Car shopping has ground to a halt due to pandemic lockdowns. So dealerships across the US are trying to entice car buyers with attractive deals. But the discounts and 0% financing offers are not as compelling for electric cars as they are for gas-consuming vehicles.
Four months ago, Seth got a chance to try out the 2017 Hyundai IONIQ Electric at a Hyundai media day, and came away impressed. The IONIQ is Hyundai’s new three-powertrains-on-one-platform model, with a hybrid released and a plug-in hybrid planned, alongside the pure EV model we reviewed. Seth’s takeaway was that the IONIQ compares very favorably to the Prius, the car which it seems aimed to compete against.
Last week, I was given the chance to take a week long test drive of the IONIQ Electric, to go into a deeper dive of how the car works, more than our short test drive could give us (though do have a look at Seth’s review for a lot of the spec details). What I found is that the IONIQ is a lot of car for the money, and a complete game-changer in the “entry-level” EV market.
You remember the Hyundai IONIQ? The South Korean automaker’s one-car platform to release three models with different electric powertrains, IONIQ Hybrid (HEV), IONIQ Plug-in (PHEV) and IONIQ Electric (BEV). It created a lot of buzz earlier this year with hopes that the all-electric version could compete with the Chevy Bolt, Tesla Model 3 and other long-range electric cars coming to market in the next year.
We were disappointed when it was actually revealed that the IONIQ Electric will actually have a 28 kWh battery pack allowing for an EPA-rated of about 110 miles. Now Hyundai reveals the first pricing for the vehicle in Europe, starting with the UK, further confirming that the vehicle will actually be competing with the Nissan LEAF.
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