Hyundai Ioniq

It admittedly was quite a jump top step out of the sumptuous Peugeot 5008 and drive away in the Hyundai Ionic. It seemed rather bare and basic on first impression, and I initially felt like I have left a rear door or even the hatch open. None of that, it is not that well sound isolated. You literally seem to hear everything that comes up from the road to hit the wheel wells and chassis. THAT, as a first impression, is not a very good one. I never did get that feeling with any of Toyota Prius’ I have ever driven, and this is supposed to beat the Prius.

Having said that, over the course of the week that first impression was put on the back burner. The rest of the time I could lavishly concentrate on the excellent fuel consumption, the interior space, the agility, the functionality, and again and again that fuel consumption. Hyundai does offer this is an varieties through to full EV. For practical purposes we drove the hybrid, so with a conventional engine supporting the electric drive. There was no p;ug-In option, so I was at first doubtful of the resulting fuel consumption, since I was expecting, like the Chevy Volt, for any EV power to be empty to soon which would leave me with an under-powered conventionally powered car.

None of that. Hyundai set the Ioniq up to actually do its job, and do it very well indeed. The initial range was portrayed at nearly 1,000 kilometers and I really got that out of it, without jumping through hoops at that. It just really operates vert efficiently and recharges the batteries where it can and as much as it can, to such an extend that I was really floored with the actual range I was able to get.