Hyundai has officially lifted the lid on its long-awaited Ioniq 6 electric sedan – and the Tesla Model 3 could finally have a genuine competitor on its hands.
No powertrain specifications have been revealed about the car as yet – meaning we don’t know, at this stage, how fast the Ioniq 6 will sprint nor how long it’ll run on a single charge – but the Korean automaker has confirmed that it will share the same electric architecture as the excellent Hyundai Ioniq 5.
Hyundai has promised that a more detailed rundown of the Ioniq 6’s internal make-up will be made public later this month, though the brand did shed some light on the thought process behind the EV’s decidedly unconventional appearance during its global unveiling.
By our eyes, the Ioniq 6 looks like a strange mash-up of Apple’s Magic Mouse and a classic Porsche 911 – not exactly beautiful, but not wholly unattractive, either. It’s certainly… different.
Hyundai, however, has said that the car’s shape embodies the concepts of “Sensuous Sportiness” and “Optimistic Futurism”, which may as well be marketing jargon for “the Ioniq 6 is the automotive lovechild of a Tesla Model 3 and VW Beetle.”
Seen from the rear, the sedan definitely fits the Porsche-Beetle mold, with a width-spanning line of tail lights adding a perceptible sense of modernity to an otherwise classic design. Incidentally, these tail lights, along with the Ioniq 6’s headlights, third brake light, and rear reflectors, comprise a total of 700 Parametric Pixel LEDs, of the sort found in the Ioniq 5.
The car’s interior takes obvious cues from the Ioniq 5, too, with two 12.3-inch displays placed next to one another in a cabin packed to the rafters with recycled materials.
Beyond those few features, though, we don’t know too much more about the sedan. Hyundai has said that it expects the Ioniq 6 to go on sale in the first half of 2023, and rumors have suggested that its price tag will undercut that of the Tesla Model 3 – but that’s the only other information we have at this stage.
The automaker is hard at work developing an Ioniq 7 electric SUV alongside preparations for the proper launch of the Ioniq 6, so perhaps we’ll learn more about the latter with any news surrounding the former. In any case, Hyundai seems primed to enjoy several more stellar years disrupting the growing electric car market.
If you’re keen to learn more about the other new EVs hitting roads in 2022 and beyond, check out our breakdown of the all-electric DeLorean DMC and our analysis of the Mercedes EQXX’s mind-boggling new range record.