Music. Almost 25 years ago, Hyundai Motors entered the Indian Market on the back of the humble santro Mass mobilizer designed to take on the maruti 800. today its the second largest car maker in the country. Having established its dominance over multiple segments but remaining at its heart. A big Mass market car brand, who would have thought then that it would all culminate in this its called the Hyundai ioniq 5, and it is Hyundais all new electric car flagship. Of course, it also costs 45.95 lakh X, showroom, making it the most expensive Hyundai to be sold in the country and its also booked out pretty much the first batch at least why well, there are plenty of reasons. First is the way this car looks now. Hyundai has dabbled in luxury cars before, but its never been quite at this scale and its never been quite so bold and irreverent. In fact, a few years ago, you wouldnt mistake this for a concept and something that looks like this would be considered too radical and too unrealistic for a production model. And yet here we are with what is easily one of the most striking cars of modern times and one of the best looking hatchbacks ever to exist. Music. The ionic 5 is a striking looking machine taking cues from the clean cut. Retro hatchbacks of the 80s, with its pixel shaped, LED headlamps wind tunnel, sculpted rear wing, its a sort of car that stands out in a crowd, but its significance is greater because of whats.

Underneath its future proof design a large battery, a born electric modular platform and a fairly extensive list of features now inside things are even more special, in fact, its kind of hard to believe that Im sitting inside a Hyundai, because theres no immediate Telltale sign its such A grand departure from what theyve been making now, of course, that isnt to say hinda has not had Grand designs uh. Some of the cars of late have really looked good, but this feels like were another territory altogether, and I guess thats kind of the idea with this car Hyundai wants to take a massive evolutionary leap into a very very premium and especially with its EVS, where it Hopes to become a market leader, especially when it comes to these high end, high range luxury, EVs and well. Here, of course, there is this massive cavity, which creates even greater sense of space. You dont have any Central touch pad. You dont have a transmission tunnel of any sort going uh, you know running across the center of the car, and that creates just a lot of space. Essentially, you know youve got a lot of cargo space here and its got this very clean white palette, which I reckon will be a little hard to maintain, because I can already see some Marks here and there. Uh theyve also Incorporated a lot of eco friendly materials. So youve got this paper red sort of finish here: youve got vegan leather, even some of the colors have been extracted from natural sources like uh, sunflower, petals and whatnot.

It really does feel like a step into the future, but in the right way its not opulent its, not ostentatious. It is understated its very clean, its extremely quiet in here, but just from what I can see so far, you know youve got Drive modes. Youve got an eight speaker, Bose sound system. Youve got even something called a vehicle to load feature which is actually not there in a lot of more expensive. Evs at the time comes with a 16 amp socket thats located under the seat and what it allows you to do is charge household electronic items. Now youve got this twin screen setup with two 12.3 inch, digital instrument screen and Central infotainment screen. Uh youve got multiple Drive modes, so theres Eco, normal and Sport. This is over 72 kilowatt hour battery, so so youve got plenty of power to deal with, but its really the smaller features. The inside that really set the Interiors apart from even far more expensive, EVS chief of them is the vehicle to load feature which essentially turns this into a power generator of sorts lets, say: youve gone camping and there is plenty of space storage space. So you kind of cant take it out. You have really high ground, clear, uh and in those remote locations it can actually power a fair number of your household electronic devices. Uh. There is a limit, of course, of 3.2 kilowatt, but up to that, you know youre free to just plug in a 16 amp socket and uh.

You know you can utilize this and it it turns into a power generator uh. I dont know how many people will do that, given that range anxiety is, is still a concern, but its really Nifty feature to have, especially on a day to day basis. Uh. You know you dont really have to uh. If you can charge your car at home or at work, then youre free to utilize. These features as much as possible and its really really cool thing to have youve got these really cool, aluminum knobs, which really feel high quality and again its scarcely believable that you know this is a production ready car, because a lot of these elements are things weve Wanted to see in a lot of cars, but we only saw them limited to a concept and then, when the production model came about, everything will drab and sort of mass market and and – and you know, mass production uh ready. So so its really a refreshing change. Its also one of the big reasons this car is sold out in big numbers, and I had brought in 500 numbers uh. Initially, this is being brought me via the uh semi knock down Route uh. They have a separate assembly line, uh set up just for this car, but theyve already received over 650 orders for this car, which has you know an almost sub 50 lakh price tag. So clearly, there is a big demand for for luxury electrics and people are willing to accept Brands which have catered to a very different clientele, theyre willing to see what they have to offer uh, as am I so.

