Call it a facelift or a mid-life crisis, after a few years on sale, cars typically get flashier technology, more aggressive styling, entirely new powertrains, or just something to keep the showroom appeal spark alive. Sometimes this results in brilliance, like the VR30DDTT three-liter turbocharged V6 engine under the hood of the Infiniti Q50. Sometimes this results in cars like the 2003 Pontiac Sunfire. Enough said about that. However, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 is already one of the best electric cars on the market, so it doesn’t need much. In fact, Hyundai’s mostly focusing this facelift on user-friendliness, a novel approach that everyone should be able to appreciate.
Complexity and compromises for the sake of choice and style is generally fine in consumer electronics, but it’s less fine in something that can travel at 70 mph for hours until all the energy onboard is exhausted. For people driving cars made before the advent of Apple CarPlay, jumping into a new vehicle can feel like operating a spaceship, so any concessions to user-friendliness are greatly appreciated. With the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5, the minimalism’s being dialed back a touch in ways that should make this 16/10ths-scale ’80s hatchback easier to live with.
It’s said that hindsight is 20:20, but in a hatchback without a rear wiper, vision might not be so clear. When the Ioniq 5 launched, it didn’t have any way of cleaning grime from the rear glass while on the go, a situation that wasn’t so ideal. With the high-performance Ioniq 5 N, Hyundai added a rear wiper to its ’80s throwback, and that crucial piece of equipment appears to now permeate the entire range. Of course, we’re looking at Korean-market models, so equipment can change for American cars, but we like what we see so far. After all, being able to see is far less annoying than, well, not.
The other moderately annoying thing with the current Ioniq 5 is that the heated seat controls are one layer deep in the touchscreen. Well, Hyundai’s thought of that and made things easier on the facelifted car. A new row of physical buttons on the sliding center console should let drivers easily activate the heated and ventilated front seats, the heated steering wheel, and the available 360-degree parking camera system, along with switching the parking sensors on and off. Speaking of controls, the capacitive touch climate control panel now features a more logical layout, which has made space for a home button for the infotainment and a tuning knob for the radio. Not bad.
Hyundai’s latest infotainment software has made its way to the Ioniq 5, and with it comes wireless Apple CarPlay. Of course, for people who like their connections wireless and their phones scalding, a reworked wireless phone charging pad sits directly atop the updated center console, right alongside the now longitudinally oriented cupholders. Again, subtle but effective.
Long Range models get the 84 kWh battery pack from the 641-horsepower Ioniq 5 N performance model, up from 77.4 kWh in the outgoing version. Theoretically, this should add a little boost in range, although hard EPA cycle numbers aren’t yet available. Speaking of improvements you can’t see, a beefed-up cowl and stiffer underbody components contribute to a more rigid body structure, clever frequency selective dampers promise to iron out any last ride quality imperfections, and stronger B-pillars and doors work hand-in-hand with rear side airbags with the goal of improved passive safety. Otherwise, everything that made the Ioniq 5 hot in the first place is still here — an 800-volt architecture for seriously rapid DC fast charging, single- or dual-motor drivetrain options, an EV-specific platform, all that jazz.
Oh, and then there’s the matter of styling. In addition to a new N-Line sports appearance trim pictured below, the standard car grows ever so slightly with subtly reshaped bumpers that remove a touch of fuss from the valence detailing. If it weren’t for updated wheel designs and a new illuminated steering wheel badge, you might just miss the facelifted model, which just means that Hyundai hasn’t messed too much with a good thing.
Hyundai has confirmed that the updated Ioniq 5 is going on sale in Korea this month with global sales to follow, so don’t be surprised if this revised electric crossover makes it to America for the 2025 model year. It’s already one of the best mainstream electric cars on the market, and tweaks focusing on user-friendliness should only make it better. Now that’s how you do a facelift.
(Photo credits: Hyundai)
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Really looking forward to a lot of the EV refreshes the next year or two. The current gen aside from Tesla are first attempts at a “real” (not just compliance) EV and seem to have a lot of quirks and gremlins. They’re also right on the edge for not being a pain for longer trips. NACS support, little tweaks like the wiper and revised cooling system, and a hair more range make them much more compelling. Pretty sure my Volt will be replaced either by an EV6 refresh or the next Polestar 2 dual-motor (which for some reason didn’t get the new larger battery in the US version).
This is gonna be a hot take, and unpopular since I’m seeing a lot of rear wiper love:
Rear wipers are pretty dumb.
I never use my rear wiper when I have one. In fact I literally don’t know how to operate the rear wiper on my Honda. I just don’t need the rear window to be clean urgently enough that I can’t wait until the next gas station. I mean rear windows are optional anyways, plenty of vehicles have 0 view to the rear and it really isn’t an inconvenience at all when driving forwards, and is only somewhat inconvenient when backing up.
