We all make mistakes. I wish I could say I’ve only accidentally eaten dog food one time or had never mistakenly knocked myself out by taking the wrong pills or moisturized with what turned out to be depilatory, but the truth is I’ve made many, many mistakes. Sometimes, though, mistakes can have exciting side effects, like today, when our pals at Motor Trend apparently accidentally published their story about the new 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6 a day before its planned reveal tomorrow. The publication took it down almost immediately, but, you know, this is the internet. Nothing is ever truly gone from this place. The upside of all of this is that Hyundai seems to have another design triumph on its hands, so why not give the world an extra day to enjoy it? Let’s take a look.
One odd thing: the Motor Trend story refers to the car as a 2024 model, but notes it’ll be on sale early 2023. Other outlets have been talking about it as a 2023 car. This feels like odd think for Motor Trend to get wrong, which makes me think that for whatever reason, Hyundai wants to call it a 2024. I guess we’ll know for sure tomorrow.
The Design
First off, the thing just looks fantastic. There’s an awful lot of Porsche 911 design influence going on here, which is a pretty good place to start when considering a grille-less front end. The rear also has a lot of 911-ish style, too:
The full-width taillight that tapers to points as it wraps around the corners of the car, the slope of the rear, the spoiler, the arc of the shoulder line — these all feel remarkably Porsche-like, but it never falls into feeling like a Porsche knockoff, because there’s plenty of other influences going on, as well as the overall proportional differences.
The pixel-like lighting design details we saw on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 are present here, too, and work very well, both in the wide heckblende light and the vertical lower lamps that seem to house the reverse lights as well, sandwiched between some hopefully functional vertical bumper guard-like details on the rear lower valence.
The twin, double-decker spoiler/wings are a little strange on second viewing, though. I wonder if there will be an option for one without the black upper one?
The profile is very crisp and clean, with a nice inset arc making the sides look lean, and some well-considered cutlines of the body panels. Yes, the fastback C-pillar has a cutline for the trunklid, but I actually don’t mind it, and I respect the time taken to have the cutline between the rear fender skin and the rear bumper cover follow the shape of the taillight. That, along with flush door handles and a charge port that is so well hidden I absolutely have no idea where it is combine to make a lovely, unified whole.
The fact it’s not a hatch is a bit disappointing, and I wonder if it’s the result of the same structural issues that kept the Tesla Model 3 from being a hatchback, too. I still feel like they could have figured that out, though. I mean, a 1990 Merkur Scorpio did.
The hoodline feels low, an achievement in our era of pedestrian impact protection, and the graphic of the side windows flows wonderfully to that tapered point at the rear, as all the main lines of the body – roof, beltline, window line – converge at the rear.
It’s sleek! And not just visually; according to the disappeared article, the Ioniq 6’s drag coefficient is only 0.21, same as a Tesla Model 3, and close to the Mercedes-Benz EQS’s Cf of 0.20.
Under The Skin
Per the Motor Trend article, the Ioniq 6 — whose wheelbase sits between that of the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 —will use the 800-volt fast-charging architecture of those two sibling cars, and while motor/battery specs don’t seem to be out yet, it’s safe to assume that they’ll match or beat the Ioniq 5’s specs of a 225 hp/258 lb-ft rear-mounted motor for single-motor applications, with an additional 99 hp/188 lb-ft front mounted motor for AWD setups. Range is over 300 miles on the Ioniq 5, and I’d bet Hyundai will be shooting for that or better on the Ioniq 6.
The interior looks pretty swank, with a large LCD instrument cluster and an equal sized (12 inch) center stack screen. Especially notable are the rear view camera screens at the sides of the dashboard, and while this feels like very cool tech and undoubtedly helps the car achieve those impressive aero numbers, I suspect I’d have the same problem with those that I have with other screen-based rear view mirror replacement systems.Â
They do look cool from the outside, though. I think those little blocks inside there are LEDs for the indicator repeaters, by the way.
Hyundai seems to be playing a lot with ambient lighting for the interior, and I get that. It’s a fun and relatively inexpensive way to dress up an interior space, especially at night. Those four little blocks on the steering wheel are LEDs that, it seems, glow to indicate charging level or are used for visual feedback when giving voice commands.
So far no pricing information has been released, though the Motor Trend has a pretty good guess. From the now-removed story:
Hyundai sources say the Ioniq 6 will be priced under the smaller Tesla Model 3 when it goes on sale next year, which suggests a starting price of less than $48,000 for the entry-level rear-drive model.
Overall, I think Hyundai is continuing its streak of wonderfully and strikingly-designed cars, and I hope they don’t feel too bad about this leak, because, as I said, there’s no good reason to keep something like this hidden.
