Futuristic Hyundai Ioniq EV wins Car of the Year

The car industry is on the brink of a once-in-a-century revolution and our Car of the Year winner shows the future is bright for people who love to drive.

Let the arguments begin. The decision to award the News Corp Car of the Year award to an electric vehicle for the first time is sure to spark heated debate.

Why are EVs so polarising? Maybe it’s because the fundamentals of the car haven’t changed this much in more than a century and a lot of people don't like change.

Tesla has turned the car industry on its head. The brash Silicon Valley start-up is now the most valuable car company in the world by a large margin. In Australia, it sold more than 5000 vehicles in the first six months of this year.

Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 is a worthy winner of our Car of the Year award because it represents the first serious shot across Tesla’s bows from the traditional car makers in this market.

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is a worthy winner of News Corp’s 2021 Car of the Year award. Picture: Mark Bean

Recent EV efforts by prestigious brands including Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Mazda and Lexus have been lukewarm. If you need proof of that, a mostly European panel of 20 judges just voted the Ioniq 5 the German Car of the Year. If you’re beating the German luxury car brands in their own backyard, you must be doing something right.

The Ioniq 5’s key advantage over other EVs from the car industry establishment is that, as with Tesla’s cars, it’s been built from the ground up as an electric vehicle. Until now, most makers have simply gutted an existing petrol car and shoehorned the electric motor and batteries into the shell.

Hyundai’s ground-up design frees up space in the cabin because electric motors and batteries take up less room than engines, transmissions, exhausts and petrol tanks. That turns the Ioniq into a Tardis – compact outside and spacious inside. It looks like an overgrown hatchback but its wheelbase – the distance between the front and rear wheels – is as big as a LandCruiser.

The final field for this year’s Car of the Year. Picture: Mark Bean

The Ioniq 5 won Car of the Year because it nailed four of the five criteria – performance, design, technology and safety.

Its electric motor put the conventional internal combustion engines of the other finalists to shame.

It’s powerful, quiet, smooth and efficient. The surge of the electric motor is instant and there are no gear changes to interrupt the flow of power to the wheels. Its range doesn’t match petrol cars – much less diesel ones – but the judges thought 451km between refills was enough for the vast majority of motorists. The fact that it could charge from 10 to 80 per cent full – adding more than 300km of range in just 18 minutes – also helped.

The Ioniq 5 won’t suit all buyers, but neither will a Toyota HiLux, a Ford Mustang or a Nissan Patrol.

The car’s design optimises the use of space and employs sustainable materials throughout the cabin. It looks great, too.

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 cuts a dashing figure on the road. Picture: Thomas Wielecki

The on-board technology is just as impressive, with large twin digital screens that look like iPads, while safety gear is top notch. The Ioniq 5 will slam on the brakes if its radar and cameras sense a potential collision, it provides a video feed of your blind-spot and will steer you back into your lane if you wander. If you’re backing out of your drive and it senses a potential collision with a child or passing car, it will warn you and brake if you don’t.

Most of all, it’s a lot of fun to drive.

The only part of the criteria it didn’t nail was value for money. At $71,900 plus on-roads it is very expensive, arguably too expensive.

But when you consider that it’s a better EV than current offerings from some of the world’s best luxury carmakers, the price tag doesn’t seem so outrageous.