Our Hyundai Ioniq 6’s EPA-Estimated 361-Mile Range Remains Out of Reach
But as is usually the case when real life intersects with daily EV operation, the small numbers also come with big caveats.
I’m blissfully rolling along Interstate 5 in California’s Central Valley in our 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6 yearlong test vehicle when the infotainment screen flashes: Range at 10 percent, charge immediately, vehicle performance impacted. Sounds pretty ominous.
0:00 / 0:00
Where I’m at along the interstate, gas stations—let alone EV chargers—are in short supply. I’m not worried, though, as I’d long ago IDed the high-speed Electrify America station I’m planning to charge at, and it’s only 20 miles or so away. But suddenly, a touch of the ol’ range anxiety wells up. What if I misjudged the distance? Or somehow something else keeps me from filling up with electrons as the Hyundai EV sedan has demanded and I’m left stranded? It’s a fleeting thought, though, and I easily reach my charging station destination located at the back of a largely deserted America's Best Value Inn with 8 percent charge remaining.
Decisions, Decisions
The decision to push past the Ioniq 6’s 10 percent barrier was one of many microchoices I’d made since I picked up the car in Seattle and started a journey that would take me primarily down the I-5 back toward our L.A. home base, where it will spend the last of its days with us basking in the sun after dancing in the rain of the Pacific Northwest. Deciding on which chargers to charge at and when, how far to push the car’s mileage limits, if I’d charge to 80 or 100 percent, how I’d use any apps. You know, stuff that gas car people largely never have to think about on a 1,200-plus-mile drive.
The key question we wanted to explore during my road trip? How far could I go before having to recharge. The short answer? Not very, at least not in relation to the 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6 SE RWD Long Range test vehicle’s impressive on-paper 361-mile EPA combined range number. And it didn’t approach what our test team recorded for a mechanically similar 2023 model, where we were able to eke out 291 miles at a constant 70 mph using 95 percent of a full charge in our MotorTrend Road Trip Range test. Bottom line, when it comes to an EV’s range, the day-to-day reality is always more complicated, as I found out during my first real all-electric-powered road trip.
Wet and Cold Road Home
Anyone who knows the I-5 route from Seattle to L.A. in March knows it can be wet and cold during that time of year, with lots of elevation changes, especially in and around Northern California’s Mt. Shasta area. It was all those things. After picking up the car in Seattle, I made the easy 160-mile or so jaunt to the greater Portland area to visit some family, where it dipped into the 30s and was wet and nasty at night while I was there. Those are the kinds of elemental conditions that will shave range with the car just sitting in the driveway (indeed, it lost about 20 miles of indicated range each morning) and are among the downsides of EVs in their present state of development.
When you’re living with an EV as a daily driver, and you have a Level 2 charger at your home and you know where the fast chargers are in your vicinity, range isn’t something you normally think about. But it was pretty much always on my mind as I left Portland and headed south toward Sonoma Raceway, where I had a date set up with BFGoodrich and Skip Barber Racing School.
So, How Bad Was the Range, Really?
We’re going to detail the stint from Yreka in Northern California just past the Oregon border to the Central Valley, one that offered a range of conditions from alpine passes to flat valley floors. It was a chilly morning in Yreka after a blissful night at the Super 8, and the first thing I did was fire up the car’s preconditioning system to get the battery up to temperature (it shows an icon similar to the old diesel glow plug wait light until it’s ready) and headed to the Electrify America 350-kW fast charger at the local Walmart.
I decided to do all my charging at Electrify America chargers to keep our testing as uniform as possible (I did take advantage of one free Level 2 charge at Sonoma), and it was a good call, as every bank of them I visited was newer, in service, and worked without incident. Charging from 31 to 100 percent took just short of 52 minutes, cost $36.54, and added 57.18 kWh of energy to the battery. Total indicated range: 301 miles.
The weather through the Mt. Shasta area south of Yreka was nasty, with sleet in spots and rain at times, and there are several major elevation changes and sweeping turns. But with the Ioniq 6 set in Eco mode, adaptive cruise moving between 65 and 75 mph depending on road conditions and the steering assist doing its thing, we felt at ease. Our Ioniq 6 is easy to drive, especially with the sweet caress of its nannies, other than the part where conditions got so dicey that the radar went offline for a time due to weather impeding the sensors.