I don’t think the very minimal convenience of a rear wiper is worth the expense, complexity, interior controls cluttering, and maintenance it requires.
You didn’t mention which model and what year of your Honda.
The rear windscreen that is more vertical does benefit from the rear wiper. It’s due to the aerodynamic effect that splashes lot of grime and water onto the rear windscreen. If the car has sloping rear windscreen and aerodynamic aid that keep the grime and water from twirling up and landing on the windscreen, then the wiper isn’t needed.
I believe I have come across the same ranting from Sean Ellery a while ago and responded with the link to the articles, explaining the benefits of rear windscreen wipers. You are repeating Sean’s silly comment here.
^^^ This. When driving a 2nd gen Prius, with a slanted rear window, I rarely had to use the rear wiper. When driving a 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT hatch, with the aforementioned vertical window, the rear tires seemed to kick up moisture onto the glass. You can bet that wiper was going non-stop on rainy days.
I can tell you that on an Outback the rear wiper gets used quite often.
It’s my 1991 Accord wagon, which has a rear window at about 45°.
I also have a pickup with a camper shell that has a very vertical back window that definitely does get dirty or obscured faster. And I never feel a need for a rear wiper on that.
On a road trip last week in a lot of rain, my rear window on the camper shell became very dirty. I could barely see through it. And I didn’t care, because it’s not actually worse than having a full bed or a trailer or driving at night and trying to look through my rear tint, or having my tall brother in the middle seat blocking my rearview mirror. Driving without a rear view is a very normal thing and is only slightly inconvenient.
“I would like less visibility, actually” is certainly a take.
“I would like less visibility” is not the same as “I don’t particularly care about losing the visibility that I don’t need and that I don’t have half the time anyways, at least not sooner than I can wash it at the gas station”.
Just because it may not be “needed” doesn’t mean the “want” of it is any less valid. Not discounting your road trip example, but that hardly represents every use case.
Saying “just wait for a gas station” seems far stranger to me, as that’s inconvenient day to day (pollen season in my area is going to coat everything overnight for weeks and if it’s a dewy morning, just going to stick to the window). It also assumes every station is going to have a decent squeegee that isn’t falling apart and full of dirty water. And I say that as someone with a backup camera and a rear wiper that still does aim to clean the front and rear windows when possible at a gas station.
Just because I can drive my hatchback filled so I can’t see out the back doesn’t mean I don’t want improved visibility where possible when I have the option. The added “maintenance” of a $10 blade in the last 6 years and “complex cluttered controls” of pushing the wiper stalk an additional direction is a tradeoff I am willing to make, and out of any potential failure point on the car, one I am not worried about – I can’t remember ever having an issue with a rear wiper system failing in any of the 10+ cars my family has had with one.
I agree, the downsides of having a rear wiper are extremely minimal, to the point of being almost completely irrelevant. It’s just I think the usefulness of a rear wiper is even more extremely minimal.
Hey, if you don’t want to use it that’s your prerogative, I just don’t think it’s very difficult to see why some find its usefulness more than minimal.
Did they get rid of the ICCU part that was bricking some of these cars when it failed? My understanding is the Kia EV6 is basically the same drivetrain but doesn’t have that failure-prone part. Don’t get me wrong, I want an Ioniq 5 so bad, it’s the one EV I really, really want to buy. But I got scared away by the stories of people coming to a sudden stop on the highway when that part popped. When they sort that out, I’m in.
I think it’s hilarious and telling and sad that “user-friendliness” is now considered a concession in modern car design as opposed to a bare minimum requirement.
Good…
Sigh. And they were doing so well.
It’s currently as such and it’s fine. I’ve had my I5 for about a month and love ALMOST everything about it. The absence of a rear wiper is annoying but not the worst thing in the world. Overall I love the car so far.
Automakers will really do anything to cheapen their sub-brands at this point. I thought this was just an Audi thing with S line, but yesterday I saw an ST line Explorer and today I learned Hyundai has an N line appearance package. I don’t know why it bugs me so much, but it does.
The ‘N-Line’ appearance packages have been around for a bit, but they used to also include some performance enhancements, including a boost in power. It seems to have just been reduced to a looks thing now..
Oh, those ST Explorers are a real thing! I really thought some dumbass just put ST badges on their mundane crossover until I saw like 10 of then. The badge looks so out of place too.
You don’t mention the proliferation of AMG-line
money grabappearance packages that MB sells at a @$2500 markup beyond the standard valences & wheels.I’m glad base model MB owners can cosplay as their more expensive siblings as well. Didn’t know AMG was doing it too.
