Motoring

ICONIC IONIQ

The rapid rise of electric vehicles (EVs) has been exciting for so many reasons, not least for the sake of ensuring a future world for our children to inhabit. But as well as the environmental necessity of the change from internal combustion to cleaner alternatives, there have also been massive social and economic changes from this giant industry, which has rapidly risen to take over the car world.

But this isn’t an article for The Economist. I write this page about motoring because I have a very simplistic love for the shapes and aesthetics of cars. Like many car enthusiasts, I have always seen cars through the eyes of a child – fascinated by the feelings and experiences they evoke.

From that perspective then, EVs are exciting because they have ushered in an entire new design language. The craft and skill of car designers is an awe-inspiring thing. To those of us not in the profession, we might instinctively know a lot about a car just by looking at it, but we might lack the language to explain how.

The best example of this is the fact that you can spot most EVs a mile off, just by their futuristic shapes and visual cues. Think about it: Mercedes’ EQ range just looks different to normal Mercedes. They have their own distinctive shapes. Same with BMW’s i Series. And you don’t need to count the exhaust pipes (or lack of) on a Porsche to tell the electric Taycan from the rest of the range.

When I first saw the electric Hyundai IONIQ 5, my jaw dropped. Historically, Hyundai and other Korean brands have been marketed to us Europeans as an affordable, reliable and economical alternative to more expensive Western brands and their visual styling told that story. They looked accessible, unthreatening and the opposite of exclusive. Nothing wrong with that, but it seldom excited the car snob.

This, however, throws all that out the window. It screams ‘premium’ from every angle, with bold shapes straight out of science fiction, such as the aggressive slashes down the flanks and the uncompromising square headlamps under the furrowed brow of the bonnet line.

As Hyundai has proudly stated, this marks a totally fresh design direction for the brand, and I think it works. The confident visual statement is backed up in every way; the car is winning awards left, right and centre for everything from handling to interior space. Even more intriguingly, we’re told the IONIQ 5 is just the beginning. 6 and 7 are in the pipeline and promise to shake things up even more.

Fact file / Hyundai IONIQ 5 / 0-60: 5.2 seconds / Top speed: 115mph / Charging: 10%-80% in 18 minutes / Range: 298 miles per charge / Price: from £36,995 / Launch date: available now