Once the weather cleared and the road straightened, it was just a matter of eating up the miles in our Hyundai, which is a fine car do that in. Its seats are comfortable enough but not exactly cushy, its suspension compliant, and exterior noise minimal, while the tech is easy to use save the unfortunate first-world problem of a USB-A port being the only way to get Apple CarPlay to show. I’m an old-schooler and used a combination of Google Maps and the Electrify America app, with a few peeks at the MyHyundai app, to do my station and vehicle navigating. Oh, and I listened to a “Who Killed JFK” podcast, and now I know who killed him. E-mail me.
Too bad miles of range were also being eaten up, as well. By the time I pulled into the next EA station, the readout indicated 8 percent battery and 17 miles of range, with 216.2 on the trip meter. So, where did the 68 or so miles of range go? Maybe it was the weather. Or the cold. Or the elevation. Probably a combination of all three. I barely used the heat or A/C during that stint.
Whatever it was, it was frustrating, and it made it borderline impossible to plan where I wanted to stop and when. That, and 216 miles of range is what you’d expect from a gas-guzzling sports car or a car with a tiny gas tank. Yes, there’s a chance those elemental conditions would also impact a gas car’s range, but then again, you don’t need to use an app to find a gas station. And yes, I know apps like our Best Tech–winning PlugShare app can take a lot of the guesswork out of it.
The only other time we could have gotten close to a 1:1 range to indicated miles was the stop before the last charge, where we hit 217.1 miles after starting with 262 just outside of San Francisco. But we weren’t going to get close to 300 anyway, so we decided to stop and get enough juice to make it back home to L.A. without having to charge.
It’s Not All Bad
On the positive side, thanks to its 800-volt capabilities, charging to 80 percent was quick as we’ve outlined with Hyundai’s EVs, with times ranging from 19 to 25 minutes, and 100 percent charges from 45 to 50 minutes, or about how long it typically takes for our long-term Tesla Model Y to recharge to 80 percent. The EA stations were also mostly in convenient spots, like Walmart or Fred Meyer stores. Once I hit the restroom and bought some snacks, the 80 percent charge was basically done.
Below are the seven fill-ups, er, charges I made during my journey, with all but one coming at an Electrify America fast charger. At $180.60 to get from Seattle to L.A., not counting the one free Level 2 charge, it's not nearly the match of, say, a Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, with its 44/51/47 mpg city/highway/combined and its whopping 620 miles of range, which theoretically could have gotten me back home with one fill-up of gas—assuming, of course, it was actually able to hit the very same EPA estimates our Ioniq 6 was incapable of achieving.
The bottom line? Stop us if you’ve heard this from us before, but when it comes to EVs and range, your mileage is almost certainly going to vary depending on a range of varying conditions. We expected better from a car with long range in the name on our road trip, though. We’ll continue to do some additional real-world testing in city and highway combo conditions to see if we can get anywhere near that 361 number in the future and report back.
More On Our Hyundai Ioniq 6
- The Hyundai Ioniq 6 Carried Us Through a Winter of Content
- ICCU: The Four-Letter Word Hyundai Ioniq Owners *Hate*
- Are the Kids Alright in Our 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6 SE Long-Range?
- Long Hauling in Our 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6 SE Long-Range
- A Hyundai Ioniq 6 SE Long-Range Just Arrived for a Yearlong Test: Style or Substance?
One of my seminal memories was the few months I spent helping my cousin Steve literally build me from the frame up a super sick 1970 Chevy Nova in his garage just off of 8 Mile (yes, that 8 Mile). Black with white SS stripes. 350 V-8. Blackjack headers. Ladder bars. Four on the floor. Drum brakes all around. Mainly I helped hand him the wrenches, the bondo, the buffing wheel, the beer. When it was finally done and I blistered the tires for the first time, plumes of smoke filling up my rear view, I felt like a true American Bad Ass (pre Kid Rock). That's what it was like for so many of us who grew up in The D back in the day. It was about muscle. Detroit Iron. So when I had an opportunity to get into this crazy business, you best believe I leapt like a bionic cheetah at the chance. Over the past three decades or so (carbon dating myself), I've been honored and privileged to be a part of four outstanding publications in Motor Trend, Automobile, Autoweek, and the Detroit Free Press. And while the salad days back in my cousin's garage seem a million miles away, my love for cars -- and my hometown of Detroit -- have never wavered. Neither has my commitment to delivering the best possible experience to the readers I've served and will continue to serve now and in the future.
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