Since its reveal earlier this year, not only has Hyundai’s all-electric Ioniq 5 been a huge success in Europe but Kiwis are keen to buy the car, and now motoring writers have had a chance to test it.

Ioniq 5is the first model built on Hyundai Motor Group’s new dedicated architecture for battery-electric vehicles called Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP). It is also the first model in the new Ioniq product line-up brand, redefining the electric mobility lifestyle with sustainable and innovative features – from the eco-friendly materials of its interior design to ultra-fast charging and Vehicle-to-Load function. It has a range of up to 480km. 

The vehicle is available with 58 kWh and 72.6 kWh battery capacity options. It allows for both 400 or 800-volt charging, meaning (on the fastest available 350kW chargers, of course) the ability to zap from 10 to 80 percent charge in just 18 minutes.

It’s due in New Zealand in the next few months with prices and specifications to be announced closer to launch.

Here is what the motoring writers think of the vehicle.

Top Gear:

“The Ioniq 5 might look like a 1980s hot hatch mixed with a dash of concept car and a splash of DeLorean, but what we have here is Hyundai’s first completely bespoke EV. Target? Sideswipe Tesla, mug the VW ID family, and start the Ioniq EV family on the path to world domination. Muahaha.

The Ioniq 5’s new platform nails the current go-to EV brief. The wheelbase is a monstrous 3.0 metres long – longer than a BMW 5 Series’ wheelbase – while the bodywork overhangs are short.

This means a spacious interior, and one with a flat floor because the batteries are of course buried under the passenger cabin to keep the centre of gravity in check. And because the wheelbase is enormous, there’s space for plenty of batteries in the first place.

The front boot is a tiny 57-litre carry cot barely big enough to swallow a charging cable, but that’ll mostly live under the rear boot floor, in a shallow but useful stowage tray.

But what you do get is a hugely spacious true five-seater, and a big 531-litre cargo bay. The doors open wide and with no transmission tunnels to trip over, clambering in and out is a doddle.

Once inside, the Ioniq 5’s interior shapeshifts to suit your needs. The centre console slides 140mm forward and back, so you can either present more convenient charging ports to your screen-zombie children or offer them more legroom to lose sweeties in.”

Car Magazine:

“It's clear that Hyundai's mantra must be 'speak softly and carry a big stick.' It just must be. Being among quiet pioneers of family-friendly electric cars already with the original Ioniq and Kona, the brand is about to smack us across the chops with a whole new range of EVs under the Ioniq sub-brand, starting with this, the Ioniq 5.

Hyundai says the look has been inspired by the Pony Coupe of the 1970s but, unlike so many car brands looking to its past to guide its future, design-wise, this is no slavish pastiche. It's an eye-popping piece of design, shaped as a family hatch, with pixelated lighting front and rear and super-crisp lines.

You can spec a solar cell roof (after the Ioniq's initial launch) that aids the batteries: 'The solar roof has a charging capacity of 205W, and in an environment that is sunny we did some experiments and found that it could add 1200 miles (1910km) of range per year, or about three miles per day,' Ioniq 5 project manager, Askin Kahraman, told us, 'The roof will also help the 12V battery so the car doesn't discharge completely.'

Walk on up to it and flush door handles pop out, ready for the drive ahead. Given the front seat's reclining nature, the whole seat angles backward if you want thigh support – rather than just the front end of the base – and the wheel adjusts for plentiful reach and rake.

It's almost an expectation for an electric car to have a soggy brake pedal and inconsistent feel when you apply some pressure due to regenerative braking (of which Hyundai has four steps, plus a one-pedal mode), but not here. Plenty of solid, accurate feel regardless of regeneration level.”

Auto Car UK:

“The Ioniq 5 is aimed squarely at Volkswagen’s ID.4 although Hyundai executives say the EV field is currently so incipient and dispersed that their car could end up stealing sales from everything from Nissla’s Leaf to the Tesla Model S.

The driving experience isn’t quite what the punchy exterior suggests, in truth, but it’s convincing in a different way. The Ioniq 5 has an easygoing character, with light but accurate controls, lofty-set chairs and excellent visibility. An apex-hunting electric mega-hatch it certainly is not; but, given the family car brief, that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Perhaps Hyundai could tighten up the slight long-wave bounce in the (passive) suspension before the car is fully signed off but, in general, the ride quality is luxuriously detached for this price point.

And yet that broad nose, with its oversized Hyundai badge, is simple enough to guide along even small road via the minimalistic two-spoke steering wheel. The Ioniq 5 seems to like motorways, too: it’s quiet on the move, despite the 20in wheels, and even a little restorative.

Still, for a supersized hatchback, this car is nicely balanced, and its perceptibly rear-biased powertrain bodes well for the low-slung coupé, built on this same platform, that Hyundai is now considering.”