(all images Hyundai)
Interesting. Now find a good dealership to sell it.
More Porsche than Porsche; More Mercedes than Mercedes; More Audi than Audi.
Too bad I have already purchased a self immolating electric car. No more for me.
Oh Motor Trend.
What are the typical consequences for accidentally or intentionally breaking a news embargo in the automotive world?
You’ve got a weird way of spelling “pretty awful,” Torch.
I like the interior, and some functional choices they made, but that exterior? Woof.
Well, it’s just one more opinion but to me the sideview looks just like a fresh squeezed blob of toothpaste. Does nothing for me.
I’m seeing the VW CC mixed with a 2020 Lincoln.
So much cooler than most of the other electrics.
I really don’t like it. The arse makes it look like a dog trying to get rid of a tapeworm, like a Mercedes CLS first generation, but worse. If the belt line didn’t arc downwards, and if the side windows didn’t extend into the C-pillar, it’d be a lot neater.
Front end has serious Tesla hero worship going on.
Seems derivative of a lot of different cars but, to me, it lacks cohesion.
I love the fact that is probably the only car website where people are mentioning Tatras in the list of influences for this car’s design!
Yuck.
To me it looks like the EQS, a lot.
should paint the whole car and not blacken the bottom (between the wheels ok to stay black), because it give the feeling they’re trying to cheat your vision.
The Ioniq5 does nothing for me, but this absolutely does. I thin between this and the ID.Aero, which I absolutely love, we’re getting some good EV sedan choices in the future.
Um,no.The shrunken rear end looks all kinds of awkward
GreatSCOTT! Now we are reduced to pinched turds for driving.
Awesome.
I like Hyundai but I’m not a fan of the pinched rear end. Don’t care for it on the Sonata, don’t care for it here. Am I the only one who thinks this car looks French?
I feel like it’s a bit pinched-off at the back and droopy in the front, with a hood that’s too short for the body. The whole thing looks sorta bent and melted, like a banana made of soap. I’m getting strong EQS vibes, and that’s a rather homely car if you ask me. I like a lot of Hyundai’s recent designs including the Ioniq 5, but I don’t care for this one at all. It’s as if the design teams’s aesthetic desires were clashing with the engineering team’s drag coefficient targets, and the engineering team won. It’s better when the engineering and design teams can work in harmony.
what goes around, comes around; the aft reminds me of the early 90’s Infiniti J30.
oh heck…..I got beaten to the punch on that.
I really like it, but (shakes open wallet upsidedown) … nope.
when you draw a line down the middle of the profile shot, it looks like two completely different cars. the front is a win… nice lines and matches up with the other ioniq design language. not so sure about the back half, though… droopy is the right term indeed. i feel like the lines plunge WAY too steeply at the back
I just see a whole lot of current Mercedes pinchy poop with some Bangle butt thrown in around the trunk and spoilers. Would it not be more effective to trim the weight and size down to increase efficiency instead of these attempts at aerodynamic efficiency that will spend most of it’s life in traffic moving slower than a wee breeze?
Also, has anybody yet reviewed the trendy flush door handles in the morning after an ice storm? These just seem like another answer to a question nobody asked.
Thanks, I hate it
I like it, but no way am I buying a car with a ‘q’ where a ‘c’ belongs in the name.
It’s much harder to successfully trademark correctly-spelled words.
I didn’t think this would be so polarizing. Overall, I rather like how it looks. Yes, the headlight treatment is a bit phoned-in, but I’m not hating the two-spoiler weirdness, and I like the general shape of it. It’s got strong Tatra/Citroen vibes that I could get into. Especially if it comes in actual colors. That said, the supply-chain induced upward price jumps aren’t making committing to the jump over to EVs easier. Even is this qualified for a $7500 tax credit, it’s still damn expensive for a midsize sedan if the speculated-on price point is correct.
its very mega. what was that fucking thing called years ago? the Mega 4 or all track or some shit.
Mega Track
https://www.supercars.net/blog/1995-mega-track/
This is about the best looking Hyundai I’ve seen in ages, to the point that it could easily be a Kia. Even the Hyundais I like, like the Ioniq 5, tend to have at least one detail that doesn’t really work for me, in that case, the caved-in sides that look like someone opened a heavy door into them in a mall parking lot
I was really excited about this, but if they keep those camera-and-screen side-views, then I am 100% out.
Rear and side-view mirrors are two of the most essential accident-prevention safety features of a car. To make them electronic is to introduce too many layers of complication and failure. You can’t short-circuit a mirror. A mirror has none of the vulnerabilities of a camera or a screen.
The leaked article said us models get regular side mirrors. My understanding is our regulations still require them, not a choice for US sales.