2018 Hyundai Ioniq PHEV

Text and photos: Gabriela Gorvena Galvan

Back in Europe we drove the Hyundai Ioniq in September 2017. That was the Hybrid version and was already shocking since it had an available range of nearly 1,000 kilometers on one tank of fuel. That made us very keen on trying this PHEV version, and ideally here in the States. The EU version seemed to have a little too much body noise while driving, but that could be our perception since we just came from a very silent Peugeot 5008. Indeed, driving this Ioniq PHEV was very different from the European one. It did seem a lot more quiet, better fit and finish possibly?

The Ioniq does have different design treatments to signal whether you’re driving the nybrid, the PHEV or the fully EV versions, and they’ve done that very cleverly. The full EV version stands out the most since the front grille is so very different. The differences between the hybrid and PHEV are more subtle.

The most interesting thing was the fuel consumption. We did get an opening salvo of a range just under the 600 mile mark, and took that with a grain of salt. That would give us a complete drive to San Francisco and that seemed impossible…. How wrong we were!! The charging option does allow to get about 40 extra miles of pure EV drive, which doesn’t seem to be that much, but, the continuous recharging of the batteries by the engine does make that it keeps on extending the range. To drive for 600 miles in one go is risky and exhausting, so the inevitable pits stop was called for, to just stress the legs and eat, bathroom breaks etc. They also offered the opportunity to do some extra recharging, which gave us of course more range. All in all we made it to San Francisco easily on this one tank of fuel, the original charge and the 2 extra 10 minute charges.

Now THAT is how you want to travel: KNOW that you are being environmentally conscious, KNOW that the fuel efficiency is doing its work, and KNOW that you actually arrive without any fear of range. If we could only get that on full EV’s..!! That range anxiety of the Kia Soul EV and most other EV’s to be honest, is something that was so lacking here, that it was just a sheer joy to drive this Hyundai Ioniq PHEV. It was spacious enough, comfortable enough, luxurious enough and did it’s job perfectly.

We gave it 2 thunbs up!