The next order of business is to see how this car drives its also DC fast charging enabled, so it can take up to 350 kilowatt of fast charging. An 11 kilowatt fast charger which will be thrown in as an early bird incentive, will get it fully charged under 7 hours. But as interesting as it is to behold, the real proof of how far hinda has come as a brand lies in how this car drives silent, stealthy and Swift Music right. So here are the basics. The India version gets a rear wheel. Drive set up so youve got a single motor which is mounted on the rear axle a 72.6 kilowatt hour battery, which is pretty sizable. The same thing that you find in the ev6 uh pretty much impact. This car is based on the same egmp modular platform that uh underpins pretty much all the upcoming EVS made by Hyundai and Kia uh, its modular and its obviously a bond electric platform. So there are certain advantages in terms of uh. You know what kind of battery size you can it can accommodate and uh just how Nimble it feels the big draw for this car uh as it is with the ev6 is, of course not just the power which are 270 PS is is fairly sufficient, uh and Of course, 350 newton meters of torque, which is, is quite a bit especially for a hair day, but the big draw is of course, its range.

The claim range is 631 kilometers uh, as per the arai figures, uh subtract about 30 of that, and you come to a real world figure of about sub 500, which immediately qualifies this as a highway capable EV. So you dont really have to worry about spending. All your money uh and it costs a fair bit on a car thats, just simply going to be a city based Eevee. Now you want a bit of performance for a car that costs as much as this does and in terms of numbers. It seems to suggest that this car can be fairly risk. The claimed 0 to 100 acceleration figure on this is a little over six seconds and you can switch the driving mode of which there are three normally Eco and Sport. Using this, what looks like an AMG style, uh knob, but is actually its a simple button, but there you go the graphics change, telling you that its now prepared to go a little faster and after that, its pretty much just pretty brisk Music picks up speed fairly Quickly, now, International models do get a dual motor: all wheel, drive setup, which would obviously be quicker off the mark. It would also add to the cost, so Hyundai hasnt really bothered to bring those with Indian market just yet, although they say that if demand continues to be as high as it is, then thats something we might consider Music so its certainly not averse to fun and The rear, wheel, drive setup does make it a good bit of fun to throw around if you have a private road acceleration, isnt, absolutely brutal and gut, crushing uh that, I suppose, would come with perhaps a dual motor setup.

But this car isnt averse to having fun and in a way that youve not expected Hyundai, is to perform most all Hyundais sold in the country are front wheel, drive, which is an inherently Tama configuration now Im, not suggesting you turn ESC off and traction control. But if you find a private closed Road and youve got some charge to spare with with this car is often the case. Well then, you might be in for a pleasant surprise, but I think the larger point of this car is just how novel it feels and even some of the more premium and expensive luxury EVS have not managed to do that uh. The way it does. Yes, you might find it a bit Spartan in terms of its Interiors, but I like the fact that youve got this very pristine minimalistic sort of quality here, which uh, which is really nice and more than anything else, youve got the level of insulation and quiet in Here, which is something you can really really get used to. I, like the paper red finish. I like this sort of rough organic texture on the steering wheel. I like just the overall dashboard layout the kind of view that I am getting everything about. This is extremely likable, if maybe a bit hard to maintain, and there are one or two things that can qualify it as such. Yes, the interior space is cavernous its a fairly large uh, very accessible in terms of its base.

You just have to press a few buttons too or decline, or you know push forward the rare bench as well. It also has a 163 millimeter of ground clearance, so you dont really have to worry about potholes or things of such nature Applause.

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