forearm tendonitis. I can take my hands off the wheel and roll and stretch my wrists, which really saves me on longer drives. I also like the regenerative braking which makes braking smoother, puts power back in the battery and doesn’t wear out your brakes.

The Ioniq 5 is capable of ultra-fast charging and can go from 20%-80% in 20 minutes on a 350 kW DC fast charger. This car can go comfortably 200 miles on a charge, leaving us with about 20 percent left in the battery. But we can’t last that long! What we have found is that our range in our 60’s is about 150 miles. After that, we need a break. We usually stop for about 30 minutes when we charge so we can take a walk and stretch, eat, and use the bathroom. Driving EV’s has actually made road trips more pleasant because we don’t keep trying to push on or only take a 10-minute gas station break. We arrive at our destination more rested and feel better. We have driven this car into a remote area in northern CA and have not had trouble finding charging stations along the way. We often use the car’s Level 1 cable to charge wherever we are staying.

In the past, I drove older cars with 100,000+ miles on them and no extra features. Driving this car is a real treat with all its bells and whistles and helpful systems (see the Pros above). It literally saved my mom and me when I missed a car coming across a roundabout in front of us, and the Ioniq turned the wheel and slammed on the brakes before I could react.

We bought our Ioniq in summer of 2022 after it swept the world car awards that year in its category. It has won multiple awards, and it deserves them all. We wanted to support Hyundai’s ingenuity in designing this unique and beautiful car, and its commitment to greening its product line. We didn’t even look at anything else. Now, after 4 years and 35,000 miles, we would do it all over again! I hope I can drive this car another 15+ years!

For more information, photos and videos, see: https://rhondaashurst.com/category/driving-electric-cars/.

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