Jonathan Gitlin
This morning, Hyundai revealed that the US Environmental Protection Agency has finalized an official range estimate for the brand’s next electric vehicle, the Ioniq 6 sedan. At 361 miles (581 km), it’s certainly impressive, even beating the longest-ranged Tesla Model 3 sedan.
As those familiar with EVs already know, not every version of the Ioniq 6 has quite so much range. You’ll need the single-motor rear-wheel drive version, riding on 18-inch wheels, for maximum efficiency. Helpfully, this will be the cheapest version on sale in the US. The company has not announced pricing yet, but expect it to be similar to that of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 crossover.
Adding larger wheels helpfully illustrates the deleterious effect they have on an EV’s range efficiency. With 20-inch wheels, the single-motor Ioniq 6’s range is 305 miles (491 km).
All-wheel drive also affects efficiency, though the AWD Ioniq 6 can disconnect its front motor in eco mode to reduce drag on the powertrain. On 18-inch wheels, the AWD Ioniq 6 has a range of 316 miles (509 km); on 20-inch wheels, that drops to 270 miles (435 km).
The car’s impressive range efficiency is in part due to its 800 V E-GMP platform, which has already given us highly efficient EVs like the Kia EV6 and Ioniq 5. But the sleek sedan’s shape is a huge contributor here—its drag coefficient is just 0.22.
All Ioniq 6s have the same 77.4 kWh lithium-ion battery pack as the Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6, and like those EVs, it’s capable of charging from 10 to 80 percent in just 18 minutes.
In fact, Ars has already had a chance to get behind the wheel of this exciting new EV, but we have to wait until April to tell you what it’s like to drive.
