Over the past few years, one car in particular has emerged as perhaps the strongest pound-for-pound Tesla Model Y alternative in the U.S. market: the Hyundai Ioniq 5. The car’s retro-futuristic looks, high range, class-leading charging speeds, affordable lease deals and high-performance N variant have all helped it rack up acclaim, awards and sales.
It just got even better. The slew of 2025 upgrades range from the “thank you for fixing that annoying quirk” sort, like including a long-awaited rear windshield wiper, to the more revolutionary kind. The updated Ioniq 5 is the first non-Tesla EV to come with a Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) port right from the factory, meaning it can natively charge at any Tesla Supercharger station without using an adapter. That’s a huge deal.
If you’re eyeing a new EV in 2025, is this the one to get? After driving it around California, I'm convinced that for most people, the answer is yes.
2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5
(Full Disclosure: Hyundai covered my travel and lodging to California for this test.)
What Is It?
This is the first major update the Ioniq 5 has had since its launch in 2021. Hyundai has sold more than 100,000 Ioniq 5s since then in the U.S. alone—an impressive feat in this still-growing space. When the Hyundai Motor Group’s combined brands came in second to Tesla in U.S. electric sales last year, it was the Ioniq 5 that led the charge. The car has served another important role for Hyundai: helping it reset its brand identity, going from a budget player to a world leader in electrification, style and technology.
The updated 2025 Ioniq 5 goes even further with bigger battery choices, more range across all trim levels, upgraded software, an improved interior with more physical controls and a new XRT off-road-focused trim. (Read my take on that variant here.)
Those are some hearty upgrades. But if you can tell the difference between this new Ioniq 5 and the previous one, you have better eyesight than I do. Besides the obvious Subaru Crosstrek vibes of the XRT or the telltale NACS plug, the only major visual differences between the two are slightly different front and rear bumpers. Yet I’d argue that the Ioniq 5 didn’t need any help in that department. It’s one of the most visually compelling EVs on sale, raiding Hyundai’s own archives and the Giorgetto Giugiaro lookbook to great effect. Four years and all those sales later, and I’m still not sick of how the Ioniq 5 looks.
Inside, the “floating” center console and wireless smartphone charging pad have been redesigned, but can still be moved fore and aft to maximize interior space. The steering wheel now includes light-up “pixels” that glow in sequence to show your charging progress. And at a time when other automakers are desperate to get rid of buttons to cut costs, Hyundai added more for often-used functions like the heated seats and heated steering wheel.
The Ioniq 5 comes in SE Standard Range, SE, SEL, XRT and top Limited trims. Two battery packs are available. The SE Standard Range gets a 63 kWh battery, up from 58 kWh. The rest of the trims come with an 84 kWh unit, up from 77.4 kWh.
The lineup runs a pretty good price range from $42,500 (excluding destination fees) for 245 miles of range, up to $54,000 for the Limited with 318 miles of range if you get single-motor rear-wheel drive or 269 miles of range if you prefer dual-motor all-wheel drive.
Hyundai also says the Ioniq 5 is now capable of end-to-end over-the-air (OTA) software updates, meaning it can add bug fixes and new features to the whole car and not just navigation system updates. We’ll see how that goes, as Hyundai’s OTA game has been fairly weak so far in my own experience, and many automakers have over-promised and under-delivered on meaningful software updates.
All in all, the progress is remarkable for a car that didn’t even really need it. Other automakers are also using this uncertain moment of EV growth to slow down and maybe coast a bit until the market “really” heats up at the end of this decade. Not Hyundai. The company is pressing its early advantage. All told, these are among the most significant upgrades we’ve seen yet to any EV on the market, and proof that the Korean automaker has no plans to slow down.
How Does It Drive?
In my experience owning the Ioniq 5’s close cousin, the Kia EV6, these cars tend to easily beat their stated range amounts in good conditions. But when it’s cold out, they tend to offer artificially low estimates and then overperform in actual driving.
Hyundai has solved that issue with the 2025 Ioniq 5. The car now gives you your standard estimate, plus a “maximum” and “minimum” reading above and below that one. That’s a useful and welcome feature. The Ioniq 5s we drove on the pavement were AWD SEL models rated at up to 290 miles of range. When we started our drive on a desert-chilly Palm Springs morning in the high-50 degree F (10 degrees C) range, my car read 193 miles at 91% charge but also had a “maximum” reading of 207 miles. I think that’s a good way to give you a comprehensive look at how far you can probably go.
If you’ve never driven an Ioniq 5, you’d probably be shocked at how normal it feels. It’s always felt especially aimed at first-time EV drivers coming in from other gas-powered midsize crossovers. It’s quicker than any mainstream gas crossover, but not tear-your-face off fast. Handling is tight and predictable, with flat cornering performance. Yet a run in the mountain twisties around Palm Springs offered little of the confidence you’d get in the Ioniq 5 N; that model has been so worked over that it feels like a wholly different car. So while the N, the Kia EV6 GT and Genesis GV60 Performance tend to be the more athletic members of the E-GMP family, the Ioniq 5 is more than enough to sell nonbelievers on EV performance.
It’s also an extremely comfortable place for a long drive—it has better seats than my Kia does. Just subjectively, this feels like a nicer, more tightly-built Ioniq 5 than the last one I spent time in. It’s hard to qualify how, exactly, but it does feel like Hyundai is upping its quality game with each generation of its newest cars. It’s also refreshing in the EV space to get things like physical buttons and air vents, to not have to do everything through a central screen. Oh, and with all of that Palm Desert dust, I can tell you the rear wiper is a very welcome addition to this car.