Whenever you comment on CarPlay as in “with it comes wireless Apple CarPlay”, please add a comment on the status of Android Auto, since those of us not in the Apple universe are also looking for screen mirroring.
Lack of Android Auto would be a hard no purchase for me.
Same. Couldn’t possibly care less about Carplay, but if it doesn’t have WIRELESS Android Auto, I ain’t interested. (Note emphasis on the wireless. Wired is of little to no use.)
ALL cars that aren’t convertibles should have a rear wiper! There is no reason not to equip them with it.
We’ve only had hatchbacks and SUVs, but we got a hand me down ES300 sedan for my son to learn to drive on. He was disgusted the first time we got in for his driving lesson and discovered there is no rear wiper.
Agreed. Japan has sedans with rear wipers, but none of them ever made it here. I use the rear wiper on my Leaf, and greatly appreciate it. The lack of one on the Ionic 5/EV6 are keeping them off my list for the Leaf’s replacement. Good thing I’m not buying until 2025.
My JDM 1980 Prelude XE had a rear wiper – I believe all JDM Preludes did.
Rear Wipers are useless in places like Los Angeles – but a necessity in Tokyo or Seattle.
I’m sure that rear wiper would have been useful during the recent rainstorms in Socal.
Now add a rear wiper to the EV6, and while we’re at it can Toyota add it back to the new Prius, and Acura can add one to the Integra like its Civic hatch cousin has. Technically the faster rear windows on those vehicles may not need it as much, but before I had a hatchback and drove sedans, I wished for a rear wiper.
Regardless of how angled the rear window is, a rear wiper is nice when your first move is in reverse on a cold dewy morning or your commute is slow enough that you never go fast enough to shed the water.
Exactly – that’s why I always wished for a car with one. I think it was my Optima where the center third of the rear window would never really get hit with airflow like the outer thirds, and that was probably the steepest rear window I’ve had.
The flatter surface of the long hatch catches a lot of things when you’re not at speed. It’s very useful to clear it.
Yes I agree, drier spells in summer mean plenty of buildup where I am of dust and such, sometimes you don’t really know how much is built up until a quick wash-wipe.
While I don’t disagree with you, a good rear-window defroster helps a lot for cold morning dew.
Agreed. The lack of rear wiper is the one thing I find myself annoyed by with my Integra.
Well, that and the stupid windshield washer squirters being on the wiper arms rather than the hood. Whoever thought that was a good idea clearly never lived in a cold climate, and should be shot.
Can you get it in a color now?
I can’t afford one right now anyway, but the dismal paint selection does make me less interested in it.
There’s a somewhat boring blue, but also a really nice dark teal/turquoise.
Might be US only, in Canada I can get white, grey, blue that’s somehow also grey, black.
So, standard fare for “colours” from most car companies these days.
What happened to the vibrant reds, yellows, or oranges?
Get a Mach-E. Red, Yellow, bright Blue, now green all available. And the price is sensible, finally. Plus they already have rear wipers and wireless CarPlay.
Just checked and you’re right, Canada misses out on the ‘Digital Teal’
They need to offer it in Kia Soul Green 😀
Can we just get an electric car that ditches the crazy high hp number in favor of range? I’d easily trade 600+hp for a 250-300hp car that gets phenomenal range.
The tradeoff between performance and efficiency is not the same with EVs as it generally is with gas cars.
Note that the most powerful cars usually also have the longest ranges.
I also wish for a very long range EV, but it’s not as simple as just installing a smaller motor with the same battery.
Wouldn’t make much of a difference as long as you can restrain yourself from flooring it all the time. The electric motor is going to use the power it needs for the demands placed on it. If you demand 25% power, it’s not going to use 100% draw and then just dump 75% of it overboard.
In other words, the high-hp cars are largely shorter range because people are flooring it out of every stoplight. Drive them gently and their range will improve.
There are some losses from the larger motor weighing more, but compared against the weight of the entire car, the difference isn’t that extreme. Skip the daily donut and you’ll lower the weight of the car by more than the larger motor adds.
If you want to significantly increase the range, you need a bigger battery, a slipperier body, or a combo of the two.
Biggest reason the performance EVs have shorter range is because they come with larger/heavier wheels. Replace the factory wheels on any EV (performance or not) with something lighter/skinnier/smaller in diameter and watch your range go up. You may not like the look but that’s a separate issue.
That’s a good point. Unsprung weight is a real drag on performance.
Downsizing wheels can sometimes be hard, because often performance models upgrade to bigger brakes which would rub on smaller-diameter wheels.
