2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Has a Max 303-Mile Range: EPA
That’s only in the long-range, rear-wheel-drive version, so pick your Ioniq wisely.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 looks the business, has some incredibly nifty fast-charging features, and comes with a raft of options for configuring it. One of those configurations—the long-range, rear-wheel-drive option—has been awarded a 303-mile EPA range estimate, which busts Hyundai's own estimate for the car.
Not all the versions are gonna be able to crank out that many miles, of course. Of the choices you can make for your Ioniq 5, there are two "long-range" versions: the rear-wheel-drive and an all-wheel-drive, which both have an increased battery pack. 77.4-kilowatt-hours is actually, by 2022 EV standards, still quite modest compared to something like the Mercedes EQS's 107.8-kWh pack that gets it over that tricky 400-mile mark. Then again, the EQS is a luxury sedan and the Ioniq 5 is meant for normal people to buy.
With that long-range pack, you actually get more miles for your buck if you skimp a bit and don't get the all-wheel-drive version. Inevitably, adding more horsepower and a second motor drains the battery faster, so customers that opt for the rear-wheel-drive only version with the long-range battery will be the only ones getting that 303 miles the EPA has estimated.
For comparison's sake, the Tesla Model Y gets 326 miles of range in its most capable form. The Ioniq 5's Kia counterpart, the EV6, manages slightly better as well at up to 310 miles of range.
If you splash out for the all-wheel-drive Ioniq 5 then there's actually a pretty hefty reduction in range—down to 256 miles, per the EPA estimate. That's what 320 horsepower, as opposed to 225 horsepower in the rear-wheel-drive version, costs you in terms of both the car weighing more due to the additional motor and the power it needs to draw from the battery.
Hyundai has suggested the base price for the Ioniq 5 is likely to be around $40,000, which sorta tracks with the prices seen in places where it's available now. I live in London where there's already a bunch of Ioniq 5s on the road and they look incredible. They're major standouts whenever one goes past—for around £37,000 here, depending on the dealer and what you pick, that's not a terrible price for a head-turner.
There is a limitation on range for that, though. The base model, with its 58.2-kWh battery pack, only gets 220 miles from the EPA, less than the substantially cheaper Chevy Bolt that does 259 miles when it's running as intended. On the other hand, the Bolt—recalls aside—is a markedly more low-end and less desirable car than the Ioniq 5, which is more competing with the similar-range Volvo C40. It's also worth remembering that, with the exception of Teslas, cars have a tendency to exceed their EPA rating under both real-world and test conditions.
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