What Could Be Better?
While the Ioniq 5 is a superb all-rounder, a few annoyances from the first-generation car (and other E-GMP models) persist here. That black touch panel below the row of buttons that operates the temperature controls can still be awfully hard to see in the daytime, and even more so if you have sunglasses on.
Hyundai’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) game lags a lot of the competition too. The new Ioniq 5 includes an updated version of the Highway Driving Assist 2.0 feature. It’s the best version of this I’ve used yet, with big improvements to things like lane-centering. Unlike Ford’s BlueCruise or General Motors’ Super Cruise, however, it will ask you to put your hands on the steering wheel after a few minutes away, and it struggled to detect my eyes and face with my sunglasses on. (What’s with this car and sunglasses?)
That speaks to the other area where Hyundai isn’t yet a tech leader: software. In terms of graphics, speed and overall features, this Hyundai is just a Hyundai, not a direct competitor to a Tesla or a Rivian. The updated infotainment system skin is nice and the various functions are generally easy to use, but the experience isn’t as polished as in a true software-defined vehicle. The only way to get to the main charging settings seemed to be via an icon on the home screen. Oh, and Hyundai-Kia’s navigation system is as frustrating as ever, dumping us twice at spots that were actually blocks or more from our “destination.”
Hyundai officials at the car’s launch also didn’t have any information about any updates to the car’s smartphone app, and I haven’t been dazzled by the one on my Kia EV6.
How Is It As An EV?
Whatever ground Hyundai loses in software, it more than makes up for in the excellence of its electric powertrains. I’m convinced the E-GMP platform is the best EV architecture on this side of a Porsche Taycan or a Lucid Air (excepting any stuff from China that we can’t buy).
Like the rest of the family, the Ioniq 5 continues to offer four customizable levels of regenerative braking controlled by paddles behind the steering wheel. This lets you toggle between no regenerative braking at all or full one-pedal driving, which Hyundai says is designed to fit your own experience with driving EVs. Regenerative braking is available when the battery charge drops below 90%.
I like this system a lot for the customization it offers; one driver in the family may like one level better than someone else does, and it’s more elegant than the clunky “on/off” switches found on most EVs. Unfortunately, the Ioniq 5 doesn’t offer the new Kia EV3’s trick i-Pedal 3.0 setup, which also incorporates ADAS tech for traffic navigation.
And then there’s charging, which has long been the Ioniq 5’s superpower. The NACS port hasn’t changed that but merely added to it. On a 350 kW fast-charger—namely a CCS one like an Electrify America station, which will now require an adapter Hyundai gives you for free—the Ioniq 5 can go from a 10% charge to 80% in 20 minutes or less. Hyundai now claims that equates to 178 miles of range in 15 minutes, making it faster than anything in its class—including any Tesla.
The story’s a bit different for now when using a Tesla Supercharger. As I’ll explain in this more in-depth review, for now, the Ioniq 5 is limited to just 126 kW on those older V3 stations, which is about half what a Tesla Model 3 can do on the same. Yet the charging curve is much flatter overall, so the Hyundai still outperforms the Tesla in terms of charge time. Our tester went from 24% to 80% in about 28 minutes, which is a drop from what Ioniq 5 owners are certainly used to.
Hyundai claims faster performance is coming soon with updates to the car and the planned voltage upgrades to Tesla’s own network. Unfortunately, the car offers no plug-and-charge options at present, but Hyundai says it’s working on this. But we don’t have a timeline for either of these improvements, so Hyundai is asking you to take its word for it. If faster Supercharger speeds or plug-and-charge support are important to you, you may want to wait for more information, as we never recommend buying a car based on what the manufacturer promises to do later.
By the way, even after a day of mixed around-town, back-road (with liberal use of Sport Mode) and highway driving, I still had to run this thing down hard at speeds California law enforcement would’ve frowned upon in order to get the battery low enough for a fast-charge. Despite mildly cold weather, I still finished the day averaging around 3.3 miles per kWh. That’s seriously impressive efficiency given the drive cycle. The Ioniq 5 hasn’t lost its touch there at all.
Hyundai makes it easy for you to switch to EVs, too. The Ioniq 5 also includes a complimentary ChargePoint Level 2 home charger or $400 in fast-charging credits.
Pricing And Early Verdict
Our Ioniq 5 SEL AWD testers came in at $54,475 before destination fees. The car doesn’t qualify for tax credits yet, but Hyundai expects it to soon, and for now it will include those discounts when it’s sold or leased. That brings our effective price to $46,975, which is actually slightly below the average new car price in America right now. Between its size, range, style, performance and charging speeds, there aren’t many compromises involved here.
In 2025, it’s easy for us to spot which automakers are serious about a future for electric vehicles and which ones are not. Lots of them think that they can “catch up” when the “market is right,” even if that’s a perpetually moving and intentionally nebulous target.
I’d argue that the ones who got in early, and got good early, will see the biggest payoffs one day. And Hyundai is seeing those right now. The new Ioniq 5 is a very hard vehicle to argue with, improving in areas where it was already strong and now adding native access to more than 17,000 Supercharger plugs across the country. I want to see Hyundai finally put its supposed OTA improvements to work by enhancing the Ioniq 5’s software and navigation with new features.
But at a time when rivals are backing off and I can’t go a week without fielding emails from EV shoppers seeking an alternative to a certain direct competitor, I think the new Ioniq 5 is going to have another good few years—and make a lot of drivers very happy.
Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the Ioniq 5's charging time on a Tesla Supercharger. It took 28 minutes, not 20.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
Gallery: 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 First Drive