But you can usually find wheels the same size that are considerably lighter than the factory wheels. They won’t be cheap, however.
don’t they have crazy axle ratios too? Tesla uses 9:1 for example, when the ratio is closer to 3:1 on most gas engine cars and trucks.
Numerically lower will result in better fuel economy (range) but won’t have the ludicrous acceleration.
I believe axle ratios on ICE cars affects fuel economy by changing engine RPM, which ICEs are quite sensitive to. While motors are also negatively affected by high RPMs, it may be negligible in EV applications depending on motor type (wire vs bar wound) and vehicle speed. There’s a good video of this on the MunroLive Youtube channel.
Early Tesla roadsters used to have a 2-speed transmission, but they were all replaced due to poor reliability. The multi-speed transmissions have the same benefits in an EV as with ICE.
The tire size is also effectively another gear ratio.
Things that affect ICE fuel economy also affect EV range, and in fact, the effects are more pronounced in an EV than with liquid fueled engines.
Even if the electric motor RPM effects aren’t as much, the axle ratio difference is still huge! It’d be one thing if it was 4:1 instead of 3:1, but 9:1 is much more extreme of a difference.
Too-powerful motors also make it very easy to break traction. It’s a problem I experience even with just 201hp on my EV. I’m a sensible driver (my GOM says 90% economical, 10% normal, 0% aggressive), but it’s sometimes difficult to get out of my neighborhood because I have to turn and go uphill at the same time. Anything on the road that reduces grip (rain, sand, etc.) plays absolute havoc, and I can spin the wheels even if I’m barely touching the pedal. That’s also part of the reason the factory tires lasted only 24,000 miles.
Now, that can be fixed by changing throttle mapping, but any time an EV manufacturer has done that, their products get negative reviews for having a “non-linear pedal feel”.
I think that is as much an issue of the high efficiency tires as anything else. I put on some stickier tires on my EV and all of a sudden I could drive without constantly overpowering my grip, with the expected trade-off in range.
I did likewise, but it’s only barely made a difference for me.
Bolt? The FWD EVs and PHEVs tend to struggle for traction. No front- biased weight distribution like most FWD cars, and lots of instant torque.
Niro.
I owned an Optima PHEV prior to it and didn’t have the same problem with traction. Possibly because the electric motor only had 1/4 the power of the Niro’s.
As others have said, a lot of range loss from performance trims are from wheels and other styling aero bits. However, they can also potentially lose some range from having less efficient motors, but it really depends on the engineering decisions made.
Performance ICE cars lose range mostly from the higher friction/pumping loss overhead from larger engines, and the engines being optimized for higher loads & RPM (lower compression ratios, less low RPM intake tumble in exchange for better airflow at high RPM).
Fair enough, I associated hp with more drain on the battery, sounds like it is a lot more complicated than I initially thought.
A big powerful gas engine burns a lot of fuel even when it’s not producing a lot of power.
A big powerful electric motor doesn’t use particularly more electricity than a small one when they’re producing the same amount of power.
There is little efficiency loss when using a high horsepower motor, and not *that* much extra upfront cost. There aren’t a lot of reasons for an electric car to NOT have a lot of horsepower.
This is the choice between a single motor (2wd) EV and a dual motor. The longest range estimates always come with from those single motor models, where the best performance comes from a dual motor.
Did Hyundai go over to the NACS or is this still on CSS? Seems like if you’re giving the car a refresh it would be the time to make that change.
Since this is the Korean market version, we don’t know what they’ll do here. But that would make sense.
Q4 2024 is when Hyundais are going to start showing up with NACS connectors. Who knows when the whole EV portfolio will have it though. https://www.hyundainews.com/en-us/releases/3952
The US refresh is probably slightly delayed so it can launch with the NACS port.
For at least my last four cars, I’ve said “the next one will have a rear wiper, dammit!” and yet I still have never owned a car with a rear wiper.
Yeah but does it still need a $1500 coolant flush every 35,000 miles??
https://www.theautopian.com/electric-car-owner-pays-1500-for-fake-sounding-ion-flush-service-heres-what-that-is/
Every article on this vehicle should include that link and a reminder of how screwed up the Ionic5 is. Hyundai really needs to do a redesign on this model and not just a face lift.
Just read that, and wow. Especially egregious that the issue was fixed for its (better looking imo) EV6 ‘brother’.
“The Ioniq 5 is not reliable”
-David Tracy
This was done to early Ioniq 5s as a precaution against bad press for the launch of an extremely important product. The Kia EV6 with the same hardware does not use this coolant since it was launched later, and presumably they’ve done the same to the refresh.
That’s even worse than timing belts!
Physical controls! Exactly what could make me interested in this vehicle! No more capacitive–
Dammit.