It’s nonetheless the Ioniq 5 you understand and love, with some helpful tweaks plus hot-rod and XRT variations.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 crossover utility car is now a well-recognized website in areas the place electrical vehicles are common. Coming into its fourth mannequin 12 months in North America, the square-edged hatchback will get some minor updates to styling, inside and outside, and to its mechanical specs and cost port.
It additionally provides two new variations that enormously develop the vary. The Ioniq 5 N is the wild-child, high-performance scorching rod model—one so nicely executed and such enjoyable to drive that it’s gained a number of awards in a number of nations. For a distinct viewers, the Ioniq 5 XRT is an off-road-inflected mannequin with extra floor clearance, brawnier tires, and an added overlay of butch in its trim. Up to now it’s bought solely in North America.
Somewhat to the trade’s shock, Hyundai bought extra EVs within the US in 2024 than any maker besides Tesla—beating Ford, GM, and BMW in quantity. Its electrical mainstay, the Ioniq 5, had its greatest 12 months ever in 2024, with gross sales up 31 % to 44,400 (notice the Tesla Mannequin Y bought 9 occasions that quantity). And the corporate, lengthy one to observe in EVs, isn’t letting up in any respect on its battery-powered efforts. To that finish, all 2025 Ioniq 5s bought in North America besides the 5 N are actually constructed at its new Metaplant in Ellabell, Georgia, about 25 miles exterior Savannah.
We’ve solely gotten an hour or so with the 5 N, however eagerly await the mortgage of 1 in late February. In the meantime, we spent Valentine’s Day driving each the up to date 2025 Ioniq 5 and new Ioniq 5 XRT in and round Palm Springs, California.
Picture Couresty of Hyundai.
Gentle model evolution … very delicate
You’ll be forgiven for not noticing the outside adjustments within the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5. There are new wheel designs, and the entrance fascia—the plastic defend beneath the sheet steel—is barely taller and squarer, with a protruding decrease edge that makes it “extra strong, extra crossover-like,” within the phrases of Brad Arnold, head of exterior design. One of the simplest ways to inform a 2025 from its older brethren, actually, will be the presence of a rear wiper—a much-requested merchandise amongst homeowners.
The inside obtained considerably extra substantial adjustments. The corporate responded to proprietor suggestions by including knobs and buttons for audio quantity and HVAC (heating, air flow, air-con) controls like heated seats and steering wheel. That places Hyundai very on development: arduous controls are coming again after years of makers transferring every part potential into the central touchscreen, typically distracting drivers at pace who should hunt by way of menus for a particular perform.
All 2025 Ioniq 5 variations now get twin 12.3-inch screens and USB-C ports—and Android Auto and Apple CarPlay stay commonplace, each wirelessly and by way of cable. Additionally they get Hyundai Pay, which the corporate suggests will quickly be usable to pay for parking and/or charging. We’d nonetheless want commonplace Plug and Cost, however we’ll maintain off on that judgment till we attempt it.
A bit extra battery, a bit extra vary
The 2025 Ioniq 5 vary will get new and up to date cells. Battery capability and EPA-rated vary enhance throughout the board. The Normal Vary pack goes from 58 to 63 kilowatt-hours, whereas the Lengthy Vary pack grows from 77.4 to 84 kWh. Rated vary for all-wheel-drive variations rises accordingly, from 260 to 290 miles (SE and SEL) or 269 miles (Restricted). All three trims with rear-wheel-drive go from 303 to 318 miles, whereas the Normal Vary model with its smaller pack stretches from 220 to 245 miles. Lastly, the new-for-2025 Ioniq 5 XRT with commonplace AWD is EPA-rated at 259 miles.
On the street, the newest Ioniq 5 feels … nicely, just about just like the earlier three years’ price. The trip is simply this aspect of sentimental, in distinction to Tesla’s extra BMW-like suspension tuning. However the Ioniq 5 held on completely nicely as we tossed it by way of twisty mountain roads—at the very least till we rose above the snow line round 6,000 ft.
Images Couresty of Hyundai.
Hyundai continues to supply three ranges of regenerative braking, in addition to its “i-Pedal” one-pedal drive mode. Annoyingly, whereas the regen degree persists by way of energy cycles, i-Pedal doesn’t. It’s important to bear in mind to ask for it every time you begin the automobile, one thing that GM, Ford, and others conquered as a lot as a decade in the past. Why? Hyundai execs couldn’t say.
