Excellent vehicle with great handling and physical buttons
I've had my Ioniq 5 for a few months now, and I've enjoyed driving it a lot. I definitely do miss having a manual transmission, but I'm not missing gas station stops. In Sport mode, the Ioniq 5 is a ton of fun to drive, and handles very well, especially given the weight of the vehicle. The chassis dynamics seem to be tuned to give just a little bit of slide in the rear when applying throttle through corners, not enough to be scary, just enough to leave you smiling. Switch back to "Normal" mode and you get something a bit more comparable to conventional combustion vehicle (which may be more comfortable for passengers.) I don't use Eco mode often, but I'm very glad that it's there for long trips, because it makes it a bit easier to stretch the charge, and I can get my AWD Ioniq 5 near the rated range of a 2WD Ioniq 5.
The interior is largely very nice, I'd say the materials are on par with or better than my previous vehicle (a Subaru.) The Subaru had the vertical "Subaru Starlink" branded infotainment, with almost all of the HVAC controls integrated into the touchscreen, and it kinda sucked. The car was great, but touchscreen-everything really didn't match up to the otherwise very tactile driving experience. Prior to buying the Ioniq 5, I also purchased a used Ioniq 6 (2023 / gen5w) that my partner drives, and found the Climate menu in the touchscreen a bit of an annoyance there. Touchscreen menus required disrupting navigation to switch screens for heated seats and a few other options. In both other cars, if the passenger wanted to change options in the HVAC screen, it was a bit bothersome for the driver. I -highly highly- approve that Hyundai kept those touchscreen-only buttons as physical buttons in the Ioniq 5. I'd prefer that the HVAC controls were also physical buttons instead of touch-buttons, as physical buttons are much easier to find and operate while keeping eyes on the road (as the built in driver attention system loves to remind you about when you're hunting for a button!) Passenger-accessible physical buttons for common options (climate control, volume, quick access to menus) are a -big- plus. Some other EVs (often from other brands) have a heavy focus on cramming everything into one touchscreen, which is a big turn-off, and a reason why I stayed away from those vehicles even when they offered otherwise good-enough experiences.
Android Auto works reliably enough, and is what the center screen shows 98% of the time (except when I need to access the EV menu). Most functions needed for daily driving are available on a button somewhere in the cabin, which is great. The touchscreen is mostly reserved for media control (eg, selecting a playlist) and maps / navigation. The built-in wireless phone charger seems to be more of a phone heater, and I ultimately just switched back to a cable. Not a huge deal, it can be disabled in settings, and it still makes a solid spot to put your phone. It might do a bit better if it had a Magsafe-type system to keep the phone in place. Another great idea would be releasing some CAD files to make it possible to 3D print an insert that fits your phone and aligns it better (which could work for existing cars!) I definitely wish that Hyundai could add the Precondition button in the infotainment to my Ioniq 6 as well (they do have OTA updates, seems like it should be possible...), especially since the 26+ version (that has the button) seems to have not made it to the US.
Charging has been a breeze, the included CCS1 to NACS adapter has made sure I can use all charging networks without much hassle. The included Level 1 / 2 charger also makes it easy to plug in to power at home (and choose a reduced charging speed, if necessary). With DC Fast chargers, I've seen 260kW+ even on 100F+ days while sitting in the car with the A/C running (very non-ideal conditions, the charger was making more noise with its built-in cooling fans than the car was...) The quoted 20-minute 10-80% charge speeds seem to be rather close to real-world performance during moderate weather. I have seen 350kW at one or two chargers. Plug-and-charge is definitely an interesting concept, but adoption among chargers currently seems limited, and I haven't been able to test it yet.
One-pedal driving is very nice, and I've found the paddle shifters to control it very intuitive. I really like "hold left paddle" for temporarily enabling one-pedal drive mode, and I wish that there was an inverse function available for "hold right paddle" to reset to level 1 / 0 (currently that activates "auto" mode which I don't care for). I find that I tend to stick in L0/1 on the highway or one-pedal mode in traffic / the city. I still appreciate L2 / L3 regen being available, they're very handy to manage speed on the way down a large hill. Level 1 is more or less comparable to a typical conventional combustion vehicle, and is comfortable as a starting point to switch to electric.
The car has plenty of torque and power, although the factory tires on the SEL are ... not the greatest for spirited driving. The tires are easy enough to get replaced, although do be careful, as a broken off lug stud (at least on the '22 - '24) can be a bit of an expensive repair. Would definitely like to see this improved (if it hasn't already been on the '25+) to make the car cheaper to own in the long-run. Seeing as EVs are known to burn through tires quickly, and there's already an Ioniq 5 documented at over 425,000 miles, it's definitely a maintenance item that -should be- cheap and easy to replace ($10 part). The handling is largely good given the weight of the vehicle, although I do miss some of the cornering I could do in my WRX. (Not that the Ioniq 5 is any slouch in handling, and coming from a less sports-focused car as my prior vehicle, I likely wouldn't have any complaints here.)
The Highway Driving Assist is nice enough for long drives, although I'm really not a fan of the driver attention sensor. Would like an option to disable it like some other brands have. I don't typically use many of the active features day to day, but they are nice to reduce fatigue on longer trips. The passive features (blindspot warning, reverse alerts) are nice, although can be a little over-the-top sometimes. (If my foot is sitting on the brake and I'm waiting for the car to pass behind me, I don't need the full suite of beep + vibrate wheel + flash on display... It's a bit much.) Appreciate having the features in the event I do need them, though. I am a bit worried for the parking sensors as the ones on my Ioniq 6 can be a little hyper-vigilant (especially when around other vehicles with parking sensors), which apparently is an issue as they age.
I would very much like a way to add a couple of the Limited-exclusive features in as an upgrade, such as interior V2L. While a lot of the features the Limited has seemed appealing, the price (and mandatory glass roof) were a bit of a turn-off when I really only cared about a few of the features (such as the aforementioned V2L plug under the 2nd row.) That would be something I'd be interested in getting as a dealer-installed upgrade, although I don't think Hyundai offers that as an option currently.
The keyfob design kinda sucks, I think the 2022 keyfob design looks much more pleasant to use. Having to keep the backup mechanical key separate (instead of embedded in the fob) is an unnecessary hassle. I'll likely be looking towards finding a 3D printed case with a more conventional shape that's less likely to slide out of my pocket and can integrate the key.
At one point I did have the car power on and throw some errors ("There may be a problem with the Vehicle Control System.") and wouldn't shift into gear, which was very strange. After I powered the car off and let it sit for a minute, it powered back on and hasn't had any issues since. There's nothing documented in the trouble codes part of the Bluelink app, but strangely it did reset my Bluelink service interval. My coworker with a '26 Limited RWD had the same experience I did, including "It just worked after a few minutes." Definitely a spooky experience when it happens, and a little unsettling not knowing what caused it. Possibly a software issue somewhere, but a very unfortunate one from the perspective of "It scares the crap out of you that the car broke and then works fine."
Recommended
Verified Owner
