• Choice of two battery sizes
• Cheapest model gets 238-mile range
• Longest range slightly disappointing

What are the running costs?

The Ioniq 5 comes with a choice of two battery packs — a basic 58kWh one, or a larger 72.6kWh cell on earlier cars, subsequently upgraded to a 77.4kWh battery in 2022. That means that the basic Ioniq 5 has a larger battery than, say, the cheapest Volkswagen ID.4, but conversely the ID.4 has a bigger optional pack than the Hyundai.

Even so, one-charge range is pretty impressive. The basic 58kWh pack will take you for a claimed 238 miles between charges, which is good enough in itself, but better yet in our experience, Hyundai (and Kia too, to be fair) tends to be more realistic with its range estimates than some rivals. If it says 238 miles, that’s probably not far off what you’ll get.

However, the bigger 77kWh battery is slightly less impressive, with a maximum range of 315 miles. That’s not too shabby, but rivals such as the VW ID.4, Skoda Enyaq and even the closely-related Kia EV6 get past the 300-mile barrier with their big-battery models. Hyundai’s claimed electric consumption runs from 3.7 miles per kWh to 3.5 miles per kWh. According to Parkers’ own calculations, you can get as much as 11 miles out of the Ioniq for every pound you’ve spent charging it, depending on the model and trim level.

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The Ioniq 5’s trump card, though, is its charging ability. Hyundai has fitted it with an 800-volt charging system, something that we’ve previously only seen on high-end Porsche and Audi models. What that means is that if you connect it to a high-output public charging point, the Ioniq 5 can charge at super-fast speeds — up to 220kW.

At that speed, you can add an extra 62 miles of range in just five minutes if you’re charging the bigger battery (54 miles in five minutes if it’s the smaller one). You can also potentially charge to 80 per cent capacity in just 18 minutes on one of Britain’s fastest chargers like an Ionity unit. Charging and battery life are further improved by a battery conditioning programme that pre-conditions the battery when driving to a charging point set in the navigation.

As if that wasn’t enough, you can also use the Ioniq 5 as a charging point in itself. Premium-spec models and upwards now come with a ‘Vehicle-To-Load’ system that means you can plug other electric devices into the Hyundai — say, an electric lawnmower, fridge or an e-bike, or even another electric car — and it will charge them.

In theory, if you had the right sort of home electric system, you could actually run your house from it in the event of a power cut. It’s very clever stuff and this kind of energy management is likely to increase in popularity in the coming decade as sustainability rises in importance.

View detailed MPG and CO2 figures on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 specs pages

Servicing and warranty

Hyundai’s warranty is pretty hard to beat, and indeed it has become something of a standard-bearer in the industry. The Ioniq 5 gets a five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty (subject to it being serviced and repaired with original Hyundai parts) and there’s a further eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty for the battery.

Hyundai offers an inclusive service pack for the Ioniq 5, with prices tailored specifically for each customer depending on their mileage and usage.

Reliability

• Hyundai has excellent reliability rep
• Does high-tech mean potential problems?
• Excellent JD Power result

Obviously, the Ioniq 5, its batteries and motors that are underneath are all very, very new. Even the interior displays and parts are almost all brand new, so all we can really say is that Hyundai has an excellent reputation for both reliability and for customer service, so the Ioniq 5 is likely — as far as such predictions go — to be both dependable and easily fixed if it does go wrong.

The only thing giving us pause for thought is that there’s a lot of new technology on offer, from the electronic driver assistance systems to the ‘Vehicle To Load’ charging and, as anyone’s dad knows, more equipment is more stuff to go wrong.

That said, Hyundai had an excellent result from the most recent JD Power customer satisfaction rankings, finishing third overall, behind only Skoda and Peugeot.