Within the off-road portion of our check day, the Ioniq 5 XRT—it stands for ‘Excessive Rugged Terrain’—coped nice with rutted, ridged, bumpy trails in comfortable sand, and an occasional rocky path as nicely. It’s hardly a rock-climbing monster like a Jeep Wrangler, nonetheless, and isn’t meant to be. As an alternative, it’s in all probability greatest suited to individuals like this reviewer. In snowy winter climate, my steep, curving, uphill driveway within the Catskill Mountains is steep sufficient that it’s just about unattainable for any front-wheel-drive car to climb—and floor clearance will get much more essential.
For extra particulars on the Ioniq 5 XRT, keep tuned for a comparability of that mannequin towards the Ford Mach-E Rally, the equal trim for the electrical Mustang SUV (which outsold the gasoline Mustang final 12 months … however we digress).
NACS port and a free charging station
A remaining notice on gear: All US-built Ioniq 5s—which means the entire lineup besides the hot-hatch 5 N model, constructed solely in South Korea—include NACS charging ports as commonplace. Hyundai strikes quick; these vehicles are the very first ones supplied within the US with native NACS ports apart from Teslas. Laudably, Hyundai features a CCS-to-NACS adapter with each new Georgia-built Ioniq 5—and it’ll quickly announce a program to permit homeowners of its CCS-equipped EV fashions to get a free NACS-to-CCS adapter, letting them make the most of the Supercharger community too.
Utilizing the adapter supplied with a 2025 Ioniq 5, a CCS charging cable able to delivering 257 kW can cost any Ioniq 5 from 10 to 80 % in simply 20 minutes. Hyundai has additionally added the power for drivers to pre-condition the battery in the event that they’re headed for a charging station—even when they haven’t put it into the navigation as a vacation spot, which triggers battery conditioning if wanted.
Ioniq 5s will nonetheless cost quicker at CCS fast-charging stations than at Tesla Superchargers, although, because of the E-GMP platform’s 800-volt battery structure. Model 3 Tesla Superchargers charging an Ioniq 5 will peak at roughly 135 kW, which means they may take half-hour from 10 to 80 % for a Lengthy Vary Ioniq 5 or 24 minutes for a Normal Vary mannequin. (Upcoming Model 4 Superchargers change from low-voltage, high-current energy supply to greater voltage with decrease present, which means they need to cost simply as quick as CCS.)
As for in a single day charging, with an 11-kilowatt onboard charger, Hyundai quotes Degree 2 charging occasions from 10 to one hundred pc at 7 hours, 20 minutes for the Lengthy Vary pack and 5 hours, 40 minutes for the Normal pack.
Hyundai believes the supply of free house charging sells extra EVs. To that finish, it features a free ChargePoint Degree 2 charging station with each Ioniq 5—or, for homeowners who can’t use it or have already got one, a $400 credit score to make use of at public charging stations. Hyundai doesn’t, nonetheless, go so far as Ford. The Dearborn maker throws in not simply the free charging station however free “commonplace” set up as nicely—and it credited its Ford Energy Promise program with its highest-ever quarterly gross sales of the Mach-E crossover in This autumn 2024.
From $44K to $60K
The 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 vary begins with the SE Normal Vary, with its lower-capacity battery and no all-wheel-drive possibility, priced at $43,975. Rear-wheel-drive SE and SEL trims are $48,025 and $50,975 respectively; AWD provides $3,500 to every. The highest-of-the-line Restricted mannequin prices $53,675 (RWD) or $59,575 (AWD), and the brand new XRT mannequin is $56,875 with AWD commonplace. At current, Hyundai isn’t providing a la carte choices for the lineup. All costs quoted embrace the necessary supply price of $1,475.
All 2025 Ioniq 5 SE, SEL, Restricted, and XRT variations are inbuilt Georgia and include a NACS port as commonplace. Hyundai expects to change to battery packs with US-built cells for these fashions, maybe as quickly as March, which might qualify them for the complete EV buy incentive—if it stays in pressure. The 2025 Ioniq 5 N efficiency mannequin is constructed solely in South Korea; it continues with a CCS port “for the second,” although Hyundai execs hinted it will likely be up to date to align extra intently with the US-built vehicles in future.
Hyundai offered airfare, lodging, and meals to allow Charged to deliver you this first-person drive report.
