Ioniq 5 Ultimate 73kWh RWD

Yes, that’s why my 6.5 year old car was having an MOT this week, during lockdown I was able to delay one for 6 months.

Unless your wheels leak air or you're about to sell the car - why bother?

First frosty day of ownership. I had about 40% battery in the car but as I was outside anyway I plugged her in and then using the app turned on the climate control including the heated rear window and mirrors. Very effective way of defrosting the car whilst having breakfast and none of the illegal wasting of fuel letting the car idle in the drive to warm up.

But it is obvious that heating the car is more costly in battery usage than cooling it. The likely range curently is about 225 miles compared to 280 for equivalent driving when the average tempurature over over say 15^oC. Using the heated seats, heated steering wheel and keeping the car at 20.5^oC.

Or excessively frisky.

No such worries for me today but I’ll look for the button. I’m going alone to a dealer near some entertaining Chilterns roads (and, importantly, not in Reading) for a demo in an Ioniq 5. Will report later.

I had to go to my office for the first time since February 2020 this week. Just for a morning, thankfully. The upside was plugging the Leaf in to a free-to-use charger whilst I was there, and I was delighted to be next to an Ioniq 5, in a sort of matt silvery grey finish. What a tank though, made my Leaf look like a Tonka toy.

It's the width which always strikes me about the Ioniq 5. With the EV6, it's the width and the length.

Well, thoughts may be on the sparse side. I thought I'd booked a proper test drive but it turned out to be barely ten minutes with a salesman in the passenger seat fretting about being back for another appointment - after he'd kept me waiting for 20 minutes. That doesn't happen at BMW!

But it's a nice car, undoubtedly better suited to my use-case than the EV6.  There is space for me to drive, and for another me to ride behind.  And the boot is reasonable, not Mercedes-estate big but a metre square and much better than the compromised space in the EV6.  The showroom car is in the metallic green I've seen in adverts, and it's very attractive.  Even better is the pale faux-leather interior, which I'd certainly specify.  The one I drove had a black interior, which was much less inviting.

Out on the road - well, I've not got much to say.  It feels softer than the EV6, and the steering at first seemed weirdly low-geared, leading to an undignified correction at the first mini-roundabout as the car felt momentarily like it wasn't going to make the turn.  But it picks up and loses speed easily, and rides generally in a way I didn't notice, which is probably a good thing in a long-journey car.  I didn't have time to play with the regen paddles, although it's counterintuitive to have the right one increase regen, when anyone used to a paddly automatic naturally uses the left to increase engine braking.  But if it's the only paddly car I drive, I'll get used to it soon enough.  I didn't get to drive it in town traffic to see if it has the trick some big cars have - my old E for one - of shrinking around me and belying their size by being easy to position.  

Overall, it seems a close match for the Škoda Enyaq, in terms of size, space, design and price.  It looks and feels more car than SUV, which is good.  I can't really comment on other ergonomics, as I didn't use enough features to like or dislike anything.  It is big enough to confirm my suspicion that the EV6, pleasing as the design is, is too small for us.  And I would like to get to drive it properly.