At a time when EV gross sales have been stagnating, Hyundai someway retains constructing demand. An expanded lineup, with merchandise just like the smooth Ioniq 7 and the upcoming three-row Ioniq 9 definitely helps.
However, the unique Hyundai Ioniq 5 was the first purpose the model’s U.S. EV gross sales shot up by 90% in 2024. And the automaker goals to maintain that momentum constructing because it rolls out an up to date model of the electrical crossover.
You may not discover a lot completely different in regards to the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5, definitely not at first look. The outside modifications are minimal, save for the welcome addition of a rear windshield wiper. However there’s much more to love, beginning with a much bigger battery pack delivering, on some trims, almost 20 extra miles of vary.
However what you is likely to be particularly enthusiastic about is the introduction of the brand new off-road-focused Ioniq 5 XRT bundle. We took it out into the Palm Springs desert to see how properly the brand new mannequin carried out.
Enticing design
Class-above inside area
2025 mannequin will get vary bump
New XRT bundle affords reasonable off-road capabilities
Lastly will get a rear window wiper
Base mannequin nonetheless isn’t low-cost
It’s a must to repeatedly activate 1-Pedal Mode
Paul Eisenstein
2025 Ioniq 5 Evaluate
(Photograph/Paul Eisenstein)
Welcome to sunny Palm Springs? Effectively, not fairly on this gloomy February afternoon, as my regional jet lastly lands after being bounced everywhere in the sky on a connecting flight from Salt Lake Metropolis. A minimum of it’s not the heavy snow and frigid climate I left behind in Detroit. And, in a means, It’s an excellent alternative to see what the newly up to date 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT I’ll be taking part in with over the following couple of days is manufactured from.
The Ioniq 5 generated loads of buzz when it debuted 4 years in the past. It wasn’t the Korean carmaker’s first all-electric mannequin. It already had a model of the Kona in showrooms. However Ioniq launched the brand new E-GMP platform that would take one of the best benefit of its skateboard-like platform by pushing its wheels to the corners and delivering class-above inside area.
It additionally meant a decrease middle of gravity for promised enhancements in street dynamics. It delivered, with the Ioniq 5 successful an assortment of awards, together with North American Utility Car of the 12 months.
Since then, Hyundai has embraced the precept of steady enchancment, with a wide range of modest upgrades. It additionally added extra variants, beginning with the wild Ioniq 5 N efficiency mannequin which might launch from 0 to 60 in little greater than 3 seconds.
With the launch of the 2025 “mid-cycle refresh,” Hyundai takes issues a step additional, with one more attention-grabbing trim bundle, extra vary, and a much-needed rear windshield wiper.
(Photograph/Hyundai)
What’s New for 2025
That is, after all, a battery-electric automobile, so let’s begin on the market. The unique Ioniq 5 provided two battery pack choices. So does the 2025 mannequin. The usual pack, nonetheless, grows from 58 to 63 kWh, whereas the long-range pack goes from 77.4 to 84 kWh. That reinforces vary by as a lot as 15 miles per cost.
(Photograph/Hyundai)
Talking of charging, the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 turns into the primary automobile obtainable within the U.S. emigrate from the outdated CCS charging port to the Tesla-style CCS port. By getting access to that competitor’s Supercharger community, Hyundai claims, homeowners now have twice as many public chargers they’ll plug into. They usually additionally get a free adapter to make use of older chargers.
Visible modifications are minimal for 2025, a minimum of on most trims. There’s that much-needed rear windshield wiper which, Hyundai mentioned, was left off initially due to its influence on aerodynamics. It discovered a method to reduce the influence with the 2025 mannequin.
(Photograph/Paul Eisenstein)
2025 Ioniq 5 XRT
It’s turn into all however the norm for automakers to introduce off-road-ish variants of immediately’s crossovers, with fashions just like the Subaru Forester Wilderness we noticed debut on the Chicago Auto Present earlier this month. The idea is uncommon within the EV area, nonetheless.
Even the brand new Jeep Wagoneer S is a determined soft-roader with largely ineffective sand and dust driving modes. The closest we’ve seen up to now is the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally.
Now comes Hyundai with the Ioniq 5 XRT. No, you received’t need to strive it out on the Rubicon Path. And there are only some tracks in Moab {that a} sane driver would problem with the EV. However, for a lot of different tackling, considerably subdued off-road trails, the XRT ought to just do superb.
