The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has been refreshed with new features and improvements, including OTA update and a larger battery.
Hyundai has updated its website in South Korea with details about the upcoming refresh of its popular electric model, the Ioniq 5, with only minor changes from the original design but many new features inside.
We've been waiting for a facelift for the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and a semblance of a facelift was spotted testing last year, complete with the manufacturer's usual shapeless camouflage covering the doors and bumpers.
Now the curtain has been lifted on the refresh and… it looks pretty similar. But the refresh comes with a lot of new features, especially some fixes for many of the various shortcomings of an otherwise excellent car.
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The details are all available on Hyundai's website, but they're only in Korean. The US website hasn't been updated with the new details yet, and everything we discuss here is in the Korean version and may or may not make it to the US version. We can imagine that many of these changes will carry over, but there may be some differences in what's available in each market.
Exterior changes include new colors, some changes around the front fascia including more “pixel”-shaped detailing and a charge status indicator on the exterior, as well as a slightly larger rear spoiler above the rear window. Changes to the bumpers mean the car is now 20 millimeters (.8 inches) longer than the previous model.
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The Korean version of the car also gets some changes to the “digital mirrors,” which are digital cameras instead of side mirrors, which are not available in the US.
There are additional exterior changes for the upgraded “N line” version, specifically different bumpers, body-color wheel arch trim on the wheel arches and side doors, 20-inch wheels, and N line badging.
The user experience has been improved with access to Hyundai’s “Digital Key 2,” which lets you use your phone or Apple Watch to lock and unlock the vehicle. The Ioniq 5 also has door locks that automatically lock when you walk away (although these may only work with the key, not the digital key?)
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And of course the biggest change on the exterior is the addition of a rear window wiper. This was a major omission on the original vehicle, which many owners and potential buyers lamented its absence. The refresh gets a rear wiper, so you won't have to worry about mud on your rear window anymore.
The real changes come inside the car, with the biggest change being the addition of around 7kWh of battery, bringing the car to 84kWh capacity (up from 77.4kWh). The Ioniq 5 was previously rated at 458km (285 miles) of range in Korea, and the battery increase increases that rating to 485km (301 miles).
We don't have EPA range numbers available yet or know if Hyundai will retain some of that capacity, but we can imagine this change will increase EPA range from the current 270 miles to somewhere in the mid-to-high 280.
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Despite the larger battery, Hyundai says the Ioniq 5 has slightly improved charging performance and will therefore still charge from 10% to 80% in 18 minutes, maintaining the substantially best fast charging performance currently available.
Other mechanical changes include improved sound and vibration damping, which will make the journey smoother and with less engine and road noise.
Inside, several new features have been added. The steering wheel has been redesigned with 4 “pixel” lights in the center that are used as charging indicators or indicators for the voice recognition system – and it also has something called “hands on detection”, which we assume is some kind of driver sensitivity feature.
The sliding center console is slightly redesigned, with the addition of USB-C ports, the relocation of the peripheral smartphone , and physical buttons for some frequently used car features like the heated/ventilated seats.
And for other functional changes to the interior, a button has been added to the trunk to fold the rear seats, making it easier to load large items from the back. And the glove compartment has been redesigned – before it was “like a drawer” it now opens down like a standard glove compartment, a change that may come as a surprise to some.
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But perhaps the biggest change inside isn’t visible, it’s in the software. The Ioniq 5 gains access to Hyundai’s “Connected Car Navigation Cockpit” software along with… over-the-air updates!
This is a new feature for the Ioniq 5, although it is already present in the Ioniq 6 sedan. The updates will not only be for critical safety/recall issues, but also for software improvements.
Finally, all of this has not led to any change in the price in Korea, with the same base price of 52,400,000 Korean Won (~$39,400 USD). So we can hope that the base price in the US, which is currently $41,800, will remain the same or very close to the same level when this update is implemented.
As for availability, that's a matter of speculation. We'll have to wait for an answer from Hyundai on that.
Electrek analysis
The Ioniq 5 has quickly become a favorite in the electric vehicle community. It's a truly reliable vehicle with excellent technical features, a good price (especially if you lease it to access tax shelters in the US, which Hyundai has placed a lot of emphasis on), and generally happy customers.
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Personally, I think it's one of the best-looking cars on the road today. Even though I'm a small car fan, it's about the only SUV I really like – mostly because it's still compact, and also because the car's design language is so reliable and consistent. It looks just odd enough to stand out, without being overly there.
As a result, it also sells extremely well, even in the US despite being from a foreign manufacturer, which results in tax shelter disadvantages. In 2023 it was the best-selling foreign EV assembled in the US (the VW ID.4 sold better, and is from a foreign manufacturer, but assembled in Tennessee).
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But these changes were also necessary. The lack of a rear wiper was a particularly glaring omission, and OTA updates are such an important feature that it took a long time to spread to the rest of the industry. An early Tesla Model 3 is better today than it was in 2017, which you can't say for most cars, and we hope the Ioniq 5 has joined those ranks with the addition of the OTA update feature.
So hopefully most of these changes will make it to the US, and soon, because this is already a great car and these small fixes will make it even better.
Source of information: https://electrek.co/
