Electric car manufacturers seem to offer various new solutions to door handles that are vastly different than in most conventional models.
One of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 users decided to test whether Hyundai's solution will withstand cold weather conditions and whether the door handles will remain operational when frozen.
"The door handles on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 are flush mounted and depending on where you live in the world, they may automatically present themselves to allow entry. What happens if you get a layer of ice built up on it from freezing rain?"
In the first test, he sprayed water to build a thick layer of ice at 20°F (-7°C). The result is, as expected, quite bad, because there is no way to open the doors. It required several minutes of using hair dryer to make it work again.
In the second test, with a more realistic thin layer of ice, created at 10-15°F (-9 to -12°C), the door handles does not work automatically, but with a little bit of pressing, the user should be able to unlock them. However, they will not hide automatically until the ice is removed/melted.
It's a little thing that might be worth considering in cold weather areas, where the new door handles may cause some trouble.
The author - corbinl2890 - also reports in the description that the original wiper blades are not too good in the rain and he encourages replacing them (see more about that at 6:39 in the video below).
Overall, the the user is quite happy with his Hyundai Ioniq 5 SEL AWD after the initial 30 days.