This bundle will get essentially the most notable visible modifications, with revised bumpers and corners — which undertake a brand new tackle the Ioniq “pixelated” coloration scheme that is likely to be thought-about digital camouflage. Surprisingly, there are not any new skid plates. However, Hyundai officers insist they aren’t wanted, the unique safety across the battery pack and motor being greater than sufficient.
Floor clearance, in the meantime, climbs from 6 to 7 inches. With all of the modifications, the XRT now boasts an method angle of 19.8 levels, and the departure angle elevated to 30.0 levels. By comparability, the numbers are 17.5 and 25.4 levels, respectively, on the 2025 Ioniq 5 non-XRT fashions.
(Photograph/Paul Eisenstein)
After all, XRT additionally will get distinctive 18-inch wheels and 235/60 R18 all-terrain tires. And it provides vivid pink restoration hooks on the entrance finish.
Powertrain
There are not any modifications when it comes to energy and efficiency numbers for the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5. Excluding the 5 N, you’ll get 164 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque with rear-wheel-drive packages and 320 horsepower and 446 pound-feet with the all-wheel-drive system. The XRT is barely provided in AWD.
With the bigger battery packs, you do get as a lot as 15 miles extra vary, peaking at 318 miles per cost for the prolonged pack and RWD.
From the beginning, Hyundai adopted an 800V electrical structure, a key benefit being quicker charging — as little as 20 minutes to go from a ten% to 80% state-of-charge. Right here’s the irony: use a Tesla Supercharger, and that stretches to half-hour due to the decrease amperage they ship. Tesla is barely now rolling out quicker gen-4 chargers. The Ioniq 5 can nonetheless energy again up in 20 minutes with many older CCS chargers utilizing the free adapter.
Driving Impressions On-Street
(Photograph/Hyundai)
I began out from my resort in an Ioniq 5 Restricted, essentially the most lavishly outfitted model of the EV. It didn’t take lengthy for me to fall again in love. The crossover is luxury-level quiet and loads of enjoyable to drive. It has tighter, extra exact steering — with an excellent quantity of street really feel — than most EVs and plenty of similar-sized gasoline CUVs. The trip is agency but snug.
And it proved reassuringly sure-footed as I turned off the I-10 to go up into the mountains and the windy outdated blacktop route resulting in the funky village of Idyllwild. That was notably welcome contemplating how a lot worse the climate acquired, seemingly each 1,000 ft greater the street climbed.
By the point I reached my espresso cease for the morning, I used to be going through a heavy snow/sleet combination. However I barely needed to decelerate as I lastly began again down towards the Palm Springs desert flooring.
2025 Ioniq 5 XRT Off-Street Driving Impressions
(Photograph/Paul Eisenstein)
Whereas no stretch for an skilled off-roader, the route nonetheless offered sufficient challenges to get a way of the XRT’s capabilities, starting from packed clay to powdery sand, with loads of moguls and some steep hills.
Clearly, having the mode selector provides a bonus. Right here, its main position is to regulate the way in which the electrical system distributes torque, one thing that may differ markedly, relying upon what the terrain — and climate situations — throw at you. Modulating energy and selecting routinely between entrance and rear wheel motors could make an enormous distinction, notably in sand.
Surprisingly, electrical propulsion can provide vital benefits in off-road situations due to the management it affords. And it could ship gobs of torque when making an attempt to surmount steep hills and different obstacles.
One factor I hadn’t considered was the benefit provided by regenerative braking — which, on the Ioniq 5, will be different wherever from off to full 1-Pedal mode. With XRT, it really works as an electrical mixture of Hill Climb and Hill Descent Management, permitting you to easily creep alongside, even coming over a steep hill. I simply want Hyundai’s system didn’t need to be reset every time you turn out of drive or shut the automobile off.
(Photograph/Paul Eisenstein)
2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Last Ideas
Hyundai retains the variety of Ioniq 5 trim packages and choices pretty restricted — although there are extra choices while you consider commonplace or long-range battery packs and, on some trims, rear or all-wheel-drive.
Pricing for the RWD SE commonplace vary begins at $42,500. On the higher finish, the Restricted AWD — obtainable solely with the long-range pack — goes for $66,100. The brand new 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT — once more, obtainable solely with the prolonged pack and AWD — begins at $55,400.
Whereas not essentially the most reasonably priced EV in the marketplace, the 2025 Ioniq 5 delivers loads of worth for the cash. It has nice driving dynamics and strong efficiency, and it affords higher vary than most fashions in its phase. Now, add the XRT bundle, and the automaker is more likely to zero in on a wholly new class of consumers.